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Another article from an art teacher's perspective recommending slowing down each project and allowing students to absorb the material instead of rushing to have students experience as many things as possible.

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If your teaching philosophy is anything like mine, then you strive to expose students to as many materials, techniques and learning experiences as you can during your limited amount of instruction. Dozens of projects in countless mediums, oodles of artist introductions, techniques upon techniques all rolled into a tiny smidgen of time.

For my middle school students, this seemed the most engaging approach to push through our curriculum- reel them in with as many fast, attention-holding projects as I could. Cover lots of ground without staying in one project too long. To be honest, I loved the results too. I always had plenty of eye-catching art to show in the hallways and our art shows were jam-packed.

However, as the common saying goes "a mile wide and an inch deep" was becoming more shallow than I thought.

Recently, I've experienced a shift in my educational outlook. I've been spending a lot of time looking into the approach of Project-Based Learning (PBL).

As an art teacher, it's easy to assume that an art room is already rooted in PBL but most of the time, that is not the case.

Project-Based Learning is a method where students deepen their content knowledge through actively exploring real-world problems and challenges. Emphasis is placed on students thoroughly immersing themselves in the topic or problem at hand. More often than not, students present their findings through writing or presenting their work to an authentic audience. As former AOE writer, Sarah Dougherty explains, "Many lessons in the art room fail to reach this level of cognitive complexity, miss out on authentic applications, or employ limited student choice or autonomy. A finished piece of art isn't necessarily a "Project. "

I wanted to know how PBL could look in my art room, so my students and I are giving it a try this semester.

Currently, we are 12 class days into an architectural and interior design project, and the students could not be more in-tune with their work. Instead of trying to engage students with flashy projects, I feel like instead I am empowering them with ownership of innovation in their work. It's been a challenge for me to be patient with our timeline (and our empty hallway display boards) but I know that the depth of the critical thinking and collaboration combined with the breadth of the content knowledge that these types of projects are capable of, is well worth the wait.

If you're thinking about trying out this approach in your classroom, here are few tips:

Begin your projects with an authentic question or problem. It should be a real-world issue from outside the classroom that is open-ended and inspiring to students.

Try to serve more as a coach than a teacher by developing structures and routines that help keep students on track without altering their design ideas.

An important part of the problem-solving process is reflection and revision. Build in enough time to allow for ample reflection and revision opportunities.

If you're curious about implementing Project-Based Learning in your own art room, check out AOE's course Project-Based Art Room. We'd love to have you join us!
How have you implemented PBL in your own art room? Do you have any tips to share?

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The Real Reason Why I've Decided to Slow My Students Down - The Art of Ed

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If your teaching philosophy is anything like mine, then you strive to expose students to as many materials, techniques and learning experiences as you can during your limited amount of instruction. Dozens of projects in countless mediums, oodles of artist introductions, techniques upon techniques all rolled into a tiny smidgen of time.

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Setting goals for students will help us make the most out of our time while giving them something to work towards.

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Several years ago, I noticed my upper elementary students were struggling to complete their projects on time. They seemed more focused on talking and playing than on making their artwork and were getting distracted easily. Sound familiar?

This lack of focus was causing projects to take much longer than anticipated. I resolved to help my students learn to better manage their art-making time. I found a great solution in a simple strategy: Goal Setting.

Help students manage their time by setting goals in art.

We all know that creativity does not adhere to a schedule. Students need to have time to experiment and develop ideas as they work. Artists work in many different ways and use many different timetables. Yet, time management is a valuable skill; one students struggle with in multiple areas of life. The most successful artists have a healthy balance of freedom and discipline, creativity and focus.

Why use this strategy with your students?

1. It helps students be consistently more focused.

2. Students learn to manage their time more effectively.

3. Students develop goal-setting skills.

4. It provides students an opportunity for reflection.

The strategy looks something like this:

First, I ask each student to begin each class period with a moment of reflection.

I pose the question, "What are your art-making goals for this class period?" Students take some time to write their personal goal in their sketchbook. This only takes a moment. When they are finished, they immediately get to work on their project.

At the end of class, we revisit these goals.

Students read their goal and answer the following questions:

1. Did you meet your goal?

2. Why or why not?

3. If your goal wasn't met, what will you change next week to help you meet your goal?

Sometimes students do not meet their goal because it was too ambitious. Sometimes, it is because they were not focused on their work. Other times it may be because they ran into an unforeseen challenge in their work that took extra time. Whatever the reason, students reflect and write down their answers.

The next week, students reflect on the goals from the previous week and set a new goal.

Over time, students learn to set appropriate goals for themselves. They also can see how much they can accomplish when they stay focused on their work.

This strategy begins and ends with the students.

I do not tell them what their goals should be for the day. Students learn not meeting a goal is not a failure. It is a chance to reflect on their art-making and see if they can find ways to manage their time more effectively.

Students appreciate that they are in control of the goals. They decide what they think they can accomplish, and do not feel pressured by external forces.

This has been a game changer for my students. As the year progressed, my students learned to manage their time much more effectively. The vast majority of students were able to complete their assignments on time. In addition, they developed valuable goal-setting skills that will help them in many areas of their lives.

If you're also looking to make the most of every day in the classroom, be sure to register for the Summer 2016 Art Ed Now Conference. AOE Founder, Jessica Balsley, will be speaking about how to start each day in a successful way. Walk away with tips about what successful teachers do to burst through the demands of the profession and elevate their careers.
What do you do to help students manage their time? How do you help students reflect on their art making?

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How Setting Goals Can Cure Time Management Issues - The Art of Ed

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Several years ago, I noticed my upper elementary students were struggling to complete their projects on time. They seemed more focused on talking and playing than on making their artwork and were getting distracted easily. Sound familiar? This lack of focus was causing projects to take much longer than anticipated.

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How can I make the most out of our time together? 

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How can I make the most out of our time together? 

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TAB is Teaching for Artistic Behavior. Basically, you give students the building blocks of the content and then let them choose what to make with it. Stations are set up to allow students to pick and choose their materials. Can this help with student recall? I feel like with some students, this will help their process, and with other's- they will get frustrated and upset. Some students will be incredibly interested, thus aiding in student recall. I love the idea, but maybe using a TAB element at the end of a unit.

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Sometimes good ideas precede general acceptance. There's no pedagogy in art education this is more true for than TAB. When Katherine Douglas, Pauline Joseph, and John Crowe pioneered this teaching method in the 1970s they weren't trying to revolutionize the way art is taught, but the work they were doing was so powerful more and more teachers followed their example.

Today, TAB, which stands for Teaching for Artistic Behavior, has never been more popular. Presentations about the approach fill up fast, social media sites dedicated to the practice have memberships in the thousands, and gurus like Ian Sands are invited to be keynote speakers at conferences.

TAB has reason to be so popular. It's a flexible approach that's designed to be adaptable, so it works for all ages and in different settings. Its goal of teaching art by giving kids the responsibility of using ideas they develop has a clear connection to popular methodologies like Makerspaces and Genius Hour. Plus, the National Standards have finally caught up with TAB's thinking when they were redesigned in 2014.
The days of one-size-fits-all projects are gone. It's time for the rest of Art Ed to be more like TAB.
Here are 6 Amazing Things About TAB

1. TAB simplifies your set-up.

Students are responsible for their own supplies in TAB classrooms. In most elementary classrooms, this looks like having students work in centers. Some upper-level teachers forego centers and just have accessible, labeled supplies. In both cases, students select their own materials. This takes some planning and organization on your part, but once it's up and running, it's a beautiful thing. There's no more running around like a crazy person between classes to get supplies ready. In fact, kids also plan their own projects and are happy to mentor each other. Yes, this is as good as it sounds.

2. No more Groundhog Day.

Have you seen that movie? The premise is that Bill Murray's character lives the same day over and over again. This sounds familiar to many art teachers! With a TAB set-up, each day and each class are individual and unique because kids use their own original ideas. It's fun and inspiring instead of boring and repetitive.

3. Finished early? No problem!

In TAB classrooms, everyone finishes at different times, without issue. They just move on to the next step, which might be starting the planning of another artwork, working in a series, or completing a reflection. They know to do this because of the framework and expectations set by the teacher, which have to be taught and reinforced.

4. A flexible curriculum can meet everyone's needs.

The quiet girl who loves to draw horses wants to work on adding value to her work. The three boys who want to build a giant cardboard castle need to learn about making attachments. The student with special needs who wants to cut shapes for a collage needs support. All of these things and more can be going on in a TAB classroom simultaneously. How you ask? Well, because the teacher isn't trying to guide a whole class through the same set of steps, they're free to provide one-on-one support. Plus, content is displayed around the room with command charts which students, like the boys who are building the castle, can use to answer their own questions.

An example of something like this is the Attachment Techniques Chart shown below. Made by Michigan-based K-5 teacher, Lisa Van Plew-Cid, this is a wonderful example of a resource that students can use to guide their own learning.

If help is needed and the teacher is busy, students are happy to share the unique knowledge they've developed pursuing ideas. They really know and remember what they learned, because the knowledge came from personal connection and exploration.

5. 3D can tame distracted behavior.

You know those kids who can't sit still or be quiet for more than 3 minutes? The ones who are always tapping their pencils and peeling the paper off your crayons? They are kinesthetic learners and the sculpture center in a TAB class is their match made in heaven. You'll forget that they are in the room as they silently build intricate structures or be amazed as they take a leadership role in collaboration with peers. Some students who might have difficulty focusing during multi-week painting projects just have an affinity for building and thrive when they can work this way. This doesn't mean they won't draw or paint ever - most TAB classrooms have expectations about trying a variety of materials.

6. Who needs to clean?

Students in TAB rooms care for their own materials. This includes cleaning up after they create. If this sounds like chaos, you'd be surprised. Kids finish at different times, so there is no big rush to clean all at once. Plus, everyone is using different materials so cleanup is less congested in areas like the sink.

TAB teaching is empowering for students, who love using their own ideas and for teachers who get to spend more time mentoring and less time monitoring. Sure, it's okay not to have a TAB classroom - but you might enjoy teaching more if you did.

If you want to start or further your journey into TAB, check out the Choice-Based Art Education course where you'll dive deep into the power of a student-centered curriculum.
Thinking of trying TAB? Ask your questions in the comments. I'd love to help!

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6 Amazing Things About TAB Classrooms - The Art of Ed

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Sometimes good ideas precede general acceptance. There's no pedagogy in art education this is more true for than TAB. When Katherine Douglas, Pauline Joseph, and John Crowe pioneered this teaching method in the 1970s they weren't trying to revolutionize the way art is taught, but the work they were doing was so powerful more and ...

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This article discusses how to nurture a students' creativity. To stimulate creativity one must encourage students to take risks. I believe that students will have a deeper understanding of content when given projects that are open ended and encourage risk taking.

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In the continuing debate about American competitiveness in the global economy, politicians and educators alike have pointed not to students' test scores, but to their creativity and ingenuity, as models for the rest of the world.

Teaching creativity has been a hot-button topic this fall, from the National Academy of Education's annual meeting in Washington to a Learning and the Brain conference in Boston. Yet researchers are just beginning to determine what makes some students more creative than their peers, and how the classroom environment can nurture or smother that ability.

"To study creativity of young people who are on the move, we can't use our established habits," Shirley Brice Heath, an English professor emerita at Stanford University, told members of the education academy at its annual research meeting, which highlighted creativity and innovation.

"We can't look under the streetlight to find any keys we think we may have lost with regard to creativity," she said. "After all, schools are where the light has always been; that's not where the light is now with respect to creativity."

Howard E. Gardner, a professor of cognition and education at Harvard University, considers creativity one of five "minds," or ways of thinking-along with discipline, synthesis, respect, and ethics-that will be essential for young people to succeed in the future.

"We live in an era where everything that can be automated will be," he said at the Learning and the Brain research conference last month. "Only individuals who can regularly go beyond the conventional wisdom will be valued.

"While cognitive capacities are obviously valuable for creating," he said, "only those of a robust, risk-taking personality and temperament are likely to pursue a creative path."

Transfer Claims

Ellen Winner, the psychology chair and the director of the Arts and Mind Lab at Boston College, told participants at the Learning and the Brain conference that in a continuing series of studies on arts education and creativity, she had found "very little evidence that studying the arts improves grades or test scores, or that studying the arts improves creativity.

"These transfer claims have been posited without any particular mechanism; there's a lot of magical thinking going on," said Ms. Winner.

She said she found two "fatal flaws" in most studies linking arts education to creativity: First, few studies described what is actually taught and learned in different arts classes that is intended to make students think more creatively; and, second, most of the studies used general paper-and-pencil tests that did not capture dynamic or subject-specific aspects of creativity.

"The most difficult problem we're facing is coming up with valid measures of creativity in the visual arts and other subjects," Ms. Winner said.

Other emerging research on creativity seems to point to two critical aspects of creativity that can be hard to teach: the willingness to take risks and learn from failure, and the ability to transfer ways of solving problems between seemingly unrelated situations.

Taking Chances

In a 30-year longitudinal study of 300 working-class black and white families, Ms. Heath and her colleagues have found positive risk-taking common among the most creative students.

"Risk we tend to think of in negative terms, but high risk in play is so endorphin-loading and high-energy, so it's part of what keeps kids engaged in creativity," Ms. Heath said.

"The ones that emerged as most creative, ... they used their play as work," she said. "They were very difficult to disengage from play.

"To a person, they disliked, avoided, subverted education if it was not related to what they saw as their interests," Ms. Heath continued. "They never seemed to think about whether they were supposed to be learning or doing what it was that they were learning and doing."

Students from more disadvantaged backgrounds may even be more willing to explore untested ways of doing things than their better-off peers, in part, she suggested, because they are less comfortable with their current situation. Mr. Gardner, speaking at the Learning and the Brain conference, also suggested these students may define success more broadly and thus be more willing to explore.

While some of the students Ms. Heath studied engaged in unhealthy risky behavior and got into trouble, she said most became involved in "high-risk ventures that carried meaning for them," such as community groups and other activities focused on solving local problems.

However, even educators hoping to improve students' creativity can inadvertently quash their willingness to take creative risks, according to Robert J. Sternberg, an expert in intelligence-testing research, who is provost and senior vice president of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

"Risk is essential to creativity, ... but if you want to get into the good college and the good graduate school and the good job, you don't want to take too big a risk," Mr. Sternberg said at the National Academy of Education meeting. "Schools often encourage you to do the opposite of what you'd need to be creative."

In one study, for example, Mr. Sternberg found that university students in New Haven who took more risks got higher marks for creativity in a drawing contest, but for a writing contest, "when the kids in essays took controversial stands, the raters often rated them down," he said.

In effect, Mr. Sternberg said, the raters, themselves graduate school art students, "were saying, 'I want you to be creative-and be sure you agree with me.' "

Teaching Play

Ms. Winner, of Boston College, distinguished between disruptive, "revolutionary" creativity-for example, a Pablo Picasso who develops a new style of painting-and more general creativity, such as someone painting in the Cubist style that Picasso helped pioneer.

"It's not at all clear to me that this [revolutionary] kind of creativity can be cultivated, though perhaps it can be asphyxiated," she said.

Yet experts said schools can help students become more generally creative, going beyond simply mastering content knowledge or how to perform specific skills to using their imagination to solve problems.

In her most recent research, Ms. Winner and her colleagues spent a year interviewing teachers and videotaping five arts classes at Boston Arts Academy and the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Mass. From that material, the researchers identified eight "habits of mind" taught as part of art class that transfer to other subjects.

Among those habits was one called "stretching and exploration"-the equivalent of creativity in the context of the study.

This special report explores the field often called "informal science education," which is gaining broader recognition for its role in helping young people acquire scientific knowledge and skills.

The "stretch and explore" habit in art class looks similar to experimentation in science classes. Rather than simply telling a student how to perform a task, Ms. Winner said, the teacher might ask students "to try new things, take risks, and not be afraid of mistakes, but instead to capitalize on their mistakes."

Now, Ms. Winner and her colleagues are involved in a two-year longitudinal study to develop measures to gauge whether the "stretching and exploring" that students learn to do in art class transfers to more creative thinking and problem-solving in math or science class.

Learning 'Insights'

Similarly, researchers at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands found, in a study published last month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, that being challenged increases students' "global thinking" and creativity.

College students were asked to solve a maze puzzle, and for half of them, the most obvious route was blocked. After completing the maze, those who had been forced to find an alternative solution scored nearly 60 percent higher on the remote-associates test, a common gauge of creativity.

Facing an obstacle can push students to "incubate" potential ways to solve a problem, which can lead to learning "insights," flashes of activity in part of the prefrontal cortex of the brain associated with more creative problem-solving, said Shelley H. Carson, a psychologist at Harvard University and the author of the 2010 book, Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life.

Educators can help spark creative thinking, Ms. Carson said at the Learning and the Brain conference, by exposing students to creative work; providing an atmosphere in which unique and creative work is valued; and encouraging students to be intellectually curious and adventurous.

When students know they can explore and take risks safely, they are better able to connect disparate information and develop insights, she said.

"Every creative person knows that failure is part of the process," Ms. Carson said. "You learn from failure, you learn from mistakes, and every idea you generate is not going to be a great idea, ... but the more ideas you generate, the more likely it is that some of them will succeed."

Published in Print: December 14, 2011, as Science Looks at How to Inspire Creativity

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Studies Explore How to Nurture Students' Creativity

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In the continuing debate about American competitiveness in the global economy, politicians and educators alike have pointed not to students' test scores, but to their creativity and ingenuity, as models for the rest of the world. Teaching creativity has been a hot-button topic this fall, from the National Academy of Education's annual meeting in Washington to a Learning and the Brain conference in Boston.

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Looking at Bloom's taxonomy suggests that my goal isn't to have students simply memorize and recall information. Students need to understand the curriculum. I need to give them the building blocks that leads to understanding, which in art students can show me their understanding through creation.

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Most of the LEARN NC Content has been archived using the Wayback Machine. Instructions for how to access that content is below, including links to frequently requested materials.

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This article suggests the power of deeper learning. As educators, we are not seeking memorization. We want our students to understand. How do we achieve this?

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As students work their way though school, they may be memorizing information in each grade level, but are they really learning? In the era of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the answer likely 'no' - or at least not in way that will actually promotes critical thinking and communication. The focus on memorization, fueled by standardized testing, has obstructed learning, according to Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University, who argues that students have been losing or squandering most of the information they acquire in school.

But if that information is applied or actually used to solve problems, students will leave school with a much richer education. Enter "deeper learning" - the process of fusing content knowledge with real-world situations. Students "transfer" knowledge rather than just memorize it. The benefits of deeper learning, says Darling-Hammond, can't be overstated.

"It's is the only way to get students ready for success in the modern world," she says, adding that the Common Core standards emphasize the kind of performance-based skills that foster deeper learning.

Darling-Hamond was one of the experts called by the National Research Council in 2011 to identify the competencies that can develop deeper learning skills. The team identified the essential skills as thinking and reasoning, managing behavior and emotions, and the ability to articulate ideas and communicate properly.

A recent report by the American Institute for Research (AIR) finds that students who attend deeper learning schools were more likely to graduate from high school on time and low-achieving students were more likely to seek postsecondary education. Furthermore, the students who participated in the study score better on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) than students at non-network schools. And the students at participating schools developed comparatively better interpersonal skills.

"These students tend to learn more deeply and they tend to perform better, not only on traditional achievement tests but also on assessments of more complex understanding," adds Darling-Hammond.
Not Just Learning Facts Out of a Textbook
So how does all this look in an actual classroom?

At Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine, 11th-grade chemistry teacher Brooke Teller teaches atmospheric chemistry. After lessons using traditional methods, including videos for background, her students begin actively looking at the impact fossil fuels have on climate change. She places students into 12 groups, each of them assigned to a different green gas for a project called "villains of the atmosphere."

Normally, these students might make a presentation using project display boards. But Teller prefers a more innovative approach: Each group makes video news segments that demonstrated how these gasses relate to climate change. Once finished, the students played their videos to local elementary students. And yet, their study on the use of fossil fuels doesn't end in Teller's class.

Social studies and English classes at Casco Bay teach the same topic. Currently, in their 11th-grade English and social studies classes, they are working on a public policy project whose focus is on changing the direction of fossil fuel usage in the U.S. Then they will create documentaries by "zeroing in on areas impacted by our dependence on fossil fuels," Teller explained

"A lot of the work we do is about presenting curriculum in new ways that match well with the concepts of deeper learning," she said, adding that the educators make sure "the curriculum we're presenting is relevant for our students so that it doesn't feel they're just learning facts out of a textbook."

At Casco Bay, students also participate in internships, another component of deeper learning. These internships have landed some Casco Bay Students paid positions, while others may have discovered that a specific career track wasn't a good fit. This opportunity is valuable, Teller said, because it helps students discover hat they like or don't like, helping them to focus on long-term professional goals.
Personal and Academic Development
Internships during high school are especially beneficial to low-income students, said Sean McComb, the 2014 National Teacher of the Year and a passionate deep learning advocate. Many of his low-income students have wanted to go into the medical field or education.

"It's really hard to motivate yourself to become something if you don't know what it looks like," explains McComb, an English teacher at Patapsco High School & Center for the Arts in Baltimore County. "Deeper learning recognizes both sides: that we have to attend to the person and his or her personal development as well as their academic development."

McComb believes deeper learning supports student achievement because "students have shared decision-making. Students who might be disengaged might do better in a school that allows them to work through their passion and learn."

A recent project on human trafficking, for example, provided McComb's students with the opportunity to interview activists and be exposed to their commitment - an experience not usually found in a research paper.

"I saw students become engulfed in the issues and they came to class telling me what they wanted to learn. It was something that they were deeply invested in," McComb said.

Deeper learning schools usually have smaller but diverse student populations, with both low and high achievers. About 30 percent of Casco Bay's 11th graders are English Language Learners.

The high expectations associated with deeper learning keep students in school, Teller said. Creating a connection to the real world by showing them how they can foster change keeps them engaged. It's much more stimulating than flipping through textbooks, she said, which may cause students to tune out.

"Nobody is falling through the cracks," Teller said. "They get more attention and I think it brings students along to do their best work."

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Deeper Learning: Moving Students Beyond Memorization - NEA Today

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As students work their way though school, they may be memorizing information in each grade level, but are they really learning? In the era of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the answer likely 'no' - or at least not in way that will actually promotes critical thinking and communication.

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Andrew Miller gives several tips to begin project based learning in your classroom. One point that resonated with me was the when he suggested choosing one or two power standards instead of trying to include too many. This struck a cord with me because I often try to pack standards in each lesson since I don't see my kids too often. Instead, I should focus on one or two, this will help my students by not overloading them giving them one or two things to remember from week to week.

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Renovate a Project

Projects and project libraries are everywhere. Instead of planning a full project with all the learning targets, milestones, and products, teachers can save time by renovating an existing project.

As you search project libraries for ideas, remember to look at projects across all grade levels. Although you might want that very specific seventh-grade social studies project, you might find a relevant project in 11th grade that could be modified.

Be open to projects everywhere, find great ideas, and then modify.

Limited Scope

The longer the project, the more students should learn. Therefore, a four-week project will no doubt target many standards that must be taught and assessed, which can be quite daunting for a first project.

Try to focus on two or three priority standards for your first project. Concentrate the learning on one subject rather than multiple disciplines. And aim for a two- to three-week project, or approximately 10 to 15 contact hours.

In addition to limiting the time, you might consider narrowing choice. Instead of many product options, offer a short menu. Allow students to choose how they want to work, but choose the teams for the project yourself. There are many ways to build voice and choice into a project, but these aspects can be limited.

By narrowing the scope of a project, teachers and their students can have short-term success that builds stamina for more complex projects later.

Plan Early

One of the challenges of PBL, but also one of the joys, is the planning process. In PBL, you plan up front, and it does take a significant amount of time. You need to plan assessments and scaffolds and gather resources to support project learning.

While you might be able to do some of this during scheduled planning time, ask your leadership for creative structures to carve out time for planning. Perhaps staff meetings can be used for this time, or release days can be offered.

It's important to get ahead and feel prepared for and confident about a project. By using the backward design process, you can effectively map out a project that's ready to go in the classroom.

Once you plan, you're free to differentiate instruction and meet the needs of your students rather than being in permanent crisis mode trying to figure what will happen tomorrow.

Gather Feedback

When you have a great project planned, reach out to colleagues both digitally and in person to get feedback. This can be done through posting an idea on Twitter or having a gallery walk of ideas, where teachers walk your project gallery and leave feedback on Post-its. If you're able, have a 30-minute conversation with a teacher colleague or an instructional coach.

Main Course, not Dessert

It's easy in a short-term project to fall into the trap of a "dessert" project that isn't necessarily inquiry-based. With PBL, the project itself is the learning-it's the " main course." In fact, many teachers who think they're doing PBL are actually doing projects. In PBL you're teaching through the project-not teaching and then doing the project.

Use an effective PBL project checklist to ensure a high-quality experience while still keeping a narrow focus and timeline. It helps to make sure that you're focusing on aspects such as inquiry, voice and choice, and significant content.

Commit to Reflection

We're all learners, and when we start something new, we start small, limiting our focus to help us master the bigger thing step by step. A key aspect of this is that when you finish a project, you should carve out time to reflect on it.

Consider journaling, having a dialogue with an instructional coach, or following a structured reflection protocol with a team of teachers.

Through reflection, projects become better and may live on for many years, so that reflection time pays off with time saved on subsequent runs through the project.

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Getting Started With Project-Based Learning (Hint: Don't Go Crazy)

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Projects and project libraries are everywhere. Instead of planning a full project with all the learning targets, milestones, and products, teachers can save time by renovating an existing project. As you search project libraries for ideas, remember to look at projects across all grade levels.

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Will the lessons that I record benefit absent students?  

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Will the lessons that I record benefit absent students?  

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Can flipping my classroom help with time management and student recall?

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Can flipping my classroom help with time management and student recall?

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This article discusses what a flipped classroom is, how it works, and how effective it is. Unfortunately, I cannot require students to watch videos outside of class. Instead, I would use it at the beginning of my class and help other students as the video continues.

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Cite this guide: Brame, C. (2013). Flipping the classroom. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/flipping-the-classroom/.

"Flipping the classroom" has become something of a buzzword in the last several years, driven in part by high profile publications in The New York Times (Fitzpatrick, 2012); The Chronicle of Higher Education (Berrett, 2012); and (Mazur, 2009); In essence, "flipping the classroom" means that students gain first exposure to new material outside of class, usually via reading or lecture videos, and then use class time to do the harder work of assimilating that knowledge, perhaps through problem-solving, discussion, or debates.

In terms of Bloom's revised taxonomy (2001), this means that students are doing the lower levels of cognitive work (gaining knowledge and comprehension) outside of class, and focusing on the higher forms of cognitive work (application, analysis, synthesis, and/or evaluation) in class, where they have the support of their peers and instructor. This model contrasts from the traditional model in which "first exposure" occurs via lecture in class, with students assimilating knowledge through homework; thus the term "flipped classroom."

What is it?

Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom approach has been used for years in some disciplines, notably within the humanities. Barbara Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson promoted the use of this approach in their book Effective Grading (1998). They propose a model in which students gain first-exposure learning prior to class and focus on the processing part of learning (synthesizing, analyzing, problem-solving, etc.) in class.

To ensure that students do the preparation necessary for productive class time, Walvoord and Anderson propose an assignment-based model in which students produce work (writing, problems, etc.) prior to class. The students receive productive feedback through the processing activities that occur during class, reducing the need for the instructor to provide extensive written feedback on the students' work. Walvoord and Anderson describe examples of how this approach has been implemented in history, physics, and biology classes, suggesting its broad applicability.

Inverted Classroom

Maureen Lage, Glenn Platt, and Michael Treglia described a similar approach as the inverted classroom, and reported its application in an introductory economics course in 2000. Lage, Platt, and Treglia initiated their experiment in response to the observation that the traditional lecture format is incompatible with some learning styles. ¹ To make their course more compatible with their students' varied learning styles, they designed an inverted classroom in which they provided students with a variety of tools to gain first exposure to material outside of class: textbook readings, lecture videos, Powerpoint presentations with voice-over, and printable Powerpoint slides.

To help ensure student preparation for class, students were expected to complete worksheets that were periodically but randomly collected and graded. Class time was then spent on activities that encouraged students to process and apply economics principles, ranging from mini-lectures in response to student questions to economic experiments to small group discussions of application problems. Both student and instructor response to the approach was positive, with instructors noting that students appeared more motivated than when the course was taught in a traditional format.

Peer Instruction

Eric Mazur and Catherine Crouch describe a modified form of the flipped classroom that they term peer instruction (2001). Like the approaches described by Walvoord and Anderson and Lage, Platt, and Treglia, the peer instruction (PI) model requires that students gain first exposure prior to class, and uses assignments (in this case, quizzes) to help ensure that students come to class prepared. Class time is structured around alternating mini-lectures and conceptual questions. Importantly, the conceptual questions are not posed informally and answered by student volunteers as in traditional lectures; instead, all students must answer the conceptual question, often via "clickers", or handheld personal response systems, that allow students to answer anonymously and that allow the instructor to see (and display) the class data immediately. If a large fraction of the class (usually between 30 and 65%) answers incorrectly, then students reconsider the question in small groups while instructors circulate to promote productive discussions. After discussion, students answer the conceptual question again. The instructor provides feedback, explaining the correct answer and following up with related questions if appropriate. The cycle is then repeated with another topic, with each cycle typically taking 13-15 minutes.

Does it work?

Mazur and colleagues have published results suggesting that the PI method results in significant learning gains when compared to traditional instruction (2001). In 1998, Richard Hake gathered data on 2084 students in 14 introductory physics courses taught by traditional methods (defined by the instructor as relying primarily on passive student lectures and algorithmic problem exams), allowing him to define an average gain for students in such courses using pre/post-test data. Hake then compared these results to those seen with interactive engagement methods, defined as "heads-on (always) and hands-on (usually) activities which yield immediate feedback through discussion with peers and/or instructors" (Hake p. 65) for 4458 students in 48 courses. He found that students taught with interactive engagement methods exhibited learning gains almost two standard deviations higher than those observed in the traditional courses (0.48 +/- 0.14 vs. 0.23 +/- 0.04). Assessment of classes taught by the PI method provides evidence of even greater learning gains, with students in PI courses exhibiting learning gains ranging from 0.49 to 0.74 over eight years of assessment at Harvard University (Crouch and Mazur, 2001). Interestingly, two introductory physics classes taught by traditional methods during the assessment period at Harvard show much lower learning gains (0.25 in a calculus-based course in 1990 and 0.40 in an algebra-based course in 1999).

Carl Wieman and colleagues have also published evidence that flipping the classroom can produce significant learning gains (Deslauriers et al., 2011). Wieman and colleagues compared two sections of a large-enrollment physics class. The classes were both taught via interactive lecture methods for the majority of the semester and showed no significant differences prior to the experiment. During the twelfth week of the semester, one section was "flipped," with first exposure to new material occurring prior to class via reading assignments and quizzes, and class time devoted to small group discussion of clicker questions and questions that required written responses. Although class discussion was supported by targeted instructor feedback, no formal lecture was included in the experimental group. The control section was encouraged to read the same assignments prior to class and answered most of the same clicker questions for summative assessment but were not intentionally engaged in active learning exercises during class. During the experiment, student engagement increased in the experimental section (from 45 +/- 5% to 85 +/- 5% as assessed by four trained observers) but did not change in the control section. At the end of the experimental week, students completed a multiple choice test, resulting in an average score of 41 +/- 1% in the control classroom and 74 +/- 1% in the "flipped" classroom, with an effect size of 2.5 standard deviations. Although the authors did not address retention of the gains over time, this dramatic increase in student learning supports the use of the flipped classroom model.

Theoretical basis

How People Learn, the seminal work from John Bransford, Ann Brown, and Rodney Cocking, reports three key findings about the science of learning, two of which help explain the success of the flipped classroom. Bransford and colleagues assert that

"To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application" (p. 16).

By providing an opportunity for students to use their new factual knowledge while they have access to immediate feedback from peers and the instructor, the flipped classroom helps students learn to correct misconceptions and organize their new knowledge such that it is more accessible for future use. Furthermore, the immediate feedback that occurs in the flipped classroom also helps students recognize and think about their own growing understanding, thereby supporting Bransford and colleagues' third major conclusion:

"A 'metacognitive' approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them" (p. 18).

Although students' thinking about their own learning is not an inherent part of the flipped classroom, the higher cognitive functions associated with class activities, accompanied by the ongoing peer/instructor interaction that typically accompanies them, can readily lead to the metacognition associated with deep learning.

What are the key elements of the flipped classroom?

1. Provide an opportunity for students to gain first exposure prior to class.

The mechanism used for first exposure can vary, from simple textbook readings to lecture videos to podcasts or screencasts. For example, Grand Valley State University math professor Robert Talbert provides screencasts on class topics on his YouTube channel, while Vanderbilt computer science professor Doug Fisher provides his students video lectures prior to class (see an example here). These videos can be created by the instructor or found online from YouTube, the Khan Academy, MIT's OpenCourseWare, Coursera, or other similar sources. The pre-class exposure doesn't have to be high-tech, however; in the Deslauriers, Schelew, and Wieman study described above, students simply completed pre-class reading assignments.

2. Provide an incentive for students to prepare for class.

In all the examples cited above, students completed a task associated with their preparation....and that task was associated with points. The assignment can vary; the examples above used tasks that ranged from online quizzes to worksheets to short writing assignments, but in each case the task provided an incentive for students to come to class prepared by speaking the common language of undergraduates: points. In many cases, grading for completion rather than effort can be sufficient, particularly if class activities will provide students with the kind of feedback that grading for accuracy usually provides.

3. Provide a mechanism to assess student understanding.

The pre-class assignments that students complete as evidence of their preparation can also help both the instructor and the student assess understanding. Pre-class online quizzes can allow the instructor to practice Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT; Novak et al., 1999), which basically means that the instructor tailors class activities to focus on the elements with which students are struggling. If automatically graded, the quizzes can also help students pinpoint areas where they need help. Pre-class worksheets can also help focus student attention on areas with which they're struggling, and can be a departure point for class activities, while pre-class writing assignments help students clarify their thinking about a subject, thereby producing richer in-class discussions. Importantly, much of the feedback students need is provided in class, reducing the need for instructors to provide extensive commentary outside of class (Walvoord and Anderson, 1998). In addition, many of the activities used during class time (e.g., clicker questions or debates) can serve as informal checks of student understanding.

4. Provide in-class activities that focus on higher level cognitive activities.

If the students gained basic knowledge outside of class, then they need to spend class time to promote deeper learning. Again, the activity will depend on the learning goals of the class and the culture of the discipline. For example, Lage, Platt, and Treglia described experiments students did in class to illustrate economic principles (2000), while Mazur and colleagues focused on student discussion of conceptual "clicker" questions and quantitative problems focused on physical principles (2001). In other contexts, students may spend time in class engaged in debates, data analysis, or synthesis activities. The key is that students are using class time to deepen their understanding and increase their skills at using their new knowledge.

Where can I learn more?

CFT Director Derek Bruff has a good blog post on flipping the classroom with some great embedded references. Find it here: http://derekbruff.org/?p=901.

References

Berrett D (2012). How 'flipping' the classroom can improve the traditional lecture. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 19, 2012.

Anderson LW and Krathwohl D (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: a revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.

Bransford JD, Brown AL, and Cocking RR (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Crouch CH and Mazur E (2001). Peer instruction: Ten years of experience and results. American Journal of Physics 69: 970-977.

DesLauriers L, Schelew E, and Wieman C (2011). Improved learning in a large-enrollment physics class. Science 332: 862-864.

Fitzpatrick M (2012). Classroom lectures go digital. The New York Times, June 24, 2012.

Hake R (1998). Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses. American Journal of Physics 66: 64-74.

Lage MJ, Platt GJ, and Treglia M (2000). Inverting the classroom: A gateway to creating an inclusive learning environment. The Journal of Economic Education 31: 30-43.

Mazur E (2009). Farewell, Lecture? Science 323: 50-51.

Novak G, Patterson ET, Gavrin AD, and Christian W (1999). Just-in-Time Teaching: Blending Active Learning with Web Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Pashler H, McDaniel M, Rohrer D, and Bjork R (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 9: 103-119.

Walvoord BE, and Anderson VJ (1998). Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Footnote:
¹ Although there is widespread belief that matching students' preferred "learning styles" to instructional formats promotes learning, a 2008 review by Pashler and colleagues finds no evidence that this strategy promotes learning.
Cite this guide:
Brame, C., (2013). Flipping the classroom. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/flipping-the-classroom/.
Brame, C., (2013). Flipping the classroom. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/flipping-the-classroom/.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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by Cynthia J. Brame Print Version Cite this guide: Brame, C. (2013). Flipping the classroom. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/flipping-the-classroom/. "Flipping the classroom" has become something of a buzzword in the last several years, driven in part by high profile publications in The New York Times (Fitzpatrick, 2012); The Chronicle...

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Playing a review game at the end of class to help students reflect upon their time in art.

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Well, I've tried all that. And I hate it. I can't keep up with it, I forget to give a sticker or drop a marble (I've lost too many along the way) and it just ends up being more work with less results. For me. For some of you, it may work beautifully. But you might not have that trouble with consistency like I do. You jerk.

However, I recently did come up with something that I can keep up with. It's a two-minute activity I do with the kids as they are lining up to exit. I hand one random kid the inflatable microphone, making him/her our host and I shout "And now it's time for..." and the kids reply "the Smartest Artist!".

I then proceed to ask the kids questions about what we've covered today. For example, my fourth grade is doing metal tooling. So my questions were "What activity were we doing today?" "What is it called when you dent the metal in with your tool? (embossing)" "What is the Egyptian symbol for life?"(we are using Egyptian symbols in our design). You get the idea. As I ask the questions, the host will call on a boy or a girl and we keep score on the dry erase board.

The kids really seem to enjoy it. In fact today I was asked if we could make sure to clean up on time (because Mrs. Inconsistent is ALWAYS running late) so we'd have enough time to play.

My art classes are a little on the short side. I see my kids for 30 minutes twice a week. That's IF I'm not running late. And in between getting supplies out, giving directions and cleaning up (if that's what you call what we scramble to do in 30 seconds or less), we are usually at a 17 minute work time. So this short little recap is just right for me to keep up with.

Okay, look. I don't claim to be the Smartest Artist. But if you need an end-of-the-class, everyone-loves-it, educational activity, I say try it. You might like it.

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Well, I've tried all that. And I hate it. I can't keep up with it, I forget to give a sticker or drop a marble (I've lost too many along the way) and it just ends up being more work with less results. For me. For some of you, it may work beautifully.

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Film each demonstration/lesson. At the beginning of class, show the students and have them follow along or watch. During the video, I can circulate the room and help students, especially those who have behavior issues. The next week, if students were absent- I can play the video again while I am still available to help other students.

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Flipped Teaching (also known as reverse instruction or the inverted classroom), is a relatively new buzzword in education. It began in the 1990s as technology (specifically computers) began to be commonplace in the classroom and at home. As more and more students were able to get their hands on computers, teachers began questioning the role of the teacher in the classroom and the role of homework as well. What evolved is a tutor-based approach where digital lectures are given outside of the classroom and students work on problem-solving during class time, with the teacher right there as a guide and coach.
Here is an idea of how Flip Teaching works in some classrooms:
1. The teacher creates an instructional video of the lecture and posts the video on a web-based site, such as You Tube. Recently, several websites have begun collecting videos made by teachers and posting them online to share. Sites like TED-ed and the Khan Academy have a plethora of video-based lessons to choose from, most of which are under 10 minutes. TED-ed works with animators to capture an awe-inspiring lessons happening in a classroom and share this experience for everyone to see. These websites also offer background information, discussion questions for deeper thinking and even quizzes. Ultimately, the teacher could create his own video or find an appropriate one online to assign students as homework. Some teachers even pair up with a colleague in order to lighten their video creating load.

2. The students watch the lecture at home as homework.

3. Students are given a quick quiz at the beginning of class that lets the teacher know if the video was watched and the homework was completed. Most flip teachers offer quick, basic quizzes that are worth only a few points and take only a few minutes to complete each day. The points are then included in the students' overall grade.

4. Students spend class time working on projects or problem-solving based on the information from the videos. Teachers are seen as a guide and coach to help students with problem-solving strategies and differentiate learning during this applied instruction time.
The Pros and Cons of Flip-Teaching
Want to learn more about Flip Teaching? Check out these resources: The Flipped Classroom, Duke University's: Flipping Teaching Around, and The Flipped Classroom: EduucationNext.
What are your thoughts on Flipped Teaching? Have you ever tried it? Would you consider it?

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Will You Flip for "Flipped Teaching?" - The Art of Ed

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Flipped Teaching (also known as reverse instruction or the inverted classroom), is a relatively new buzzword in education. It began in the 1990s as technology (specifically computers) began to be commonplace in the classroom and at home. As more and more students were able to get their hands on computers, teachers began questioning the role ...

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At the end of class, review the "data wall" and review what we learned about during our session.

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Attention Art Teachers! Are you being asked to show "data" of your teaching and learning in your classroom? Is the mere notion of tracking 500+ students making your brain addled with logistical riddles? Well. . . me too. Most of the home room teachers at my school keep Data Notebooks for their students to show growth and evidence of learning. However, I do not believe there is an art room in the whole entire 'Verse that is big enough for all those 3 ring binders. Sooooo I adapted an idea that a good friend gave me which I started last year and am just now getting around to using and implementing. It is a Data Wall and it is pretty neat.

On the left are the different standards and topics covered by the curriculum. The top part is the grade labels (k-5) and each column has a sticky note which corresponds to the color of one of the standards. Each time we complete a project or lesson that covers the standard or topic, a sticker will be put next to the class. If we cover it more than once - more than one sticker.

Each sticky note has the day of the week for the class that is taught. For example, under the "K" column each sticky note says M for Monday, T for Tuesday, TH for Thursday, and F for Friday. (There is no W because I am at another school on Wednesdays) Some classes have more stickers because some are further ahead on projects and lessons.

This is in the rudimentary stages but it is the best system I could come up with for now. I am happy with it for several reasons the main one is that it is so rainbowy! (I declare that to now officially be a word.) The awesome visual of it got the kids really excited when they saw it today and they were stoked that they have already learned some stuff and pumped up about filling up all the sticky notes with stickers by the end of the year.

I have always struggled with a way to make data meaningful for my students, I always thought that it was something I have to do with the sole purpose of appeasing evaluators. After seeing my student's reactions to it I was pleasantly surprised and might even use it once in a while.

I am really happy to have a creative, quick, and easy way to display data. Hopefully I will be able to fine tune it to be even better!

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Attention Art Teachers! Are you being asked to show "data" of your teaching and learning in your classroom? Is the mere notion of tracking 500+ students making your brain addled with logistical riddles? Well. . . me too. Most of the home room teachers at my school keep Data Notebooks for their students to show...

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I only get forty-five minutes a week with students, what are some ideas to help students remember the content from week to week?