Adventure Tour Guiding/Activities/Tilden's Principles of Interpretation

Tilden's Principles of Interpretation

1. Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile.

2. Information, as such, is not interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based upon information. But they are entirely different things. However, all interpretation includes information.

3. Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts, whether the materials presented are scientific, historical, or architectural. Any art is in some degree teachable.

4. The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provaction.

5. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and must address itself to the whole man rather than any phase.

6. Interpretation addressed to children (say up to the age of twelve) should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach. To be at its best, it will require a separate programme.

Kathleen Regnier, Michael Gross and Ron Zimmerman. James Heintzman, Consulting Editor (1994) 3rd edition, The Interpreter's Guidebook: Techniques for Programs and Presentations, UW-SP Foundation Press, Inc, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, WI 54481