I’m in the class! Happy day. With this MOOC
there will be readings and videos, quizzes, discussion forums and a final
project. We are advised to read first – then watch the videos… Our overall
score will be comprised 25% each for our quiz and forum participation – and 50%
for the project. We will peer review each other’s work.
Big Ideas For Week One:
·
What are inquiry methods and
object-based teaching?
·
Why should we engage in inquiry
around art?
Week
One Components:
·
READINGS
·
INTRO VIDEO: https://class.coursera.org/artinquiry-001/lecture/27
·
LECTURE VIDEO: https://class.coursera.org/artinquiry-001/lecture/13
·
DISCUSSION QUESTION: https://class.coursera.org/artinquiry-001/forum/list?forum_id=10012
Required
Reading
Schmidt, Laurel. Great Teachers Don’t Take No (or Yes) for an Answer:
Teaching by Asking Instead of Telling in Classroom Confidential: The 12 Secrets of Great Teachers . Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2004.
Shuh, John Hennigar. Teaching Yourself to Teach With Objects in The Educational Role of the Museum: Second Edition . New York: Routledge, 2001, pgs. 80-91.
Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning
Inquiry Learning Vs. Standardized Content: Can They Coexist?
Supplemental Handout: Looking at Art Worksheet
Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning
Inquiry Learning Vs. Standardized Content: Can They Coexist?
Supplemental Handout: Looking at Art Worksheet
Required
Discussion Forum Question:
Why are you interested in the topic of Art and Inquiry? You can give an example or anecdote from your classroom practice, anything that will give us a sense of what your current classroom experience is like and how you want to improve it. Don’t be shy—I want to hear any reservations about, and expectations for, taking this course and welcome any questions you might have about how this course might help you in your classroom.
Why are you interested in the topic of Art and Inquiry? You can give an example or anecdote from your classroom practice, anything that will give us a sense of what your current classroom experience is like and how you want to improve it. Don’t be shy—I want to hear any reservations about, and expectations for, taking this course and welcome any questions you might have about how this course might help you in your classroom.
First
reading: Laurel Schmidt (2004) Classroom Confidential: the 12 secrets of great teachers Portsmouth; Heinemann - Chapter 5: ‘Great teachers don’t take no (or yes) for an
answer…’ upon Inquiry Based Teaching (https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/artinquiry%2Fsecret5.pdf)
Schmidt’s fundamental proposition is that
we need to wake students up with the Socratic method and create gymnasiums for
the mind:
- Ask initiating questions
- Respond with follow up questions
- Insert information at key points.
Ask
initiating questions
So – if using this in my latest course –
instead of telling students why the University or School wanted the course and
explaining my reasons for designing it the way that I had, I could ask the
students these things as questions. And prompt further responses… yes – and
what else? What else… Not just to be contrary – but to demonstrate that there
really is more than one right answer to the question.
Respond
with follow up questions
Whether the response you get from the
students is insightful, fuzzy or lazy – the best response is more questioning –
and don’t panic! Better thinking covers the ground more slowly – but it is
better covered! So – push, probe, ask for clarification… From a, ‘That’s
interesting, can you tell me more?’ approach to ‘Your answer assumes …. Why
have you taken that approach?’ ‘What would someone who believes … say?’ ‘When
wouldn’t this approach hold true?’ ‘Can you explain your reasons to us?’ ‘Is
there any reason to doubt that evidence/stance/approach/opinion?’ ‘Tell us more
about how that would work?’
Insert
information at key points
When, desperate to share your great
knowledge, you feel the need to feed in information – try to do that in a way
that also promotes further thought in your students – rather than a, ‘Okay,
I’ve let you maunder about, here’s the right answer…’ We are advised to intrigue
– offer a tidbit – and invite the students to explore further themselves… and
help the students keep track of their learning – making an illustrated set of
notes on the board [– or ask different students to do so].
If you’re wondering why go to all this
trouble: surely it is quicker and simpler to just TELL them the answer – and by
god they so just want you to leave them alone and tell them the answer! - Schmidt
argues that we so under-challenge and under-stimulate our students that at best
they are having a nap whilst with us and at worst some sort of angst fest is
taking place in their minds as they wonder what torture we will inflict next.
Thus, it is not only better to provoke interest and engagement – to stimulate
thought; this mode eventually builds confident thinkers. The inquiry method
shows students how to use their
brains: developing the ability to find and evaluate information, solve problems
and create new ideas. Training in the inquiry method allows students to develop
sensitivity to the clarity and rigour of the arguments of others; arrive at
judgements through their own reasoning; adopt a penetrating and rigorous
approach to subjects from the arts to politics… and mirrors the way they will
have to live in the world much more than any MCQ ever can. The chapter
concludes with examples of how to teach using the questioning technique – and
shares many useful questions for us to use in our own practice.
Smoking alert
A lovely analogy in this text is the
smoker’s wait. Schmidt warns that most teachers cannot bear the pause that
happens when students actually think about a question; in our panic we blurt
out more variations on the same question – we start asking questions with
answers in… we cause fear and reaffirm the suspicion that learning *is* about
supplying teacher with the right answer. So, she says, lean against the board
and visualise smoking. The slow proper, long in – slow out, smoking of a
dedicated smoker who meditates as they inhale and exhale… This models that you
have all the time in the world to wait for the answers to flow… and when they
do, you will nod, note – and say, ‘And what else…?’
Second
reading: The Shuh, John Hennigar. Teaching Yourself to Teach With Objects in The Educational Role of the Museum: Second Edition . New York: Routledge, 2001, pgs. 80-91. article
is very user-friendly and illustrates the power of objects to initiate thought and inquiry. This
piece concludes with 50 questions to ask when examining objects – and
demonstrates beautifully the inquiry method’s potential for developing thought
and voice.
Third reading: Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning offers us Diana Laufenberg’s eight strategies that
support inquiry:
- Be flexible: relinquish some control – create space for
students to follow their interests.
- Foster inquiry by scaffolding curiosity: think of an approach –
a question – a task – that is interesting – and that will seed curiosity.
- Design an architecture for participation.
- Teach students not subjects: show you care – and students will
know it is safe to take risks in your space.
- Provide opportunities for experiential learning.
- Embrace failure: we must fail if we attempt – discuss the
difference between praiseworthy and blameworthy failure. Have failure festivals
celebrating great attempts…
- Don’t be boring: even though students may react against your
interesting style don’t be boring – and don’t let them be boring.
- Foster joy as a condition for learning – see her TEDTalk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up4hFj-jcTY
Fourth – Thom Markham’s Inquiry Learning Vs. Standardized Content: Can They Coexist? examines
the viability of the inquiry method in a content driven system. His context is
the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) of the USA
– but is equally applicable to the National Curriculum of the UK Markham Markham
- Redefine
rigour: an information age requires empathy and the ability to ‘move
gracefully through a connected world’.
- Blend
critical thinking, social-emotional learning… he cites Prensky’s four E’s
- Effective: Accomplishment, Action, Relationships and Thinking - emphasis
on teamwork, persistence, mastery and rigour.
- Make
team work the norm not the exception.
- Create
a dynamic relationship between content and inquiry.
- Relinquish
some of our own control.
- Teach
inquiry skills: creativity, problem-solving, design- and critical thinking
can all be taught … and measured (!).
The video bit – modelled the
MOMA method with school teachers and for us watching. Key
elements include that we learn to:
- Observe – look – describe – focus…
- Analyse – generating more and more subtle observations and developing own hypotheses and interpretations
- Communicate – by articulating and listening
- Engage in a Community – understand ourselves in relation to others
- Have group conversations – share thoughts in welcoming, supportive, challenging atmosphere.
Discussion: So Why am I interested in the topic of Art and Inquiry?
I love the idea of IBL – and PBL and Project Based Learning. I
see it as a way of harnessing the human animal’s genetic desire to learn, where
so many educational practices seem designed to turn off that imperative. I can see that the US
education system is as caught up in transmission and measurement as the UK
