Teaching Art or Teaching to Think Like an Artist
Cindy Foley, Executive Assistant Manager and Director of Learning and Experience at Columbus Museum of Art, talks on Instruction Fine art, or Didactics to Think similar an Artist? at TEDxColumbus. Below is the full transcript.
Listen to the MP3 Sound here: Teaching art or teaching to call back like an artist by Cindy Foley at TEDxColumbus
TRANSCRIPT:
Okay. Nosotros're going to go started with some kindergarten epitome-word match. I would similar each of you to determine what is the give-and-take that matches the image in number 7. Okay? So starting to come up upwardly with some ideas. Practiced. Become them in your head because I want to share with you lot what my daughter Adeline chose.
Adeline chose art and every bit her parent I thought that was crawly. Simply this is an incorrect answer according to the testing guide. The right answer is mud and I'm sure that's what yous all chose. Right, right.
How can something and then nebulous be so concrete? Actually I think this quiz is a plumbing fixtures analogy for the problem in art education today. Art education has been impacted by the standards and testing culture like all other disciples and in a lot of ways we've been focusing on instruction things that are concrete. Things like elements of fine art, art history and foundational skills.
In essence, nosotros're teaching things that we tin can test and assess. Merely I believe art education needs to focus on developing learners that think like artists. Learners that are artistic, curious, seek questions, develop ideas and play, which ways nosotros need to be much more intentional virtually how we communicate art's critical value and how we teach for inventiveness.
So, creativity. Let'due south practice a petty instance making around this. Most of this you lot know. And so inventiveness is being touted by business leaders like the folks at IBM, by similar educational reformists, past folks in — economists similar even Dan Pinkish as the number one matter nosotros need for students' success, economic growth and general happiness. Nosotros also know the creativity scores in this land are on the decline. The Torrance Inventiveness Test, which has been administered for decades, has now shown since the 1990's a decline especially in ages 6 to 12 in the Us.
We as well know due to Sir Kenneth Robinson's now famous TED talk the schools are fundamentally and foundationally challenged to cultivate inventiveness. But I'm going to share with you lot some research that the Wallace Foundation did with Harvard'south Project Zero in which they constitute the number one thing quality art instruction tin can practice is develop the capacity to call back creatively and the capacity to make connections.
So and so why is there such a disconnect between creativity and art education? I call up there is really a couple of reasons why. But nosotros're going to focus on advice and messaging. Now those of united states of america in the field we have been working to actually motion fine art education out of a defensive place. Nosotros've been trying to brand a instance for our ain existence and we're trying to motility it more towards an offensive message especially around inventiveness. But nosotros're non there yet.
And so we're going to identify that for another talk at some other time. Instead I desire to focus on a message that I call up is much more problematic and pervasive — and I detest to put you on the spot — they really experience you are to blame. I mean not yous per se but y'all as a grouping of people who actually really support art pedagogy.
So allow me give you some context. As a parent, I often hear adults saying things to children besides as to other adults and to the educators, things like this: "Oh my goodness! Look how well you've drawn that horse. It'south so realistic. You're so artistic!" You've heard messages like that earlier?
Here is another one I call back I hear most daily: "Oh Cindy! I really support art education. It is very important. I mean I'm non creative. I don't have a artistic bone in my body. I can't fifty-fifty draw a stick figure." Right? These messages are incredibly problematic and the more – you may not recollect they are a big deal — but the more lodge pushes them out and society continues to foster these cliché notions of what is creativity the harder it is for those in the field like me to begin moving towards pedagogy for creativity.
Okay. Pedagogy for inventiveness. What do I mean past that? I believe teaching for creativity is embodying the habits the artists employ. Habits, in item there are 3 that I think are essential to creativity. They are: one) comfort with ambiguity; 2) thought generation; and 3) transdisciplinary research. We're going to talk nearly those in a moment. But first we're going to do a little audience participation.
I would like each of you to utilize something on your person, paper, pencil, your programme, telephone, glasses – information technology doesn't matter. And I'd like you – you lot're merely going to get a couple of minutes, to really create something that represents the idea of metaphor. Become alee.
[Noises in the audition]
All right. Be honest. How many of you lot had a surge of panic when I merely asked you to do that. I desire you to bask that sensation. Yous actually are off the hook. But I desire yous to savor that sensation for a moment. What you just experienced is I recall the number one obstacle to creative work. That discomfort, that discomfort is ambiguity. It's 'not knowing'. I actually learned this from a group of teachers. We'd been working with them and they told u.s.a.: "You know what, we notice information technology it's really difficult to engage our students in creative work in particular open up-ended projects. It just makes information technology really difficult."
Ironically enough, afterward that afternoon nosotros had that same grouping of teachers and we gave them a challenge similar to the i I just gave you. Interestingly enough, almost immediately, a couple of them appear they needed to leave for the 24-hour interval. Another grouping needed a intermission at that moment and all the same others stayed in the classroom merely refused to participate in the action.
What nosotros realized is students struggle with ambiguity because we all do. Now artists, on the other paw, realize that ambiguity is part of the procedure. They have it, they place it, and they tackle it head on. Then if artists are doing this, can't you imagine if art pedagogy was a place where nosotros knew students could get to prepare for lives of not knowing?
I work at the Columbus Museum of Art and for years at present we provided the kind of art education that our community requested. So for instance, when we had an exhibition of the work of Claude Monet, we taught well-nigh his history, nosotros immune folks to experiment with his materials and his process. And then nosotros finally would create lesson plans and let others to do the aforementioned.
In essence what nosotros were doing was generating content and allowing folks to make mini-Monets. But and then it dawned on u.s. nosotros were not actually engaging them in what fabricated Monet Monet. And that was the manner he thought. Monet'southward ideas were revolutionary. He questioned the natural world, the way we see. He questioned the politics of the fourth dimension. And that's what fabricated his work and then exceptional. It was at this moment we realized we needed to be pedagogy for idea generation.
So I'm going to have you spring with me now from i artist to some other. The Lego picture show gave us such a souvenir when they presented the pic this summer. More or less, what they said was inventiveness is not the Lego child in the direction booklet but creativity is the bucket of Legos and the potential for ideas within. Legos are merely some other material similar drawing materials to assistance united states make ideas manifest.
Source: https://singjupost.com/cindy-foley-on-teaching-art-or-teaching-to-think-like-an-artist-at-tedxcolumbus-transcript/
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