The Artist‐Led Pedagogic Process in the Contemporary Art Gallery: Developing a Meaning Making Framework

Drawing on recent research which examined how selected artist educators perceive themselves as arts practitioners and analysed how these constructions inform their pedagogy, this article proposes a framework of meaning making in the art gallery. Art practice is defined as a process of conceptual and experiential enquiry which embraces inspiration, looking, questioning, making, reflective thinking and the building of meanings. The pedagogic process instigated in the gallery resembles art practice in that artists seek to ‘teach’ skills including questioning and critical reflection and promote experiential learning. Hence artist educators function as facilitators enabling learners to engage directly with art works (which are seen to embody the knowledge of the artist creator and contribute actively to the construction of meaning), whilst sharing their knowledge through dialogic exchange. The devised Meaning Making in the Gallery (MMG) framework encapsulates the pedagogic relation‐ship between artist, learners and artworks in the gallery and proposes a model of creative teaching and learning which has potential application within cultural institutions and beyond.     

The Integrated Approach to Teaching Visual Art in After‐School Activity Classes

The present article discusses the possibilities of interdisciplinary integration for teaching art to primary‐school students in after‐school activities. Integrated teaching, as one of the ways for putting into practice the socioconstructivist approach to learning and the theory of the guided construction of knowledge, is used as a basis for conceiving and implementing the two projects described in the empirical part of the article. The research questions, addressed here, aim at finding out how a project‐based approach and the knowledge gained in school and through the students’ individual experiences can be applied pedagogically in after‐school art activities. To achieve the aims of the study a two‐cycle action research was conducted where the integrated teaching was viewed as a developmental spiral, in which the insights, experiences and results gained from the first project fed into the planning and realisation of the second one. The outcomes of the two projects suggest that the integrated presentation of teaching material enhances the students’ learning abilities to make associative connections between the different subjects, to transfer their skills from one project into another, and to apply their knowledge from one subject area to another by processing various sources of visual or verbal information in their creation of artworks. The two projects have proven empirically the validity and educational relevance of the integrated approach to teaching art, and the usefulness of the ideas in the New Finnish Core Curriculum for the holistic development of the child in the complexity of today's world.     

Mind,Language and Artworks as Real Constraints on Students' Critical Reasoning about Meaning in Art

To engage in discussions of artwork meaning is to engage in critical reasoning, a factor that is central to the interpretation of artworks in the art classroom. While this may appear as a common‐sense claim that reflects the tacit assumptions most art educators have about students' critical dispositions in art, it is also evident that little is known about the deeper structures underlying students’ critical reasoning and how such structures shape students’ interpretations of artworks. Drawing on my research on students’ theories of critical meaning in art, this article explores the nature of practical and theoretical constraints on students’ critical reasoning about the meaning of artworks. I account for how intentional beliefs, language and representational artefacts function as a nexus of real constraints that condition students’ advance into interpretations of the social meaning of art. After briefly outlining the design and methodology of my study, I examine students’ critical reasoning performances during the formative period of development between middle to late childhood. The findings reveal that with increasing age students gradually learn to exercise their own critical intentions and represent inferences that acknowledge the significance of constitutive rules and force of a collective intentionality in the artworld on their interpretations of artworks as artefacts. I then make some conclusions about the relationship of domain‐specific shifts in art understanding, the role of intentionality, representational understanding, beliefs about art and reasoning skills to the linguistic, theoretical and artefactual constraints conditioning students’ intuitive advance into real understandings of art.     

Perpetual Beginnings: The Role of Phenomenological Hermeneutics in Art Education

This paper reflects on the role of phenomenological hermeneutics as part of art history and theory programmes in art education. Though initially confined to Philosophy, this branch of hermeneutics can be utilised in Art Education also, as concepts explored here such as the appropriation of knowledge, interpretation, reading and understanding offer an effective tool to investigate the strength and potential of subjectivity, metaphoricity and embodiment in art practice. This paper begins with a reflection on the most effective space where theory teaching can take place and offers the concept of the hermeneutical space, where teaching is inclusive and supportive of self determined contributions to processes of theoretical reflection on art practice. A mutual learning experience is fostered in this environment, where teacher and student respect each other's readings. Finally, I put forward suggestions as to how this can be realised in an actual teaching situation by relating my own experience.     

COPING SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: A NEW SERVICE FOR ELDERLY CLIENTS

This paper describes a model project that has been developed to teach effective coping skills to the aged. A coping skills program (1) fosters a supportive atmosphere where participants can share feelings and learn to cope with crisis situations; (2) provides extensive information about transitions common to the older adult; and (3) provides experiential processes that focus on personal problem solving and personal coping strategies. Recommendations are made for further research in this area.     

INTERGENERATIONAL EXPERIENCE AND ONTOLOGICAL CHANGE

The phenomenological concept of ontological change, or change in self‐understanding, is used to structure an analysis of the experiential impact of a college‐based, intergenerational service‐learning project. The semester‐long project aimed to create interpersonal, intergenerational situations in which students (N = 12) could experience for themselves the lack of fit between their inherited assumptions regarding aging and the actual meaning of aging as experienced by elders. Content analysis of students’ journals indicated that students experienced four temporally distinct types of experiences during the project. Students entered the project with an understanding as to how they should interact with their companions based on inherited assumptions regarding aging and the elderly (anticipation experiences). In the presence of their companions, however, the students’ assumptions were revealed as inappropriate and incapable of adequately guiding them in their interactions (personal‐conflict experiences). To alleviate the awkwardness experienced in the field, students had to reevaluate their understanding of themselves and their role in their intergenerational relationship and identify changes they could make to improve their intergenerational relationships (reevaluation experiences). Ten of 12 students reported effecting positive changes in their relationships after redefining their role vis‐à‐vis their companions (transposition experiences). Phenomenological theory provides (a) insight into the type of intergenerational relationships conducive to combating ageism and (b) a framework (journal content analysis) for assessing the experiential impact of program participation.     

一致性沟通模式、团体辅导与青少年人际沟通能力培养

萨提亚倡导的“一致性沟通”模式是关注“自我、他人与情境”三方面和谐互动的模式。青少年问题大多源自困扰的人际关系,要建立满意的人际关系,拥有一个和谐共融的情感位置,需要有一个表里如一的沟通姿态和高自我价值感,而这需要在人际沟通能力的培养中获得。以积极心理学为导向的团体辅导,注重人际互动的演练情境,着眼于人性中的积极方面,寻求“一致性沟通”学习,为构建和谐人际关系提供有效帮助和指导。     

Touched by Turner

This is a personal reflection on an encounter with the works of the nineteenth‐century painter J. M. W. Turner in London's Tate Britain exhibition ‘Late Turner: Painting Set Free’. The article discusses the deeply subjective nature of engaging with artworks, and touches upon theories that might account for the ineffable but moving experiences that sometimes occur in such situations, often unexpectedly, and analyses the associations that might prompt them – in this case the details of dogs in some of Turner's works. There is a discussion of the theoretical frameworks that may provide an insight into these deeply subjective, personal and yet significant encounters, and how they can provide a means to a richer understanding of an artwork. The article considers the conditions that might be conducive to these contemplative, affective experiences, and how they might occur in educational settings with appropriate forms of pedagogy. The article concludes by contrasting slow, idiosyncratic and subjective learning through artworks, with the dominant, data‐based and reductive trends that currently prevail in mainstream education.     

Beyond the Understanding of Visual Culture: A Pragmatist Approach to Aesthetic Education

In the recent decades art education has tried to move away from the trends based on practical skills and techniques towards a greater stress on interpreting and understanding visual culture, created by the mass media. This approach implies a revision of the field of study and a redefinition of goals, replacing the study of art with a study of ‘visual culture’, a concept that better describes the daily environment of students and which reorientates art education towards social and cultural awareness. In this article, starting from Dewey's conception of art as experience, a theoretical framework is offered based on three ideas. Firstly, the subject of art education involves aesthetic experience, which includes both ‘high’ art and popular culture. Secondly, it is necessary to reconstruct the balance between understanding and production in art education, in order to consider art products as narratives, stories or comments about life experiences. Thirdly, to review the educational function of art education in order to determinate its value for social reconstruction and for which Rorty calls ‘self‐creation’.     

Understanding Art: Preparing Generalist School Teachers to Teach Art with Artworks

This article focuses on ways of building preservice primary teachers' confidence in teaching art with artworks and, in particular, on how to develop their pedagogical content knowing. It is suggested that through opportunities offered for engaging in observational and reflective practices with artworks an initial groundwork is set that can challenge pre‐service teachers' preconceptions about art and promote an aesthetic form of inquiry. A qualitative approach was followed which included in‐depth interviews with twenty pre‐service teachers regarding their attitudes and knowledge towards artworks. The findings indicate that enhancing teachers' abilities to practice factual inquiries and then move on to interpretive inquiries of artworks can help them learn how to learn about artworks and how to organise meaningful art viewing activities with children. Issues relating to the participants' level of aesthetic understanding are also discussed as participants were asked to engage with artworks and their aesthetic encounters were documented.     

高职会计实践教学中运用体验式教学模式的研究

体验式教学模式依据企业实际业务和教学目标创设情境,将学生置身于教学情境中进行体验与实践,通过实践与反思的结合来加深知识的理解和技能的掌握,使学生真正成为教学过程中的主体,帮助学生更好地掌握专业知识,既提高了学生的职业技能,也提升了教学效果。     

Vocational education and training and the therapeutic turn

The concept of ‘therapeutic education’ is being increasingly used in contemporary education policy studies to identify learning initiatives which are dominated by objectives linked to personal and social skills, emotional intelligence and building self‐esteem. Contemporary educational goals connected with such strategies have been criticised for encouraging a ‘victim culture’ which marginalises learners and replaces the pursuit of knowledge and understanding with the development of personal values relevant to a life of social, cultural and economic risk and uncertainty. In relation to vocational education and training (VET) and post‐school policy trends in particular, Hayes has argued that preparation for work has abandoned vocational/occupational knowledge and skills in favour of providing learners with personal skills for emotional labour in low‐level service jobs. This paper interrogates such analyses and questions whether the therapeutic role of VET really is incompatible with the traditional objectives of developing knowledge, understanding and values in work environments. Links are made between new emphases on work‐based learning and the ‘caring’ conceptions of learning in post‐school education. It is concluded that—although therapy should not dominate VET—an attention to the important values dimension of learning in the field does involve a therapeutic dimension of some kind.     

Processes and skills underlying continuing intrinsic motivation to learn: Toward a definition of motivational skills training interventions

Continuing intrinsic motivation to learn is the result of actively generating and implementing a variety of metacognitive, cognitive, and affective processes and skills. An understanding of these processes, skills, and their interrelationships forms a basis for the design of an effective motivational skills training program. This article advances a generative process model of continuing motivation in which the central role of perceived self‐efficacy and personal control are explicated. Support for this model from current theories of learning and motivation is presented, along with implications for specific skills training interventions. It is argued that the functional purpose of motivational skills training is to promote perceptions of self‐efficacy and personal control that underlie the ability to take positive self‐control and change negative attitudes and orientations toward learning. For students with motivational deficiencies, this training is a necessary precursor to their active engagement in the learning process and execution of appropriate learning strategies and skills.     

大学英语教师实践性知识构建：一项自我研究

本文以“可能自我”为理论视角,运用自我研究法探究一名大学英语教师实践性知识构建特征以及自我认知对构建过程的影响。研究结果显示：1）该教师实践性知识的构建呈现内容上的阶段性侧重和路径上的合作学习倾向;2）缩减“希望成为的自我”和现实自我的差距并远离“害怕成为的自我”是教师构建实践性知识的动机,教师在各阶段为弥合现有实践性知识与“希望成为的教师”所需知识之间的差异而进行的实践是其知识构建的重要手段。     

Experiences in Sense Making: Health Science Students’ I-Positioning in an Online Philosophy of Science Course

This article reports on a qualitative study on the dialogical approach to learning in the context of higher education. The aim was to shed light on the I-Position and multivoicedness in students’ identity building and to provide empirical substantiation for these theoretical constructs, focusing especially on the connection between personal knowledge and theoretical knowledge. The study explored how health science students’ reflections on their work and discipline-related experiences provided resources for making personal sense of and understanding the subject studied. The students took an online course on the philosophy of science. To study students’ internal and external dialogue in terms of multivoicedness in their sense-making processes I combined a discourse analysis with a dialogical approach. The results showed that in reflecting on their experiences in light of different scientific approaches, the students became engaged in dialogues with different voices, thereby experiencing tensions in their professional positioning. The reasoning tasks gave rise to internal dialogue, involving negotiation between different I-Positions of the self or heterodialogue with the texts. These identity negotiations were manifested in refining, strengthening, and reconstructing professional and scientific I-Positions and in sharing and constructing a We-Position.     

Encounters with the Unexpected: From Holbein to Hirst (and Back Again)

Learning through art in the museum is a Masters’ level module established in 2006 through collaboration between the School of Education at Roehampton University, London and Interpretation and Education staff at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. On completion of the module, participants were asked to reflect on how the experience had altered their perspectives on the collection and their strategies for teaching and learning in art and design. The aim of this article is to explore some of the themes that emerged from these interviews and from other dialogue between tutors and students on the module, themes that are then discussed within the wider context of museum and gallery education. The article concludes by reflecting on broader notions of knowledge and understanding in the context of museum and gallery education. It is argued that the juxtapositions of historical, modern and contemporary art that have been a distinctive feature of Tate's curatorial strategy since 2000 have shed fresh light on older works in the collection and provide opportunities for art educators to reappraise the emphasis currently placed upon the interpretation of modern and contemporary work. It is suggested that developing knowledge and understanding of art is partly about embracing notions of ambiguity and mystery: that engaging with multiple and shifting interpretations of artworks should play a more central role in art education and that part of the process of engaging with art is the experience of not knowing and not understanding.     

Entrepreneurialism and the transformation of Russian universities

Like many Western knowledge‐practices, experiential learning is seen to require what is, in effect, an act of self‐dismemberment, a splitting of the head from the body that denies the connectedness of knowledge to the body and thus loses sight of knowledge as a product of corporeally and emotionally grounded human life. This article first traces the history through which modernist knowledge‐practices were predicated on the rejection of the experiencing body and examines the impact of the resultant epistemology on power relationships. It then suggests that, as a function of memory, experiential learning is more properly understood as an act of re‐membering. It argues that experience is itself located in the body as well as in the social and material locations that bodies invariably occupy — and asks what a theory of experiential learning might look like that re‐members body and mind.     

试论体验式教学在高职院校人才培养中的应用

高职院校不仅要重视学生职业技能的培养,更要重视提升学生的职业素养。体验式教学在传授知识、技能的同时,着眼于人的生命体验与发展,关注学生的认知过程而不仅是认知结果。在研究体验式教学的基础上,结合高职院校人才培养的内容和特点,对体验式教学在高职院校人才培养中的具体应用进行初步探讨。     

寻找自我——华美和中国当代女作家笔下的母女关系比较

相较于一般男作家的宏大历史叙述,华关和中国当代女作家的书写重心偏向她们那不可替代的个人记·tc~,ax性生命体验,其中的母女关系一直是她们热哀书写的母题之一。她们以自传或准自传的故事背景,以母女之间的矛盾、冲突、理解、和解或顶礼膜拜的故事来展现女性寻找自我的成长历程。