Teaching Students to Think About Art

I have been reading and reflecting on encouraging creative thinking in the classroom. This may be more challenging than it has been in the past. As a society, our abilities to work and think creatively are affected by the ‘instant gratification’ mindset that dominates so many aspects of our lives, from microwavable dinners to e-mail. We have gotten to the point where we take for granted what we hear and see coming from television or the internet. Images are not as thought-provoking as they used to be, since we are inundated by commercial ones on a daily basis. We barely see them after a while. As art educators, we need to train our students to work against this tide—to see art as a process, rather than merely a product—a process wherein they slow down and think about what they want to accomplish, and take time to decide upon the best way to go about doing that.

However, as I’ve read about characteristics that would ideally exist in a ‘mindful’ classroom, I’ll have to admit that my classroom does not exhibit many of these, at least consistently. I think one problem is I dedicate all of my students’ class time to working on art projects, and do not give them time to really think about what they are doing. I discuss their creations with them individually, but have not blocked out substantial time in the class period to focus on talking, as a group, about their work. We also do not spend large amounts of time simply having dialogue about art.

Why do I do this? After all, my classroom routine certainly did not arise out of my artistic habits. When I set out to make a painting, the steps of coming up with an idea, and developing the perfect composition, are very large and important parts of the battle. Throughout much of my teaching career, I have thought that a good way to keep my students engaged was to keep things moving. I have expected my students to be most interested in hands-on activities, so they have dominated my students' class time. However, as an art educator, I should be teaching my students, as a class, to stop and think rather than merely do. The 'thinking' part should be a more important part in my curriculum, one that deserves its own allotted time.

How can I change this? I am attracted to the structure of hands-on activities, so the best way to promote ‘brainstorming’ or ‘information gathering’ time would be in a very structured format. It should be part of the classroom routine, like that of passing out supplies, or cleaning up at the end of the class period.

I have decided to incorporate ‘thinking time’ into my classes by adding a couple of structured activities to the routine. These will consist of regular writing in art journals, and group critiques. Art journals are something I have used sporadically in the past. One reason I did not use them this year was that I did not have a unified vision for the purpose of the journal entries, so I preferred to devote more of the class time to working on projects. However, I am inspired by the idea of focusing on one two larger questions or ideas throughout the year, which would also be reflected in my lessons. The journal assignments would center on these, whether they involved looking at another’s art, reflecting on one’s own art, or coming up with new ideas. I would also like to use the journals as springboards into class discussions. With these discussions, as in the journal assignments, I would focus on asking broad, open- ended questions, and will encourage my students to take time to think about their answers.

The concept of taking class time to do a critique is something that was new to me in my college studio art classes. I found critiques to be motivating and inspiring. They helped me realize that people looked at my paintings and actually thought about why I made them the way I did. This encouraged me to think more about how I chose to express the ideas and emotions I wanted to convey (or at least let me know that my choices did convey ideas and emotions). They also helped me to assess my decisions and feel more confident in developing my artistic voice.

In addition to everything critiques helped me learn about my own art, they also taught me how to engage with another artist about their art. It was here that I learned how to ask the ‘why’ questions about a piece of art. I was also able to see firsthand how a fellow student went about the artistic process, and compare it to my own method.

Until now, I had not thought about using critiques in my middle school classes. However, I would like to try to do this regularly. The day after a project is due, my goal is for my class to be in the routine of spending most of the 50-minute period in a group critique, although every student’s work may not be featured in one day. I may also try breaking my class up into groups of four or five to accomplish this, in order for every student to be critiqued. A good way to start this activity might be to give students a list of questions they might ask the artist, in order to help them develop the ability to ask meaningful questions about a work of art. My hopes for this activity would be that it would have the same effect on my students that it had for me—that it would help them to ask questions and make decisions in a more thoughtful manner.

As I use these two ideas in my classes, it is my hope that my students will develop substantially in various areas of creative thinking. I want them to be able to step back and look at their thought processes, elaborate on their ideas, and take ownership of them. I want them to work on the edge of what they know, and to see the intrinsic value in creating something meaningful. Teaching them to slow down and think carefully would be a significant step in that direction, and devoting time in class to this would help them to see its importance. It is my plan to have both of these practices worked into my clasroom routine within the next couple of weeks.