Blog Topic #3

Teaching Meaning in Artmaking
Chapter 6 "Designing Studio Instruction"
"Teaching for understanding is time consuming" (pg. 112).  I wish our government officials and/or DESE officials that decide some aspects of education would read and go by this statement and understand that students need time to experiment, play, and have a variety of experiences in the classroom.  Along with, "A limited number of criteria allow students to focus on particular skills throughout the unit.  If confronted with an overwhelming number of criteria, students will likely lose focus, and the intended function of the criteria will be lost" (pg. 110).  Thank you Walker for understanding how a classroom environment should be organized.  Students learn in different ways and for a teacher to be able to reach them all we need TIME!  We can cover all the criteria that is on the standardized test but can we cover it well so all the students learn?  I'm not sure on the answer to that question.

I really enjoyed the assessment section of this chapter.  I had some 'a ha' moments during the reading.  Presenting the criteria on a rubric as excellent, good, fair, and needs improvement will help the students understand what they need to work on.  As art teachers we need to be able to assess the final product, but what about the process that went into the project?  How do we assess the process?  Having the student produce a written statement or even verbal statement (could be time consuming) might help the teacher understand the process then student went through. 

A Brief Guide to Developmental Theory and Aesthetic Development
This article briefly describes the developmental theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and the aesthetic development theory of Housen.  As we know, the way a brain works changes over time.  Piaget breaks it into 4 stages of cognitive development.  One main point that it seems all three theorists make is that the individual has to be cognitively prepared before the brain will move on to the next stage of development.  I had a question...Does this happen at the same time for all individuals?  I would say no.  We group students into grades by age but at times this is not appropriate.  I think some students are cognitively ready to move on way before others in their class and at times I feel age grouping is not accurate.  But is there a better way?  I'm not sure.  I would guess there are some private schools that allow students to have individual courses of study and are able to move on when they are ready.  That would be ideal.  Do we live in a society where that would work for everyone or all schools?