談科學博物館教育政策的擬定

Drafting an Education Policy of Science Museum

張美珍

《科技博物》 5卷2期 (2001/03) Pp. 33-45

https://doi.org/10.6432/TMR.200103.0033

並列摘要

According to the development of technology and the transition of social environment, the goals of life pursued by mankind are changing, and certainly, the needs of museum are altering as well. Perceptibly, the educational function of museum is becoming more significant; the publics' needs of learning in museum are also increased! Since 1998 the Ministry of Education has published the white book of ”Moving Forward to a Learning Society”, all the relevant domestic educational institutions have been putting great efforts on providing good lifelong learning environment. Museum is however the best place of providing the complete programs of lifelong learning environment.
But how can we establish a good lifelong learning environment? Beyond the constructions of software and hardware in museum, such as space planning, displays presenting and practice of educational activities, everything needs to be conducted with objectives, good organizations and plans. As a result, making education policy is converted into a basis of the museum's fundraising for all educational facilities and practice of all educational activities. Dr. Hooper Greenhill (1994) pointed out in the book of ”Museum and Gallery Education” that museum's policy making has to be based on the tasks and missions of its establishment. All policy contains mainly the management policy, the collecting policy and the communication policy. The education policy is nevertheless part of the communication policies. The communication between museum and audience also includes displaying, designing, marketing and facilities of serving audiences. While making education policy, we shall not only implement the policy all the way down, But also consider the contact on the horizontal aspect.
The content of education policy should specifically present scheduled education objectives and practically implement the strategies beyond prompting educational missions and aims. But how can we conclude explicit objectives and virtually implement strategies? In this paper, the importance of museum education policy will be discussed; i.e. it starts from the emerging importance, and then limits the topic in science museum so as to explore every step of making education policy. The reaffirmation of educational aims, the study and analysis of current resources, the practical objectives of making educational policy, developing practical acting strategies are also included. At the end, the concluded educational policy should not be used for more than ten years. Instead, the policy makers should evaluate regularly the change of environment and adapt the policy according to the long-term goals in order to meet the needs of audiences.
The significance of education policy in museum
Making explicit education policy for museum can at least generate the following benefits:
1. It helps to research and establish the long-term, mid-term and short-term educational action plans by providing explicit objectives and work orders.
2. It keeps planning of all educational activities perspective and systematic by providing explicit directions.
3. It helps all educational activities to be carried out more efficiently and achieve the long-term goals.
4. It helps superior administrators or sponsors to understand and recognize the educational function of museum even more easily.
Re-confirmation of educational aims
There must be aims and missions placed at the beginning of the establishment of museum. However, with the moving forward of time, there are more or less changes in the social environment. Particularly in the 21st century, due to the rapid transmission of all kinds of information and development of biotechnology, people's living environment has being altered as well as the values. Since science museum carries out the great duty of providing public science education, they should respond more to the variations, check their relations with social groups and confirm its educational aims regularly.
The study and analysis of current resources and conditions
After clearly understanding the educational aims, one has to work on the analysis of practical conditions in museum. In this paper the analytic approaches of SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) will be introduced, which are often used in management and it deliberates practically all resources in museum through exploring its strengths, weakness as well as the possible opportunities and Threats. It helps museum staff to understand more the practical conditions in addition to help them of setting the educational objectives.
The content of deliberation should contain resources of real objects, software resources, human resources and potential resources. For example: l. Examine the conditions of the real objects in museum.
1.) The facilities outside museum and the features of the neighboring are a
2.) The conditions of software inside museum
2. Survey and analyze the current educational resources in the museum
3. Survey and Analyze the educational human resources
4. Analyze the assignment and the sources of volunteer workforce
5. Survey and analyze the current educational activities and audiences, which include data collecting and analyzing of current and potential audiences
Establishing practical education objectives and action strategies
Among the above, establishing the practical objectives need teamwork. Only through deliberation and debates it can be set up. And, S (specific) M (measurable) A(agreed) R(realistic) T(Time-bound)” are the five principles for establishing educational objectives. Beside the educational mission, aims and objectives, the education policy should also carry out the priority of educational activities and the principles for evaluating educational achievement. After writing the objectives, the team has to make action strategies according to the educational objectives, and that will be the practical guideline for all kinds of activities.
Conclusion
Making education policy is a time-consuming task and its ”lifespan” only lasts three to five years due to the change of tendency. In order to avoid being outdated, museum has to react to the variation. During the process of policy making, it requires not only the involvement of staff in the Education Department, But also the participation of all other departments, such as Management Department, Marketing and Advertising Department, Collections and Research Department, Interpretation Department as well as Services Department. It is a task requiring teamwork. Most importantly, only when all staff work together, the practice of the policy is more likely to be succeeded.