Systemic challenges facing K–12 teacher preparation programs may represent opportunities for museums with strong educational missions. This article offers insights from a two-year partnership between a campus art museum and teacher education program in which future secondary-level teachers in all disciplines gained hands-on experience in lesson planning, using artwork on display at the museum as a common thread. This partnership took place in the context of a new methods sequence for a small teacher preparation program, in which all students took an interdisciplinary class covering shared issues in curriculum and instruction while completing a discipline-specific methods lab. The authors describe the sequence of museum visits and project development in-depth while highlighting the lived experiences of participating preservice teachers, and then turn to describe their own learning. The conclusion provides takeaways for museum educators interested in pursuing a similar strategy with teacher education programs.
Gilbert et al. (Thu,) studied this question.