Mapping And Supporting Transition In Learning Through Contemporary Art

Author(s):

Helen Burns(presenting / submitting)Kate Wall

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

29. Research on Arts Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

29 SES 13 A, Researching in the arts

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-11

11:00-12:30

Room:

557.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Tiago Assis

Contribution

Mapping and supporting transition in learning through Contemporary Art

Helen Burns and Kate Wall, Newcastle University and Durham University, UK

helen.burns@newcastle.ac.uk, kate.wall@durham.ac.uk

Overview

This paper discusses the use of contemporary art-based pedagogy to support transition within children’s thinking, in order to then support them in school transition and beyond. Exploration of the specific, educational potential of contemporary art, or art of our time, is in its infancy, despite its potential to stimulate thought about contemporary life and ‘raise issues pertaining to our values and our aspirations.’ (Wilson, 2003). The potential to change our beliefs can extend to those we hold about learning, providing potential for transforming learning (Dweck 2008). Potential for transformation also lies in the typical lack of imposed narrative, permitting the referencing of personal life-worlds (Adams et al. 2005) which we apply in using works of art as ‘keys to understanding’ (Efland 2002). Dealing with metaphor, art necessitates ‘cognitive breakthroughs’, going ‘beyond the given and compelling our own thinking to go beyond the given.’ (Lipman, 2003). Considering this, does individual learning benefit from manipulating and creating art metaphors to describe learning and result in developing related knowledge and skill? This would constitute metacognition (Flavell 1979), or ‘reflective and strategic thinking about learning’ (Mosely et al. 2005). Metacognition is most likely to develop through the articulation of thinking in a community of enquiry (Wall 2012). Within a gallery-based community of enquiry, contemporary art stimulates thought and discussion. The nature of the context allows ideas to be shared visually, overcoming barriers imposed by prose and supporting the ‘voice’ (Rudduck 2006) of young children. Using contemporary- art- metaphor to generate discussion should increase metacognition, aspiration and support the transition towards self-directed learning. A map of this process is valuable in a range of contexts.

The context for the research was an art gallery: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, UK. BALTIC is committed to ‘transforming learning’ and while gallery educators were confident that this takes place, there was no clear evidence. The research subjects were 10 Year 4 children from one First School. Soon to undergo transition to Middle School, we supposed they might be better equipped for change should the project nurture their self-directed learning. The research objectives were:toexplore the potential of using contemporary art as metaphor for learning in order to increase metacognition; to attempt to map the process of transforming learning , (should this process occur);toexplore the potential of contemporary art in raising aspiration; and toexplore how such pedagogy might support self-directed learning.

At Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, the children worked with an artist, gallery staff, teachers and Durham University staff, to use art to support them in thinking about their learning. They went on to each make a sculpture which was a visual metaphor for their own learning. Using art in the galleries and artistic methods with an artist, the children were able to think and talk about their learning, arriving at the point where they had learned about their own learning and expressed this visually. Through this process, children became increasingly enquiring and able to take responsibility for and direct their own learning. Evidence suggests that all of the children understood their own learning more by the end of the project and had undergone a transition within their thinking.

Method

Method The research came from a constructivist perspective and drew ‘generalizable inferences out of observations’ (Bryman). Participatory Action Research (McNiff and Whitehead 2006), included the Research Assistant, children, gallery staff, teachers and artists as partners. Successive research cycles focused on contemporary art as metaphor for learning. ‘Visual methods’ (Prosser and Loxley 2008) were used to capture data generated through the learning experience, which, combined with observational data (video), underwent grounded theory analysis. A case study for each child was produced. Drawing on the case study, the process of transformational learning was mapped and visualised. Tools included ‘pupil views templates’ (Wall and Higgins, 2006), to capture children’s reflection of their speech and thought in a gallery setting. The templates provided insight into children’s metacognition and also allowed us to track the development of their understanding of and attitudes to art and how this related to their learning. Additionally, we commissioned the design of a template which enabled us to capture children’s feelings about taking part in each gallery session. Children completed goal and reflection sheets before and after most of the sessions and these enabled us to understand how they were thinking about their learning and how this pattern developed. Of course there was also the art which the children produced as a metaphor for their learning and observations of the extent to which they had grasped the idea of metaphor and applied it to their learning, since this would signify metacognition. All of these tools worked simultaneously as catalytic tools (Baumfield et al. 2009) which helped them to think about their own learning, getting them into habits of focusing and reflecting, as well as being a way of eliciting data. In order to try and capture the development of aspiration, we also asked children to mind map their hopes for the future at the start and end of the project. Further data was generated in the form of reflection on each session from the adults involved and video footage of the sessions was also used as data. All participants kept sketchbooks which contained all of the evaluation tools as well as personal reflections. Each child worked with an artist to design and make a piece of art to symbolise their own learning. Through this process, children came to understand themselves as learners and consider how they learn best, developing knowledge and skills which should be useful throughout their lives.

Expected Outcomes

Summary of outcomes Advances in knowledge and understanding relate to: • How contemporary art as metaphor supports metacognition by encouraging an enquiring approach and offering a ‘space’ to externalise and conceptualise tricky thinking about learning • Metaphorical thought seems to support children to think deeply and broadly and for some, this is reflected in extended aspirations for the future • Children’s pre-existing ideas about learning can help or hinder their ability to benefit from the project process and fully understand the possibilities of metaphor and art in that context • Children’s personal interests offer both advantages and limitations within the learning process but are more of an advantage within the time limits of this version of the project • While the project supports the development of self-direction and metacognition for all children, this does not always translate into developed ideas relating to their hopes for the future; the project would need to be adapted to fully support this more specific focus • The special nature of contemporary art supports the development of enquiring approaches and enables children to make personal connections, resulting in self-directed learning • If themes around learning are introduced into working with contemporary art, metacognitive development can result • The way that art processes enable the externalization of thought are advantageous in providing unpressured freedom for exploration, perhaps due to a lightening of the cognitive load • Working outside of the classroom, in a gallery space, seems to support the transformation of learning in providing an opportunity for a ’new start’ in an exploratory environment with ‘no right answers’ • In projects of this length, with limited session times, there is a real challenge in fully enabling children to be as aware and part of the research process as they are part of the project being researched

References

Dweck, C. (2008) Mindset: the new psychology of success. Ballantine Books. Flavell, J.H. (1979) Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: a new area of cognitive developmental inquiry. Cognitive Development. 34: 906-911 Lipman, M. (2003) Thinking in Education. Cambridge University Press Mosely, D., Baumfield, V., Elliott, J., Higgins, S., Miller, J., and Newton, D.P. (2005) Frameworks for Thinking: a handbook for teaching and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rudduck, J. (2006) The past, the papers and the project. Educational Review. 58:2, 131-143 Wall, K. (2012) “It wasn’t too easy, which is good if you want to learn”: An exploration of pupil participation and Learning to Learn. The Curriculum Journal, 23:3, 283-305 Wilson, B. (2003) Of diagrams and Rhizomes: Visual culture, contemporary Art, and the Impossibility of Mapping the Content of Art Education. National Art Education Association, 44:3, 214-229

Author Information

Helen Burns (presenting / submitting)

Newcastle University, United Kingdom

Kate Wall

Durham University

School of Education

Durham

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