HERITAGE DISCOVERY TRAILS, 2011-2013

The informational cum active learning approach used in the trail is designed to inspire students to:


● ask critical questions
● think systemically 
● use their senses
● understand culture from an interdisciplinary perspective


Outcomes
Three thematic educational trails were developed by Arts-ED in collaboration with 12 trained volunteer guides. Each trail was custom-made for different age groups of students. The trails for primary children were shorter and centered in the vicinity of the GTWHI office, while the trail for the secondary students was longer and covered a larger area of the heritage site. 

● Stories of Early Settlers 2011
● Secret Society Trail 2011
● Taboos & Traditions 2011
● Migration History and Settlements of George Town (upgraded from a 2009 tour)

Supporting Archival Materials

 

Description of the 4 Heritage Trails, extracted from page 4 of Heritage Discovery Walk 2011 Report

 

Promotion and Execution of Trails

A centralised coordination unit was set up at GTWHI to promote and manage Heritage Discovery Trails for school students. This meant a dedicated officer from GTWHI handling promotion and coordination of school visits to the site, scheduling and payment of guides etc.

Once the trails were developed, the coordination unit obtained permission from the State Education Department for schools to participate in the walking tours. The trails were then promoted to all schools in Penang island and approximately 30 schools agreed to participate. Schools paid a token sum for the walks and this payment was channelled to the guides. In just over 3 months the program managed to reach a total of 1140 students.

The execution of the walks over the first 3 months in 2011 (approximately 60 walks) were treated as a pilot test for the newly developed trails. In 2012, the trail entitled Migration Settlements Walk (from 2009) was also upgraded and renamed ‘Cultural Heritage Trail: Migration History and Settlements of George Town’. An introductory slideshow on George Town in 3 languages was created and used as a prelude to the trails, to provide students with historical context for the trails. Improved versions of all 4 trails were offered to schools in Penang between March 2012 –March 2103.

Evaluation

Evaluation was a critical part of this programme, as it was set up to be a sustainable educational programme that would run long-term. The pilot tours conducted in 2011 were evaluated and the contents of the trails were upgraded based on this evaluation.

Guides who conducted the tours with students were also periodically assessed by experienced observers, who provided them with feedback on their presentation, and their management of content and students. It was discovered that while the best candidates for conducting student tours were professional guides, whose training strength lay in information-giving, they lacked skills in facilitating interactive activities.

The programme has since been outsourced to Arts-ED who continue to provide this service to the student population. However,  the number of walks has been reduced due to the organisations’ inability to provide a dedicated coordinating unit. An interesting development was that the guides who designed the walks felt a sense of ownership and still conduct the walks free of charge today (as of time of writing, i.e. 2019).

Supporting Archival Materials

Evaluator Report on Guide Training – extracted from Page 12 and 13 of Report for Friends of Goerge Town Heritage Training

Guide Training Curriculum – extracted from Page 6 and 7 of Report for Friends of George Town Heritage Training  

REFLECTION FROM PARTICIPANTS (Volunteer Guides)

Fidel Ho Fai Fong

Fidel was one of the volunteer guides who took part in the Friends of George Town Heritage, where she learnt to be a Trail Designer and facilitator guide. She recalled many brainstorming sessions during the training to develop the trail with guidance from
Arts-ED. There were also clashes of many different ideas. The agony of “back to square one” was an unavoidable part of the process. At the end, she learnt that there is no such thing as a perfect trail.

From the project, Fidel discovered her ability to work with people of different age groups, and that many refuse to accept the truth of what really happened in the past. Having school children participate in the designed trails allowed them to have the chance to learn history and heritage in a fun way. The community involved was also proud that their culture and heritage were being appreciated and used as a part of the learning process for younger generations.

Josephine Chan

Josephine noted that specific workshops were conducted during the Volunteer Guide training. Some of them were; tangible and intangible heritage, cross and mixed cultures, historical settlements, facilitation processes, and more. Other than brainstorming with group mates on objectives and learning outcomes of the heritage trails, they also had to do research and went on-site to establish the trails, as well as develop activity worksheets and training materials. Pilot studies were conducted to test the trails.

Josephine noted that it was very stressful yet rewarding to conduct the developed trail because the written flow and timing of the trails enabled cross-training of volunteers from other trails. She felt happy that the school children became more aware of the traditional customs that were passed down for generations. When they went to interview the local community, there was a noticible boost in their confidence while they also kept the local community engaged.

Through this project, she realised the importance of being open to constructive criticism and always have a give and take attitude, for there is always rooms for improvement.

Paul Gerarts

Paul noted that he was in a unique position, in that as an expatriate, he did not belong to any of the communities involved in the trails. He remarked that he was thankful for this project, and for the chance to get involved in local community projects.

Being interested in George Town as a heritage site, he signed up to learn more but things became more interesting for him when he was selected to participate in the volunteer guide training. It was a great learning platform, as he was exposed to more communities that were covered in the trails.

The project taught him that interactive trails could capture the interest of students. He recalled they had to come up with two different interactive stories which allowed students to go back in time and understand the early settlers. For each community, a booklet was designed with questions and tasks. At the end of the trail, participants had to do a compare and contrast of these two communities. They had to stick rigorously to the timing in supervising the participants to keep them going – it was hard work.

His two main takeaways were; how to properly manage a student group on a heritage trail, and the structured process he was taught to design a heritage trail. After his participation in the project, he used these skills and knowledge to design and conduct several heritage walks in both George Town, Penang and Kuching, Sarawak.