Our Approach to Teaching and Learning:
Critical Thinking and Visual Literacy
In Mead programs, students will connect our conversations around art to the big questions in their own lives, as well as to current events, histories, lived experiences, and imagined futures. Through experiential, and art-centric programming we believe that students can build skills in critical thinking, empathy, and world-building across differences.
We encourage students to look closely, ask questions, consider new and varied perspectives, share their observations, connect back to their classroom learning, and let their thinking evolve and grow. The visual literacy skills learners practice in the museum help them critically engage with the various images, media, and narratives in their daily lives.
Culturally Responsive Pedagogies
We understand that not everyone has had welcoming experience/s in art museums, and not all people learn or take in information in the same way. Mead educators take care to use language that accounts for multiple experiences and encourages students to bring their whole selves to the conversation. We value preparation, but freely admit what we don’t know and, most importantly, foster a brave space where we listen to and learn from each other.
Our pedagogical strategies are informed by:
- Culturally Responsive Teaching
- Harvard Project Zero’s Visible Thinking + Artful Thinking Routines
- Visual Thinking Strategies
- Social Emotional Learning
- Hands-on and multimodal activities: ex. Mindfulness, movement, improv, drawing, and writing.
- Experiential Learning
- TeachArchives
Revisiting the Past and Imagining Better Futures
We recognize that structural and institutional racism has and continues to inform museums, education systems, and curricula. Mead educators work with educators to develop programs that aim to understand, question, and re-imagine these systems of power. We hope you will join us in cultivating a space for a culturally responsive and anti-oppressive framework for teaching.
Learning in the Museum Supports Your Curriculum
Mead education programs are unique and customized to the learning needs of each class. Using the Mead's diverse collection of over 20,000 objects and rotating exhibitions, we connect to a wide range of curricula. Our college programs build research skills in visual material and discipline-specific methods and content. Our school programs supplement and expand on classroom goals and support: National Core Arts Learning Standards, Massachusetts Department of Education Frameworks, and Social Justice Standards from Learning for Justice.