Comprehensive basic knowledge required by museum docents

Discussing the selection and training of docents in museums and memorial halls

Teaching is a society that uses scientific language and other auxiliary expressions to convey knowledge to the audience based on display. Activity. Docents are the bridge and link between museums and memorial halls and society, and are the business cards of museums and memorial halls. The quality and level of the docent service directly affects the audience’s education and visit quality, affects the window image of museums and memorial halls, and even affects the image of a region and country. Therefore, how to select and train docents, especially cultivating excellent docents, plays a key role in the social education undertakings of museums and memorial halls. Here, the author will talk about some personal thoughts on the selection and training of commentators and communicate with colleagues in the industry.

1. Selection of guides for museums and memorial halls

Teaching is a highly comprehensive art of knowledge and language. Its professional characteristics are fundamentally different from tour guides. It integrates teachers , broadcasting, speeches, dramas, performances and other professional technical means, which are a combination of professionalism, knowledge and artistry. The docent is in a special and critical position. She faces a special group with different knowledge levels, age levels, etc. The docent is not only responsible for the functions of publicity and education, but also must be able to effectively organize and guide the audience to visit, in addition to Responsible for coordination, writing and research duties and responsibilities. The docent is the image spokesperson of a unit, a region, and a country, so every social education worker must correctly view the status and nature of the docent's work.

The selection of commentators is very important for the training of commentators. An excellent commentator must have good comprehensive qualities. The main source of selection is students from colleges and universities, because these students have personal foundations. The conditions and basic quality are good, and the age characteristics are between 18-22 years old. They have the characteristics of strong ability to accept new things and strong work enthusiasm. The basic qualifications for commentators must be strictly met. In particular, some conditions such as voice, image, etc. cannot be met through acquired requirements, so they must be carefully considered. First, docents should have good ideological moral character and professional ethics, abide by national laws and regulations, and have the emotional quality to love the motherland, love museums, memorial halls, and love the audience, because only by meeting such conditions can docents establish the supremacy of the audience. concept and serve the audience wholeheartedly. The second is to have good cultural quality and knowledge cultivation. Not only must you master rich professional knowledge, but you must also be well-read. It is best for the guides to graduate from cultural museums, history, archeology, tourism, Chinese, broadcasting or related majors, and have a college degree or above. Third, you should have a good public image, be in good health, and have a height and face that meet professional requirements. Only in this way can you leave a good first impression on the audience and facilitate the continuation of the explanation. Fourth, have good voice conditions and language expression skills, and be good at communicating with the audience. Able to organize the audience through harmonious language. The communication level should reach Level 2A or above. The language of foreign language commentators or mute or dialect commentators should also reach the corresponding level. In addition, the explainer should also have good personality characteristics, psychological quality and reaction ability, and be able to complete the explanation task well in front of different audiences. There must also be appropriate requirements for their interests and hobbies. The commentators who are proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and are good at singing and dancing always make the audience feel refreshed. The above are the basic conditions for our selection of commentators.

At the same time, the selection of lecturers should also follow standardized selection procedures. First, the recruitment information must be published in detail within a certain range and the candidates for selection must be determined. The second is that the initial interview must be in place and careful, and then the candidates for the re-examination are determined. The third is to strictly control the re-examination and finally determine the personnel to participate in the probation. After the probation is over, there should be a pre-job training and assessment process. Those who fail will continue the training or terminate the probation. The interview content should include self-introduction, language expression ability, knowledge test, professional answers and specialty performances, etc. The recruitment team should be composed of supervisor leaders, department leaders, personnel directors, and senior facilitators.

2. Training of commentators

1. The training objectives must be clear. With the development of society, our professional standards and requirements for commentators are also constantly improving. The audience no longer needs simple didactic explanations, but requires commentators to communicate more during the explanation process. What they need is vivid, Scientific explanation. From the perspective of job characteristics, our training goal is to train commentators to become "preachers, receptionists, researchers, and communicators" through 5-10 years of training.

Judging from the growth process of a commentator, generally 5-10 years of working in the field is a familiarization process and a period of accumulating experience and knowledge. It takes at least 8-10 years in the explanation position to enter a mature stage. Therefore, managers should change the concept that "the teaching profession is a youth profession", spend more time on training and improving existing lecturers, organize more professional skills competitions, and strengthen daily management and assessment to improve the performance of lecturers. business level.

2. The training method should be flexible. The cultivation of an excellent instructor is a long-term and systematic training process. Instructor training can be divided into pre-job training, on-the-job training, and professional training. First of all, pre-job training is particularly important for the growth of commentators. The unit must have a flexible system to standardize the management of commentators, have a training plan and training system, and organize learning and training with purpose at the beginning of the year or at the beginning of the month. The unit invites experts or experienced docents to adopt the method of "teaching, helping and guiding" to train docents to understand museum knowledge and display content as well as explanation rules and techniques. Closed training should be adopted for large numbers of new employees. Secondly, acquired training is an important means to improve the teaching level. It is mainly professional job training, aiming to improve the art and knowledge level of teaching. Various professional trainings can be organized by "sending out" or "inviting in". It is necessary to actively organize and participate in professional training and refresher courses at all levels, and at the same time, there must be a system for testing the effectiveness of training. For example, trained instructors can give lectures or demonstrations to new instructors. In addition, it is necessary to exchange more experiences with peer units to learn from their strengths and make up for their own shortcomings. Third, it is necessary to conduct more simulation training, especially during major receptions, where multiple commentators can organize simulation explanations at the same time. The unit itself should organize more technical competitions, or actively participate in professional skills competitions at all levels, which will help instructors improve their skills, increase knowledge, broaden their horizons, and enhance communication. Fourth, through various forms of organizational culture training to improve the instructors' sense of belonging, collective awareness, coordination awareness, service awareness and response ability.

3. The training content should be comprehensive. At present, the professional training of commentators can still be said to be in its infancy and immature. There is no good top-down training mechanism. It is up to each unit to explore its own experience. The author believes that its basic content should include: < /p>

The first is professional ethics, ideological and moral character. As "engineers of the human soul", commentators should have good ideological and moral character and be the first to set an example. First, we must cultivate the patriotism consciousness of the commentators, be able to clarify the political direction, and safeguard the interests and self-esteem of the country and the nation; secondly, we must train the commentators to study seriously, modelly abide by national laws and regulations and unit rules and regulations, be civilized, and model abide by social ethics. and professional ethics; thirdly, it is necessary to train the commentators to have the service concept of audience first and to actively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the audience; fourthly, to train the commentators to have a spirit of professionalism and dedication, a strong sense of professionalism and a high sense of responsibility, and a love for the audience. Emotional quality, able to serve the audience proactively, enthusiastically, patiently and meticulously.

The second is professional knowledge. The most essential feature of the art of explanation is the organic combination of knowledge and language. As a imparter of knowledge, instructors must actively learn and master all aspects of knowledge. First of all, you must be very familiar with the basic knowledge of cultural relics and museums, and master the background knowledge of the museum’s display contents and related exhibits. The second is to master and be familiar with basic social knowledge (astronomy and geography, historical materials and biographies, religious customs, etc.) and subject knowledge (linguistics, philosophy, economics, literature, art ethics, psychology, education, etc.). In addition, you must understand and master the basic laws, regulations, policies and current social trends related to museums or social development. As a foreign language commentator or a dumb language or dialect commentator, you should be familiar with the basic knowledge related to the language, folk customs and other knowledge.

The third is professional skills. First, we need to strengthen language training. The pronunciation should be standard and the language should be standardized; the language organization and expression skills should be strong, and the requirements of clear viewpoints, accurate content, concise and comprehensive, and complete system should be met; moreover, it should combine history and historical materials, pay attention to the rhythm of the tone, and pursue an explanation that is friendly and emotional. Effective, enhance attractiveness and appeal; different languages ??will be organized for various audiences of different professions, nationalities, ages, occupations, genders, and cultural levels. Those who are capable should try to master or be familiar with a foreign language. In particular, foreign language commentators, mute language and dialect commentators should use language flexibly and combine it with practical and effective expressions. In addition, training will be strengthened in aspects such as luck vocalization and voice protection, so that the commentators will have beautiful voice quality, clear enunciation, and loud voice.

Secondly, training in appearance, etiquette and etiquette should be strengthened. Familiar with the matching of clothing and appearance modification, you can learn the basic knowledge of makeup. The commentator's every move and smile will leave a deep impression on the audience. His behavior, use of gestures and use of the explanation stick must be standardized, timely and accurate, and his dealings with others must meet the requirements of etiquette. In addition, you must also be familiar with the basic characteristics and requirements of etiquette of different ethnic groups and countries. Third, being familiar with and participating in the writing of explanation words can improve the explanation's understanding of the display content and improve writing skills during the writing process. Fourth, the comprehensive ability of the guides can be cultivated in an all-round way. The guides who can sing and dance will help to promote the continuous provision of explanation services, and at the same time, they will also help the improvement of the commentators themselves.

In addition, it is necessary to train the commentators to be familiar with and handle emergencies such as sudden diseases and emergencies, and to be able to report to relevant departments within a valid time and handle or coordinate the handling. At the same time, as unit personnel, docents must be trained to be familiar with the unit's internal management rules and regulations, as well as basic conditions and career development ideas. Docents must participate in the form design, content design, and display layout of the display, and at the same time, they must actively participate in museology. and display theme research.

Of course, after each training, systems and methods should be established to test and assess the effects of training and learning, in order to promote the further improvement of instructors. In the process of acquired training and improvement, the instructors themselves must not only participate in more practical explanation activities, strengthen their own learning, and improve their theoretical cultivation level; they must also actively participate in various social activities, improve their ability to adapt to various environments, and train themselves to become all-rounders ; It is also necessary to strengthen physical training, participate in more physical training, and maintain a good public image in order to become an excellent commentator.