https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0 This is a curation of articles and links that addresses the following inquiry question: How can visual (art) inquiry enhance learning and literacy across the curriculum?  en-us 2018-08-16 14:15:52 UTC 2024-11-24 07:11:43 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Pictureland.png lisa186 https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/273488052 In this passionate TEDx talk, Cindy Foley champions the visual artist as a model for how we can teach for creativity.

Foley begins her talk by discussing how arts education has been undervalued and watered down to fit in with inflexible structures and standardised assessment.  Her argument is set in a U.S. context but can be applied to our own Australian context here.  Pressure from industry and educational bodies now ask all educators to teach students to be creative.  Foley demonstrates how this is a difficult task and looks to the habits employed by practising artists to model new creative inquiry pedagogy on.

Foley outlines 3 essential habits:
1.  "Comfort with ambiguity" - That we should celebrate the unknown and be comfortable that it is part of the process.
2.  "Idea generation" - That we should embrace the student as the generator of ideas and not be secondary to the teacher with all the ideas or plans.
3.  "Trans-disciplinary research" - To ignite curiosity with student interests and passions which will motivate their research and learning.

This talk allows me to reflect on my own personal art inquiry and studio habits.  How I can model that to students and colleagues to benefit their learning?  In my future role as a teacher-librarian, I can use these essential habits to create inquiry learning environments both within the library and in 'classroom' spaces.

]]> 2018-08-16 14:24:56 UTC https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/273488052 lisa186 https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/273488478 Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a teaching strategy and curriculum, developed by Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine, for educational contexts and art gallerys/museums. This site is a central point to begin to understand VTS, view articles and connect to workshops or become a member.

VTS has been developed as an aesthetic theory based on strong empirical research over 30 years.  It has a strong foundation in art galleries and museums but has been implemented in a variety of contexts, such as medical education, to develop critical thinking, inquiry learning and visual literacy skills.

VTS uses the teacher only as a guide or facilitator.  Learners are asked to look at an image and 3 questions are asked:
1.  What's going on in this picture?
2.  What do you see that makes you say that?
3.  What more can you find?

Through these questions, facilitators hope to elicit a rigorous process of inquiry and meaning making through discussion, debate and reflection.

The VTS process is simple and succinct in its format.  It is a strategy that can be employed not only in visual arts but across the curriculum.  I can see the advantages of employing this strategy in a whole school approach as it is something that is uncomplicated and facilitator skills can be enhanced in workshops.  This could be a strategy that is used in a 'flipped classroom'.]]> 2018-08-16 14:26:08 UTC https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/273488478 lisa186 https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/273498049 This article is based on a 3 year study, in Christchurch, New Zealand, where the growth of many mushrooms has been a side effect from liquidefaction, caused as a result of the earthquakes that took place in the area.  A kindergarten used the phenonemon as a student-centred inquiry learning project that utilised visual arts language and strategies to support that learning.

The article discusses, in length, how scholars recognise that "visual art provides children with important tools for thinking and learning" (Terreni, 2010 as cited in Penman & Maiden, 2016).  Visual thought is stated as the crossroad of children's higher thinking and language.  Brooks (2009) states that we need to look at the art process as a whole including "drawing, thinking and meaning within the sociocultural and historical contexts of the production of drawing (as cited in Penman & Maiden, 2016).  Thus when children draw (or make art) they are using it as a tool to make meaning not just record it.

This is a very well written article with thorough scholarly research and references used.  The kindergarten case study is a comprehensive and authentic inquiry based study with rich samples and reflective experience documented.  This article gives a strong argument for the inclusion of visual tools to enhance critical thinking and inquiry processes.]]> 2018-08-16 14:53:47 UTC https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/273498049 lisa186 https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/273498302 This is an academic article based on educational curricula and empirical research. Smilan discusses the beneficial inclusion of studio inquiry and museum based analysis in the broader curriculum.

The paper presents evidence in three parts.  Firstly, a theoretical overview, of the role of visual art inquiry, which has been integrated into the wider curriculum, is presented.  Smilan advocates for the use of art inquiry to be integrated by using creative thinking strategies to foster critical skills needed for 21st century communication.  Smilan uses the 'STEM versus STEAM' example to validate her ideas.  The STEAM topic is one that interests me as it is associated with other curriculum areas but also with Makerspaces in libraries, an area that is acutely related to my teacher-librarian studies.

The second presentation of this paper uses researched 'integrated lessons' to demonstrate the effectiveness of infused visual art inquiry.  One example is where the scientific community is utilised to inform and inspire ceramic surface design and applications.  The examples here are more secondary based and are of an excellent standard.

Smilan's final argument looks to emphasise the role of the teacher's own learning practices.  She advocates for these studio practices to be incorporated into teacher's own inquiry learning.

This is an interesting article as it focuses on visual art integration across the curriculum but also makes me question my own learning practices and how that affects my teaching practices.]]> 2018-08-16 14:54:36 UTC https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/273498302 lisa186 https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/274287659 This is an article featured in Knowledge Quest, AASL's (American Association of School) official journal / magazine. Using a teaching recipe as its metaphor, this article guides readers on how to develop an inquiry process for learners. The process ultimately culminates in learners creating an infographic which is a synthesis of the student's learning. 

The authors express the benefits of how the infographic, that is created in the inquiry process, traverse multiple literacies throughout the exploratory and synthesis phases of the inquiry.

The article highlights how many traditional or persuasive infographics do not engage learners in authentic inquiry.  Often, persuasive infographics, or posters, create a backwards presentation where learners arrive at their conclusion before performing their inquiry rather than developing a true inquiry synthesis. The authors advocate for an argument infographic to be developed rather than one that only employs visuals for decoration. This is a strong argument and one that I feel is often lost when attempts are made to integrate the arts into other parts of the curriculum. Arts based literacies are powerful when used purposefully and to create meaning and message. They should not be a subsidiary literacy tool.

Many visual inquiry and visual literacy tools are examined in this article supporting how they are beneficial to use across the curriculum. Interestingly, the article discusses how learners must examine who the audience is, as part of the inquiry process. In visual arts making for an intended and genuine audience is always deliberately considered. Also discussed are rubric and scaffolding design which is supported by multiple literacy skills, such as media literacy in the storyboard process and design literacy, in the framing of information.

This is a well rounded article that is rich in pedagogical discussion and discusses practical ways of integrating visual inquiry methods and multiple literacies into inquiry curriculum. ]]> 2018-08-21 13:05:50 UTC https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/274287659 lisa186 https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/274291240 I first came across Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt through Twitter searches.  Bathurst-Hunt is an early childhood teacher who strongly advocates for inquiry learning in education and is the co-author of the publication "Inquiry Mindset", (MacKenzie & Bathurst-Hunt, 2018).

In her blog, Bathurst-Hunt has a regular feature, titled "Wonder Wednesday", where she features children's picture books as a provocation tool in inquiry learning.  Each book is succinctly summarised and given a context for how it was or could be introduced to students.  Bathurst-Hunt then discusses connections that can be made to student's own knowledge and to the outside community.  A series of questions or wonder prompts are presented.

Bathurst-Hunt's real life examples, using picture books, embrace multiple literacies to develop inquiry learning in her class.  This blog is a valuable resource for myself as it is in an early childhood context that I am less familiar with.  Picture books present an excellent visual tool to use in the inquiry process as well as engaging multiple literacy skills.  Picture books, fiction and non-fiction, can also be used in all curriculum areas.  This is a very engaging blog with loads of tangible examples and practical advice.]]> 2018-08-21 13:18:05 UTC https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/274291240 lisa186 https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/277126756 This article talks about the role of the "specialist" teacher and how they are greatly undervalued, as a resource, in schools.  Murdoch discusses how these teachers can act as gurus or masters of their field who we should utilise more in both teacher and student learning.  Often specialist teachers explore their teaching context outside of school, in their own personal pursuits, and "talk passionately about the need to explore, experiment, meander, question, reflect - the hallmarks of inquiry learning" (Murdoch, 2014).

This article made me reflect on my own role as a specialist teacher and what I can share and give to colleagues and students in my own workplace.  In particular, as both a visual art teacher and in the role of a teacher-librarian, how and to what extent can I impart my visual inquiry skills to others.  How accepting are the school communities to collaborate?  Do I run programs, such as Makerspaces, if the school community lacks enthusiasm to connect?  Utilising our own specialists including teachers, parents and others in the community is a strong way to enrich inquiry processes. Specialists, introduce authentic contexts, experiences and literacies to student learning.  By using our own specialists, cross-curriculum opportunities can be explored and more wholistic school approaches to inquiry learning developed.

This article, more than anything, has been both a trigger and reflective resource to consider my "specialist" role in the teaching and learning environment.]]> 2018-09-02 06:54:40 UTC https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/277126756 lisa186 https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/277134363 In this university paper. Eisner summarises his research and views about how the arts is fundamental to the educational context and should not be seen as a peripheral study,

Throughout the paper, Eisner outlines his viewpoints in a series of summarised statements.  Each point discusses what education can take from the arts to improve educational outcomes.  The paper is very well written and very strong in opinion but uses examples to further substantiate each statement. 

Throughout his discussion, Eisner challenges educators to reflect on the quality of their own teaching pedagogy and to use inquiry processes, implicit in the arts, to enhance learning achievement elsewhere.

One of the highlights here, in regards to my own inquiry question, is Eisner's discussion on the way in which we perceive something.  He emphasises the value on using and developing multiple senses and literacies to experience information.  This is very beneficial in my own inquiry as it places value on the creative experience of learning and inquiring and the nuances of arts experience not often discussed in education]]> 2018-09-02 09:32:24 UTC https://padlet.com/lisa186/asxp5a4a62i0/wish/277134363