Teaching for the Ambiguous, Creative, and Practical: Daring to be A/R/Tography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18432/R27H09Keywords:
arts-based inquiry, learner-centered pedagogy, ambiguity, self-beliefsAbstract
This purpose of this inquiry is to explore how an a/r/tographic model of shared inquiry led to deeper insights about learner-centered pedagogy. Invited to teach and redesign a very large ‘Art & Society: Visual Arts’ course at a large university with a 21st century issues-based focus, together with my commitment as a constructivist, learner-centered teacher, the current phenomenological study was born. The phenomena studied was whether a large, lecture-style class taught from a more non-traditional, non-lecture, art-as-experience, learner-centered epistemology might affect students’ balanced thinking and perceptions about their learning. Students’ perceptions, along with the regulatory role of emotions, are critical factors in motivation and behavior; students’ self-beliefs about learning and their capabilities affect their behavior, resilience, and persistence in the face of challenge.
Arts-based methods of inquiry with multiple forms of data, regarding both students’ and researcher’s lived experiences resulted in new artforms and informed praxis. After a student survey was determined the best way to poll perceptions about their learning in a more constructivist environment, the author’s Mixed Parallaxic Praxis method emerged from this study. Key findings indicated students’ increased openness to other perspectives and to cultural and creative experiences, increased engagement and a personal desire/thirst to create art, and a personal confidence to analyze art—despite their lack of former experience with artmaking or art instruction in high school. Qualitative and survey data informed how learner-centered practices enhance students’ self-beliefs about their abilities as creative learners, so important to overall motivation and capacity to learn overall.References
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