Before the expert begins

Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.

I was organising a public open day at the town waterworks, where an engineer was going to explain the old pumping machinery. Before she arrived, I placed replicas of three components on the tables: a leather valve, a brass gauge and a toothed wheel. I gave each group a card with spaces for material, marks and questions. The visitors examined the objects closely and wrote down what they noticed, including several details that I had not expected them to see.

I had originally planned to introduce the machinery in historical order. Instead, I asked the engineer to begin with the visitors' observations. She used their notes to explain why some surfaces were worn and how the components had worked together. The session became a conversation about the evidence in front of the visitors rather than a speech they simply listened to.

Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.

At a railway heritage open day, I was preparing a handling session about signalling equipment. The railway volunteer had a prepared account of the signal box, but I first gave each group an old ticket punch, a coloured lens and a metal lever. On a worksheet, the visitors recorded the shape, texture and visible signs of use, then wrote one question about each object. Several people compared their notes before the volunteer began.

She listened to the questions and changed the order of her explanation. She started with the lens because many visitors had noticed a mark across it, then demonstrated how the lever moved. Her prepared account still supplied the background, but the visitors' observations decided which details received most attention. People who had arrived expecting a talk were now helping to direct the session.

These extracts describe two public learning sessions.

What similarities are there in the ways the two sessions involve participants? Use evidence from both texts to support your answer.