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You don’t have to hang around a museum education department long before you hear the words “content standards” and “learning objectives.” For many educators, these phrases are the starting point of any student programming. However, if you read my previous post, you know I have a hot take on that.

However, just because you shouldn’t start your planning with objectives, doesn’t mean they don’t have an important part to play in your unforgettable museum education programs.

But just how exactly can we incorporate standards and objectives in a way that feels seamlessly incorporated with our exhibits and narratives, and not like we’re shoving tangentially related points into our already full field trip script?

What are Content Standards and Learning Objectives?

In simple terms, content standards refer to the state or federally-mandated points that students must learn in a given subject and grade level. Content standards are, essentially, learning goals for students. They are highly specific and measurable. For example, in Tennessee, first-grade students are required to “make observations to determine how sunlight warms Earth’s surfaces (sand, soil, rocks, and water)” and “recognize basic map symbols, including cities, land, roads, and water.”

Learning objectives are similar in concept, in that they are goals set for students to achieve through instruction. Learning objectives are also measurable and almost always include an action word that describes what a student should be able to do, as a result of the lesson.

The main difference between the terms is usually found in who is setting the goals. Standards are, well, standardized and are consistent across classrooms because they are adopted by an overseeing government agency at the federal, state, or even local level. Learning objectives, however, are written into the lesson plan by the teacher or curriculum designer.

Benefits of Curriculum Standards

Curriculum standards and learning objectives are important for teachers and school administration because they provide a clear framework for what students should learn and be able to do. In fact, they are crucial in education because they:

Provide clear expectations
Encourage accountability
Promote consistency
Support effective instruction
Facilitate assessment
Facilitate communication

Since being introduced to the American education system in the latter part of the 20th century, curriculum standards have increased in importance. As school funding is tied inextricably to testing results, which revolve around standards, any lesson (and by extension, museum experience) a teacher plans must be clearly and conspicuously related to relevant curriculum standards. By linking activities with standards and objectives, teachers demonstrate to their administration that an activity is worth the time and resources it requires.

Curriculum Standards and Museum Education

For a long time, I was frustrated by curriculum standards. I found them frustrating because the exhibit or narrative I’m interpreting wasn’t developed around state testing, yet I felt compelled to link the two, no matter how contrived it felt. It didn’t help that the words “content standards,” are frequently said in a tone of voice that conveys something between angst (at best) and anger (at worst).

But issues of testing and funding aside, it was clear that as a museum educator, I had to incorporate standards into my planning to attract and maintain a steady audience of school groups.

So how can museum educators use curriculum standards to their advantage?

Making Curriculum Standards Work For You

Once I stopped being cranky about the need to incorporate standards into my planning and embraced an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach, I realized that the idea of learning standards had a lot of offer, even in a museum setting. In addition to making it easy for teachers to evaluate if a program is worth their time, planning around curriculum standards improves a museum education department because they:

Provide clear expectations: Establishing clear expectations for what all visitors (regardless of their age) should learn as a result of their time on-site sets natural boundaries around the length and scope of the tour.
Encourage accountability: Including standards and objectives hold both visitors and educators accountable for what happens during the tour. Even though most museum programs don’t culminate with a test, we should be including checks for knowledge and understanding throughout the tour. Having standards in mind can help a museum educator know what to check for.
Promote consistency: By centering the tours around a common standard, you can ensure that all staff, guides, docents, and educators are starting their tour from the same baseline, which means that teachers can expect consistency throughout the whole program, as well as consistency from year to year, resulting in repeat business!
Support effective instruction: Standards and objectives provide guidance to your educators and guides. In addition to providing scaffolding on which to build your program, they also help your staff know that their work is meeting the visitors’ needs.
Facilitate assessment: Standards and objectives provide a framework for assessment. When evaluating education staff, a director can measure a particular guide’s tour against its established standards. While this is not the only measurement you should use when evaluating staff performance, it is a good element to include.
Facilitate communication: Standards and objectives provide a common language for museum educators to communicate with teachers and school administration about the content of the tour and program.

How to Write Learning Objectives for Museum Education Programs

At the end of the day, however, as museum educators, we are not as strictly limited by curriculum standards as our classroom-bound colleagues. Plus, we have the added complication that our exhibits and narratives may not fit neatly with the state-mandated list of required knowledge points.

So how can we both include, but not be limited by, content standards? How can we make learning objectives work with us?

Start with your own site’s narrative

If you missed my previous post about where to start, take a quick pause and go read it first. This is an important first step, because if you overlook your site’s unique value and your particular audience, then you’ll miss the mark when trying to set learning objectives. Either your objectives will be too vague, too common, or unrelatable to your audience - and objectives like that will not draw in your visitors.

Need some examples of poorly written objectives?

“Visitors will learn about Abraham Lincoln.” This objective is too vague and leaves everyone wondering exactly what people will learn about ol’ Abe.
“Visitors will learn about life in the 1800s.” This objective is too vague, as well as being way too common. There are thousands of places where visitors can go to learn about the 19th century. Be specific about what your site can offer.
“Visitors will learn about the oldest piece in our collection.” This objective is highly specific and unique to your site, but why should anyone care? Your objective should make it clear why this information will matter to your visitors. To be able to articulate that, you have to clarify who the audience is.

Remember, you can only set clear objectives that are specific to your site and program after you’ve established your program’s why and audience.

A Note about Content Standards

Now that you’ve got your particular learning objectives set for your program, you’ll want to include official content standards, if the program is intended for school-aged audiences. Finding appropriate content standards is easy enough, once you have a firm idea of the kind of program you are able to deliver, based on your site’s unique value and your audience’s needs. However, keep an open mind while you’re at it. As you scroll through the lists of requirements, you may find your creativity triggered by specific content references you hadn’t considered before, but that may fit with your program. If you’ve already done the work of sorting out exactly what your program’s learning goals are, it is easy enough to know whether you can or should add something else.

Need another example?

Last winter, when I was developing a pre-visit Teacher Guide for The Betsy Ross House in Pennsylvania, I followed this exact strategy by getting clear on the following points:

Did you know I can create affordable Teacher Guides for you, complete with content standards? Get more information here!

What made this site and program unique: a first-person tour of the Betsy Ross house and “meeting” women of the 18th century, in particular, a chocolate maker named Mary Crawthorne
Who the primary audience would be: 3rd-8th graders
What was the goal of the program: students would learn about everyday life, the female experience, and entrepreneurship in the Colonial Era in Philadelphia

Once I had those points clarified in my mind, I scrolled through the state standards, and guess what I found? Social studies standards, science standards, economic standards, art standards, ELA standards, and speaking and listening standards that could all be applied to activities I could create for this one project. By starting my planning process with the unique way that the Betsy Ross House can teach this particular information, I was able to cast a wide net for applicable content standards.

But a word of caution - this step is a good place to make notes about possible activities and applicable standards. But don’t allow yourself to get too caught up in those details yet, because there are several other important planning steps to take before you start nailing down the specifics of your program!

What About Non-School Audiences?

Can you apply these same principles to non-student audiences? Of course!

That’s probably easier because you don’t have to decipher the coded language of each state’s curriculum standards. And yet, in my experience, we often leave this step out entirely when crafting programs for non-student audiences. That is a huge mistake, in my opinion, because all of the benefits of incorporating standards for student programs (setting expectations, encouraging accountability, promoting consistency, etc.) apply to non-student programs, as well.

Tips for Writing Learning Objectives

Now that we’ve determined that you should be writing learning objectives for every program and that you should start with your site’s unique value and audience needs, let’s get those objectives written!

Identify the Learning Domain

There are three main learning domains you should consider when drafting learning goals for your visitors: the cognitive domain, the psychomotor domain, and the affective domain:

Cognitive Domain refers to what knowledge you want visitors to acquire. This is what we most often think of when considering learning objectives. The statement “Visitors will learn about Picasso’s Blue Period” is a cognitive objective.
Psychomotor Domain refers to what skills you want visitors to demonstrate. Many times we overlook this domain in museum education, particularly because we think of museums as “don’t touch” places. But even in a space where touching is limited, there are still opportunities for psychomotor goals, especially in instances of museum education, which are more often than not “hands-on” or “experiential” in nature. The statement “Visitors will draw their own Blue Period-inspired art” is a psychomotor objective.
Affective Domain refers to the attitudes, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors we want visitors to experience. This is a particularly important objective in terms of visitor experience and transformation. Including this type of learning goal in your program will help you position your programs to make an impact. The statement “Visitors will feel empathy for Picasso and recognize the effect of his mental health on his art” is an affective objective.

Use Action Verbs

The key to effectively written learning objectives lies in the action verb you choose. Notice in the examples above, all three imply that learning will happen, but only one uses the word “learn.” The other two examples use the words “draw,” “feel,” and “recognize.” Get creative with your vocabulary here. The more expansively you can write your learning objectives, the easier it will be to write marketing copy later, so do the work now!

When writing the learning objectives for a family tour that included making art from “Magic Scratch Paper,” I used words like “create,” “draw,” “imagine,” “be inspired by,” and more.

Evaluating Learning Objectives for Museum Education

The best part of writing learning objectives as a museum educator is that we are (for the most part) not required to include assessment or signs of mastery, like our classroom colleagues. After all, visitors do not have to pass a test in order to leave our museum!

However, this does mean that sometimes our ability to assess how effective our programs are is limited. But don’t let that discourage you! As you continue to think carefully and critically about crafting an unforgettable museum education program, you’ll become more confident about your program’s effectiveness. As this series continues, we will look at affordable and sustainable ways to evaluate your program. In the meantime, if you are looking for additional inspiration about the value of the work you do, check out my review of The Value of Museums by John H. Falk. I think you’ll find this book insightful and helpful!

I hope you feel more encouraged to incorporate learning objectives, and not simply content standards, into your programming.

I first launched Modern Museum Education because I saw so many capable museum educators feeling stuck or unsure because of a lack of knowledge or experience. I want to step into the gap for you and help connect you with the resources you need to do your job with less stress and more joy.

Do you still have questions? Feel free to contact me here or find me on social media, where I'm always happy to answer any questions.

Using Content Standards and Learning Objectives in Museum Education