New Toolkit for Museum and Heritage Education

The International Committee for Education and Cultural Action (CECA), one of the international committees of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), has recently disseminated Education Toolkit: Methods & Techniques from Museum and Heritage Education, a publication authored by Arja van Veldhuizen. The publication has been made possible by Stichting LCM, Erfgoedhuis-ZH and ICOM-CECA. The Education Toolkit collects compact descriptions of 18 different techniques in the field of museum and heritage education, each illustrated with lively cartoons and a set of advantages and disadvantages of each, as well as practical examples. Among the techniques addresses are guided tours, dialogues, 'treasure hunts', 'learning by doing' approaches, creative processing, interviews, storytelling and arts activities. In her foreword to the Toolkit, author Arja van Veldhuizen explains that the publication emerged from her observation that, whereas a lot of literature about guided tours was available, very little addressed other museum-based didactical methods. The educational toolkit is addressed particularly at people with some experience in museum and heritage education. It focuses on a specific aspect of museum education work, namely the choice and application of didactic methods and techniques. Education Toolkit: Methods & Techniques from Museum and Heritage Education is available as a free download from ICOM-CECA's website at http://network.icom.museum/ceca/others/other-publications/