Our approach to learning

We believe that learning is about enabling and encouraging changes in knowledge, understanding, skills, behaviour and attitudes through inspiration, enjoyment, experience, enlightenment, and reflection.

Through our objects, venues staff and resources Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums does not seek only to educate people; it attempts to provide the conditions through which people can learn.

Learning is a catalyst for change and TWAM’s staff are passionate ‘challengers’, or ‘agents’, of that change. They employ active and inspiring approaches to ensure children, young people and adults can engage deeply with TWAM’s collections, incorporating new information to enhance their own previous knowledge to achieve a sense of wonder and a personal sense of understanding with the world around them.

TWAM promotes a 'deep learning' approach, integrating new learning activity within the wider experience and perspective of the learner. Our learning programmes might seek to engage the disengaged, creating interest points to encourage progression or consider the social aspects of the experience, allowing individuals to interact with others. Our approach to learning is not a linear process, but allows for the individual to take control and to direct their own learning.

Our approach aspires to embody the totality of museum engagement as a holistic experience and together with a reflective process encourages a continuous search for individual identity, meaning, understanding, and sense of place.