James Paul Gee identified 36 principles in his book What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy that apply to many areas of education ("James paul gee:learning,"). His Probing Principle is one that I find important to learning and education. This principle says that doing things, reflecting on the actions, making connections and repeating the action to test out the connections and then revisiting the reflection is important to learning (Jonassen, D., Howard, J., Marra, R., Crismond, D. (2008) page 55). I have learned that reflection is extremely important to many facets of life, especially learning. When an action, be it a group project, a research paper or an studio art project, is complete reviewing and reflecting on the process and outcome help to refine the learning and decide if the right steps were taken and if not how to make the appropriate corrections for future projects. In this principle action and reflection are the important parts. The Multimodal Principle is one that allows a learner to experience learning and gather meaning through a multitude of inputs. Text, images, sounds and interactions ("James paul gee:learning,") allow students who have different learning styles to gather knowledge, process that knowledge and understand it. In an art class, a teacher can describe how to throw a bowl on a potter’s wheel, you can see diagrams of the wheel and read text on the steps to throw the bowl but until the student interacts with the clay and the wheel the skill won’t be mastered. There is the coordination between the wheel, the clay and the hands shaping the clay that has to be practiced, hands on, to master this skill. In art the Discovery Principle goes hand and hand with the Multimodal Principle. Once a skill is described and demonstrated, the learner is allowed to try the skill (Jonassen, D., Howard, J., Marra, R., Crismond, D. (2008) page 55) . In art there is no one right way to do something. In taking a look at the videos on YouTube for throwing on the potter’s wheel, there are many, many ways to accomplish the outcome of making a bowl. The amount of clay used, the speed of the wheel, the hand positions vary between the video. The learner should be allowed to discover what works best for them. The same for painting, if no one ever experimented or tried anything different, art never would have changed from the pre-historic cave paintings at Lascaux. While art sometimes changes from technological advances and sometimes for political or cultural reasons many changes and styles are due to experimentation. Impressionism was trying to capture a fleeting moment in time, painting quickly with determined brush strokes and powerful colors. Claude Monet, a noted Impressionist painter, “Like his fellow Impressionists… when young, had attempted a faithfulness to perceived reality, trying to capture the constantly changing quality of natural light and color” ("The collection: claude," ). Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte is in the pointillist style which was developed from the colors used by the Impressionists ("Georges seurat french, 1859–1891," 2004). Vincent Van Gogh, a post impressionist painter experimented with painting and if you compare his early work to his later work you can see the work becoming more and more abstract. The German Expressionist painter Franz Marc goes even farther into abstraction using geometric shapes in the cubist style to create his work. He uses bright, sometimes unnatural colors in his work. If these artists had not experimented and found a style of painting that fit their personality and vision, think of all the wonderful art that would never have been created.
There are so many simulations that would work in an art classroom. Many students find art history a bore (or so my daughter said when she was in high school.) If a class was studying the Renaissance as it pertained to art history, a simulation of a trip to Italy could be created. This would allow students, ideally in small groups to plan a 10-14 day tour that could reinforce learning. They could research art works they enjoyed, find the appropriate museums etc. A budget would need to be created, including travel costs, hotel accommodations and meals (if included) museum entries, air fare and the like. A presentation of their tour such as a PowerPoint could be created as well as a brochure, itineraries and costs for the tour could also be included in the project. The number of days and museums would affect the cost of the trip, whether the trip was associated with a tour company (think the movie My Life in Ruins) any number of variables could be tweaked for different outcomes. The collaboration between a group of students to create an “Art Tour of Italy” can be more challenging because they work together support each other and allow the development of self-regulation (Woolfolk, 2010, page 369).
Art is different than most subjects at school. While there is a fine arts requirement for high school graduation in Texas, there are loads of choices available, music, band, theater, as well as visual art. Most students are there because they want to be, especially if they have more then one credit. Still, to have students get totally involved in a project, it has to be relevant, engaging and potentially useful. Is your average student going to be able to go to Italy for 10-14 days to explore the art housed in the famous Italian museums? Probably not, but you never know. My daughter’s AP English class took a Shakespeare based tour of London, Bath and Stratford on Avon spring break of their senior year. We never expected that but if you aren't receptive for possibilities, you'll never find them when they happen. If nothing else a simulation like going to Italy may add a line to a student's "Bucket List" and someday, using a saved brochure as a template they are off to Italy and the great art of the world.
References:
Gee on what video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. (2008). Retrieved from http://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-2-literacies-purposes/gee-on-what-video-games-have-to-teach-us-about-learning-and-literacy/
Georges seurat french, 1859–1891. (2004). Retrieved from http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Impressionist/pages/IMP_7.shtml
James paul gee:learning principles. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mason.gmu.edu/~lsmithg/jamespaulgee2
Jonassen, D., Howard, J., Marra, R., Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology. Upper Saddle, New Jersey: Pearson.
The collection: claude monet, water lilies. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80220
Woolfolk, A.(2010). Educational psychology. Upper Saddle, New Jersey: Pearson.
