Freedman Faciliations

Caitlin Hazelton FACILITATION SHEET 1 Title: The Professional Field: Theorizing Visual Culture in Education Author(s): Freedman, K. Source/Date: (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences): Fine art and visual culture were once considered two very separate fields, but now must be taught together as two important aspects of visual art. They often borrow from each other, and blur lines that were formerly more distinct. Curriculum now draws on an interdisciplinary approach that is informed by several characteristics, including technology, multiculturalism and critical thinking.

Short Overview (including any important quotes): In this chapter Freedman (2003) discusses how the visual arts “…have become fundamental to the cultural transformation of political discourse, social interaction and cultural identity that characterizes the postmodern condition” (p.1). She believes that identity is formed through visual culture and education has become increasingly discursive, allowing for deeper interpretation of meaning within a community or classroom setting. Freedman (2003) states: “Informal art education happens throughout our lives as we encounter visual culture and have thoughtful discussions or debates about it” (p.2). Utilizing critique and critical theory allows the definition of art curriculum to expand and grow beyond what it has been for centuries. Art education must be a reflection of the time it is taught, and also be in a constant state of change and critical inquiry that both shows our current culture and examines it. Freedman suggests to maintain this status, a “challenging of boundaries” must exist, including the way art is made, what is considered art and how it is taught specifically within a school setting. Freedman (2003) concludes that teaching visual culture incorporates eight basic foundational concepts including: “Reconceptualizing the field, meaningful aesthetics, social perspectives, interactive cognition, cultural response, interdisciplinary interpretation, technological experience, and constructive critique” (pp. 20-22).

Response/Critical Reflection (Include applications to future teaching):

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Freedman’s introduction to incorporating visual culture within art education curriculum is important on many levels. The influence that visual culture has on youth is both relevant and alters their culture, social perspectives and lives in fundamental ways, and often informs the way people live their lives. Due to technological advances in the last 25 years, it is now virtually impossible not to interact with visual culture in some form or another on an almost constant basis. Not only teaching students about the formalistic qualities of visual art within popular culture, but also to critically examine the meaning and influence and cultural biases that certain visual imagery has is important and expands the curriculum of art education beyond the “how to” and into the “why.”

I plan on incorporating visual culture within my curriculum in the future, because I believe in the power of visual imagery to spread a message, and to connect to the larger part of society to create a community that interacts on many levels. Discussion on the stories we tell and are told by our contemporaries creates a multicultural, discursive learning experience, that allows students to realize the power of their own voices and the ways that they are affected by and can affect their societies using visual art.

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FACILITATION SHEET 2 Title: Finding Meaning in Aesthetics: The Interdependence of Form, Feeling, and Knowing Author(s): Freedman, K. Source/Date: (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences): Students have basic knowledge of form and media, but have found the processes of connecting meaning to form particularly challenging. An increase in attention to aesthetics as part of curriculum demands an analysis of what are aesthetics and how they relate to visual culture. It is important to teach students that meaning can be derived based on individual experience.

Short Overview (including any important quotes): In this chapter Freedman (2003) discusses education’s role in helping students create meaning from their visual culture and visual arts. “Definitions of aesthetic response, the conditions of aesthetic experience, descriptions of aesthetics objects and aesthetic theorizing are at the foundation of curriculum, regardless of whether they are overtly addressed” (p. 23). She begins by critically examining the historical foundations of analytic aesthetics, and how the rise and fall of meaning through the advent of formalism and expressionism has formed the foundation for modernist curriculum. Only in the last 50 years has there been a call to widen the understanding of visual culture and it has slowly made its way into education. Next, Freedman asserts that there is an overreliance on formalism in education, and how popular visual culture borrows from fine art and conversely, how fine art references popular art. Because of this blurred line between the two, aesthetics can contain many interpretations, depending on through which lens it is viewed. Freedman goes on to discuss the theories of John Dewey, who “viewed art as fundamentally providing an integrative experience connecting body and mind and criticized the idea of an aesthetic that sought to separate the two” (p. 38).

Dewey believed that art exists as experience and is valued within the context of the time it is created and/or viewed. This idea informs neopragmatic theory of a social aesthetic that lends to multiple interpretations of visual culture. Freedman concludes that “postmodern conceptions of aesthetics involve a social relationship between people mediated by visual culture” (p. 42). As people change, meaning and aesthetics change.

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Response/Critical Reflection (Include applications to future teaching): I strongly believe that aesthetics must be examined from many different viewpoints. In this way, not only can meaning be interpreted, but it can take on several different meanings, based on personal experience. In a school setting, with many students from different backgrounds, cultural upbringings, social circles and subcultural groups, it is important to teach them to have respect for each other and for themselves.

Learning about other viewpoints and examining art and visual culture with a critical eye, meaning questioning the intent of the artist within the context of the current time as well as historical context, teaches students about the voices that are both represented and underrepresented in our society. This not only acknowledges the way things are and the way things should be, but also gives students the realization that they hold the power to become a part of the influence over their own society and the broader community as a whole. This takes art education from the realm of formal technical practice into an interdisciplinary social science that allows the use of visual art as a tool to create powerful and meaningful messages that can change the world.

In my future classroom, I plan to have a curriculum that not only teaches specific art skills, but also includes content that examines student’s culture and their place in the world. Looking at their influences from every day experiences, such as advertisements, tv shows, movies and other visual media and how they hold deeper meaning than just what is seen on the surface, and then comparing that to what is normally considered fine art, is one way to introduce a critical examination of visual culture, and exactly what art means in this day and age.

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FACILITATION SHEET 3 Title: The Social Life of Art: The Importance of Connecting the Past with the Present Author(s): Freedman, K. Source/Date: (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences): Involving a critical examination of the past and connecting it with contemporary visual culture is a vital part of art education. Focusing on meaning in context of the society of when art was created is becoming more important than simply learning about how it was made, who made it and in what era. Traditionally, fine art has been viewed as a narrow group of artistic endeavors from primarily formalistic content, technique and value. Visual culture examination has started to broaden the view of what is considered “art” and also what is considered valuable to learn about both within and outside of a traditional school setting.

Short Overview (including any important quotes): In this chapter Freedman (2003) discusses how art history in schools has primarily been narrowly focused on formalistic qualities of art and those works that were deemed “valuable” by art historians and connoisseurs who tended to exclude the work of typically underrepresented groups such as women and non-Europeans, and worked with the “…assumption that the past is linear and atomistic, made up of actions and reactions, and as if peoples and ideas that are off the timeline do not exist” (p.48).

Revisiting historical inquiry has brought art outside of the realm of art history into a broader social context. Consideration to multiple viewpoints of the past can help reexamine multicultural influences and the value and devaluing of viewpoints outside of our own thus far. “An education in visual culture must be thought of from interdisciplinary and extradisciplinary positions that allow information from inside and outside of school to be connected to school subjects” (Freedman, p. 49). Art as a part of visual culture must be examined contextually and critically and social influence and ability to change society and culture must be considered. Contextualizing involves our own experiences combined with what we know and have learned from others’ own historical contexts. For example, metaphors or symbolic representations vary from person to person, so teaching “x means y” is fallible at best. Showing students that they can use their own individuality and interests to inform their art can be socially relevant at any age. They can open up “disciplinary boundaries [to allow] students understand ways in which the past lives in the present and future” (Freedman, p. 62).

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Response/Critical Reflection (Include applications to future teaching): Reexamining the past and its influence over our lives today is crucial in a contemporary art education experience. Historically, art in schools in the US has focused on European, heterosexual male ideals and the ways their power influences visual art and cultural and social experiences. However, this is only one side of the rich histories that existed in the past and continue to exist to this day. Non-European, LGBTQ, females and other groups did not just spring up out of thin air in recent past. There have always been underrepresented people and examining that through an art historical context can not only teach us about what else was out there, but also how society continues to struggle with power dynamics today. It is important to teach students about art history, and its social meaning as well. Using visual culture to compare and contrast the way the same stories are often recycled and reinvented in fine art but also in popular culture, is another way to dig deeper into how powerful and universal narratives can be, and also how they can be quite biased. Visual culture continues to allow a space for criticality of how we teach, what we teach, where we teach and who is being taught to either perpetuate or break free from looking at history from a single point of view.

Although I think it is important that students are taught the traditional history of art, in my future classroom, I plan on giving my students the opportunity to learn about and explore artists that fell outside the male, Eurocentric narrative that has been told in art classrooms for the past century. Connecting art history to a student’s own individual cultural background, gender and identity can not only help them see how art has had many stories and histories, but also how a student’s own voice is important, and can be a part of history itself.

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FACILITATION SHEET 4 Title: Art and Cognition: Knowing Visual Culture Author(s): Freedman, K. Source/Date: (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences): Cognition and the arts has recently gained more attention, and the sociocultural aspects of cognition have become central to research and theory in art education.

Cognitive processing that takes place when we encounter visual culture combines both psychobiological and sociocultural effects. Teaching visual culture involves including a change in instructional methods and recognizing individual experiences with visual culture and the effect on learning.

Short Overview (including any important quotes): In this chapter Freedman (2003) discusses the relationship of cognitive processes to learning. Freedman states: “Our first response to visual form in the environment is to determine whether it is familiar and whether and how we will engage with it” (p. 64).

Pleasing visuals hold our gaze, but displeasing ones may cause us to look away.

However, the more life experience we have allows us to take in a greater variety of visual experiences and process them according to cultural and societal norms.

When a student is emotionally invested, engagement and learning increase. This is often not the case when subject matter, such as art, is presented to students with no prior knowledge. Students who have no experience in art can have a fearful reaction and need guidance in order to overcome that fear. “We are only able to understand the visual arts because of the information we have previously stored about visual features and meanings” (p.67). With the advent of technology and a crossing over of fine art into visual culture, an increase in the access to art knowledge has occurred. This has happened not just in schools, but in everyday life. This has created a number of diverse avenues for art to be looked at, explored and learned about. Meaning in art is made not just in the mind of the creator, but in the experiences of those who view it. Connections between what we know and what we view allow sense to be made of it, then we draw narrative conclusions that allow for learning.

In the past 50 years, there has been an increasing awareness of the fact that artistic development is a result of both psychobiological and sociological factors.

Children naturally develop artistic skill that increases towards realism as they age, and drawn responses correspond to different stages of life. However, social learning can have an effect on these behaviors, and art reflects the environment of visual culture 7

influences.

Interpretation of these artistic influences must include criticality, as “learning not only occurs in context but is driven by context” (p. 79). Constructivism, which is rooted in Dewey’s pragmatism, deals with the fact that knowledge is highly individualized based on previous experiences. There are five general principles of constructivist conceptions of learning, including, “…Learning is development, disequilibrium facilitates learning, reflective abstraction is the driving force of learning, dialogue with a community engenders further thinking, [and] learning proceeds toward the development of structures” (p. 80). Utilizing these principles in order to find common ways of thinking in order to establish communication is essential in education. The communication that occurs “necessitates a teaching approach that is provocative and enables students to make social connections” (p. 81). Applying artistic concepts to diverse situations and then combining meaning with these concepts as they are learned and used with art making creates a learning environment that engages students with their education on a deeper and more meaningful level.

Response/Critical Reflection (Include applications to future teaching): Cognitive examination of art and artistic process is key in learning the way art is made and for what purpose. I feel it is important though that the experiences of students are taken into account. As an art educator, keeping an eye on artistic development of children and fostering not just the psychobiological stages but also examining their sociological and cultural influences and incorporating those within the curriculum will help with student engagement, emotional connection and learning processes. Assuming that all students will be at the same level at the same time is an inaccurate and limited way to teach art. Pushing them to reach some predetermined developmental level of artistic skill is a step up, but is also not giving students adequate art education. Keeping them engaged and challenging them to work above and beyond what they perceive they are capable of is the most dynamic and effective method of art education. This will not only help them with their artistic skills and development, but also provide them a space for developing life skills.

When I was teaching my clinical hours at St. Mary’s, my fourth graders and my seventh graders both had varying degrees of artistic experience and ability. Some students had moments of a lack of confidence, especially in their drawing skills, and being able to have strategies to help them solve these issues gave them the tools to succeed. For example, one boy was having trouble practice sketching his symbols for his final artwork, and questioned why he had to, since the final artwork would not be a drawing, but rather a painting. I wanted him to draw an outline of his body, and he gave up without even trying, declaring “I can’t do this, I don’t know how to draw, and I don’t see the point.” I knew that his background was that he was very academic and interested in science, so I explained to him that making a sketch prior to the final artwork is similar to making a blueprint for a building, and that it is a form of experimenting so that the final results are what you want. Mistakes are OK, and that there are simple ways to incorporate drawing. I explained that it did not have to be 8

perfect, and that starting with a simple shape, such as a circle for a head, is a great way to tackle what seems like an overwhelming task. Alternatively, another student in the class greatly enjoyed drawing, and instead of tracing some shapes as other students did, she freehand drew her sketch. I gave her extra time and less direction with her drawing, but I did encourage her to work past her already skillful ability by adding more symbolic elements and working with the elements and principles of design. Although the results of both artworks were vastly different, they both were successful, reflected the student’s personality and pushed them slightly beyond their perceived ability.

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FACILITATION SHEET 5 Title: Interpreting Visual Culture: Constructing Concepts for Curriculum Author(s): Freedman, K. Source/Date: (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences): Visual culture exists everywhere, and art can be viewed at other venues outside of museums, making art accessible for all. When art is viewed in new contexts, it causes new meanings to be constructed. Various forms of visual culture can be approached as sites of learning in curriculum in several ways, including critical examination of individual response to visual culture, realization of the similarities between fine art and visual culture and providing sources outside of school for educational purposes.

Short Overview (including any important quotes): Freedman (2003) discusses how curriculum must include the process of interpreting what is seen at a high level of functioning, including: “(1) unpacking underlying assumptions, (2) forming multiple, possible associations; and (3) performing self-conscious, critical reflection” (p. 88). Teaching visual culture requires interdisciplinary investigations of the underlying assumptions that are revealed in the conceptual spaces. Art education must realize and examine what metaphorical suggestions exist within visual culture and advertising and recontextualize fine art in contemporary contexts. Artwork can be viewed from multiple lenses and in different contexts, therefore taking on multiple meanings that can be valid to all students learning to navigate their place in the world.

Analysis of artwork through formal qualities is important, but contexts of who, what, when, why and how art has been created are also important to examine.

Interpretation has become increasingly epistemological, and what we know outside of ourselves has changed into examination of who we are and how the world outside of us shapes us and vice versa. Freedman states: “More interpretations mean a more creative response” (p. 92), meaning that not everything we need to know about an artwork is contained within the artwork itself, nor even in its intended meaning. The interpretations become less about following clues to discover a single, true meaning or intent of a work, but rather what new meanings and interpretations can be made in multiple contexts. Imagery can be more influential and suggestive than written text.

“The impact of imagery has a wide range of sociopolitical and economic issues which, in turn, influence student’s identities, notions of citizenship, beliefs about democracy, and so on” (p. 97). Advertisements can influence in these ways through didactic clues, which 10

can be used to teach criticality through considerations of audience and perpetuation of stereotypes. “…Diverse representations of a single concept or issue [can] be helpful in developing an understanding of the ways in which representations work and interpretations develop based on prior and extended knowledge” (p. 103).

Response/Critical Reflection (Include applications to future teaching): The three steps to examining visual culture including realization of assumptions and suggestiveness, coming up with multiple interpretations and then critically examining those thoughts and suggestions and interpretations are very important when teaching about visual culture. It is so important to include a deeper analysis of what we are looking at, because meaning has proven again and again not to be one universal truth, but rather takes on new forms depending on where it is viewed, and who is viewing it. I feel that examination in this way can lead to greater student confidence in their own opinions and beliefs and also a greater awareness of the ways that visual culture influences their lives.

When I was in high school, I remember several field trips to art museums and art history discussions, and the notion that I could critically reflect on fine art or that I could include my own visual culture within the art curriculum was non-existent. I was taught that everything I was learning about was “good art” and that art that existed outside of museums was not. Although I remember feeling unmoved by certain classic artworks, I was taught that the way I thought about those artworks was “wrong.” This was something that led to me having a lower self confidence in my artwork and in my own sense of being in general. As a future art educator, I plan to instill a sense of importance by allowing students to voice their thoughts and feelings in a safe space, but provide them opportunities and resources to research and critically examine those feelings in order to have the information to back up what they are thinking. I also would like to use and examine visual culture in order to engage and also inspire the ways in which art is made and viewed.

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FACILITATION SHEET 6 Title: Curriculum as Process: Visual Culture and Democratic Education Author(s): Freedman, K. Source/Date: (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences): Curriculum is a reflection of people’s deepest desires and communicates their ideals. It is a form of social action and teaches students to make informed decisions about their visual culture choices so that they may be viewed with a critical eye.

Contemporary curriculum is dynamic and promotes individualism within a democratic setting that can help students understand multiple viewpoints based on a combination of their existing knowledge and the introduction of new information (Freedman, 2003).

Short Overview (including any important quotes): In this chapter, Freedman (2003) asserts that a postmodern curriculum is difficult to achieve due to the constant flux of “cultural spaces [that] seem to expand and contract and boundaries of various sorts are blurred” (p. 108). These constant changes in culture reflect the highly individualized experiences people have, and therefore, curriculum should be, in some ways, autobiographical. Students are constantly learning, and inputting themselves into what they learn, whether it is through the hidden curriculum that is learned in school outside the intentions of the teacher, or the null curriculum that is learned outside of school because of the content that is left out. Art curriculum often is focused solely on the technical aspects or skills of art, but we “must be wary of curriculum that focuses on the technical aspects of art and on ‘accurate’ interpretations” (p. 109), and work to combine the conceptual with the technical.

Freedman (2003) goes on to say that there are five conditions of curriculum that are present, including: “(1) Curriculum is a form of representation…; (2) curriculum is like a collage…; (3) curriculum is creative production…; (4) curriculum suggests “likely stories” rather than objectified and disembodied truth; [and] (5) curriculum should be made transparent” (pp. 109-111). Curriculum combines many cultures from various sources and interests, and is continuously changing, taking on new forms depending on who is teaching it, who is learning from it and how it is written and taught. The truths of curriculum are varied and numerous and must be revealed to students so that they may take part in the development of the curriculum themselves.

Educational aims, goals and objectives can be at odds with how art is represented in school curriculum. Objectives that solely focus on technical skills, “…are disconnected from the complexity appropriate to instruction for students…” (Freedman, 2003, p. 112). Art objectives can be unpredictable, but should also be sociocultural, psychobiological and interdisciplinary. In order to incorporate all of these aspects, several forms of curricula must be used, including sequential, interactive, event 12

experiences and interdisciplinary.

Art education provides an opportunity for students to “understand the power of the visual arts in human life… or explain the interactive relationship between cognition and emotion, thinking and feeling” (Freedman, 2003, p. 115). Curriculum that uses a variety of media, and critically examines visual culture allows students to develop concepts and learn skills simultaneously, rather than one or the other. Students will learn by connecting previous knowledge with new concepts and developing curriculum that promotes these aspects of learning is necessary for art educators. Previous knowledge references come from a variety of places outside of the school environment, and teaching varying truths or conflicts gives rise to new meanings. “If cultural institutions in a democracy are to educate enlightened citizens who take part in political decision-making and work together to improve cultural conditions, then relationships and conflicts of meaning in the realm of images must be considered in curriculum” (Freedman, p. 124).

Freedman concludes that student histories, including their cultural heritages as well as their current communities and experiences help define how curriculum should flow. “Therefore, in school, students should study art both as a reflection of particular histories and as a result of bridged histories” (Freedman, 2003, p. 127).

Response/Critical Reflection (Include applications to future teaching): I could not agree more that curriculum must not only reflect a socially engaged and critical examination of visual culture and history, but also incorporate the individual identities of the students that are being taught. In that manner, curriculum will be everchanging, and will never succumb, to “one true and correct way.” Curriculum must reflect the times, culture and community in which it is being taught. When I was in high school, art education was mainly skills-based, and did not take into account any conceptual or cultural references. It was not until later in high school that I was able to have some input into the content or meaning behind my art. However, it was in college when I first heard the phrase “art is not created in a vacuum.” I never really understood what that meant exactly until I began to see that life informs art and art informs life in ways that go beyond just making pretty pictures. The lines blur between the everyday experiences we have and how we synthesize and interpret those experiences in order to form our identities. Just as life is ever changing, curriculum is too, and an art curriculum should reflect that. As Freedman (2003) states: “Inquiry-based methods of instruction… provide students with opportunities for interpretation that necessarily leads them in an interactive, artistic investigation outside the work and outside themselves, to find the sociocultural sources of their associations (p. 127).”

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FACILITATION SHEET 7 Title: Art.edu: Technological Images, Artifacts, and Communities Author(s): Freedman, K. Source/Date: (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences): Visual technology influences visual culture by expanding cultural experience, and can be thought of as media, giving educators the responsibility to help students make informed choices. American education must include issues surrounding visual technology, including the benefits, such as helping accept diversity and promoting empowerment; and the problems, such as who has access to technology and the dangers of how the line between fantasy and reality can blur.

Short Overview (including any important quotes): Freedman (2003) discusses visual technologies and how they have become a part of our everyday lives, with ease of accessibility and suggestive representations. She observes, “Visual technologies easily and quickly enable us to cross conceptual borders, providing connections between people, places, objects, ideas and even professional disciplines” (p. 128). The boundaries between truth and fiction are often blurred, as it is easy to create fantasies that look realistic. For example, certain computer games that have become so graphically interesting, they can be considered artforms. “Interacting with a visually complex computer game can be a powerful experience because it is suggestive of many possible stories and new images that spin away from the screen the player sees” (p. 132). Video games and other media have become more about the experience, and less about the outcome or goal of the game. This echoes postmodern curriculum, which is also non-linear, and not only shows new ways of doing things, but connects young people with the more traditional or older ways of doing things.

The relatively easy access to newer technologies allows students to take part in the production of the visual culture they are studying. Using technology to create art allows for greater risk taking, collaboration and seriation. Sharing imagery is easier and technology allows a for a more global community to happen by connecting people who would not normally be connected. Teaching computer-based art also has aesthetic and historical implications, and blurs the boundary between art and science (Freedman, 2003).

Although there are many benefits, technology must also be viewed critically.

There are sociocultural implications, because not everyone has access to it. Also, it is necessary to critically examine aspects of visual culture, such as advertising and “ideal imagery” that is manipulated to represent a narrow view of what is pleasing. Art education must take into considerations of how these fantasies and limitations can affect self-esteem. “Through a contextual curriculum, students gain an awareness of the place 14

of technology in the production and reproduction of, for example, visual stereotypes, and become aware of the perils and possibilities of the virtual world” (Freedman, 2003, p. 142).

Freedman (2003) concludes that television, a cultural way of life in itself, has been incorporated into education so much that it has become one entity with entertainment, also known as “edu-tainment.” The effects of television watching can have profound influences over learned behavior if left unchecked, and lead to even violent and racist tendencies. Although historically TV has helped to draw a line between fine art and commercial art, the lines continue to blur as it becomes more accessible, and the critical eye continues to develop within students. They are learning to see for themselves instead of being told what to see.

Response/Critical Reflection (Include applications to future teaching): As a photographer, I am no stranger to the use of technology in art making. I am very familiar with how it can be both beneficial and dangerous, and the effects of visual culture on self-esteem can be powerful. As a child, I was often left on my own to view television, and with some luck, my main influences fell under that of socially aware and educational programs, such as Sesame Street and Mister Rogers Neighborhood. They taught me to be empathetic and have a love for myself that defied what I was taught in my home life and even in formal schooling. Most of my influences were positive, however, I did grow up in the era before the internet. As a mom, I see how technology has become integrated into children’s lives inside and outside of school. This has also emphasized the importance of teaching students to look at everything they see with criticality and to create their own visual imagery with deeper meaning and purpose. “As a result of increased interactions with visual technologies and other popular visual culture, students need increased critical guidance that teachers can provide” (Freedman, 2003, p. 139). It is very important for me to stay connected to current visual culture and to incorporate what the students see and care about in my curriculum as an art educator. I also will make sure that not only are they taking advantage of newer technologies, but also have opportunities to explore traditional media and how they relate to how technology has developed.

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FACILITATION SHEET 8 Title: Contributing to Visual Culture: Student Artistic Production and Assessment Author(s): Freedman, K. Source/Date: (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Main Idea/Purpose (2-3 sentences): Visual culture is best understood when students are able to learn relationships between concepts and skills by incorporating both into curriculum. Creating and assessing art is vital to the learning of visual culture and provides a way to communicate about social issues. Studio production helps students connect to their world around them and assessment must remain consistent with the art that is being produced with a constant push toward forward thinking (Freedman, 2003).

Short Overview (including any important quotes): Freedman (2003) discusses how scientific rhetoric has increased in importance over the last century and emphasis has been placed on finding the existence of objective truths that can be clearly seen or measured in assessment. Curriculum strategies that conform to educational standards or incorporate standardized testing have become the standard method of assessing educational growth. However, assessment in art must include an understanding of how social and cultural conditions affect outcomes, and should enhance learning, without necessarily quantifying outcomes. In general, artwork is assessed by the use of benchmark imagery and consensus among educators and professionals in the field. The use of rubrics to provide detailed levels of achievement based on objectives, recording and presenting process work, providing opportunities for risk taking and involving students in critique are all ways in which artwork can be effectively assessed. Combining all of these into a body of work or a portfolio can provide a quantitative measurement of growth that includes the connections between social and cultural influences in art: “Teachers can help students see that an understanding of art requires a search beyond the surface that can give students skills in investigation and help them develop visual sensitivity� (p. 153).

Involving students in critique creates a sense of community and increases an awareness of quality. Viewing artwork with a critical eye through research and synthesis and then applying interpretation to peer work can help students push each other towards greater content and technical skill. There are several methods of critique that can be employed with students to have them interpret and evaluate artwork, including: traditional critique which is teacher led and questioning is tied to learning objectives; student questioning which has students present and ask questions about their own art; individual dialogue which involves more private journaling and sketchbook work over time and is discussed one on one with teachers before presenting to the class; small group critique which involves small student groups that critique each other’s work and 16

report to the class; peer pairs where students work in pairs to discuss work; and role play, where students take on the roles of art professionals or laypeople and make comments from different perspectives. All of these forms of critique create a sense of community while celebrating individual strengths.

The community building that happens in critique can also be applied in assessment. Learning is enhanced within a group setting and assessing individual achievement can be limiting. A student’s culture and history should be taken into account when assessing, and cooperative learning groups should be formed.

Cooperative learning “…should help students focus on assessing and improving individual and group processes of learning, as well as assessing content outcomes” (Freedman, 2003, p. 161). Cooperative learning groups have shared goals, that foster many life skills including positive interdependence; accountability on an individual and group basis; promotive interaction with face to face experiences; social skills such as leadership, negotiation and conflict management; and group processing by way of reflecting on how to work better together. Student collaboration leads to a construction of shared meanings and involves self-assessment and assessment of others in order to increase learning. Teachers can also work collaboratively in assessment communities to build stronger forms of assessment, which has already been employed outside the United States.

In order for group assessment to be effective, a change in lesson design must occur. There are three important components of assessment. The first is methods of procedure, where evidence of performance and achievement is gathered. Next are the methods of analysis of the evidence, which can be either quantitative or qualitative. The last is analysis criteria, which is the process of determining which methods are appropriate to use in both gathering evidence and evaluating it. One of the best methods of gathering evidence in an art classroom is through portfolios, which can be assessed as a body of work within a group via summative assessment at the end of a period of time. Methods of formative assessment can also occur, such as viewing and evaluating process work informally, which can be collected through observation or video recording. Art classrooms can therefore be sites of collaboration, community and group work that can be created and assessed as a whole, which involves accountability, responsibility and other life skills that might not be learned on an individual basis.

Response/Critical Reflection (Include applications to future teaching): Growing up, most of my classrooms were seen as places of competition rather than collaboration. Even in the art classroom, students would present artwork and be assessed individually, and critiques would largely look to the teacher for what qualities were present or needed to be improved upon. Looking at historical artwork, we were taught that any work presented in a museum or gallery setting should be appreciated as “fine art,” and if we had a difference of opinion or viewed something with a critical eye, that was not acceptable because of our inexperience. In my future art classroom, I plan on taking a more collaborative approach to the learning environment. Students that are allowed to interpret and analyze artwork critically build a sense of confidence in 17

speaking and their own point of view. This in turn would provide a better foundation for creating more meaningful art as well as helping others do the same.

Assessing artwork in a group can provide an interesting take on creating a sense of community in the classroom. Traditionally, assessment is largely based on individual performance in response to objectives presented to the class. However, group projects that assign students to work to their individual strengths can allow students the opportunity to have successes in learning that they might not otherwise have if left on their own. I feel that collaboration can be useful and important, but it is also imperative that students working within groups are not able to get a “free ride� in a group setting, letting others do work for them and getting credit. That is something that can be resolved through careful planning of projects and assignments, and the emphasis of delegation among group members. It can also be formatively assessed though teacher observation of process work and checking in with groups as projects are being developed. The realization that assessment can have social and cultural implications is very important and taking all aspects of what effects a student learning can provide more accurate interpretations, evaluations and development of life skills.

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