Day 4 - Curriculum in Art Ed

Eisner Chapter 5

Eisner discusses the idea of “situated learning,” which he defines as “The sources of what, where, and how children learn… The child is situated in a social and material context, and this context, viewed as a culture, teaches.”  According to Eisner, children should belong to a community of learners without intense competitive pressure.  This community of learners brought with them prior experience.  Eisner references Dewey’s discussion of the constructed character of experience: “That construction was not only activated by the prior experience the child brought to the situation; it was also the result of the child’s interactions with the social and material conditions in which he or she world.  In this view, learning and culture [are] inseparable.”

These learning communities should emulate actual life with actual applications of education.  Situated learning “increases the probability that students will be able to apply what they have learned… What one wants is to increase the probability that connections will be made by all students… When what is learned cannot be applied, the meaningfulness of what is learned is diminished.” 

One component within successful learning communities is that students are faced with a problem.  “When there is no challenge, when everything is satisfactory, there may be little motivation to stretch one’s thinking, to try something new, to experiment, to revise, to appraise, and to start again.  Creativity profits from constraints.  The problem is a major centerpiece by which learning is promoted.  It is embedded in a social structure that can facilitate or impede its resolution.”

Generally, a problem will lead to a purpose.  To fulfill this purpose, imaginative construction must be formed.  “Awareness and idea are part of the process of meaningful artistic activity, but an idea needs a vehicle that will carry it forward, that will make it into an object or event that has a place in the world.  To do this requires an imaginative leap into a form in which that transformation is to occur.”

WHAT CHILDREN DRAW AND WHY

            In this section of the chapter, Eisner argues that “The ways in which children express themselves in the visual arts depend upon the cognitive abilities they have acquired and that the cognitive abilities they have acquired are related to both their biologically conferred and their learned abilities as these human features interact with the situation in which they work.”  Eisner believes that arts education’s major role is to create situations “through which the senses can be refined.” 

            Eisner summarizes his thoughts by saying, “The course of children’s development in the creation of visual images is characterized by the gradual emergence and refinement of forms of thinking.  What we see in the features of children’s artwork over time are the fruits of learning… Children’s development in art can be seen as an expanding collection of increasingly refined and diversified repertoires that widen their visual options.” 

            I agree with Eisner when he states, “Students should come to understand art as a cultural artifact, one that both reflects and affects the culture in which it appears.”  I believe that art and culture both inform and transform each other, creating a sort of symbiotic relationship of progression. 

Teaching Visual Culture – Chapter 5

            In this chapter, Freedman outlines the importance of art education and visual culture investigation on a student’s ability to think critically about the world around them.  She argues, “Students with an adequate general education, but little art education, have greater difficulties understanding and interpreting the complex meanings associated with visual cultural forms than do students with a background in the visual arts… Students can broaden their understanding of interpretative skills by finding their own personal and cultural meanings, comparing, combining, and challenging these with the interpretations of others to increase associations and build complexity. 

Text and Image:

Images are read as texts.  Both are forms of representation and depend on the use of metaphor and symbolism.  As we engage with images and text, “we construct their meaning as they in turn work to construct us.”

            Images are perhaps more complex than texts in that they are viewed holistically and have an immediacy and subtly to their influence on the viewer.  Images are more memorable, as well as physical.  In relation to advertisements, “Ads contain didactic cues that educate viewers to interpret imagery in a particular manner that is quickly recognized, deeply associative, and easily internalized.”  Furthermore, advertisers attempt to educate people to think in the context of the reality they construct.” 

            “The representational character of and relationships between various forms of visual culture are an important part of cultural knowledge and influence student interpretation both in terms of art making and viewing.”