On Thursday our class broke into groups of five to discuss the readings we did for homework. Each person in the group had read a different article written by a contemporary advocate for new methods on art education. Some of these authors included: Barrett, Darts, Eisner, Marshall and Stephens. Each article expressed the respective opinions and methods of teaching visual arts from each individual author. My article was written by Julia Marshall in 2006, and focused mainly on Substantive Art Integration. She also discussed the importance of Contemporary Art, Art as Research, the Cognitive Theory, Art Education Principles along with an example of a successful set of lesson plans.
When we assembled as a group we wanted to share what we learned from our articles. In order to get our new knowledge out in a somewhat organized manner, we made a flow chart with all of our ideas and information. Our class as a whole came up with five major aspects of art education that we would then list our authors opinions and experiences under; 1. Teacher's Actions 2. Contextual Environment 3. Student Development 4. Ongoing Processes 5. Student Actions. Some of our information fell under more than one category, which helped bring everyone's ideas together really nicely. We also included some of our own opinions on art education and they were listed under those subtitles as well.
Some important things I remembered from our Contemporary Art Education flowchart were:
1. The importance of contemporary art and things happening in the art world today. Children should be taught about what is happening around them, perhaps even influenced by what art is being made today and how it is being done. I added and others agreed that the study of more classical art is also important for students.
2. Teachers cannot forget about where they are teaching and how that affects the classroom and the students. Geographical location, culture, language, the community and its economic status are just some of the factors that affect an art teacher and his/her students tremendously. Several authors pointed out the importance in bringing culture into art and the teaching of it.
3. Integrating art into other areas and subjects of teaching has been a very successful tool that helps students understand what they are learning in the classroom and then personalize it and turn it into lasting knowledge.
4. Similarly, some of the authors discussed how it is important for art teachers to bring other subject areas into their lessons and assignments. Art Integration is a growing method that teachers of all ages and disciplines should be using based on its successful results.
5. We also discussed how teachers must always remember the "realities" of being an art teacher. There will always be time constraints, monetary problems or obstacles, and relationships to be formed between other teachers and their students. These realities must always be remembered when making lesson plans and in the classroom itself.
6. When making lesson plans, building off of prior lessons is a great way for students to remember past lectures while also learning new things, making connections between different things they have learned, and remembering these lessons for the long term, not just for the next exam or project. That is one of the most memorable things I will take from this discussion because I think it is super important for students to actually be learning in schools, not just learning things for tests and forgetting it all a few weeks or months later.
These are just some of the things I remember from our flow chart, but there were many others. We did not have a chance to finish our group-work so not everyone was able to fully explain their articles to the full extent. Regardless, we definitely learned a lot about contemporary art education and many different authors/teachers methods and approaches to teaching visual arts in today's changing world.
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