AbstractThis paper presents a personal view (a view coloured by my cultural environment and upbringing) of young people's education. I look in particular at assessment practices and detail my understanding of the nature of learning, focusing on creativity and the tensions associated with schooling and creative behaviour. Drawing upon and developing my earlier work in the light of further research and experience, I give an overview of assessment practices and approaches to teaching and learning and argue for a learner‐centred approach with a focus on practical work and an environment that promotes creative problem‐solving across the whole curriculum. A pedagogical strategy is presented that is based on four areas of activity: reacting, researching, responding, and reflecting.

A range of arguments is used to justify the inclusion of the arts in schools’ curricula from different parts of the world, moreover, "the arts" can mean different things to different audiences. It is therefore useful to contextualize why and how arts education contributes to such things as social utility, personal growth, and aesthetic awareness. Arts education in many countries is being marginalized, and the cognitive value of arts education is being sidelined. By reinstating the arts in education as cognitively driven, culturally relevant, and progressive, an arts offering can be formed that aligns with, and advances, contemporary perspectives and practices in education.

This chapter examines the pedagogical aspect of learning about art, rather than making art. It presents a brief overview of historical developments in the UK (particularly England) and the USA, focusing in the main upon trends in the secondary (i.e., ages 11–18) aspect of education. In addition to drawing upon some of the key texts to inform my overview, some personal anecdotes are included to give some color to the account. Pedagogical strategies designed to facilitate learners' engagement with visual form are described; this is done within the context of discussion about learner‐centered and subject‐centered approaches to teaching and learning about art.

In this article, we propose “autopsychography” as a form of self-narrative inquiry. Autopsychography seeks to track the shaping of creative paths when reflecting on lived experience as opposed to simply reporting what happened. We illustrate three major theoretical implications underpinning this concept: its rootedness in humanistic psychology that frames the human subject as the “whole person”; its emphasis on “change” and “growth,” core to educative experience; and its arts-informed features. We situate our discussions of autopsychography in the context of self-narrative approaches and we underscore its distinctiveness through comparisons with autoethnography as an already well-recognized methodology. We then present an autopsychographic study into Yanyue’s experience after submitting the softbound copy of her PhD thesis in which she experimented with an “oral diary” and the use of “found poetry” as ways of presenting data.

In common conception, art is often confined to a painting, sculpture, architecture or performance; we maintain however that what enables any art or artistic practice to become aesthetic is human experience. Arts and aesthetic practices are integral to the everyday lives of the indigenous Sabar tribes of India, particularly, in ascertaining Sabar ‘ways of knowing, being and doing’. This article describes the nature of Sabar aesthetic experience, and its educational relevance, through an empirical study employing ethnomethodology and innovative participatory tools. It examines definitions and identifies limitations considered through an indigenous lens before introducing the social actors of the study. Findings illustrates how aesthetic practices empower voice by enabling multitextual expressions, rebuilding trust with the community and generating data that other methods may render invisible. The article offers discussions on how everyday aesthetic experiences and practices are imperative to the development of an authentic being. It conceptualises an educational ecology towards the realisation of sustainable educational systems and culturally critical ideals of education. We argue for an education for emancipation, through difference not domination, through enabling aesthetic and authentic beings. Ultimately, we urge a critical and creative future citizenship that is empowered by education, not constrained by its demands.

Using the different voices of the mentor and mentee, we engage with the notion of creating and conferring aesthetic significance as it occurs in the everyday lives of everyday peoples. We investigate how the arts empower marginalized 'voice' by enabling multimodal expressions and access to information that other methods may not elicit. This article takes the form of a 'duography', reporting an empirical study that focused upon an Adi Jan Jaati or Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) of Jharkhand, in north-eastern India. In particular, we focus upon this indigenous community's epistemic and aesthetic practices. The article thus offers discussions on how aesthetic experiences and activities are essential means of being, of engagement and communication, and of (re) building trust with the community. We conclude by demonstrating the relevance of everyday aesthetics for the development of sustainable educational systems and future citizenship. Standing back, we acknowledge the reciprocal learning that occurs between the researcher and the 'researched', the doctoral student and supervisor.

This paper considers issues associate with teaching art to Muslim school-age students in the U.K., in particular, teaching that involves representations of living beings. Issues of stereotyping and the need to locate teaching and learning within a coherent rationale for art education frame this discussion. Drawing upon research with a small group of English Muslim school-age students, the author found that certain kinds of representational art have the potential for causing offence to some Muslim learners, and that there is a need to modify some lesson activities to accommodate these Muslim students.

Research Article| October 01 2016 Reflections on Art Making and Evolutionary Psychology Richard Hickman Richard Hickman Richard Hickman is in charge of art and design education at the University of Cambridge and dean of Homerton College. His teaching experience includes thirteen years as a teacher of art and design and as a lecturer in art and design education since 1985. He was awarded the Pilkington Teaching Prize by Cambridge University and the Herbert Read Award for lifetime achievement by the International Society for Education through Art. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Aesthetic Education (2016) 50 (3): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.5406/jaesteduc.50.3.0001 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Richard Hickman; Reflections on Art Making and Evolutionary Psychology. Journal of Aesthetic Education 1 January 2016; 50 (3): 1–12. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/jaesteduc.50.3.0001 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of Aesthetic Education Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2016 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2016 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The reference to 'whippet-fancying' in the title refers to the notion of connoisseurship; teachers, who best know their students' abilities, play the part of the connoisseur. Procrustean references, when applied to education, refer to the tendency to trim the curriculum according to the prevailing assessment practices. There appears to have been a tendency in many developed countries to de-professionalize the profession of teaching, nowhere more so than in the area of assessment, with external examining boards making decisions about students' capabilities. Such tendencies are felt particularly harshly in the arts. This article argues for assessment practices in visual art that are student-centred and that take the form of a dialogue between teacher and student, taking into account the developing nature of a student's portfolio. I argue further that meaningful learning in art should not be pre-specified, and that the objectives model of teaching and learning is inappropriate, given our innate need to create and confer aesthetic significance.

Abstract In this paper, we discuss the rationale for using museums as alternative settings for initial teacher education in the primary sector by identifying the significance of transferring the pedagogical strategies characteristic of museum settings to primary art education. To illustrate our points, we examine the case of the "Take One Picture" initiative (hereafter as TOP) by drawing upon evidence from the TOP Cultural Placement pilot project in Cambridge. We call attention to "dialogic teaching" as a valuable pedagogical principle that trainee teachers can take away and build upon to inform their day-to-day practice. Our reflections on the TOP project reaffirm the distinctive role of the museum context in teacher training and the importance of dialogue in engagement with art. In addition, the TOP project showcases how fine arts can be taught from a Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE) perspective that incorporates socio-cultural contexts. We also put forward a "repertoire" approach that connects the various dimensions in art education, including appreciating, making and displaying art. This small case study enriches the current literature by highlighting that museums can be turned into exemplary settings for raising awareness of dialogic teaching and for teachers and educators to practice, design, and improve their own strategies of dialogic teaching. In response to the limitations of the TOP program, we propose that trainee teachers could be encouraged to make art works during their training and that future practices can incorporate a "Take One Object" (TOO) approach to complement the employment of visual stimulus in art education with material objects.

This article aims to address a number of interrelated issues concerning criteria for arts-based research. We start by responding to current discussions and debates over criteria, with a tacit goal of redefining the nature and goal of emerging visions of doing qualitative-oriented research. After reviewing some emerging frameworks for judging qualitative-oriented research and arts-based studies, we explore the prospect of integrating poetic elements into visual inquiry. This feeds into our suggestion of poetic-visual inquiry as a form of arts-based research, which we elaborate through three existing studies. In relation to this, we raise tension and care as two keys for thinking through researchers’ consciousness when carrying out arts-based research.

This paper is based on research examining strategies that some art teachers with dyslexia employ in the classroom. The research assumes that teachers with dyslexia must have devised personal ways to navigate through the educational system to achieve qualified teacher status. The question that this assumption generates is therefore: ‘what learning strategies, used by art teachers with dyslexia, can be used as pedagogical tools?’ To help answer this question, a group of art teachers with ‘severe’ dyslexia were purposefully chosen to participate in the research through interviews, observation and by providing autobiographical details. Through focused reflection on their teaching and learning, they were able to identify particular approaches that they had used in their own learning to inform their teaching. Some positive attributes associated with dyslexia, such as visual spatial awareness, were found to have helped them in their professional lives, in addition to a predictable empathy with struggling students.

A phenomenological approach was employed in order to record and present the lived experiences of three students during a five-hour art-making activity. Theoretical definitions of cognitive processes pertinent to art and design were compared with the descriptions gathered from the students. The research was intended to portray as accurately as possible individuals' experiences in order to ascertain whether there is a possibility for soundly ascribing cognitive functions to art-making processes. The descriptions of students' thought processes reveal the ways with which the selected students approach learning and also offer insights into the possible links between cognition and artmaking. The findings of the study suggest that intuitive and perceptive processes are utilised by the chosen participants in a variety of ways. The consideration of the ordering of visual elements is a process that all participants describe within their art making. The students' visual judgements appear to be a direct response to the art-work being made.

This paper explores community artists’ pedagogies in relation to time and material. Thirteen unstructured interviews were conducted with eight artists under the auspices of an organisation that facilitated community-based workshops in Cambridgeshire, UK throughout 2011 and 2012. Concepts salient to the artists emerged, and six of the eight artists were observed facilitating twenty workshops across five sites. We found that the artists create conditions for open-ended enquiry across five dimensions: space, time, material, body, and language. This paper focuses on one of these dimensions – that of material, with reference to one other, that of time. We discuss artists’ criteria for workshop materials, including simplicity, slippage, immediacy, richness, and ephemerality. We examine how the artists presented a `limited palette’ of select materials, though provided each in abundance. And we interpret the artists using materials to facilitate what they described as slowliness---an immersive, pleasure state free from past prescription and future expectation.

materials to facilitate what they described as slowliness--- an immersive, pleasure state free from past prescription and future expectation.This paper explores community artists' pedagogies in relation to time and material. Thirteen unstructured interviews were conducted with eight artists under the auspices of an organisation that facilitated community-based workshops in Cambridgeshire, UK throughout 2011 and 2012. Concepts salient to the artists emerged, and six of the eight artists were observed facilitating twenty workshops across five sites. We found that the artists create conditions for open-ended enquiry across five dimensions: space, time, material, body, and language. This paper focuses on one of these dimensions - that of material, with reference to one other, that of time. We discuss artists' criteria for workshop materials, including simplicity, slippage, immediacy, richness, and ephemerality. We examine how the artists presented a `limited palette' of select materials, though provided each in abundance. And we interpret the artists using

This article reviews the literature on children's engagement with art and identifies a gap in the field that is concerned with the relationship between making and judging art. A project that sought to examine this is reported, focusing upon three case studies of 11 year olds attending a primary school in Cyprus. The data were collected through a variety of methods, including interviews, art class observations, document examination and questionnaires. It was found that the way these children created and responded to other children's artworks was determined by the significance and the role they attributed to art. We conclude that individual differences play a significant part in determining children's artistic and aesthetic development.