EDUCATION ATTRACTION CONSULTANCY

My mission is to support organisations in focusing and achieving their educational aims. This is done through consideration of non-formal education research and practice, and acceptance of the limitations of evaluation.

 

Education

There is an interesting art to educational attractions, where the educational mission must be balanced against the need to attract visitors and balance the books. With 10 years senior management experience in a major UK science centre, I understand how everyday realities can get in the way of ideals.

Education is a social and insightful craft, underpinned by knowledge of human psychology. It also spans a wide breadth of learning objectives, from recall of facts to changed attitudes. This is a complex and wonderful realm where the opportunities are endless. Quality assurance is challenging, but impacts can be life-changing.

Ensuring that an attraction truly serves its organisational mission requires both clear objectives and skilled staff. Different objectives call for different – and sometimes conflicting – approaches. A varied mix of approaches are required to reinforce learnings and to serve diverse audiences. And this all starts before the visitor even sets foot in the venue.

I would be delighted to share my experience and understanding to ensure educational attractions and planetaria are successful in their aims, clear and realistic in their objectives, and able to avoid some of the common pitfalls that might otherwise hamper progress.

 

HOW I CAN HELP

Some ways in which I could support your organisation:

  • Supporting development of a clear educational mission.

  • Development of an educational framework from the mission statement, identifying appropriate classes of learning objective and approach for different target audiences. Such a framework should provide focus and gentle guidance without constraining practitioners from developing effective programmes.

  • Consultancy on requirements for education staffing. The beating heart of any educational attraction, these are the people your visitors will remember, and who will be responsible for the continued quality of your offer. Attract and retain high-quality staff by creating attractive roles with room for growth.

  • Strategic development of balanced schools’ educational program structures, considering the organisation’s mission, teachers’ requirements, and whole-visit planning.

  • Strategic development of public educational program structures, serving identified target audiences and planning reusable/adaptable models for events. Ensuring capacity to take advantage of unplanned opportunities.

  • Evaluation consultancy with respect to plans to evaluate learning impact. Common proxies for learning assessment are misleading and can easily lead to misdirection of resources.

  • Practical planning of spaces for educational purposes, with respect to issues such as visitor movement (including crowding and queuing), storage, sight-lines, access to resources, contingency planning, adaptability for different situations, future-proofing, and visitors’ relation to the space.

  • Health check for educational programmes. A high-level evaluation exercise overviewing programmes and practice with respect to stated educational objectives. Providing practical, evidence-based recommendations to inform future strategic planning processes.

 

Experience

I have ten years senior management experience at a major UK science centre and planetarium, including responsibility for all educational operations and serving as Deputy Director in the Director’s absence.

As an independent consultant I have consulted for educational planning for planetaria in the UK and overseas. I manage a national astronomy education project, have created educational content for projects in the UK and overseas, and have written and consulted on fulldome films for some of the most respected fulldome directors in the world.

I served as President of the British Association of Planetaria (2011-14), giving me an understanding of the various facilities across the UK and their needs. I am the International Astronomical Union’s National Outreach Co-ordinator for the UK, and have served as UK and Ireland Representative on the International Planetarium Society (IPS) council (2011-14).

I am Co-Chair of the IPS Education Committee. I am deeply interested by learnings from educational psychology and education research; there is a significant gap between theory and practice in the informal education sector which I am keen to bridge. To this purpose I have given talks at international conferences, seminars, and have run team training days to share some of the most practically useful concepts. I have also written education articles for the IPS Planetarium magazine.

Attending conferences such as IPS and IMERSA brings a fresh view, enables discussion of factors affecting domes across the world, gives a view into the future, and has allowed me to build long-term relationships with some of the most experienced and innovative players worldwide. Attending fulldome film festivals such as IPS, Fulldome UK and Brno Fulldome Festival keeps me up to date with the demands of the market and the constant developments in the styles and quality of fulldome productions.