TAM 2024 Pre-Conference Workshop | Evaluative Thinking
Event Details
Evaluative Thinking
Sunday, April 14, 2024
10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Evaluative thinking is a cognitive and analytical process that involves systematically assessing, analyzing, and reflecting on information, data, or experiences to make informed judgments, decisions, or improvements.
What does that even mean???
It means being curious and asking why and then why again. It means being open about knowing what you don’t know. It means uncovering and questioning your assumptions. It means actively seeking the voices of those outside of your institution. Then it means finding some answers! By talking, listening, adapting, and iterating. By going into the community and inviting the community in. Evaluative thinking means using that information to inform the design, story, and goals of your programs and exhibitions. And then wondering if you met your outcomes. And how your work impacted your visitors and community. Evaluative thinking means all of that and then it means starting all over again with your next musing.
This workshop asks attendees to consider what questions you have about your programs, exhibitions, and institutions. What do you want to uncover? What do think you already know? What questions do you still have? Where can you go to find that information? And most importantly, what do you do with it when you get it?
This workshop offers complimentary coffee, water, and lunch.
This workshop is Sponsored by the Texas Historical Commission.
Speakers
Laureen Trainer
Principal
Trainer Evaluation
Denver-based consultant Laureen Trainer has more than 20 years of experience in the museum and informal learning field. She was the Principal Investigator on the IMLS 21st Century Museum Professionals grant, Building the Evaluation Capacity of Museum Professionals awarded to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
An Adjunct Faculty at the University of Denver, she teaches Audience Research & Program Evaluation. She co-edited the Spring 2015 issue of the Journal of Museum Education, Empowering Museum Educators to Evaluate, and was lead author of Uncovering Visitor Identity, and What is Your Museum’s Economic Footprint. She currently leads the AAM’s blog, “Essential Evaluators."
Inez Wolins
Assistant Deputy Executive Director of Historic Sites
Texas Historical Commission
Inez Wolins has been affiliated with Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, CM Russell Museum, and the Autry Museum of the American West, among others. She was Chief of Interpretation and Education with the National Park Service overseeing 16 historic sites along Boston’s Freedom Trail.
She held joint appointments at Drexel University, and Bank Street College of Education, and led Interpretive Master Plans and Management Assessments for Gettysburg NMP, Eisenhower NHS, Workman and Temple Homestead Museum, New York Historical Society, and Pecos NHP. Wolins has authored close to 40 journal articles and book chapters about the role of community engagement, education, and visitor experience.