Have you ever visited a National Park or Monument? A National Historic Site? National Seashore? How about a National Battlefield? At any of these treasures of our American heritage, did you speak with a ranger at an information desk or kiosk or perhaps along a trail; attend a campfire program or a ranger-led walk; read a trail guide or roadside exhibit; watch an introductory video or slide program; peruse exhibits; or attend a living history program? If so, you have experienced the National Park Service's informal education methodology, called interpretation.
What is "Interpretation?"
The word Interpretation means many things. It can mean the translation of languages, perceptions about poems or novels, how a person feels about a historic building, or thinks about a scientific theory.
In the National Park Service (NPS), interpretation is the process of helping each park visitor find an opportunity to personally connect with a place. The goal of all interpretive services is to increase each visitor's enjoyment and understanding of the parks, and to allow visitors to care about the parks on their own terms.
Interpretation creates opportunities for audiences to forge their own intellectual and emotional connections to the meanings and significances inherent in park resources.
NPS Tenets of Interpretation:
- Resources possess meanings and have relevance.
Park resources act as icons for meanings
- Visitors are seeking something special, something of value for themselves.
Individuals find different value/meanings in the same resource
- Interpretation facilitates a connection between the interests of the visitor and the meanings of the resource.
The primary objective is to provide access to meanings
Connections involve moments of intellectual and/or emotional revelation, perception, insight or discovery related to the meanings of the resource
Connections are the bridge between information and meanings
Interpretive Development Program
The high quality of the Park Service's informal education effort is no accident. Through their distributed professional development program called the Interpretive Development Program (IDP), the Park Service maintains and improves professionalism in interpretation. Conceived, reviewed, and refined by over 300 field interpreters, the IDP enables employees to demonstrate interpretation at a national standard.
The IDP encourages the stewardship of park resources by facilitating meaningful, memorable visitor experiences. The program is based on the philosophy that people will care for what they first care about. This is accomplished by aiming for the highest standards of professionalism in interpretation.
The IDP identifies essential "Benchmark Competencies" (knowledge, skills, and abilities) for every interpretive ranger. These competencies represent the NPS' national standards for interpretation in ten areas of interpretive work. They stand as a goal to foster interpretive excellence nationwide in NPS areas, at every stage of an employee's career. The national standard rubric for each competency is used by peer review certifiers in measuring whether a specific product demonstrates the elements of success in that area. Training leading to competency may be achieved in part by working through the IDP modules. The entire curriculum is available on-line, free to anyone interested in learning more about professional interpretation at http://www.nps.gov/idp/interp/index.htm
The IDP provides...
- NPS mission-based training and development curriculum
- Field-developed national standards for interpretive effectiveness
- Peer review certification program
- Developmental tools and resources