Art 312 Journal Reflections
In Design, Ecology, Ethics, and the Making of Things, Bill McDonough contends: “In this complicated world, prior modes of domination have essentially lost their ability to maintain control….The industrial idiom of design, failing to honor the principles of nature, can only violate them, producing waste and harm, regardless of purposed intention”. I thought this statement did a great job summarizing the theme of this article and pointing the reader in the proper direction. Art can and should be used in ways that allow for creativity and social liberation, at the same time, it should be used to adequately connect innovation within the structure of nature. In other words, design should include an astute measurement of its natural impact. As educators we must educate future students on this necessity and back up what we teach with our daily lives.
Elliott Eisner, who I recently found out writes and educates on more issues than art, in The Role of the Arts in Cognition and Curriculum makes a number of crucial points. Art in today’s society has a stigma as not being “intellectual” and has been relegated to being seen as strictly an “emotive” form of communication. Eisner calls these stereotypes into question and gives logical and substantive refutations of each of them. I focus here on the one that I think plays the most insidious role in modern education. Eisner says that “this view has created a dubious hierarchy among subjects taught in schools”. This is such the case in the Portland school districts that art is seen as extra or some type of adjunct to education; art has become a subject that the wealthy and advantaged participate in but unnecessary for an adequate education. This article is key in making plain the connections that cognition and art have which are equally as arduous as any other subject, including mathematics, and that “Education is the arts cultivates sensitive perception, develops insight, fosters imagination, and places a premium on well-crafted form”.
Nancy Lambert wrote a thought provoking article relating to critical thinking. This article is called Enhancing Critical Thinking and that’s exactly what she diagrams. I was especially impressed by the section Inquiry-Based Instruction. Lambert was clear that inquiry was an aid in the problem solving process of students from k-12 and through college. Students can benefit from this inquiry based instruction through every subject that they may be exposed to. At its base, this instruction or pedagogical approach to education has to do with prompting or asking students questions that encourage or lead them into deeper thought and critique. This includes putting past and present information together as well as learning how they distinct. In the field of art, I was taught that critical thinking applies and is necessary in the decision-making process. An advanced artist compares and contrasts art from different eras and genres which encourages an enhanced eye for their own production.
As far as the inquiry-based instruction, in detail, this is explicitly asking students “question stems”. Question stems are direct questions like what are the implications of…, explain your reasoning, explain why, and what are the dynamics of the counterargument. As Lambert says, “these questions facilitate higher order thinking by requiring students to reflect upon and reconcile various perspectives and solutions for open-ended and ill-structured problems”. When students answer questions like these they implant critical thinking into their memory. In other words, through a search or analysis, content becomes a part of the students thinking versus something that someone told to them. Certain traditional methods of teaching encourage students to “learn” material to past tests and then eject the memory of this information as soon as the test is over; inquiry-based instruction encourages students to make the information their own which encourages them to retain what they’ve learned.
Elliott Eisner, who I recently found out writes and educates on more issues than art, in The Role of the Arts in Cognition and Curriculum makes a number of crucial points. Art in today’s society has a stigma as not being “intellectual” and has been relegated to being seen as strictly an “emotive” form of communication. Eisner calls these stereotypes into question and gives logical and substantive refutations of each of them. I focus here on the one that I think plays the most insidious role in modern education. Eisner says that “this view has created a dubious hierarchy among subjects taught in schools”. This is such the case in the Portland school districts that art is seen as extra or some type of adjunct to education; art has become a subject that the wealthy and advantaged participate in but unnecessary for an adequate education. This article is key in making plain the connections that cognition and art have which are equally as arduous as any other subject, including mathematics, and that “Education is the arts cultivates sensitive perception, develops insight, fosters imagination, and places a premium on well-crafted form”.
Nancy Lambert wrote a thought provoking article relating to critical thinking. This article is called Enhancing Critical Thinking and that’s exactly what she diagrams. I was especially impressed by the section Inquiry-Based Instruction. Lambert was clear that inquiry was an aid in the problem solving process of students from k-12 and through college. Students can benefit from this inquiry based instruction through every subject that they may be exposed to. At its base, this instruction or pedagogical approach to education has to do with prompting or asking students questions that encourage or lead them into deeper thought and critique. This includes putting past and present information together as well as learning how they distinct. In the field of art, I was taught that critical thinking applies and is necessary in the decision-making process. An advanced artist compares and contrasts art from different eras and genres which encourages an enhanced eye for their own production.
As far as the inquiry-based instruction, in detail, this is explicitly asking students “question stems”. Question stems are direct questions like what are the implications of…, explain your reasoning, explain why, and what are the dynamics of the counterargument. As Lambert says, “these questions facilitate higher order thinking by requiring students to reflect upon and reconcile various perspectives and solutions for open-ended and ill-structured problems”. When students answer questions like these they implant critical thinking into their memory. In other words, through a search or analysis, content becomes a part of the students thinking versus something that someone told to them. Certain traditional methods of teaching encourage students to “learn” material to past tests and then eject the memory of this information as soon as the test is over; inquiry-based instruction encourages students to make the information their own which encourages them to retain what they’ve learned.
Posted by
at
17:26:47
