How would you describe the term ‘assessment as learning’? How about ‘assessment for learning”, or ‘assessment of learning’? These are the kinds of terms that a teacher should be aware of when thinking about the evaluation of student work. The project of filming my personal response to those questions turned out to be a lot of fun! Take a look:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhRxvMAeSKk&w=560&h=315]
We began to have an interesting discussion today about Media. Does it influences us? Is the average person in control? It’s strange to me that most people I know would state that advertisements skew perceptions of the female body, force women to become anorexic, but that video games aimed at males do not force them to want to be violent.
Do video games influence us to kill one another? Do advertisements influence us to be anorexic? Which one is it? Do we have Free Will at all here?
To be fair, advertisements request viewers to obey, while video games only demand participants to play. However, I would still argue that Media, being all around, being ever-present, is either something humans grow resistance to, or not.
Or perhaps, we all find ways to give Media permission to enter our safe zones. Yes yes — I know that product is evil, but I deserve something nice for once. On the other hand, most people do not let the violent images they see command them into perpetrating awful crimes.
In either case, it’s important to attempt to understand, and to be critical. I realize that throughout my life, endless sources have allowed me to learn to be analytical. It don’t think we’re necessarily born to understand what is true and what is false automatically.
Double Whammy; a skinny female shooting a big gun. Do cartoons have the same effect on people as live-action?
All at once, the sentence evokes both feelings of utter fear and eagerness, confirming what I’d been hoping to learn – to what extent is an art teacher in control of the subject that they teach? Well, “to hire a teacher is to hire a curriculum,” writes Kit Grauer in her essay Walking the Talk: the Challenge of Pedagogical Content in Art Teacher Education (page 10, ReVisions). So…basically, the most specific thing in terms of guidelines for creating an art class for students will be the naming of lessons and units, or at least, that is according to Grauer.
In any case, there will be some challenge in transforming the studio knowledge that I already have into teachable, or pedagogical knowledge, as it’s called. It’s intimidating having the road ahead so open to possibilities, which makes it equally susceptible to failure. What will students want to learn? I know what some of the important aspects of art education are to me – what I’m thankful to have learned, what I want to know more about, what I wish someone showed me about certain disciplines when I was younger. However, that stuff isn’t necessarily important. What is of value are the broad impressions that art-making can potentially leave on students to help them grow to be better human beings, even if they don’t pursue careers in art.
Furthermore, there’s the likelihood of not even teaching in the field of art. How then will I deal with the open nature, or the lack of openness in creating a comprehensive and cohesive class for other subjects? I ask myself these questions, trying to bring myself back to the time in Nepal where Stephen and I created karate and drawing classes on the go, teaching in debris-filled lots and ruined school yards outside of Kathmandu. In the face of necessity and scarcity, there was an abundance of inspiration and ingenuity. What I fear, perhaps, is the vastness of playing the part of an entire curriculum.
The Chaotic Karate Class — Photo by Anna Carson.