In class, we focused on the readings from last week and this week that brought the theories of how children learn from Piaget, Papert, and Vygotsky.
Papert discussed the importance of tools, media, and context in human development. He found that these tools were in conversation with the people who made them. By humans engaging in material to make and use these technologies, they learn more. In maker education, a student should be guided by the teacher to learn by exploring with trial and error. Then, taking time to step back and reflect about the processes that they discovered so that they understand what they accomplished. Reflection is what makes the learning deeper and meaningful. Unlike Piaget, Papert did not believe that cognitive development is a linear process. Papert believed that constantly engaging in the world around you makes you a constant learner. This makes cognition into a cycle from concrete to abstract in every learning situation.
Today’s class discussion reminded me of lectures by Judy Burton in the art education program. She speaks about how children need time to reflect on the processes that they used while making in order to dedicate it to their knowledge/repertoire of artistic skills. Without the reflection component of the lesson, they will not be able to commit it to their memories as a technique learned that they could apply in other situations. This prompted me to wonder how a teacher could influence students in art education to realize their processes while making. I was taught that students should be engaged in discussion and open-ended questions to inspire their imaginations for what they could do with material. I thought that getting students to realize this cognitive process is a different arena entirely. One solution that I have seen in schools before, is to keep a journal or blog during the making process. Another solution was to hold meaningful critiques. Critiques are sessions of discussion in a class that is lead/monitored by the teacher. They traditionally have students put their work in the spotlight one by one, while the artist and the rest of the class make comments, ask questions, and make suggestions. But, I find that a lot of students find them boring. Some students sit quietly and listen, while other are engaged and responding to each prompt. I find that most students are bored and not actively listening. One way that this could be combated is by having students take reflective notes on each project during the conversation to be handed in later. Or to have them choose one piece that resonated with them and write a response to it later. These critiques could also be done multiple times over the course of making, to take the pressure off of the final/only discussion at the end. In that way, maybe students would be more invested in their own and their peers artwork.
What I really love about auditing this class, are all of the connections I make to what I know about art education thus far. It is making me realize that there is a lot of shared knowledge between theory in technology and art. I hope that continuing in this class will inspire my future teaching practice in ways that will make me stand out from other art teachers.
The activity for class was to make a visual representation of a theory listed in the presentation. Our group was inspired by Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, which focused on assimilation and accommodation. Through interactions with a person’s environment, the person constructs knowledge by using adaption, which is the interplay of assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is applying knowledge to a “new situation” by simplifying the “new situation” to fit within the understandings in your mind. Accommodation is altering your existing knowledge to develop more complex categories in your mind, which changes your cognitive structures in order to learn something new. This prompted us to draw a duck to show how a child would understand what a duck is. First, the duck they could be introduced to is one in the tub. Next, the child would be read a book about a duck, which allows the child to assimilate the drawing of the duck into their own understanding of what a duck is. Then, a child could go to a pack and see a duck fly. In this case, the child would have to change their thinking/categorization of what a duck is to understand there are different kinds of ducks.
