The organisation behind Culture Laboratory. | |
The partnership. | |
Diagram of Engeström’s (1987) activity system. | |
Diagram of the | |
Diagram of activity system for | |
A card depicting the transformation of Alice in | |
Pictures drawn by participants to reflect the story | |
Mistry and Elkin’s first collaborative | |
Form and structure. | |
Excerpts from Todd Elkin’s accordion book. | |
Excerpt from Jesse Standlea’s accordion book. | |
Excerpts from Derek Fenner’s personal | |
Excerpts from Caren Andrews accordion books. | |
Pages from two of Devika’s accordion books. | |
The Artist/Teacher I am. | |
Assessment as Dialogue. | |
The first three pages of a journal designed | |
A reproduction of Fran’s visual narrative with | |
A reproduction of Joe’s visual narrative with | |
A postcard in response to the metaphor ‘training the dog’ addressed to those in the management structure of the institution. | |
Outline of the process model of inspiration to make artworks through art appreciation (ITA). | |
Interventions from outside to make viewers | |
Classes. | |
Course design according to factors to promote | |
Changes in the students’ expressive awareness | |
Theory of practice architectures. | |
UCPS, where releasing imagination | |
‘With the heart of a child’ installation. | |
Teachers’ first exposure to, and interaction with, | |
Teachers’ art-making. | |
One of the teachers focused on facial features. | |
Teacher’s focus on ‘bronze child’s’ hands. | |
Teacher’s focus on ‘bronze children’s’ lips. | |
Teachers working with clay and adding | |
Teachers exploring materials used | |
Teachers interacting with the installation. | |
The installation room’s floor turned into ‘water’. | |
Final ‘sculptures’ made by Art and Design | |
Story mapping. | |
Children using technology to audio record sound | |
Slides of ‘building materials’ and model | |
Children conducting the pulse of music. | |
Children composing with the help of an online | |
Towards a framework for innovation and change |
Table of agreed parameters for | |
Table of musical parameters used in | |
The shared story, initiated by an adult facilitator | |
Schedule of the course | |
Educational interventions and timetables | |
Changes in the students’ interpretations before | |
Changes in the students’ photographic activities | |
Modes of ‘empowerment’ in drama according | |
Complexity of the drama teacher role and drama | |
Overview of the three data sets | |
First data set’s presentation and analysis | |
Overview of children’s learning experiences |
HE | Higher Education |
ILSP | Integrated Learning Specialist Program |
ITA | Inspiration through art appreciation |
M | Mean |
MFA | Master of Fine Arts |
NYC | New York City |
SD | Standard deviation |
SHoM | Studio Habits of Mind |
SLR | Single-lens reflex |
STF | Studio Thinking Framework |
VR | Virtual reality |
VTS | Visual Thinking Strategies |
…glosses over the nature and complexity of the phenomenology of performing: How and why it requires a teacher to think, feel, intuit and flexibly adapt to students’ individuality, and to do all of this for the purpose of engendering understanding and as a sense of growth. When we say that performers seek both to instruct and move an audience, we mean that the teacher as performing artist has in some positive way altered the students’ conception of the relationship between sense of self and the significance of the subject matter, i.e., an increase in competence. (p. 48, italics original)
Teachers do specific things to accomplish their goals. It is not acting, per se, nor salesmanship, nor communication, nor entertainment, nor pedagogical jugglery which account for performance. It is the gestalt of these—moulded into a personal style, built around individual attributes, and energized by genuine commitment and an educated mind—which account for teaching that takes students beyond the confines of their interests. (Rubin, 1985, p. 163)
How one teaches something is constituent withwhat is taught. Method or approach infuses and modifies the content that is being provided. Thus, teaching becomes a part of curricular process, and curricular processes, including their content, become part of teaching; you can’t teach nothing to someone. (p. 150, italics original)
Whenever we want to get a point across, we always tell a parable. When you are talking to people you tell them straight, but you give them a story, so they understand where it fits. And we’ve always been [storytellers] in our household. It’s true, when we are trying to get a point across, we give the parable because it is much easer to say, ‘I get that because I see it,’ rather than I understand the abstract nature of it.
Some of them [lectures] I have done enough times, I know what I am going to say. If there is a current event going on, I can draw that in. I have some examples on my slides, but I usually come up with those on the fly. Some days are better than others. Sometimes we have these case studies [student presentations on a public relations case]. I mean, usually there is something that we are talking about in the material and I can bring in something in from that [case study presentations] into the discussion.
How one designs a lesson or curriculum unit matters, and the design of such plans and activates depends every bit as much on attention to relationships among their components. In the course of teaching matters of pacing, timing, tone, direction, the need for exemplification are components whose relationships need to be taken into account. The ability to do so constitutes a part of the artistry inherent in excellent teaching. (Eisner, 2002, p. 202)
These values and categories also encompass activities undertaken to form corporeal habits but end up being much more than corporeal habits. Since their entry into the individual is not by means of the presentation of ideas and concepts, but instead by means of direct bodily intervention, they in fact bypass consciousness, becoming ingrained as basic orientations towards the world. A cognitive paradigm unfortunately denies the body’s active intentional capacities. (O’Loughlin, 2006, p. 69)
Positive emotional response Learning outcomes Positive emotions Negative emotions Otherness The specifics of the arts and aesthetics
Teachers’ perception of children’s benefits (emotions) Learning outcomes (cognition) Teachers’ own perspective Partnership and cooperation with artists
What worked well Learning outcomes for students Learning outcomes for cultural institutions Educational design What is special for cultural institutions
Output for students Output for artist Educational design What worked well How artists think
What you learn here is something that you could also learn in a subject called history , but what you learn here is something you do not learn at school, because it’s something completely different. Something quite different from what it is in a school because school, it’s more about books and computers. Here, you can learn something while doing something, like an active learning. And it’s the same too when you look at trains and read a bit about them. Also that’s where we did stop-motion activities …It’s not just looking at something and then pressing a screen and then sitting for almost three hours and then looking …We also began to [learn how to] make movement, started doing some drawings, making something, putting some figures together, and something like that, and it became a little fun, it became easy to learn …
Boy 1: We usually only sit and draw … Boy 2: …and draw lines. Girl: …and then we sit with this book. We usually spend a minute and then we draw …We also tried to draw with pencil on paper, so we did not see what we were drawing. We always do that when we start. But otherwise you can decide what you want to do …
Boy 1: When we have visual arts with [our teacher], we don’t do so many paintings, so it’s very much like …drawings where something happens… Girl: Yes, I thought so too. Boy 2: It was much more fun to do that with [the artist].
I have the freedom to use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound and rhythm. EXA 0-17a Inspired by a range of stimuli, and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. EXA 0-18a
Workshop 1, Cycle 2 – All of the children were playing a rhythmically entrained piece of music (for 30s) until Christine started playing substantially slower and louder than the others. Christine’s action of playing both slower and louder was noted as a CMA event on two musical parameters: tempo and dynamics.
Workshop 6, Cycle 2 – Tess had a big drum for this particular section of the workshop. The teacher invited the children to play using the “just play” instruction and the improvisation began with another child, Jane stroking a cimbala (a small sting instrument, similar to a small dulcimer) very quietly. Tess then began playing her drum by scratching the surface very gently with a circular motion. Therefore Tess related her dynamic level (quiet) to Jane’s dynamic level and played her instrument in a way which achieved this (i.e. by scratching it rather than hitting it). Therefore this musical event was coded as S-MA on the musical parameter of dynamic.
Parameter \ Category | CMA | S-MA | |
Tempo | Child sings or plays a new tempo to the group | Child alters speed to match tempo of another child | slow tempo within range of 60–70 bpm |
Dynamics | Child introduces a new dynamic which is louder or quieter than the rest of the group | Child alters their playing or singing to match dynamic of another child | Within range of pp (very quiet) to mp (medium quiet) |
Articulation | Child instigates music which has a different articulation to the rest of the group (e.g singing short notes when the rest of the group is singing long notes) | Child matches their articulation to another child’s. E.g singing short notes after another child has proposed this musical idea | Both long and short notes, but legato only (smooth notes) |
Pitch | Child initiates a different pitch than the rest of the group | Child matches (or nearly matches) pitch of another child | Relatively high pitch for all children |
Arrangement | Child plays starting and stopping | Child B starts and stops with child A who proposed arrangement idea | Children could start and stop as they wished – but there had to be a constant stream of sound |
Parameter \ Category | CMA | S-MA |
Tempo | Child sings or plays a new tempo to the group | Child alters speed to match tempo of another child |
Dynamics | Child introduces a new dynamic which is louder or quieter than the rest of the group | Child alters their playing or singing to match dynamic of another child |
Articulation | Child instigates music which has a different articulation to the rest of the group (e.g singing short notes when the rest of the group is singing long notes) | Child matches their articulation to another child’s. E.g singing short notes after another child has proposed this musical idea |
Signs | Child initiates hand signs with the effect of changing the music – e.g long note sign when the group are singing short notes | Child responds to hand signs shown by another |
Pitch | Child initiates a different pitch than the rest of the group | Child matches (or nearly matches) pitch of another child |
Arrangement | Child A starts and stops playing or singing | Child B starts and stops with child A |
Body percussion | Child makes a percussive action on, or with body (e.g claps hands, hits floor). | Child imitates percussive action of other child |
Alternative vocalising | Child makes a sound other than speaking or singing with their voice (e.g altering timbre to be squeaky or growly) | Child imitates alternative vocal sound of other child |
Sung material (in an instrumental piece) | Initiates sung words or small sung fragments of melody | Joins in with sung words or sings own words or melody |
Spoken word | Initiates spoken single words or phrases | Copies spoken word proposal |
The things you are doing with the kids…I’m not quite sure what it’s getting at. But I’m not musical at all; in fact, this is not a musical nursery actually. They seem to be having fun though.
Arts-based inquiry, as it is practiced by academics doing human social research, fits historically within a postmodern framework that features a developing activist dynamic among both artists and social researchers. (Finley, 2005)
The weakness of the scientific concept lies in its verbalism, in its insufficient saturation with the concrete. This is the basic danger in the development of the scientific concept. The strength of the scientific concept lies in the child’s capacity to use it in a voluntary manner, in its ‘readiness for action’. This picture begins to change by the 4th grade. The verbalism of the scientific concept begins to disappear as it becomes increasingly more concrete. (Vygotsky, 1934/1987)
“We organize information on maps in order to see our knowledge in a new way. As a result, maps suggest explanations; and while explanations reassure us, they also inspire us to ask questions, consider other possibilities. To ask for a map is to say, “Tell me a story.” Peter Turchi, Maps of the Imagination: the Writer as Cartographer (p. 11)
“Artistic creation is a voyage into the unknown. In our own eyes, we are off the map. The excitement of potential discovery is accompanied by anxiety, despair, caution, perhaps, perhaps boldness, and, always, the risk of failure. Failure can take the form of becoming hopelessly lost, or pointlessly lost, or not finding what we came for (though that last is sometimes happily accompanied by the discovery of something we didn’t anticipate, couldn’t even imagine before we found it). We strike out for what we believe to be uncharted waters, only to find ourselves sailing in someone else’s bathtub. Those are the days it seems there is nothing new to discover but the limitations of our own experience and understanding.” (p. 13)
“In general, proactive learners work to make the game worth playing for themselves, not depending so much on hit-or-miss inspiration from others nor on coercion with rewards and punishments. Teachers who encourage learners to take charge to some extent of their own motivation are helping them to develop autonomy as learners.” (p. 203)
“Talk to people you know. Talk to people you don’t know. Talk to people you never talk to. Be intrigued by the differences you hear. Expect to be surprised. Treasure curiosity more than certainty.” Margaret Wheatley, Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (p. 145)
“I was paying so little attention to most of what was right before us that I had become a sleepwalker on the sidewalk. What I saw and attended to was exactly what I expected to see; what my dog showed me was that my attention invited along attention’s companion: inattention to everything else.” Alexandra Horowitz, On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes (p. 2)
“Sometimes when I make work, there is a moment when what I want to make and what I make it with fuse in such a way that the piece begins, against my intention, to take on a form of its own. It is as though I am no longer the prime mover. At this point what is in front of me becomes as strange to me as I am essentially to myself. This is the point I am always trying to reach.” Paul Chan, Selected Writings (pg. 189)
“I used them myself way before bringing them into the classroom setting, and what I noticed is that it is a true representation. It feels more like a painting than a journal because it represents time in a way that painting would represent time. So it’s not a snapshot. It’s actually something that’s a much slower process that’s developed on the surface over a much longer period of time.” (D. Fenner, personal interview with Elkin, July 20, 2017).
“When I started using it with teachers and students, all of a sudden it was after they got into it a little bit, their own aesthetics started to seep in and all of a sudden you could tell. Like, an accordion book halfway through, all of a sudden everything shifted. And they started off and it was all of the models that we were giving them or they were seeing from their fellow students, and then they ended up eventually ending, and most of them would then immediately start over a new accordion book because they had found their method.”
“..the appeal to me for accordion books overall has always been that they stand up, that they break the two dimensional wall, so to speak, and they become a personal thinking wall. There are ways for one to be private about what’s inside the books if one doesn’t want to expose it to the general population. However, it’s a great way for us to stand up our ideas and be able to look at them and exchange them. One of the strategies that’s been great for me personally as an artist or as a teaching in the classroom studio setting is that we can steal like artists from one another. We can put the information out and without words look at each other’s work very easily, and then find things that we like and integrate that into our own work as well as offer constructive criticism, feedback. “Have you considered?”, “Would you try?”, so that can happen from an idea point of view where I see an intellectual idea that I want to spiral out on, or a new way of integrating art materials into an accordion book.” (C. Andrews, personal interview with Elkin, July 26, 2017).
“A was one of those elementary students that if not engaged, would run around the room and poke other students, get in their business and start to irritate in order to get attention. I knew that about A. I’d been teaching her for at least four years. I gave her my accordion book for that school year. I asked her to look for two things. I gave her two sticky notes. (Figure ??) I asked her to list out what did she see , and I asked her to look forwhat was missing or what was needed. She sat there. I teach in 45-minute blocks, so this was probably a 20-minute block that she was engaged in my accordion book, really taking the challenge seriously. At the end, what she saw and the response to, “What do you see?” was‘life, art, a light bulb, telling a story, your passion, the brain, and how life is a big question.’ Now some of this she literally saw. She literally saw a light bulb. There’s a light bulb image, and some of these things she was extrapolating, like ‘how life is a big question ’. I have a lot of question marks in my book. I don’t have this question written out, how life is a big question. She wasn’t copying that. There’s an image of a brain, but there’s no image of my passion. How do you make an image?”“That was fascinating to me as an adult working with a then nine year old, how she was moving back and forth between the literal and her going from what she was seeing to what she was thinking about and what then she was wondering. Then, her response to what was missing was fascinating. She found that what was missing was ‘ what I like to do’ , the‘what else about me besides art?’ , which was referring to my going higher up your idea tree. The other thing that she said was missing was “firepower” When I asked her, “A, what do you mean by firepower?” I do remember, she was in third grade at the time. “Firepower is sort of like what happens with clay: it changes and transforms as we work with it. Clay starts as soft. Its first transformation is when the clay dries out, becoming brittle and fragile. The clay transforms again when it’s fired and becomes hard and strong. Clay has the potential to transform again and again by adding layers of glazes. When artwork has firepower, it has transformed completely from the starting idea, the idea the artwork has layers. Firepower is also. You know, it’s like readable.” when the artwork crafted pops with strength and story
“I started learning English very late. So I was not able to write a proper sentence or a phrase so it was easy for me to draw it. It was easy to take whatever sentence was in my head, and show it rather than talking about it. I do not feel more confident when I talk in English or write in English so I started using these journals and paper as my medium to share whatever was on my mind.” (G, Devika, personal interview with Mistry, August 15, 2017).
“I don’t want my books to look like yours. The thing is I have grown with you as a student and artist so it will happen whenever you grow with someone who is older than you you will take inspiration and use it in your work. But then even if you don’t feel that you are copying them, others tell you. So many people said that you have a style of Arzu akka. I am glad but after a point I do not want it to happen. So I took inspiration from you not only in my books but in the way I talk, write or think about space design and then I mix it up and find my own way to start working towards it.”
“How does this engaged, aware person participate in a democratic society? First, the artistically engaged individual couples intense awareness with a strong sense of agency, a belief that he or she can shape the world. This belief in the average person’s creative power lies at the root of any democratic society. As democratic citizens, we must believe that what we do affects the world around us, that what we do makes a difference.” (p. 1)
engages the student not simply as an active rather than passive ‘receiver’ of knowledge, but rather as an active creator of knowledge with the teacher (Grundy, 1987, p. 101).
hidden below the surface narrative of stories are the assumptions, models, expectations and beliefs that guide people’s decisions and behaviours…stories about real or imagined situations tend to capture these underlying assumptions (Silverman, 2007, pp. 34–41).
It is Wednesday, the day before Beatrice’s long-dreaded crit... Is she to invent a whole new string of fiction that justifies her work or is she to re-tell her previous concoction (Beatrice’s story). Personally, I’m learning the fine art (pun intended) of crits. I treat it like a performance, or a presentation, even a lecture. I spend a lot of time scripting what I am going to say, which is great because I can just read the script in the crit and not look at anyone’s face (Penny’s email).
one is neither exclusively subjectifyingly inside one’s own creative experience, nor objectifyingly looking in from outside the field or territory of work…on the boundary, wrestling relationally with the various conditions, inner and outer, practical and theoretical, creative and imitative, biographical and analytical (Dallow, 2003, p. 61).
[The] image can, when properly understood, foster a deeper sense of the underlying meaning that [an interaction] holds for my sense of self within this particular sociocultural context (Dirkx, 2001, pp. 65–66).
A fact of primary social importance is that the photograph is a place of work, a structured and structuring space within which the reader deploys, and is deployed by, what codes he or she is familiar with in order to make sense (Burgin, 1982, p. 153).
Choose postcards. Write on the back. Address it to whomever you would most like to ‘hear’ what you have to say*. *This will help us decide the intended audience of the papers.
. . . books and bombs, dance and record labels, mothers and daughters, small villages and islands, diaries and story, colonization and immigration, violence and healing, leaving and returning . . . wild animals
” (Sousanis, 2015, p. 11).
” (Sousanis, 2015, p. 62).
” (Sousanis, 2015, p. 3).
” (Sousanis, 2015, p. 5).
” (Sousanis, 2015, p. 144).
Free Photography(5 Times) | 1 |
2 |
Presentation(Once) | |
Lecture (4 times) | Appreciation & Imitation (twice) | |||
13:00–13:15 | Complete a questionnaire Question time with the instructor | Question time with the instructor | Appreciation of an exemplar photograph | Appreciation of photographs by the students |
13:15–13:45 | Photography | Lecture by the instructor |
||
13:45–14:20 | Photography | Photography (imitation) | Presentation | |
14:20–14:40 | Appreciation of some students’ photographs and comments on them by the instructor | |||
Homework |
||||
Explaining the photographs they had taken in the classes | ||||
Describing what they had considered and noticed about artistic creation each week |
||||
N.B. The actual timetable was adjusted according to the situation. |
N.B. **: p < .01.
Appreciation & Imitation 1 ( |
Appreciation & Imitation 2 ( |
||||
Before the Interventions | After the Interventions | Before the Interventions | After the Interventions | Presentation ( | |
Evaluation of | 21 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 15 |
others’ artworks | (100) | (95) | (100) | (100) | (71) |
Comparison between others’ art-making and the | 5 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
students’ own art-making | (24) | (43) | (0) | (42) | (38) |
Development of the students’ | 8 | 11 | 2 | 8 | 9 |
own art-making | (38) | (52) | (11) | (42) | (43) |
N.B. The numbers in brackets show the percentage of students who described the contents of each category in their comment sheet and diary homework in each class. |
Learning through the arts looks beyond the art form itself to outcomes that are extrinsic and often take place when arts are employed across the curriculum to further learning in other subjects. Learning in the arts more often refers to learning within the subject itself /…/ however it is when the concepts become less distinct and start to merge that the greater interest and insight is found. (p. 68)
Teaching children to appreciate art must involve due attention to both the art object and their experience in relation to it. With regard to content it is reasonable to suggest that students should be taught to participate in the cultural world in which they will live with its diverse range of forms and types of art. (p. 45)
Personal | Theatre as a personal transforming cultural resource: Through using and engaging with theatre one’s sense of ‘self is transformed; learning about genres, histories and the range of “choices” of form is part of personal empowerment through theatre. |
Cultural | Theatre as means of making the invisible influences of culture visible and discussable; theatre as a mirror of how we are made; theatre as a mirror of who we might become. |
Communal | Theatre as an act of community in which we actively participate in making of communal representations; theatre as social and aesthetic expression of a community’s hopes, fears and dreams. |
Social/Political | Theatre as rehearsal for change and as an arena for radical dialogue. |
In drama students are to have the opportunity to put themselves in the position of others and experiment with different expression forms, behaviour and solutions in a secure school environment. Drama encourages students to express, form and present their ideas and feelings. In addition, drama constantly tests cooperation, relationships, creativity, language, expression, critical thinking, physical exertion and voice projection. This is all done through play and creation. (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 2014, p. 153)
The Complexity of the Drama Teaching |
|||
Researcher Perspective | Teacher Perspective | Student Perspective | Principal Perspective |
The learning cultureThe playing culture |
Recognition as a drama teacherProfessional identityBelonging to a communityStruggling with the pedagogy of drama teaching | Have fun, perform and learn To learn to create a character, use props, light, music and costumes To learn to work with everybody even if you do not want toTo learn to listen to each other and to play out a storyThe drama teacher is important | Importance of the performanceThe students have fun while they learn about culture. |
The drama teacher’s work as presented in the literature |
|||
A paradigm of purpose consisting of | Drama’s potential for empowerment on | ||
making/forming/creating, presenting/performing/communicating, responding/reflecting/appraising. (O’Toole & O’Mara) | personal level, cultural level, communal level,social/political level. (Neelands) |
Purpose | Data Sets | Participants |
To observe the |
a) 12 primary teachers b) 12 primary teachers | |
To observe the |
a) whole school b) 21 children and 1 teaching assistant, 1 artist (Nicky Smith), 1 governor/artist, 1 parent/artist (wider community) c) 25 children | |
To observe and experience how STE(A)M |
49 learners2 teachers4 guestSTE(A)M teachers |
Some of the children found them disconcerting: ‘they are dead’, ‘they look sad’, ‘they look poor’. ‘Why are some people poor?’ The statues seemed to have an effect on the children because parents came to talk with the Headteacher saying that we needed to do more work with the children so that they didn’t feel worried about the statues …(Senior teacher assistant’s observation)
Firstly, they were encouraged to think about their own bodies and how they could stand in different poses. The children stood up and practised standing in different stances. Next, they were given two pieces of foil to manipulate into a foil figure. All of the children set to work to create some amazing foil figures, all of the poses were so different. (Senior TA’s observations)
I am blown away by the level of concentration, thoughtfulness and pride these young children demonstrated during the project (Senior TA’s reflective account)
How can we release voices and open eyes to possibilities when children have no voice? (Teacher C)
Being confused was an important part of the process and was embraced. Staff resisted answering questions but engaged children in finding their own solutions …or sometimes in recognising that problems could not be answered …but required more questions … (Senior TA’s reflective account)
I loved this element – not only had we had a governor and the university but also a parent involved – the project had a real community feel. (Senior TA’s reflective account)
It was amazing that independently the children’s plans for their sculptures contained elements of water that linked so well with the installation. Linking the statues with the environment was a direct link between art and geography, and matters of climate change. Children were involved in a number of activities that required them to continue asking questions. (Senior TA’s reflective account)
Subject/Area | What Have Children Learned? |
Art | |
Engineering/Design | |
Technology/Computing | |
Science | |
Mathematics |
I’m making a snowflake. I’m making a house. I’m following my own way. I have made two balls. One is inside the other. I have made planet earth and an earth station. I made a doghouse. I made something for people who are blind …it works well …it’s all about feeling it. I made a bell. It was really hard for me to kind of get what was going on. I concentrated on my hands. I closed my eyes. Ideas came. (Researcher’s notes)
I hear intervals I see the intervals in sound now There is a different kind of surface to this sound when it’s a colour or a line you’ve drawn … (Researcher’s notes)