Thesis Research questions: How can we create an environment in the art classroom that encourages student opinion and welcomes self-expression while maintaining educational purpose and the necessary level of structure? How can effective critique strategies, reflective learning and different types of assessment, both by the teacher and by the student artist themselves, lead to deeper understanding and a higher degree of critical thinking in K-12 students? Can a teacher instill a climate of critical thinking in the classroom through teaching effective critique? With effective teaching strategies for reflective learning, the encouragement of art dialogue in the classroom and the creation of a constructive atmosphere for critique, do students learn more about themselves and their abilities through their art-making?
Bingham et al., report that self-assessments can play a powerful role in developing a child's motivation and achievement by requiring students to think carefully about what they have learned and how they learn and to develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. They conclude that students who engage in the productive practice of self-assessment inevitably strengthen their own learning and development.
Bingham, G., Holbrook, T., and Meyers, L., (2010). Using Self-Assessment in Elementary Classrooms. Phi Delta Kappen, 91 (5) 59-62.
According to John B. Bond, a school administrator in his journal article on the Forum on Public Policy titled Reflective assessment: Including students in the assessment process (2010), a seamlessness needs to exist between teaching, learning, and assessment through which students are empowered to take increased responsibility for their learning.
Bond, J. (2010). Reflective Assessment: Including Students in the Assessment Process. Forum on Public Policy Online, Vol 2010, (5). Accessed from http://www.forumonpublicpolicy.com/archivesum07/bond.pdf (May 2012).
Taunton asserts that the challenge becomes how to create an environment in the art classroom that is friendly to student opinion and welcomes self-expression while maintaining educational purpose. She notes that often teachers don't know how to design learning activities that are open-ended or a classroom culture that is open to student opinion, leading to a lack of structure in the art classroom. It is Zander’s observation that teachers are often afraid that if they encourage discussion, students will get out of control or will use this as an opportunity to ramble meaninglessly.
Taunton, M. (1984). Reflective Dialogue in the Art Classroom: Focusing on the Art Process, Art Education, Vol. 37, No. 1, National Art Education Association.
Zander, M.J. (2003, Winter). Studies in art education, Art education, 44 (2) pp. 117-134.
Zander, M.J. (2004, May). Becoming dialogical: Creating a place for dialogue in art education, Art education, 57 (3) 51.
Cunliffe maintains that cognitive resources like language, knowledge and skills only serve to answer the “know how” or “know what” questions. He asserts that an ideal learning environment must also facilitate the “know why” question. He writes that the “know why” question is “a meta-cognitive resource” which helps the student know how best to deploy the content learned from the “know what” and “know how” questions. Cunliffe’s point of view is that it would be useless to have a fine set of tools without knowing how to use them properly, or to have to rely on others to give directions each time someone wanted to use them correctly.
Cunliffe, L..(2007). Using assessment in knowledge-rich forms of learning and cCreativity to nNurture sSelf-rRegulated sStrategic iIntelligence. (2007). IT. n T. Rayment (ed.) The problem of assessment in art and design, Bristol: Intellect Books.
Bingham et al., report that self-assessments can play a powerful role in developing a child's motivation and achievement by requiring students to think carefully about what they have learned and how they learn and to develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. They conclude that students who engage in the productive practice of self-assessment inevitably strengthen their own learning and development.
Bingham, G., Holbrook, T., and Meyers, L., (2010). Using Self-Assessment in Elementary Classrooms. Phi Delta Kappen, 91 (5) 59-62.
According to John B. Bond, a school administrator in his journal article on the Forum on Public Policy titled Reflective assessment: Including students in the assessment process (2010), a seamlessness needs to exist between teaching, learning, and assessment through which students are empowered to take increased responsibility for their learning.
Bond, J. (2010). Reflective Assessment: Including Students in the Assessment Process. Forum on Public Policy Online, Vol 2010, (5). Accessed from http://www.forumonpublicpolicy.com/archivesum07/bond.pdf (May 2012).
Taunton asserts that the challenge becomes how to create an environment in the art classroom that is friendly to student opinion and welcomes self-expression while maintaining educational purpose. She notes that often teachers don't know how to design learning activities that are open-ended or a classroom culture that is open to student opinion, leading to a lack of structure in the art classroom. It is Zander’s observation that teachers are often afraid that if they encourage discussion, students will get out of control or will use this as an opportunity to ramble meaninglessly.
Taunton, M. (1984). Reflective Dialogue in the Art Classroom: Focusing on the Art Process, Art Education, Vol. 37, No. 1, National Art Education Association.
Zander, M.J. (2003, Winter). Studies in art education, Art education, 44 (2) pp. 117-134.
Zander, M.J. (2004, May). Becoming dialogical: Creating a place for dialogue in art education, Art education, 57 (3) 51.
Cunliffe maintains that cognitive resources like language, knowledge and skills only serve to answer the “know how” or “know what” questions. He asserts that an ideal learning environment must also facilitate the “know why” question. He writes that the “know why” question is “a meta-cognitive resource” which helps the student know how best to deploy the content learned from the “know what” and “know how” questions. Cunliffe’s point of view is that it would be useless to have a fine set of tools without knowing how to use them properly, or to have to rely on others to give directions each time someone wanted to use them correctly.
Cunliffe, L..(2007). Using assessment in knowledge-rich forms of learning and cCreativity to nNurture sSelf-rRegulated sStrategic iIntelligence. (2007). IT. n T. Rayment (ed.) The problem of assessment in art and design, Bristol: Intellect Books.