Vol. 13 No. 3 (2017)

EDITORIAL

Rita L. Irwin, Nadine Kalin and Anita Sinner

pp. 281–83

ARTICLES

Effective approaches to heritage education: Raising awareness through fine art practice

Robert Potočnik

pp. 285–94

By learning about the problems of heritage preservation (conservation and protection of cultural heritage) and by creating fine art products with interesting solutions based on well-known facts from their surroundings, students build and strengthen their critical attitude towards problems of heritage preservation. The purpose of this research was to study whether it would be possible to include the contents of heritage preservation along with the contents of the current curriculum in regular fine art classes in primary schools. Research has shown that the results of teaching with the help of various teaching methods, teaching media, fine art materials and with different ways of fine art expression (fine art motives) were positive. Students came up with interesting solutions when carrying out their fine art assignments and they also displayed greater ability of critical judgement and evaluation of heritage care. To date, there has been no research in Slovenia on the possibilities of raising awareness of the importance of heritage preservation within fine art classes.

'You feel like you're an artist. Like Leonardo da Vinci': Capturing young children’s voices and attitudes towards visual arts

Michelle Tan and Robyn Gibson

pp. 295–315

Early childhood research is focusing increasingly on issues of acknowledging and respecting the ‘voices’ of young children. Much of the focus in arts education research, however, has explored adult attitudes, resulting in what seems the invisibility of young children’s opinions. Conducted in the context of early childhood education in Australia, the study, following a phenomenological approach, sought to understand the place of visual arts in the lives of four young children aged five to six years in a combined Kindergarten/Year One classroom located in Sydney. A range of childsensitive research tools were adapted from the ‘Mosaic approach’ to explore how children understand and conceive their early experiences of visual arts learning. In acknowledging the views of children, possibilities for improving arts pedagogy were considered as new questions emerged. The study confirmed the need to acknowledge and validate children’s rich and perceptive attitudes through meaningful experiences and valued conversations.

Enhancing children’s art appreciation and critical thinking through a visual literacy-based art intervention programme

Kyoung Jin Kim, Su-Jeong Wee, Min-Kyung Han, Ji-Hyang Sohn and Carolyn Walker Hitchens

pp. 317–32

Implementing an art-appreciation programme enabled a group of 5- and 6-year-old children to explore artists and their artworks and to understand artistic/aesthetic elements through a systematic sequence investigation. This study examines the impact of a sixteen-week art programme based on a visual literacy theory focusing on children’s art appreciation and critical thinking in Korea. Using mixed methods, data were collected through measurement of children’s appreciation and critical thinking ability, interviews with teacher and class observations. Quantitative analysis demonstrated significant effects of the art intervention programme on children’s abilities to appreciate art and artists and think critically about them. Three qualitative themes emerged: (1) deepening understanding of art, (2) experimenting with art, and (3) expressing themselves through art. Suggestions and implications for curriculum and research are provided.

Teachers adopting artists’ pedagogies: Is it really that simple?

Mark Selkrig

pp. 333–47.

Bringing artists into learning sites such as schools has resulted in diverse educational benefits for students. As a consequence a gaze has turned to the pedagogies artists employ, to consider how their strategies might inform the practice of ‘mainstream’ school teachers. With this scrutiny of artists’ pedagogies, the voices of artists involved in this type of work and how they describe what they do has received limited attention. Drawing on data from a research project in Australia, which explored the learning for artists who work in educational settings, I consider the teaching approaches these artists described along with ‘effective pedagogy’ espoused in educational discourse. While acknowledging the good work artists claim they do in educational settings, rather than viewing artist pedagogies as better or competing with teachers’ pedagogies, they are or can be complementary. Both art teachers and artists play important roles in school art programmes.

Self-history project in visual arts education

Necla Coşkun

pp. 349–67.

The present study aimed to determine how students realized the process of creating a ‘self-history project’ in the frame of the artworks created by the participant students, who, throughout the project, made use of their own life experiences, researched cultural values, enquired into historical events and utilized interdisciplinary relations. Artography, an art-based research method, was used for the purposes of the study during the years 2012–13. The research data are comprised of the artistic works of four students at the painting studio, semi-structured interviews that the author conducted as a researcher/teacher and the author’s observations. The study’s findings indicate that the students were positively impressed by the student-centred self-history approach.

Bu çalıs¸mada ‘öznel tarih projesi’ kapsamında ögˇ rencilerin kendi yas¸am deneyimlerinden yararlanarak, kültürel degˇ erleri aras¸tırarak, tarihsel olayları sorgulayarak ve disiplinlerarası ilis¸kileri kullanarak olus¸turdukları çalıs¸malar çerçevesinde sürecin nasıl yapılandırıldıgˇ ını ortaya koymak amaçlanmıs¸tır. 2012–13 yılları arasında gerçekles¸tirilen çalıs¸manın amaçlarına uygun olarak, sanat temelli aras¸tırma

yöntemlerinden Artography yöntemi kullanılmıs¸tır. Aras¸tırmanın verilerini resim anasanat atölye dersindeki dört ögˇ rencinin sanatsal uygulamaları, aynı zamanda aras¸tırmacı ve ögˇ retmen olan yazar tarafından bu ögˇ rencilerle gerçekles¸tirilen yarı yapılandırılmıs¸ g.rüs¸meler ve gözlemler olus¸turmaktadır. Aras¸tırmanın bulguları

Next Art Education: Eight theses future art educators should think about

Torsten Meyer

pp. 369–84.

The next art is the art of the Next Society. Sociologist and cultural theorist Dirk Baecker pinpoints the term Next Society to the society based on the computer as the leading media technology. Baecker develops his argument on the assumption that nothing influences societal structures and cultural forms as significantly as the respective dominating media technology. As a result in the long run, the introduction of the computer will impact society as dramatically as the introduction of language, writing and printing press. Next Art Education is the attempt to tie in with this assumption by looking for adequate considerations in the field of art education.

VISUAL ESSAYS

Building communities of practice: Pre-service teachers as content architects

Sara Scott Shields and Cindy Jesup

pp. 385–94.

In this visual essay we map a pedagogical exploration from conception to realization. Informed by scholarship in collaborative learning and inspired by the work of contemporary artist, Annalise Rees, we asked pre-service educators to visualize their instructional strengths and weaknesses through the construction of buildings. We asked our students to act as educational content architects, tasked with building a structure physically and conceptually reliant on collaboration and connection. This visual essay first explores collaborative learning in pre-service education through the lens of communities of practice. Next, the essay introduces the parameters of the assignment, before closing with an overview of student outcomes.

Art teacher training: A photo essay

José María Mesías-Lema

pp. 395–404.

This photo essay is part of a performance entitled ‘The Topsy-Turvey Classroom’. It involves students participating in a Master’s programme for visual arts teachers and was staged by surprise on their first day of class. These photographs help the spectator to relive and interpret the experiences that these students had when the door opened on our peculiar ‘Art Basement’. We can see their unexpected reactions, preconceived expectations turned upside down, expressions of uncertainty, unpredictable movements, a performance build-up and their creative interventions. The interconnection between the text and the photographs presents the practical application of teaching strategies involving an art-based educational research for the teacher’s professional development.

Este fotoensayo pertenece a la performance ‘El aula patas arriba’ desarrollada en el 2011. Su puesta en escena involucraba, por sorpresa, a los estudiantes del máster de formación del profesorado de artes visuales en su primer día de clase. Las fotografías aproximan al lector a revivir e interpretar las reacciones

inesperadas, el quiebre de rutinas de un aula, el transcurso de la acción artística y las intervenciones creativas que un grupo de estudiantes han experimentado cuando se ha abierto la puerta de nuestro particular ‘Sótano del arte’. La interconexión entre fragmentos de texto y fotografías muestra la aplicación

práctica de estrategias docentes y artísticas de investigación educativa basada en las artes para el desarrollo profesional de los docentes.

BOOK REVIEWS

Helen Kemp Frye’s Writings on Art, Robert D. Denham (ed.) (2017)
Harold Pearse

pp. 405–408

Conversations on Finnish Art Education, Mira Kallio-Tavin and Jouko Pullinen (eds) (2015)
Aaron D. Knochel

pp. 408–410.

Mere and Easy: Collage as a Critical Practice in Pedagogy, Jorge Lucero (ed.) (2016)

Christina Hanawalt

pp. 410–412.