Educational Elements
Diagnostic Criteria of Autism for Planning of Museum Activities: How Educational and Gallery Programs Can Benefit from Neurobiological Knowledge about Autism
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sorokin Alexander, Evgeniya Kiseleva-Afflerbach
Inclusion efforts at art museums are aimed to make these institutions accessible for all groups, including people with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The latter are characterized by extreme heterogeneity of behavioral idiosyncrasies that may or may not be noticed in a museum context. In our paper, we describe the relevant “red flags” and diagnostic criteria for ASD and suggest the ways to use them in planning museum staff training, program development, and space organization. Additionally, we explore the sources for better understanding of the potential and limitations of art perception by people with ASD and the possibilities for them to be implemented in gallery events and educational endeavors.
Designing the Analysis of the Educational Activity in Museums: Hits and Misses
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ana Tirado De La Chica
This work addresses the research in museum education. It is about a methodological discussion for the analysis of learning activities in museums, according to a research carried out in May and June 2018 for the analysis of school visits in art museums in Barcelona and Gerona (Spain). It presents two proposals of analysis which were erroneous and a third one which finally was adopted. The first analysis proposal was based on the school curriculum; it was erroneous because indicators and variables of the analysis responded strictly to the formal context of education, which meant ignoring the specific contributions to learning of the museum setting. In the second proposal, the analysis was based on trends in museum education, according to theories of Dialogical Pedagogy, Visual Thinking Strategies, Inspiring Learning for All Framework (UK), and the collective text from the ICOM-CECA (2011 in Brazil), which was wrong because no one of them constitutes a proper model of learning, but they all are grounded in sociocultural principles of learning and, then, defining specific indicators was ambiguous. Finally, the results in this work are directed to design the analysis based on the didactic methodology, according to three types of evidences: mesogenetic (didactic and content medium), topogenetic (relationship and roles) and chronogenetic (temporal indicators and learning process); the methodological framework is qualitative, according to reduction of information processes. The contributions of this work address the elements and criteria that must be considered for a successful design of the analysis in research in museum education.
