The teacher as tour guide...

As a teacher, I believe that my role is not to be the centre of attention: instead, it is to stand to the side of the ideas. In this way, my pedagogy is best described as "the act of pointing to the artworks". One does not require a tour guide to experience an exhibition, but a tour guide can certainly make it more meaningful. A tour guide can do many things: explain some hidden aspect in the artwork that is not immediately observable, provide enlightening or helpful history about the provenance or the artist, or point out connections between artworks. A tour guide can greatly enhance the depth of a person's experience with the exhibition: s/he can explain, extrapolate, contextualise, reframe, empathise, ask pertinent questions and encourage participants in the tour group to explore interesting or tangential ideas connected to the artworks.

I believe that a good tour guide experiences the exhibition along with the group, being emotionally present, experiencing wonder and delight at the artworks even if they have seen them many times before. The tour guide, however, is not the primary focus: ideally, people do not leave the Chicago Art Institute focussed on their tour guide's level of skill (although this can be helpful). Instead, their reflections on the exhibition are generally centred around how moving - and perhaps even transforming - it was to experience the Chagal windows.

My personal teaching philosophy | Melinda Thambi

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