Home

Student sat around a table. One of the students is writing on some paper.

Welcome to Inspiring Learning

A self-help improvement framework for museums, libraries and archives

Inspiring Learning supports you to

  • Assess your strengths and plan improvements
  • Provide evidence of the impact of your activities through the generic learning and generic social outcomes
  • Improve your strategic and operational performance 

Inspiring Learning has been used successfully by many organisations including the BBC, English Heritage and Tate.

Planning and assessment tool

People, Places, Partnerships, Policies

A framework that supports you to review and improve performance. It can help develop more effective learning opportunities and create learning environments by

  • Helping to understand how to achieve best practice in supporting learning
  • Helping to identify how your museum, library or archive supports learning
  • Helping to plan and develop effective learning partnerships with other teams and organisations  

Find out more

How we define
learning

Inspiring learning is built on a broad and inclusive definition of learning. We believe that learning

  • Is a process of active engagement with experience
  • Is what people do when they want to make sense of the world
  • Can include the development of skills, knowledge, understanding, values, ideas or feelings

Find out more

Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs)

There are five Generic Learning Outcomes which

  • Describe what and how people learn in museums, libraries and archives
  • Help you to identify and evidence the benefits for people of taking part in museum, library and archive activities
  • Have a proven track record of measuring outcomes

Find out more

Generic Social Outcomes (GSOs)

There are three Generic Social Outcomes which

  • Demonstrate how museums, libraries and archives support wider community benefits
  • Demonstrate a contribution to social cohesion, health and well-being

Find out more

Inspiring Learning tools and templates

Lots of useful downloads including

  • Action planning templates
  • Guide to selecting research methods
  • Question bank to create and customise your surveys 

More tools and resources

Alignment to other frameworks

Inspiring Learning can be aligned to key policy priorities including

  • The Every Child Matters outcomes
  • The statutory aims of the curriculum
  • Personal, learning and thinking skills framework
  • The core principles of informal adult learning

More about aligning frameworks

You may have found us by using the following keywords or phrases: 4Ps, Action planning, Analyse data, Archives or archive, Best Practice, Case studies, Checklist, Coding data, Cultural sector, Evaluation methods, Evaluation tools, Every Child Matters, Four Ps, Framework, Funding, Generic Learning Outcomes, Generic Social Outcomes, GLOs, GSOs, Health and well-being, Improving performance, Inspiring learning, Inspiring learning for all, Learning, Learning organisation, Learning style, Libraries or library, Measuring impact, Measuring learning, MLA, Museum, Libraries and Archives Council, Museums or museum, Partnership, Performance, Promoting learning, Questionnaires, Research methods, Research tools, Service development, Service improvement, Social cohesion, Success stories, Toolkit, Wider Benefits of Learning