朱一鳴
Abstract The instructors of museums play a key role in delivering knowledge to the audience. Nowadays, it is urgent to train an excellent instructor team to provide guarantee for the social education. China Agricultural Museum has explored a step training mode for the instructors from novice level, intermediate level, to advanced level according to three aspects: basic training, classification training, and ability training to educate professional, refined and outstanding instructors. It will improve the image of the museum and finally bring benefit to the society.
Keywords museums, instructors, training mode
0 Introductions
Due to various factors such as the reform of the institutional mechanism of museums, the popularization of the labor dispatch system, and the development of the instructors, many museums in China are faced with the test of the mobility of the instructors. It is known that some museums have a churn rate of 50% so that they need to recruit and train new instructors every year. Under such situation, it is a key problem to cultivate an excellent team of instructors in a short time to ensure the completion of social education function. Therefore, China Agricultural Museum explored a set of training modes for junior, middle and senior instructors from three aspects: basic training, classification training and ability training.
1 Novice level: basic training
1.1 Cultivation of dedication
The first lesson that cannot be ignored in the training of all the new instructors is the lecture on history of the museum, architectural style, layout of exhibitions, collections on display and other related content. The learning of basic situation and characteristics of the museum not only help them quickly understand the industry to be involved, but also help them establish the spirit of dedication, generate a sense of collective honor and belonging, and enhance the initiative and enthusiasm of work. Take China Agricultural Museum as an example, it is one of the Top Ten Buildings in the capital. Its geographical location is in the best section of the East Third Ring Road in Beijing, the architectural composition of the landscape garden, and the architectural style with the combination of Eastern and Western are all approved by Premier Zhou Enlai himself which shows the importance that China had attached to agriculture at that time. As the only professional national agricultural museum, the museum has 7 basic exhibitions including "Chinese Agricultural Civilization", "Chinese Traditional Agricultural Tools", "Agricultural Science Popularization for Teenagers", "Soil in Painted Pottery", "Chinese Soil Specimens", three-screen cinema, and the outdoor garden. Nearly 50 000 collections of agricultural relics, specimens, ancient books and traditional agricultural tools are collected.
1.2 Cultivation of business skills
Business skills training is a compulsory course for all the instructors. In recent years, all kinds of museums in China have attached great importance to improving the professionalism of the instructors. There are many explorations and innovations in the business skills training for the instructors in the content or the method, as well as some unsystematic and unstandardized training can affect the improvement of the skills of the instructors. In this case, systematic and standardized skills training programs should be developed based on the basic skills of the instructors. Each year, in accordance with the program, all the instructors' business skills training and assessment will be conducted for about one month. The content of training mainly includes appearance, pronunciation, gesture and standing posture, basic etiquette, and so on. The means of training mainly include watching video materials, collective teaching, field exercise, and visiting other museums. After a series of systematic and standardized training methods, most of the instructors can master the basic skills of lecturing, leading the audience through the exhibition route and completing the simple instructional task.
1.3 Cultivation of professional knowledge
The specialization of disciplines is a feature of museums. The scale of the exhibits, the distribution of ages, and the classification of disciplines all reflect the development status of the scientific field, and can achieve the transmission of intellectual, scientific and academic to the public. However, in the case of the current recruitment, most of the instructors are jraduated from the major of broadcasting, interpretation, and tourism. Lack of professional background in the natural science field will greatly affect the accuracy and rigorousness of the interpretations and the needs of the audience for scientific knowledge cannot be met. Therefore, it is particularly important to train instructors to acquire basic knowledge in the subject area. On the one hand, China Agricultural Museum invites experts to give lectures about agricultural knowledge to instructors. On the other hand, we give each instructor a topic according to the exhibitions in the museum, such as "the rise of the tea industry", "the evolution of agricultural tools", and "the development of breeding technology". We ask them to carry out targeted research, in-depth study, and then integrate the collected data to set up a database for sharing. It is helpful to realize the self-worth of individual instructors on the team, and avoid duplication of labor, so that each member can acquire more comprehensive professional knowledge, enrich the original thin vocabulary and the connotation and thus the overall strength and team cohesion can also be improved.
2 Intermediate level: classification train- ing
The ability to instruct audience of different types is an important aspect of measuring the level of social education in a museum. However, according to the different characteristics and needs of the audience, there are many ways to classify the audience. Under the realistic situation of frequent personnel alternation of the instructors, it is almost impossible and unnecessary to make all instructors be able to lecture with high quality to all types of audiences. Therefore, to optimize the structure of the team, the museum should classify the instructors to highlight their orientation, personal style, characteristics and value. After the completion of basic training, basing on the personality, expression ability and the interest of instructors, combining with their own opinions, China Agricultural Museum will divide them into four categories: child type, tourist type, expert type and comprehensive type.
2.1 Child type instructor
It is mainly aimed at children whose purpose is to understand and acquire knowledge. The common characteristics of them include strong desire for knowledge, active thinking, and quick response, but they often lack concentration and discipline. For child type instructors, the period of explanation should not be too long, the content should be easy to understand, the language should be lively and the instructors should utilize stories with questions to inspire the audiences. The purpose of explaining is to impart knowledge and stimulate children's interest in the subject and love of the museum. First of all, the instructor should lay emphasis on daily accumulation, collect stories related to the exhibits, such as “Bouyu Does Clothes” and "Wang San Ni Making Ting". In the second place, they should collect questions that may be asked, such as "Why does the soil have different colors" and "What kind of crops are the steamed bread made of". In the third place, they should carry out timely interaction, such as "the twenty-four festival songs" and "watch the scene, guess the animal". Lastly they should learn some preschool education skills and form a set of agricultural museum commentary for children.
2.2 Tourist type instructor
It is mainly aimed at adult whose purpose is entertainment and leisure. The tourist type audiences are engaged in different industries, with uneven social experience and different scope of knowledge. For tourist type instructors, it is necessary for them to avoid coldness, seriousness and sense of distance, but to explain profound theories in simple languages, and be closer to the life. The purpose of interpretation is to help the audience expand their horizons and enrich their cultural connotations in a relaxed and pleasant state. The training of tourist type instructors is focused on knowledge expansion. Not being limited to the exhibition of the museum, instructors should also have knowledge reserves of architecture, archaeology, physics, and chemistry. China Agricultural Museum has chosen and purchased related books and established a library.
2.3 Expert type instructor
It is mainly aimed at adult audiences whose purpose is political investigation and academic research. Expert type audiences often have a high degree of professionalism and master one or more aspects of the natural sciences. For expert type instructors, the content of explanation should be academic and advanced, the language should be formal and concise, and their expression should avoid personal perceptions and emotions. Expert type instructors should also watch the audiences eyes, figure out their psychology and make sure the explanation is properly detailed. The purpose of this kind of explanation is the cultural exchange of the museum and display the academic status and value of the museum. The cultivation of such instructors has high requirements of learning spirit. They must know the latest research results and academic trends of the subject, and explore the social value of the exhibits.
2.4 Comprehensive type instructor
The most outstanding instructors among the three types will be cultivated as comprehensive type instructors who should possess both protruding personality and comprehensive development. They can work independently in one direction and work smoothly in other directions by flexibly changing roles for all types of audiences. They are not afraid of questions and can answer all. As a role model and leader, they will constantly train new staff, achieve mutual promotion and enhance the overall strength of the entire team. The training method of comprehensive instructors mainly includes mutual learning between colleagues, going out for exchange training and participating in explanation contests. China Agricultural Museum requires the instructors to follow the audience to observe the work of other instructors. At the same time, several seminars will be held for instructors to exchange experience and make up for the weak points. In terms of exchange training, we have selected many instructors to investigate China National Film Museum, the Geological Museum of China and Museum of the War of Peoples Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in recent years. Moreover, we also organize the elites to take part in Beijing Science Popularization Base Interpretation Contest and the National Science Popularization Base Interpretation Contest, so as to strengthen their sense of competition and improve their ability to explanation on multiple occasions with multimedia applications and psychological quality.
3 Advanced level: ability training
The interpreter is a bridge between the museum and the audience. During the long term work, they have accumulated a lot of experiences and have a better understanding of the interest of audience. Therefore, the science popularization activities of the museum are inseparable from the instructors while the instructors also need to get exercise and enhancement. Therefore, the science popularization activities and the training of the instructors complement each other and promote each other. During the organization and implementation of science popularization activities, China Agricultural Museum encourages the participation of advanced level interpreters.
4 Conclusion
In summary, the natural science museum is an important place to disseminate knowledge to the public. The instructor is the spokesperson of the museum. Nowadays, the scientific and efficient training of the instructors plays a significant role in expanding social influence of the museums. The training mode from novice level, intermediate level to advanced level helps to train the instructors step by step. The method comes from practice and will return to practice with continuous and constant improvement. Each step will be incorporated into the assessment and evaluation system of their performance, in which way a team of dedicated, professional and excellent instructors can be built, and museums can be promoted in a good and fast manner.
References
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