Arts & Aesthetics

Uncovering students’ thinking about thinking using concept maps

Abstract: A method for uncovering students’ thinking about thinking, specifically their meta-strategic knowledge, is explored within the context of an ongoing, multi-year intervention designed to promote the development of students’ thinking dispositions. The development of a concept-map instrument that classroom teachers can use and an analytic framework for interpreting students’ responses is presented. In a preliminary study, the concept map instrument is piloted to evaluate changes in students’ conceptions of thinking after a year’s participation in classrooms where their teachers actively sought to make thinking more visible by noticing and naming the thinking observed as well as introducing and using thinking routines (Ritchhart and Perkins. Educational Leadership, 65(5), 57–61 2008). Concept maps from 239 students from grades 3 through 11 were analyzed. Results suggest that students’ conceptions of thinking do improve with age but also can be substantially developed through a classroom culture where thinking is modeled and rich opportunities for thinking are present. The concept map instrument itself proved to be a robust instrument for uncovering students’ thinking about thinking.

Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education

Many people believe that arts education is important, but few can say exactly why. Here at last are the results of the first in-depth research on the habits of mind that are instilled by studying visual art habits, the authors argue, that could have positive impacts on student learning across the curriculum. Studio Thinking provides art teachers with a research-based language for describing what they intend to teach and what students actually learn. This language will help advocates explain arts education to policymakers, help art teachers develop and refine their teaching and assessment practices, and help educators in other disciplines learn from existing practices in arts education. ISBN: 978-0807748183

Study Center Learning

Works Of Art Are Good Things To Think About

Works of art are good things to think about. This simple premise underlies Artful Thinking, a program that helps teachers regularly use works of art in their curriculum in ways that strengthen student thinking and learning. Developed between 2004-2006 by Harvard Project Zero in collaboration with the Traverse City Area Public schools, the program is being used by K-12 classroom teachers as well as art specialists in several schools in the Unites States and Europe. It focuses on looking at and interpreting art, rather than making art, and its goals are twofold: To help teachers create rich connections between works of art and topics they are teaching; and to use the power of art as a force for developing students’ thinking dispositions.

This article provides highlights from the findings of two research studies conducted during the development of the Artful Thinking program. The first is a study of the effect of the program on students’ and teachers’ ideas about art. The second is a study of the effects of the program on students’ ideas about thinking and learning in general. The investigations were framed as design research (Brown, 1992; Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer, & Schauble, 2003). This means that the procedures developed to explore program participants’ concepts of art and concepts of thinking were designed to be learning-centered practices, integral to the spirit and goals of the program, rather than “add-on” evaluations.

Final Report: Artful Thinking