Ask any art teacher why they think their class is important
and I'd bet most of them would mention among other things that their class teaches students to be
more creative. But let’s look at
our practices critically.
As an art teacher, do you actually teach kids how to be more creative? Is painting a color wheel a creative act? Is painting a copy of a famous artwork creative? What if it's a monochromatic self portrait? Is making a coil pot a creative act? Our are students more creative after having done these exercises? How much of your curriculum do you devote to skill based lessons? How much do you devote to critical thinking and creative ideation?
If you know my history as an art teacher, and I'm guessing if you are reading this, you do, you know I've gone through some changes in the way I teach. I entered the profession in the usual way. I went to college and learned how to get good grades by by mimicing whatever style of art work my college teachers made. I was trained in DBAE (Discipline Based Art Education) and was well versed in all things a good art teacher should know about how to construct a solid lesson. I know how to make a lesson that could rival the content knowledge of any other subject area in school. It should be rigorous with Art Production, Art History, Art Criticism and Aesthetics. Lessons also are encouraged to be multi-disciplinary in nature, have a reading and writing component and include a "multi-cultural" angle.
Whew! But I could do it with the best of them. If there was a "right way" to do something, I was going to do it! Looking back at some of the things I had my students do (with all of the best intentions) I make myself cringe. My elementary students made very beautiful copies of Van Gogh's Starry Night in oil pastels, high school students made spectacular large scale fingerprint portrait of themselves ala Chuck Close and my middle schoolers made fantastic color wheel versions of famous paintings. And at the end of the marking period, semester or school year, I would have a decent handful of these masterpieces tossed into the trashcan by their creator without care as they walked out the door.
When I applied for a Masters in Art Education Degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), I was searching for something more. Frustrated with the numbers of students in my classes who only thought art was "Just OK", I wanted to learn what I could do as the teacher to affect the level of engagement for my middle school students. Part of my studies included conducting classroom research. I sought out to compare the levels of student engagement when students are challenged with a traditional, DBAE style, closed art problem with representational constraints Vs a more ill defined art problem without representational constraints. Problem 1: "Create a triptych of yourself with a realistic self portrait in the center panel, the left panel a drawing of a road with symbols that represent those events that have led you to where you are today and on the right panel, a road with symbols of what you predict will become your future." Vs. Problem 2: "Create a self portrait in a container form. On the outside, use those shapes, textures and colors that represent how you think others view you, and on the inside, use those shapes, textures and colors that express how you really are."
Without surprise, the more open art problem that did not require representational realism from my middle school kids elicited a higher engagement response. It was during this study that I became familiar with the work of Dr. Sandra Kay, an art educator with an extensive background in gifted education. She is one of the coauthors of a book called "Creating Meaning through Art: Teacher as Choice Maker". In it she discusses something called an "Elegant Problem". An elegant problem is one that invites fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration in it's responses. I also became familiar with the work of Sydney Walker and the "Big Idea". Big ideas are large and complex and can sustain an artists work over large swaths of time. I began thinking about how I could give my students the opportunity to think and behave as "real" artists do. I began to examine my own practice and explore teaching students about the art world through the development of elegant problems and big ideas. Instead of coil pots, my students began making plates that represented dreamscapes. Paintings of still life objects soon became paintings that revealed their biggest pet peeves. Things were getting better, my students were making art that held meaning for them. They were beginning to behave like artists.
Could there be anything more? Are my kids really engaged? YES!!! They are loving it! Way less art is making it to the trash can. They are behaving like artists, (but are they thinking that way?). Do they view themselves as creative? So, I asked them. There were still a handful that struggled with the "big idea". What did I do about it? To be honest, like I think most good teachers do, I rescued them. In all of my good intentions, I "helped" them brainstorm for ideas. I set the problems up so that they could think about them in certain ways. I provided brainstorming worksheets and had them search for ideas out of freewriting exercises. Most of my students could fly with the ill defined prompt with these aides, they would create very cool independent looking things and would begin to see themselves as real artists, but there were about 4 -5 in each hour that needed me to hold their hand through the ideation process. Sometimes the projects of neighboring students would end up looking eerily similar. I chalked it up to possible developmental delays, but I knew it deep down, I was not teaching them "how to think". These were the future adults who would someday say "I'm not creative", "I wish I could come up with ideas like that". Now what?
I did some more reading and scavenging. How do you teach creativity? What can I do as an art teacher to help my kids reach their full creative potential?
When I applied for a Masters in Art Education Degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), I was searching for something more. Frustrated with the numbers of students in my classes who only thought art was "Just OK", I wanted to learn what I could do as the teacher to affect the level of engagement for my middle school students. Part of my studies included conducting classroom research. I sought out to compare the levels of student engagement when students are challenged with a traditional, DBAE style, closed art problem with representational constraints Vs a more ill defined art problem without representational constraints. Problem 1: "Create a triptych of yourself with a realistic self portrait in the center panel, the left panel a drawing of a road with symbols that represent those events that have led you to where you are today and on the right panel, a road with symbols of what you predict will become your future." Vs. Problem 2: "Create a self portrait in a container form. On the outside, use those shapes, textures and colors that represent how you think others view you, and on the inside, use those shapes, textures and colors that express how you really are."
Without surprise, the more open art problem that did not require representational realism from my middle school kids elicited a higher engagement response. It was during this study that I became familiar with the work of Dr. Sandra Kay, an art educator with an extensive background in gifted education. She is one of the coauthors of a book called "Creating Meaning through Art: Teacher as Choice Maker". In it she discusses something called an "Elegant Problem". An elegant problem is one that invites fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration in it's responses. I also became familiar with the work of Sydney Walker and the "Big Idea". Big ideas are large and complex and can sustain an artists work over large swaths of time. I began thinking about how I could give my students the opportunity to think and behave as "real" artists do. I began to examine my own practice and explore teaching students about the art world through the development of elegant problems and big ideas. Instead of coil pots, my students began making plates that represented dreamscapes. Paintings of still life objects soon became paintings that revealed their biggest pet peeves. Things were getting better, my students were making art that held meaning for them. They were beginning to behave like artists.
Could there be anything more? Are my kids really engaged? YES!!! They are loving it! Way less art is making it to the trash can. They are behaving like artists, (but are they thinking that way?). Do they view themselves as creative? So, I asked them. There were still a handful that struggled with the "big idea". What did I do about it? To be honest, like I think most good teachers do, I rescued them. In all of my good intentions, I "helped" them brainstorm for ideas. I set the problems up so that they could think about them in certain ways. I provided brainstorming worksheets and had them search for ideas out of freewriting exercises. Most of my students could fly with the ill defined prompt with these aides, they would create very cool independent looking things and would begin to see themselves as real artists, but there were about 4 -5 in each hour that needed me to hold their hand through the ideation process. Sometimes the projects of neighboring students would end up looking eerily similar. I chalked it up to possible developmental delays, but I knew it deep down, I was not teaching them "how to think". These were the future adults who would someday say "I'm not creative", "I wish I could come up with ideas like that". Now what?
I did some more reading and scavenging. How do you teach creativity? What can I do as an art teacher to help my kids reach their full creative potential?
Things didn’t really start to change for me until I begun to think of myself as a “creativity teacher that uses art as a vehicle to get kids thinking differently” rather than “an art teacher”.
Imagine if all the subjects in school were taught with an emphasis on creativity first and subject secondary? For advocacy’s sake, speak to the benefits of creative problem solving and critical thinking for your students. But first, examine your actual practice, are you teaching the kids how to be more creative or are you teaching them how to follow directions, or make art that looks like ______? Or in the style of ____? Or to demonstrate the skill of ___? Or to show that they understand the definition of a vocabulary word?” There is a difference between being “an art teacher” and a “creativity teacher”. Which do you want to be? What do you think is more important for kids? Can you be both? Let's talk!!
4 comments:
I love the idea of teaching students to be creative...I'm interested in your research that you've done thus far. I too was taught the DBAE way. And am having trouble crossing over to all the new Core Curriculum ways.
Thank you for such a thought provoking article.
As a pre-service teacher, who is/has learned about DBAE and TAB during my undergrad, I found your post very thought-provoking! I am starting student teaching soon and am going to try to start out as a creativity teacher and not just an art teacher! Great insight!
Nicely stated with an emphasis on how the process is changing you along with your students. Reading your post with the emphasis on lesson planning reminded me of a similar experience gained while earning my MAAE as well - so much instruction giving "right answers" to what should be discovery and exploration creative processes. When I work now with pre-service art ed majors, I strive to offer alternative methods to classroom practice that embrace TAB and Choice-Based learning models as a way to make creative space for makers!
Wow great article. I am a TAB teacher in my first formative years and i sometimes feel rather guilty for putting content and vocab second in line, but creativity is truly the gold to be mined within them. Thanks for the encouragement!
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