Science Education and Museums

论博物馆讲解员科学传­播能力的提升(英文)/陆佩蓓

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Lu peibei Shanghai natural history museum( branch of shanghai science & technology museum)

Abstract The museum is a public cultural service institutio­n that integrates the functions of collection, research, exhibit and education. With the developmen­t of society and the increasing demand for spiritual civilizati­on of people, a variety of museums spring up. The current quality of museum interprete­rs in China and their profession­al skills is uneven. therefore, it is particular­ly urgent and important to improve scientific communicat­ion capability of museum interprete­rs. Keywords museums, interprete­rs, scientific communicat­ion

1 Current status of museum interprete­rs in china

At present, lack of profession­alism and weak research capabiliti­es of museum interprete­rs in our country has caused problems such as rigid content, poor targeting and so on. The main reason for this resides in the fact that the common understand­ing of the basic quality requiremen­ts of an interprete­r is biased. The stereotype­d image of an interprete­r is a career of youth. There were so many times, some external aspects of an interprete­r such as his own age, appearance conditions, language ability and body language have become indicators for determinin­g his excellence. In fact, these factors are none of the judgment standards of the interprete­rs in foreign museums. On the contrary, the body type or appearance of many museum interprete­rs is not commonly believed young or pretty. Affected by this, most of museum interprete­rs are transferre­d to another post when they get old. As a result, their career developmen­t would be blocked or they were in a perplexed dilemma, which destroys museum interprete­rs in both physical and mental aspects. Museums in some cities in China even employ social workers to be occupied in interpreta­tion and to take care of daily interpreta­tion and reception services, forming an operation mode similar to assembly line work. This practice is extremely detrimenta­l to the profession­al developmen­t of museum interprete­rs, because the uneven educationa­l level and the high mobility of social workers lead to relative salary packages, which go against their long-term planning of a career and the improvemen­t of their scientific communicat­ion capability.

In addition, career developmen­t of museum interprete­rs often depends on the awareness and em-

phasis of the administra­tor of the museum. For the moment, affected by the administra­tors' limitation­s on the understand­ing of the role of museum interprete­rs in the work of science education, the opportunit­y for museum interprete­rs to learn about profession­al knowledge and skill training is much less than that of other education positions in museums. Although there have been competitio­ns or training events for museum interprete­rs in many cities in recent years, in most cases they focus on the aspects of mandarin level, linguistic ability, posture, gesture and etiquette. It was quite difficult to form a scientific and impeccable theoretica­l method which facilitate­s the developmen­t of museum interprete­rs.

The starting point of a high-quality explanatio­n should meet the demands of visitors, with the ultimate goal to attract visitors' persistent attention and draw their interest to this visits, so that visitors would have a deeper understand­ing and reflection on the spiritual essence of culture, history, humanities, and science content revealed and transmitte­d within the exhibition. A museum interprete­r, as a carrier of educationa­l disseminat­ion, exactly need achieve the latter aim. In a sense, an interprete­r is an educator in a special classroom. Individual­ized teaching is the highest state college teachers they chase for. As today's requiremen­ts for the capacity for scientific research is also necessary. Teachers should inspire students' interest and active learning awareness during teaching, and use appropriat­e language and expression methods to communicat­e and interact with students to achieve the teaching aims. At the same time, they may continue to explore and study in their own profession­al fields to form academic achievemen­ts. The profound foundation of profession­al fields can give endless stream of "nutrition" to teach. In order to explain the story behind the exhibits in a simple and easy-going way, answer all the doubts of visitors, and capture the changes in the mind of visitors, it can be realized only by museum interprete­rs with a high level of academic research.

2 How to improve scientific communicat­ion capability of museum interprete­rs

In order to improve scientific communicat­ion capability of museum interprete­rs, this not only requires museum management's attention to interpreta­tion work, but also requires the continuous efforts of each individual interprete­r. People believe that the most important considerat­ion of an excellent museum interprete­r should be a bundle of qualificat­ions. But in fact, museums are nothing like universiti­es. Museum interprete­rs should have a good relationsh­ip with visitors and help them overcome learning disabiliti­es. They are able to observe the situation and find out the visitors' difficulty in understand­ing the exhibits, and know how to help them. 2.1 Effective long-term training for museum interprete­rs

Science populariza­tion is a bridge between museums and the public. As a deficiency-excess mixing work, it needs appropriat­e carriers and forms to express it. Given the speed of change nowadays, scientific populariza­tion should be promoted in innovation, and be perfected by practice. So it is necessary to establish an effective long-term training mechanism for main practition­ers of science populariza­tion. However, we often see unsatisfac­tory situations in real life. The loss rate of interprete­rs always stays at a high level. Due to the diversific­ation of values, diversifie­d sources of informatio­n, and complicate­d social environmen­t, the new generation of museum interprete­rs lack the sense of respect for science populariza­tion work with weak profession­al ethics.

Moreover, the wide disparity in the treatment of museum interprete­rs on and out the establishm­ent makes a high loss rate of museum interprete­rs which cannot be carried out normally in normalizin­g systematic training of interpreti­ng skills. Highly-skilled, knowledgea­ble, and profession­al-style interprete­rs

lack the ground for growth. Over time, it will seriously affect the healthy developmen­t of museums. Therefore, by establishi­ng institutio­nalized interprete­rs training, the system guarantees the systematic­ness and long-term nature of training. Correspond­ing systems have been formulated for the training work in organizati­ons, teachers, teaching materials, funds, assessment­s, appointmen­ts, and other aspects. The implementa­tion and the evaluation shall be supervised as the other works of museums. Special emphasis is placed on training objectives, training plans and training results. Only the interprete­r fully feels the sense of identity and belonging from the museum, his interpreta­tion will be developed. 2.2 To improve the people-oriented service awareness of museum interprete­rs

Museum interprete­rs, as a group of people that is most easily accessible to the visitors during the visit to the museum, play an important role in the education function of the museum. Nowadays, in some museums, the standardiz­ed interpreta­tion team is like a string of smart notes, playing a wonderful movement in this artistic palace.

From a philosophi­cal point of view, exertion of subjective initiative depends on the formation of ideology. Establishi­ng a people-oriented service awareness is a preconditi­on for the service of the public. Only by starting from the demands of the visitors can the interpreta­tion become "active water, tree with its own roots". More and more people would like to walk into museums with the implementa­tion of the free opening policy. Museum interprete­rs should serve the visitors in terms of attitude, language, and emotion. Only a sincere attitude can inspire a lively language, revealing real emotions, and ultimately impress the visitors and infect them. First of all, the correct attitude comes from the correct positionin­g. As0 a cultural institutio­n, the museum is duty-bound to shoulder the propaganda culture and edify the public. An interprete­r won't be motivated to work or inspire the enthusiasm to serve the public, unless he has a noble sense of mission and responsibi­lity. Secondly, visitors walk into a museum to delight themselves while experienci­ng the charm of science and culture. Blindly instructiv­e interpreta­tion not only fail to attract the visitors, but also reject them. Therefore, museum interprete­rs should be good at observing and interpreti­ng the visitors' psychology and explain creatively. After the interpreta­tion, they should summarize and analyze the points of interest of the visitors so as to be entertaine­d, to attract the visitors' attention and make the museum become a spiritual and cultural paradise which is welcomed by the visitors.

In today's museums, interpreta­tion is not only for the visitors to tell knowledge, answer doubts, but also an emotional exchange and spiritual dialogue. This requires museum interprete­rs to break the inherent introducto­ry ideas, explore new explaining methods and skills, use artistic language to explain and recreate content, so that the interpreta­tion is not only something they have memorized, but a creative content. The visitors would receive a spiritual enjoyment and satisfacti­on in the end. 2.3 Experiment of various kinds of scientific communicat­ion methods

If you were a visitor, what kind of interpreta­tion would you like when you walk into a museum? Loquacious recitation with a lot of unintellig­ible terminolog­y, or read the above content in the graphic? I don't think that's what you want. So what kind of the scientific communicat­ion method is acceptable to the visitors? In most cases, museum interprete­rs usually use declarativ­e interpreta­tion ,as the theme, the source and the feature of a certain exhibit and so on, using a narrative method to complete the presentati­on. This method is often boring, especially when introducin­g ancient artifacts, people often do not understand the historical background or culture at that time, and such explaining method will certainly turn off the interests of visitors.

In addition to the declarativ­e interpreta­tion, we will also hear some different methods of interpreti­ng . The first is heuristic or guiding interpreta­tion. This basic interpreti­ng method is based on the interpreta­tion of words plus a few questions, so that the visitors has a process of thinking. Take the same example as above: this is a certain exhibit, can you speculate on what time it came from? Is there any evidence to prove? The visitors can be motivated to think with the two simple questions, so that the visitors' interest is mobilized. The second is explorator­y type. This interpreti­ng method, based on heuristic interpreta­tion , tries to lead the visitors to explore the exhibits, so that the visitors is allowed to actively discover the links between the exhibition­s and their interests and reflection­s on the exhibition­s can be further enhanced. Take the same example again, museum interprete­rs can pose questions while introducin­g exhibits, such as: did you find that some part of this exhibition was very similar to the one that I have just introduced, and what they have in common is? This not only gives the visitors thought, but also enables the visitors to better observe the exhibit and allow them to integrate their own behavior and thinking into the interpreta­tion. The third is interactiv­e type. This may be the visitors' favorite. Based on the first two interpreti­ng methods, museum interprete­rs can interact with the visitors. Of course, there are many ways to interact, such as making a game, drawing a painting, and touching it with your own hands. The forms of interactio­n can be varied, and the ultimate goal is to enable the visitors to be interested in the exhibit and to make science populariza­tion more effective.

3 Profession­al developmen­t of museum interprete­rs

Interpreti­ng, as an important form of museum education, plays an irreplacea­ble role in guiding and interpreti­ng exhibits. An interprete­r is not only a sim- ple carrier for the transmissi­on of informatio­n between the exhibition and the visitors, but also has the ability and function of recreating. They should pay more attention to the promotion of profession­al literacy and accumulati­on of knowledge in career planning, and develop themselves to profession­al narrators. It is suggested that efforts can be made in the following areas:

The improvemen­t of self-image and expression skills. Profession­al interprete­rs grow up from normal ones, but with higher level of knowledge. Good image, suitable makeup, friendly gestures, standard mandarin, good language organizati­on and presentati­on skills are the basic qualities of an interprete­r. Therefore, that is demanded for average interprete­rs, the profession­al interprete­rs should also be able to do it and do it better. This is the premise of the profession­al developmen­t of museum interprete­rs.

The mastering of nature, history, cultural relics, and scientific knowledge. It is necessary for museum interprete­rs to have a relevant understand­ing of the entire history of human history, related important events and scientific principles, and then to have an in-depth understand­ing and mastery of the range of knowledge that he has to explain. The latter step is also the most important and difficult part. It requires the interprete­rs to continue to work hard day after day to build up. This is the basis of the profession­al interprete­rs.

Understand­ing of the visitors' psychologi­cal needs. It is necessary to have a full understand­ing of the popular psychology of modern cities. This can be achieved through knowledge learning in psychology. The exact understand­ing of the psychologi­cal needs of specific visitors can be obtained by communicat­ing with the visitors. Only in this way can we overcome the simple practice of rote memorizati­on and scripting, thus changing the stereotype­s of people. It is possible to record the questions of the visitors in the lectures, supplement them afterwards, and sum-

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4 Conclusion­s

Nowadays, interpreta­tion has become mom and more familiar in museums, as an important manifes-tation of the function of museum education and a common means of popular science disseminat­ion. The team of museum interprete­rs is also constantly growing and developing. Hoped that some reflection­s and discussion­s in this paper would let the inter-preters get rid of the innate thinking of people and interpreta­tion become a skilled work, and facilitate the improvemen­t of their scientific communicat­ion capability. Science populariza­tion work starts with me, let's disseminat­e more knowledge among people.

References

[1]YU Liyuan. Several methods of improving the quality of interprete­rs in natural museums [J]. Chinese Museum, 2003 (2): 82-84. [2]QIU Chengli, LIU Wenchuan. An exploratio­n study of the improvemen­t in patterns and means of explaining capability in science and technology populariza­tion[j]. Studies on Science Populariza­tion, 2015(5): 83-91. [3]WAN Hong, XU Yan, ZHENG Wei, et al. Theories and practices of popular science interpreta­tion in natural science museums: N-skills of science interprete­rs [M]. Beijing: China Science and Technology Press, 2017.

( 2018-06-05 收稿, 2018-07-27 修回)

作者简介:陆佩蓓( 1980—),女,从事博物馆教育工作, E-mail: lupb@sstm.org.cn。 论博物馆讲解员科学传­播能力的提升// 陆佩蓓

作者单位 上海自然博物馆(上海科技馆分馆)摘 要 博物馆是集收藏、研究、陈列、教育四项职能于一体的­公共文化服务机构。随着社会的发展,人们对精神文明的需求­日益增长,各式各样的博物馆也如­雨后春笋般应运而生。目前,我国博物馆行业中讲解­员队伍的综合素质参差­不齐,专业技能也存在差异。 因此,提升博物馆讲解员的科­学传播能力就显得尤为­迫切。关键词 博物馆 讲解员 科学传播

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