LTC 8730 Topic Proposal

Art Teachers and the Pursuit of Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships 06/11/2014 0 Comments   Ridlen Survey of Art Ed Topic Proposal Currently I am thinking deeply about transforming the way we teach art. We are at a junction where we are transforming from one way of teaching (DBAE) to a new one (yet to be titled) for the 21st century that incorporates not just media or formalist strategies but also interweaving meaning making, social justice, reflection, context-based, and student centered practices. I have been asking myself, “How will we transform our profession to include these future best practices?” It will be interesting to see how we transform ourselves as artist educators to meet the needs of our contemporary students. What role will I play in creating this transformation in my district? How big of a part do I play in creating the impetus for change? What will be the best way to start teachers thinking about change? Will teachers be willing to change after teaching for so long? Will they be thirsty for change, as I was? Or reticent? Will it be seen as a burden? What can I do to support them? What can I do to motivate them to ask their own questions and start their own evolution? What conditions are needed for change to take hold? How will elementary and secondary teachers differ? I want to investigate the correlation of rigor, relevance, and relationships to this pursuit of excellence in the art classroom. I want to promote the use of the “three R’s” and the desire for teachers to think deeply about how they are implementing them in the studio classroom. I would like to model the use of the three R’s with examples of how to implement these elements using the new National Core Arts Standards. In tandem, I see a connection to teachers having to make a shift in thinking and would like to research a bit more into how habits are formed and how to affect change. As my final topic project, I envision something using technology such as an interactive ThingLink or an ISSUU article citing examples of the integration of rigor, relevance, and relationships in the studio art room. Or perhaps the creation of an artwork or series of artworks that explore the transformation from classical art education, to modern art ed, to today’s post-modern art education practices.   Bibliography Burton, J. M., & Hafeli, M. C. (2012). Conversations in art: The dialectics of teaching and learning. National Art Education Association. In an innovative, decade-long project to examine how good teachers practice in classroom and museum settings, experienced art educators recorded teachers engaging with students, and later reviewed and critiqued these recordings to compile “snapshots” of classroom life unlike any documented before. This resource is for art teachers and researchers who realize the importance of thinking “outside the box” to grapple with the serious issues and rhetorical definitions clouding the practice of art education. Conversations is the work of the Research Task Force on Student Learning, a core group of 20 professional art educators whose diversity of experiences and backgrounds enriched the insights and perspectives, and culminated in the unique personal reflections and writing styles of this lively and engaging resource. For those interested less in traditional forms of school-based inquiry and more in obtaining a deeper understanding of what a group of selected art educators thought about what they did and why, and how this shaped their philosophy and teaching practice. Daggett, W. R. (2005). Achieving academic excellence through rigor and relevance. Retrieved October, 30, 2007. William Daggett proposes a framework for achieving rigor and relevance. “Incorporating more rigorous and relevant instruction in classrooms is a realistic goal and will yield immediate results in students’ enthusiasm to learn. When students are engaged in the learning process, real achievement takes place, and their chances to excel at what they do increase. Often all that is required is a change of attitude and the willingness to restructure education so that it prepares students for life, not just the state test or for more school. Effectively integrating subjects is an important step.” Daggett, W. R. (2004). Reforming American high schools: Why, what, and how. International Center for Leadership in Education, Retrieved from http://www. LeaderEd. com. While managing change is difficult in all organizations, it is especially problematic in institutions with long and rich traditions, such as public education. Traditions, and the rules and regulations that surround them, become anchors that are difficult to pull up so that the “ship” can be redirected. By their nature, educators are not typically great risk takers. Therefore, they want to make sure that any change being contemplated is well thought out, carefully researched, and clearly better than what currently exists. In effect, they need to believe that the present system is wrong and that there is a better solution. The problem with trying to implement change is that seldom is there an absolute right or wrong relative to organizational structure. There are “almost rights” and “often wrongs.” However, in tradition-driven systems, almost right and often wrong are not good enough to convince all segments of the population. The question is how large is the margin of error? Carroll, K. (2007). Better Practice in Visual Arts Education: Building Effective Teaching Through Educational. Reston, VA. Natl Art Education Assn; 4th edition. A comprehensive reference, originally developed for the Maryland State Department of Education to support desired learner outcomes for visual arts education, offers annotated bibliographic resources helpful to teachers looking for updates on theory, research, and classroom practice. Includes discussions of General Practice for Visual Arts Education; Developing a Repertoire of Skills for Visual Perception and Artistic Response; Facilitating Investigations into Historical, Cultural, and Social Context; Facilitating Engagement with the Artmaking Process; and Facilitating Critical and Aesthetic Inquiry. French, D. (2003). A new vision of authentic assessment to overcome the flaws in high stakes testing. Middle School Journal, 35(1), 14-23.  The work of creating academically challenging, developmentally responsive, and socially equitable middle schools that serve a diverse range of students is much more complex and messy than merely measuring students using a high stakes standardized test. We need to acknowledge the systemic reasons why low-income students and Black and Latino students are achieving at far lower rates than their White, more affluent peers and are much less engaged in the institution called school, and identify the conditions that create excellent schools for diverse students. Simple solutions to complex problems usually just create more problems. Excellent middle schools have as their foundation the following four strengths: rigor, relevance, relationships, and resources. Heath, C. and Heath, D. (2007) Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Random House. Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.” Heath, C. and Heath, D. (2010) Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. Crown Business Publishing. In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline. Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems—the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort—but if it is overcome, change can come quickly. Heath, C. and Heath, D. (2013) Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. Crown Business Publishing. Research in psychology has revealed that our decisions are disrupted by an array of biases and irrationalities: We’re overconfident. We seek out information that supports us and downplay information that doesn’t. We get distracted by short-term emotions. When it comes to making choices, it seems, our brains are flawed instruments. Unfortunately, merely being aware of these shortcomings doesn’t fix the problem, any more than knowing that we are nearsighted helps us to see. The real question is: How can we do better? Jensen, E. (2013). Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind. Alexandria, VA. ASCD. Too many of our most vulnerable students are tuning out and dropping out because of our failure to engage them. It's time to set the bar higher. Until we make school the best part of every student's day, we will struggle with attendance, achievement, and graduation rates. This timely resource will help you take immediate action to revitalize and enrich your practice so that all your students may thrive in school and beyond. Smyth, J. (2006). ‘When students have power’: student engagement, student voice, and the possibilities for school reform around ‘dropping out’of school. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 9(4), 285-298. It is no coincidence, that disengagement from school by young adolescents has intensified at precisely the same time as there has been a hardening of educational policy regimes that have made schools less hospitable places for students and teachers. There can be little doubt from research evidence that as conditions conducive of learning in schools deteriorate through emphasis on accountability, standards, measurement, and high stakes testing, that increasing numbers of students of colour, from urban, working class, and minority backgrounds are making active choices that school is not for them. When students feel that their lives, experiences, cultures, and aspirations are ignored, trivialized, or denigrated, they develop a hostility to the institution of schooling. They feel that schooling is simply not worth the emotional and psychological investment necessary to warrant their serious involvement. This paper argues that producing the circumstances necessary to turn this situation around requires invoking a radically different kind of ethos and educational leadership—one that encourages and promotes the speaking into existence of authentic forms of student voice. Smyth, J. (2007). Teacher development against the policy reform grain: an argument for recapturing relationships in teaching and learning. Teacher development, 11(2), 221-236. As public schools in countries like the UK, USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand continue to suffer from the damaging effects of poorly conceptualized educational reforms, educators struggle to come up with alternatives with which to reclaim schools. While acknowledging the situational, contextual and temporal differences between these countries, this paper presents a rationale for reinserting the relational work of schools at the center of a teacher development‐led form of recovery. The central claim advanced herein is that teacher development in schools must have a central and demonstrable concern with the primacy of relationships in teaching and learning. Schools and teachers have the collective capacity to reclaim the ground that has been severely eroded by managerialist and marketizing agenda that have been allowed to intrude on schools and subjugate the importance of relational forms of knowing. Placing students at the center is crucial to creating the direction necessary for re‐establishing the relational complexity of schools. Wagner, T. (2004). The challenge of change leadership. Education Week, 24(9), 40-41. Tony Wagner suggests a three-part lens for analyzing successful improvements in teaching, curriculum, and school structure. They are the interdependent principles of Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.