A New Interpretive Pedagogy

Abstract

One of the most prominent debates related to interpretation lies in the approach that this informal education process takes—in essence its pedagogy. At its core, personal interpretation's goal is to make the visit a memorable and meaningful encounter. It is an approach that if done properly, may be difficult to master, but one, that ultimately would increase the –success” of interpretation and improve its perception among those in the field as well as those outside the profession. This paper proposes a new pedagogic approach that focuses on the visitor more than the interpretive program. The more that can be learned about the constituents increases the ability to offer information that correlates to their lives and has far more potential to result in long-term impacts desired by our field. The notion of this new interpretation is to devote time and effort in the interpretive experience to learning who the visitor is and with that information, offer a message that would best resonate with participants.