Learning at the Museum

Learning at the Museum aims to increase learner confidence in cultural activities by making cultural spaces more accessible through workbook-based, supportive workshops.

Learning at the Museum is written at a grade 6-8 reading level, following Clear Language and Design principles and is geared toward adult learners who may experience barriers to learning. The program is highly flexible and can be adapted to suit shorter or longer schedules, depending on your learners’ needs.

Host a Workshop

Workshops are delivered by host organization staff and we provide free online training to help prepare staff or volunteers to deliver the workshops.

The program is made up of three one-hour workshops:

one pre-visit workshop to be held in the classroom
one on-site workshop to be held at the museum
one post-visit workshop to be held in the classroom

To host a workshop or to access online training, please contact Julia Norcross at jnorcross@abclifeliteracy.ca.

Access free resources

Improve your cultural literacy skills with these free resources or take the Learning at the Museum course on the ABC Skills Hub. The Learning at the Museum resources are for use at home and in workshops and activities that are also free for participants. Resources are not to be used for commercial purposes.

Testimonials

“To me, it is an educational experience and I learnt new things about myself and our history as Canadians. I think it was a fun and enjoyable experience to have with my classmates and was a new experience for all of us."

Participant

“I learned about the different cultures that my classmates come from and how they view things, compared to my own perspective. This mainly happened when we went to the Nature Museum, and I saw how some people’s perspectives were different from my own.”

Participant

Facts & Statistics

Participation in culture helps develop thinking skills, builds self-esteem, and improves resilience. Cultural experiences are opportunities for leisure, entertainment, learning, and sharing experiences with others. From museums to theatres to dance studios to public libraries, culture brings people together.

The Case for Cultural Learning: Key Research Findings – Cultural Learning Alliance, 2011

Active participation in the arts has positive health benefits, such as social cohesion and emotional and physical well-being. Both the perceived health and chronic pain measures showed improvement over time…

The Arts, Health and Seniors Project – A Three Year Exploration of the Relationship between Arts and Health – Alison Phinney et al., 2012

Being culturally literate can help you understand, relate to and interact with people from diverse backgrounds that may be very diﬀerent from your own. It can be especially important to be culturally literate if you are part of the dominant culture. Seeing, hearing and learning about how other people live can make you more culturally sensitive and aware. Learning about diﬀerent cultures can open your mind to diﬀerent ways of life.

Developing Indigenous Australian cultural competence: A model for implementing Indigenous content into curricula – Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, Flavell, H., Thackrah, R., & Hoﬀman, J. (2013)

Cultural literacy positively aﬀects society. It:

Reduces prejudice and inequality based on culture,
Increases the value placed on diversity and diﬀerence,
Increases participation in social and community practices, like visiting museums, attending performances and accessing community programming.

Embedding an Indigenous Graduate Attribute into University of Western Sydney’s courses – The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, Anning, B, 2010