Learning to Teach Art and Design in the Secondary School - Second edition
Chapter 3 - Learning in art and design education - Nicholas Addison and Lesley Burgess, with Victoria Kinsella and Dean Kenning
Aims for the reading are to: • understand the rationale for different pedagogic methods and their potential to support learning; • apply conceptual frameworks to focus classroom observation and inform lesson planning; • take into account how pupils’ prior experience affects the way they learn.
Key:
SoWs - Schemes of Work
ZPD - Zone of Proximal Development
MKO - More Knowledgeable Other
Definition of what it means to teach -
'...a social process or set of practices through which students learn valued knowledge and skills with the guidance of experienced adults; teaching is the means not the end.' (21)
- focus on learning as a process, as well as the ways in which young people respond to different teaching strategies in the context of formal education.
Definition of what it means to learn -
'...learning is a social process through which people make meaning from experience, and develop an understanding of the cultural tools with which they can transform their environment.' (22)
- A useful and encouraging definition which encourages the potential of change. - every child is born to make a difference, through education a child is equipped with the tools to make that difference.
Mulitsensory learning -
Children are very affected by their immediate environment, so learning best takes place within an environment that stimulates their senses.
Construction of knowledge rather than acquisition of knowledge -
Because we are cultural beings '...we are not solely instinctive and reactive creatures, rather we use tools to mediate our experience of the physical and social environment and thus construct rather than acquire knowledge.' (22)
-As a teacher, I should use cultural tools to help construct knowledge. This allows children to slowly build up knowledge, rather than expecting them to soak up the lesson material.
Contextualisation of this statement - 'It is vital to remember this fundamental human property because art, craft and design is the making of the physical environment, a process which also contributes to the technological, symbolic and affective structures through which we feel and make meaning.' (22)
The troubles of behavioural approaches -
The behaviourist school of educational thought advocates that students can be trained to respond in predictable ways. (Pavlov's dog). 'Behaviourist procedures are often used for strategic reasons, enabling pupils to meet attainment targets that have little significance for how they live their lives' (23)
- Thus resulting in short term achievement or 'Surface learning', but disqualifying opportunity for deep understanding.
- despite this, iterative processes are necessary in art and design to achieve mastery through practice.
How to facilitate deep learning instead -
'if you wish to establish conditions in the classroom that provoke interest, pleasure and surprise (states of being that could be described as behaviours) you will engage your students more readily in learning, constructing a positive ‘affective economy’ (Ahmed 2004)'.(23)
Bordieu's habitus -
Upbringing naturalises local knowledge so that it appears to be common sense. It is these Common-sense beliefs that Bordieu calls 'habitus' (1993)
- It is important therefore to discover the ways in which your students have learned to think/talk about and make art outside of schooling and in which contexts.
Acknowledgement of the mind -
Art And design incorporates modes of learning that may appear marginalised in other parts of the curriculum which are arguably just as significant, especially within creative subjects.
The subject is not just about producing art, but encourages symbolic practices through which different social and cultural values are communicated, and attitudes formed and reproduced.
Before you begin to design learning activities for art and design, it is important to consider the range of pedagogic methods and strategies that you can draw on. (26)
Category One - Didactic & Heuristic
- Use a balance of Didactic and Heuristic tasks to sufficiently support all pupils.
-Didactic is commonly direct teaching, whereas Heuristic is commonly where a student discovers learning by themselves.
To simplify:
- Passive Didactic lessons could look like: a lecture where the student is fully dependent on the teacher. This can be good as the outcomes are defined for everyone and encourages students to become receptive, observe, listen and make notes. However its drawbacks are that students can become dependent on being spoon-fed information, understanding may only be surface level, and teaching is not receptive to each child's individual understanding.
- Responsive Directed lessons could look like: imitating established activities, such as a still life or an imitation of an artist's work. Here the teacher trains and resources the pupil to respond to an activity. This can be good as work can be easily assessed and provides common experience of skills however potential knowledge is dependent on the teacher's experience.
To simplify:
- Active & Experiential Negotiated lessons could look like: Collaborative tasks that are discussed/debated. Here the pupil contributes and the teacher facilitates this lesson. This encourages critical thinking, acknowledges prior knowledge and individual needs and enables students to communicate. However, it is time consuming, difficult to monitor and relinquishes a degree of control.
- Heuristic & Engaging Co-constructed lessons could look like: encouraging experimentation and discovery, where the student must be self- motivated and the teacher co-ordinates the class. This encourages planning skills and individual application of knowledge, however these lessons are difficult to resource and pupils need to be ready take the initiative.
- Open Pupil-led lessons are similar to Heuristic and engaging lessons, however without the established structures. These often feel chaotic and unfocussed.
Supporting strategies for learning in a SEN classroom:
- Warnock (1978) suggests it is pupils’ needs, not their disabilities, that should be identified when differentiating strategies for learning. (26)
Category Two - Visual & Haptic
Visual learning - categorised by the observer who learns about things from their appearances.
Haptic learning - categorised by utilisation of muscular sensations, impressions of touch and experiences of the self. (Lowenfeld & Brittain,1987)
Lowenfeld believes that mental growth is only possible if pupils are allowed to interact with their environment on a sensuous level and warns that 'art and design teaching can privilege the analytical and visual at the expense of the emotional and haptic.'(29)
Although nobody is exclusively visual or Haptic, SoWs and the way they are assessed may isolate and promote activities that prioritise one or more of these characteristics.
To accommodate all pupils, lessons should build in changes of activity that address the two modes and provide open routes so that pupils can choose the most appropriate mode.
Category Three - Syncreticism & Analytical
'The child’s more primitive syncretistic vision does not, as the adult’s does, differentiate abstract details . . . This gives the younger artist the freedom to distort colour and shapes in the most imaginative, and, to us, unrealistic manner.' (Ehrenzweig, 1967)
'...anyone can retrieve their syncretistic facility, but usually in situations where analytical processes are bypassed.'(33) The example given is as in humour, whereby the distortion of caricature art is accessed through a more childish mode of expression.
When a child states that they cannot draw, what they truly mean to express is that they cannot draw in a particular way, undoubtedly the students may be aware of older students work and in comparison feel intimidated by their lack of technical and imitative skill.
Matthews 1999 and Atkinson 2000 recognise that these younger pupils here demonstrate syncretic semiotic modes to express themselves and make meaning. moving beyond the orthodox opinion that development can only be measured by a steady march towards realism. This recognition has major implications for assessment, but I digress.
It is important for you to consider the implications of the change from syncretistic to analytical perception for your planning and teaching in general, but also for supporting younger pupils. (33).
The art and design curriculum frequently privileges the analytical modes of production above the affective and emotional modes. I myself, find a lot more value in analytically produced works, especially in regards to education and preparing students for professional life. I believe that analytical works can still create immensely affective and emotional artworks, yet the difference I would identify would be the intention of creating that response.
Activity theory
Defining the classroom as a Zone for proximal development (ZPD).
This Zone defines the difference between what a learner can do by themself and what they can do with the help of an MKO.
The MKO is usually the teacher - the adult who scaffolds the learning, however it may be other students if the lesson is in a specialised field. (35) (Vygotsky)
Engström suggests the following model to apply activity theory to the design of learning activities. This enables a wholistic view of the frameworks that might affect a child's learning and production of artworks:
By examining each component of an activity like this, and weighing the interconnections, we can better identify possible contradictions which may disrupt teaching and learning.
Engström identified these contradictions as 'aggravations'.
When constructing an activity, consider the following:
Activity - what sort of activity do you want to plan? and how does this fit into your greater scheme of work?
Objective - What is the aim of the activity? why complete this now?
Subjects - Who is involved in carrying out the activity?
Tools - What resources & mediating artefacts are in place that are needed to facilitate the activity.
Rules - Are there any rules that might affect the completion or planning of the activity?
Divisions of labour - How will you organise roles in the activity?
Outcome - What is the desired outcome of the activity? How will learners know when they have completed this? What feedback will be offered?
Limitations of activity learning:
- 'However, doing is not everything. It is wrong to assume that because pupils are busy they are learning something, they may only be reinforcing existing knowledge: activity is not active learning.' - (36).
- 'You should not spoon-feed pupils with ready-made formulae because this can repress their personal interests and inhibit their motivations. Instead, you must find ways to encourage them to take on increasing responsibility for their learning.' (37)
Experiential learning
Learning by doing is often the definition given for 'Experiential learning' - which can be defined as:
'Learning by doing', but more specifically the term describes learning as a reflexive activity, where action and reflection are coexistent, both interdependent and interactive and where pupils are engaged actively in their own learning.
In reference to experiential learning, Kolb's learning cycle is the most commonly cited framework:
The steps in this cycle may not always be distinctly articulated, but it still acts as a useful resource as a teacher in order to articulate what is necessary for them to achieve a demonstration of learning.
In other words, These steps can be defined as the phases of completing an art project.
1 - Conceptualisation - call to respond to abstract ideas
2 - Experimentation - test and push the boundaries of skill, knowledge and material
3 - Production - produce artwork
4 - Reflection - analyse the successes and shortfalls of the work, and identify inspiration for future concepts.
Affect and Aesthetic
Aesthetic experience can be defined as:
The way in which all experience is mediated through the body, to the multi-sensory, affective and perpetual process by which we engage the world (Abbs 1987).
Affect
Affect can be defined as:
The shift in aesthetic experience, caused by the energies that pass between people and their environment. This is significant therefore, for pedagogical practice as it describes a mode of attention and motivation for focus.
Although affect seems immediate and fleeting, it can be accumulated throughout childhood in culture, environment and customs.
Given the variety of its effects, this term is difficult to pin down holistically.
- I wonder, if like 'creativity' this word isn't sufficient for academic dialogue due to its ill defined boundaries. As a word, i think it is suitable, but trying to push it to an abstract concept seems unimportant.
To help navigate the complexities of affect, Tomkins (2008) suggests a taxonomy of affect, which consists of nine basic types, some defined by two terms to suggest either end of a continuum of intensity:
Positive affects:
- 'Interest & Excitement' - 'Pleasure & Joy'
Neutral affects:
- 'Surprise & Startle'
Negative affects
- 'Fear & Terror' - 'Distress & Anguish' - 'Anger & Rage' - 'Disgust' - 'Dismell' - 'Shame & Humiliation'
Sensory Awareness - (The multisensory classroom notes will be highlighted in blue)
'Art and design activities are particularly appropriate for developing sensory awareness and an understanding of how the affective potential of materials can be harnessed in conjunction with symbolic and semiotic systems to make objects and events of use, beauty and affective energy' -
Aesthetic learning in art and design is therefore a way to ensure that pupils retain a way of understanding the world that refutes the mind/body split of the logocentric curriculum. (48)
Motivation
Understanding motivation is essential for understanding how to inspire engagement in the classroom.
For Freud, motivation was 'conditioned by the tension between the primary, innate drives of survival (e.g. hunger, sex and communication) and the secondary, rational processes of the ego, which modify instinct in relation to social and cultural conventions.' (49)
Behaviourists hold that motivation is an internal reaction to external stimuli, which provokes patterns of behaviour.
Cognitive psychology recognises the social environment as a constructive element, but emphasises learning through the interactions that freud describes.
Capel et al (2013) suggests the following ways in which to apply these theories in order to motivate students:
differentiate individual needs to promote personalised learning;
create a safe environment in which risk can take place;
infect through your enthusiasm;
communicate your high expectations to pupils;
recognise pupils’ interests;
enable pupils to share and take ownership of ideas;
develop critical reflection so that pupils themselves can effect change;
develop pupils’ competence in subject specific and transferable skills;
provide pupils with constructive feedback;
acknowledge successful learning through praise and positive reinforcement;
catch pupils doing things right;
recognise the significance of self and peer-group esteem;
allow for the possibility of pleasure.
Value of language in the classroom -
For Vygotsky (1986), It is co-operation that is the foundation of successful learning , which is enabled through communication. He believes that children solve practical tasks with the help of their speech as well as their eyes and hands.
Subservience of art & design as justification -
Eisner (1998) has pointed out, there is a danger here that art and design is being coerced into serving other subjects. He warns teachers against the temptation to defend the subject in ways that indicate its subservience to core skills.
Should art as a school subject be defended as its ability to bleed into and support other 'core' subjects? or perhaps championed for its encouragement to enable change and reform? - How should we meet the question 'Why is this subject worth my child's time?'? and why is the support of other subjects through versatile skills seen negatively as 'subservience' and not positively as encouraging a holistic education?
Question categorisations -
Another tool we can use in the classroom is choosing which classification of question will best encourage learning. Capel et al (2013) defines the following categorisations for questions:
Open: open to experience and interpretation, e.g. ‘How do you think women are represented in advertising?’
Closed: there is only one answer, often factual, e.g. ‘What material is this sculpture made from?’
Pseudo: there is only one answer and it is known to the questioner, e.g. ‘What is my name?’
Framed: open to interpretation within a given framework, e.g. ‘Among the contemporary craft we have investigated, which artefact bridges the fine/applied art divide most effectively?’
A mix of these questions should be utilised to encourage both readiness to answer, openness to share personal experience and critical thought.
Associative, automatic and chance processes -
Using automatic processes is an immediate and accessible way to motivate pupils, especially those who feel insecure in their technical abilities.
This starts the process and immediately vanquishes the common enemy of the blank page. 'Even as controlled an artist as Degas is said to have been frightened by fresh sheets of paper, and he would stain them with coffee grounds before beginning a drawing.' (68)
- This process is not so much a nihilistic expression as in dadaism, but more of freeing the imagination to inspire analytical processes as in surrealism.
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