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Research into .....Is there evidence that arts infused
teaching, specifically, Arts Based Skills and Strategies (ABSS) would generate
the need for a tech enhanced multi-modal learning environment that supports and
engages students in 21st Century Learning experiences?
The problem of how to keep an innovative edge on an already energized, dynamic teaching and learning process faces a top, award winning Magnet School of America. What happens when you put technology into an Arts Based program? How do you take an already innovative program into the digital future and keep true to the creative foundation of the arts? This research looks at the unknowns around interdisciplinary, arts based skills and strategies (ABSS) combining with new technologies and asks if this mix is a powerful vehicle to take all learners, teachers and students, to greater depths of knowledge and preparation for the future. Could teachers grow to find balance between thinking of teaching “creativity” through brain-based “creative” instructional practices in addition, to the strategic leveraging of new technologies? This study investigated whether teachers could develop a new sensibility about teaching and learning, seeing themselves as 21st Century learners and employing multi-modal techniques that would lead to deeper learning for students.
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Background and Need
BACKGROUND AND NEE
Pursuing innovative thinking, cultivation of global minded citizens, and creative thought in an attempt to construct multi-modal instructional design in classrooms evokes the need to agree upon an understanding of creativity. In an attempt to break through the linguistic veil of vagueness, Mishra and Henriksen (2013) identified and broke down components of creativity into a working definition, “Creative solutions are NEW: Novel, Effective, and Whole. Creative products, be they artifacts or ideas, are not just new or interesting, they are useful, and they have a certain aesthetic sensibility, which is connected to and evaluated within specific content [the whole]” (p. ) Robinson (2006), internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources in education and in business, contends we need to treat creativity as importantly as we treat literacy. He passionately states that we, global societies, need to prepare for the unknown and that children are particularly skilled at this because they have not yet developed a fear of being wrong. Kids are not instinctively afraid to take a chance. He defines creativity as “a process of having original ideas that have value.” (p.151) In addition, Turak (2011), a contributing writer in Forbes business and financial magazine, notes IBM’s Executive school was built on 6 insights about success, all of which relate to creative thought and actions. One of these 6 insights is as simple as, “hang around creative people.” In this paper we will use the definition and matrix for creativity that Mishra and Henriksen (2013, p.12) developed.
A small northern California elementary school stirred together an interfusion of Novel, Effective, and Whole (NEW) creative instructional practices and program design to powerfully connect to the practical world of classroom teaching. Robinson, (2006) rails, “Reform in education is no use anymore - we are only improving a broken model. We need not an evolution but a REVOLUTION in education...we need to transform ourselves” (p. 9)! Brain-based instructional practices such as Arts Based Skills and Strategies (ABSS) combined with program reform models like Artful Learning (Brothman, 2013), “that promotes higher order thinking and rigorous instructional unit design” (p. 5), while partnering with guest teaching artists using technology were sewn together to create a virtual suit of 21st Century armor for students.
In the Introduction to this paper, a challenge between two opportunities for learning were presented to the reader that offered a choice between rote tasks taken from a textbook or the converse choice of designing a project taken from a 5th grade “Artful Learning” Unit on LIMITS. This study argues that the learner facing the Artful Learning project would naturally, almost effortlessly, find their path to solution through Mishra and Henriksen’s, (2013) description of creativity. In turn, s/he would develop metacognitive skills and grow through a multidimensional and a multi-modal learning experience. The project design challenge establishes a path to novel thought and argument, effective logical reasoning, and the emergence of a whole well crafted product. The project not only embeds the use of technology but it triggers the need to use it for a deeper, more interesting experience.
The teacher-created unit described in the introduction explores “Limits” as a specifically broad concept with the Enduring Understanding that “limits” serve to protect us or may be a catalyst for change. This concept is then followed by a Significant Question which overarches the entire inquiry, i.e. How do limits influence life?, consequently empowering students to connect concepts through a creative process, partnered with encouragement to be critical thinkers. This ability to create a conceptual grid from which to work becomes prior knowledge and allows the learner greater intellectual buoyancy. Erickson & Tomlinson (2007) emphasized that learner construction of knowledge increases the ability to remember, retain, and make room for new thinking. Wiggins and McTighe (1998) coined the term enduring understanding, in other words, the big idea, while Erickson (2007) used the term essential understanding, to capture the ever elusive grand idea(s) that hold society and thought together. She asserted, “When curriculum and instruction require students to process factual information through the conceptual levels of thinking, the students demonstrate greater retention of factual information, deeper levels of understanding, and increased motivation for learning.” (Erickson & Tomlinson, 2007, p. 2)
In California, Artful Learning (AL), the project based school improvement model noted earlier, is thriving at the Elementary School in this study. The unique and potentially revolutionary methodology blossomed from the insights of Leonard Bernstein, the great American composer and conductor. AL employs an interdisciplinary approach to the 21st Century classroom, allowing educators to facilitate learning across a broad spectrum of rigorous academic content through high levels of student engagement and empowerment. (Brothman, 2013) Arts based, and by the same token, brain based, instructional practices empower teachers throughout their design process and classroom facilitation as they meet and interact with professional teaching artists or Arts Partners (AP’s.) The students move through an interconnected process of experiencing, inquiring, creating, and reflecting in depth on the centralizing unit concept. The culminating student work at the end of each unit is an original creation in which students move their understanding of unit concept to metaphor representing this knowledge and furthering the concept through the arts. In many of the grades, teachers and expert arts partners are using tech programs and tools throughout the entire AL process to research, design, collaborate and create; as journaled by AP’s who participated in this study. Using iMovie, these artisans worked with the 5th and 1st grade teachers to give the viewer a taste of successful vertical articulation at this elementary school. See : http://youtu.be/HKoJAtKCi4g
This approach to 21st Century learning is intentionally and strategically bringing the NEW aspect of creativity to our learners; therefore, bringing it to the system of education and potentially establishing critical evidence of what 21st Century learning can look like. To better understand the school’s evolution and potentially revolutionizing approach to a blended learning classroom; looking through a brain based research lens at creative learning instructional practices and how technology relates to the process is essential. Subsequently, an overview of literature will be presented providing theoretical underpinnings necessary to propel the research further.
Pursuing innovative thinking, cultivation of global minded citizens, and creative thought in an attempt to construct multi-modal instructional design in classrooms evokes the need to agree upon an understanding of creativity. In an attempt to break through the linguistic veil of vagueness, Mishra and Henriksen (2013) identified and broke down components of creativity into a working definition, “Creative solutions are NEW: Novel, Effective, and Whole. Creative products, be they artifacts or ideas, are not just new or interesting, they are useful, and they have a certain aesthetic sensibility, which is connected to and evaluated within specific content [the whole]” (p. ) Robinson (2006), internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources in education and in business, contends we need to treat creativity as importantly as we treat literacy. He passionately states that we, global societies, need to prepare for the unknown and that children are particularly skilled at this because they have not yet developed a fear of being wrong. Kids are not instinctively afraid to take a chance. He defines creativity as “a process of having original ideas that have value.” (p.151) In addition, Turak (2011), a contributing writer in Forbes business and financial magazine, notes IBM’s Executive school was built on 6 insights about success, all of which relate to creative thought and actions. One of these 6 insights is as simple as, “hang around creative people.” In this paper we will use the definition and matrix for creativity that Mishra and Henriksen (2013, p.12) developed.
A small northern California elementary school stirred together an interfusion of Novel, Effective, and Whole (NEW) creative instructional practices and program design to powerfully connect to the practical world of classroom teaching. Robinson, (2006) rails, “Reform in education is no use anymore - we are only improving a broken model. We need not an evolution but a REVOLUTION in education...we need to transform ourselves” (p. 9)! Brain-based instructional practices such as Arts Based Skills and Strategies (ABSS) combined with program reform models like Artful Learning (Brothman, 2013), “that promotes higher order thinking and rigorous instructional unit design” (p. 5), while partnering with guest teaching artists using technology were sewn together to create a virtual suit of 21st Century armor for students.
In the Introduction to this paper, a challenge between two opportunities for learning were presented to the reader that offered a choice between rote tasks taken from a textbook or the converse choice of designing a project taken from a 5th grade “Artful Learning” Unit on LIMITS. This study argues that the learner facing the Artful Learning project would naturally, almost effortlessly, find their path to solution through Mishra and Henriksen’s, (2013) description of creativity. In turn, s/he would develop metacognitive skills and grow through a multidimensional and a multi-modal learning experience. The project design challenge establishes a path to novel thought and argument, effective logical reasoning, and the emergence of a whole well crafted product. The project not only embeds the use of technology but it triggers the need to use it for a deeper, more interesting experience.
The teacher-created unit described in the introduction explores “Limits” as a specifically broad concept with the Enduring Understanding that “limits” serve to protect us or may be a catalyst for change. This concept is then followed by a Significant Question which overarches the entire inquiry, i.e. How do limits influence life?, consequently empowering students to connect concepts through a creative process, partnered with encouragement to be critical thinkers. This ability to create a conceptual grid from which to work becomes prior knowledge and allows the learner greater intellectual buoyancy. Erickson & Tomlinson (2007) emphasized that learner construction of knowledge increases the ability to remember, retain, and make room for new thinking. Wiggins and McTighe (1998) coined the term enduring understanding, in other words, the big idea, while Erickson (2007) used the term essential understanding, to capture the ever elusive grand idea(s) that hold society and thought together. She asserted, “When curriculum and instruction require students to process factual information through the conceptual levels of thinking, the students demonstrate greater retention of factual information, deeper levels of understanding, and increased motivation for learning.” (Erickson & Tomlinson, 2007, p. 2)
In California, Artful Learning (AL), the project based school improvement model noted earlier, is thriving at the Elementary School in this study. The unique and potentially revolutionary methodology blossomed from the insights of Leonard Bernstein, the great American composer and conductor. AL employs an interdisciplinary approach to the 21st Century classroom, allowing educators to facilitate learning across a broad spectrum of rigorous academic content through high levels of student engagement and empowerment. (Brothman, 2013) Arts based, and by the same token, brain based, instructional practices empower teachers throughout their design process and classroom facilitation as they meet and interact with professional teaching artists or Arts Partners (AP’s.) The students move through an interconnected process of experiencing, inquiring, creating, and reflecting in depth on the centralizing unit concept. The culminating student work at the end of each unit is an original creation in which students move their understanding of unit concept to metaphor representing this knowledge and furthering the concept through the arts. In many of the grades, teachers and expert arts partners are using tech programs and tools throughout the entire AL process to research, design, collaborate and create; as journaled by AP’s who participated in this study. Using iMovie, these artisans worked with the 5th and 1st grade teachers to give the viewer a taste of successful vertical articulation at this elementary school. See : http://youtu.be/HKoJAtKCi4g
This approach to 21st Century learning is intentionally and strategically bringing the NEW aspect of creativity to our learners; therefore, bringing it to the system of education and potentially establishing critical evidence of what 21st Century learning can look like. To better understand the school’s evolution and potentially revolutionizing approach to a blended learning classroom; looking through a brain based research lens at creative learning instructional practices and how technology relates to the process is essential. Subsequently, an overview of literature will be presented providing theoretical underpinnings necessary to propel the research further.
Literature Review
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Society desires learners who can represent the 4 C’s promoted in education. Employees or employers who can communicate, collaborate, be critical thinkers and use creativity to add to the body of knowledge and establish healthy community development in our society will be the cornerstone to success. The leaders of today are already celebrating and seeking out those deep thinkers who can approach a puzzle or challenge with innovative solutions and strong communication skills. These will be our community leaders, healers, designers, retail artists, scientists, politicians, environmentalists and producers of our next generation.
We speak of qualifications citizens will need to be prepared for the world of tomorrow and expect these to be developed through our education system. These abilities have been described as 21st-century skills and are generally used to refer to certain core strengths such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving. If we, as educators, are to grow students in these talents we need to learn how to design instruction that is not only project based and inquiry driven but we must set in place a platform that allows our children to think for themselves, make mistakes, learn from them and try other options without the teacher correcting and doing the thinking for their learners. Teachers need to ensure that they engage their students in learning and provide effective facilitation using a variety of instructional methods and following different pedagogical approaches aided with technology. Educators should be active participants in their own learning and attend professional development to strengthen their performance and their students’ learning. When teachers grow in their know how and understanding of new design they use it wholeheartedly and with an enthusiasm their students find contagious. When walking into a 21st Century skill based, dynamic classroom environment one might see and hear students working in groups, standing up, walking around discussing options and drawbacks or seated at a computer developing a mind map or webpage for investigating a research problem. One might see students working with hands on models, photographs, and science tools. In some classrooms a visitor might see students acting out a model design or a dance that represents an ecosystem’s challenge. Artistry and imagination needs to become the base we move from as educators.
This literature review will address three merging themes: the creative brain, high quality; transferable learning through arts based instruction, and TPAK;Technological Pedagogical Content in the 21st Century classroom. The first section will address research related to Gardner’s Creating Mind, (Gardner, 2008). The second section will focus on research about creative learning practices and pedagogy. Finally, the third section will discuss the essential use of TPAK in the classroom
The Creative Brain
Costa and Kallik (2007) were interested in how the learner can think about their thinking process in order to help them solve, reason, understand, process, initiate, and create when the learner does not know what to do or when they do not have the correct answer to a problem or challenge facing them. The authors explain that the action and process occurring in the neocortex is what develops our know how and discernment of this knowing. They assert that we can develop strategies and plans for creating what information is necessary and can be aware of our own processing abilities during the actual act of problem solving. The authors posit that the ability to reflect and evaluate the prolificacy of our thinking begins around age 5 and matures around age 11.
The authors review seminal works and research in effective thinking and intelligent behavior looking for patterns that depict clear characteristics of proficient thinking. They examined a wide cross section of society, people from all walks of life. The range included
salespeople, parents, mechanics and more. They identified a set of sixteen attributes that these competent thinkers shared, encapsulated the essence of these attributes and
challenged the reader to contribute to the not yet exhaustive list. The base sixteen habits or ways to focus and function in challenging circumstances of uncertainty include: persisting, managing impulsivity, listening with understanding and empathy, thinking flexibly, thinking about your thinking, striving for accuracy, questioning and problem posing, applying past knowledge to new situations, thinking and communicating with clarity and precision, gather data through all senses, creating imagining and innovating, responding with wonderment and awe, taking responsible risks, finding humor, thinking interdependently, and remaining open to learning. Figure 1 below offers another perspective of the 16 Habits of Mind. The results of this research have placed Costa and Kallik at the forefront of unpacking metacognitive understanding, specifically, applicable to use in the classroom.
Figure 1: Give this illustration a name
Source:
Brain Research in Education: Fad or Foundation?
Wolfe, P. (2015). Brain Research and Education: Fad or Foundation? - Pat Wolfe – Mind Matters, Inc.
Retrieved from http://patwolfe.com/2011/09/brain-research-and-education-fad-or-foundation/
Pat Wolfe offers a clear overview of how education now has the option of using neuroscience to support what has traditionally been healthy, intuitive teaching practice and create or use more strategic, brain based tools or teaching methods. The author urges the audience intending on applying the results of recent brain studies to cautiously and thoughtfully sift through the data to establish what studies should actually be applied to the classroom. Misinterpretations of neuroscience research and results through mediated sources such as news reports and newspapers have given some educators in the recent past room to make broad and incorrect applications. Wolfe reviews core findings about the brain that specifically apply to education, referring to them as catalysts educators can use to construct scientific foundations for making informed decisions regarding instructional practices. She targets 5 brain related components. First, experience shapes the brain, more specifically the brain physiologically grows and learns through experience. Even more interestingly it learns at the deepest level through concrete experiences such as participating in hands on activities and design projects. Secondly, memory is stored and reconstructed all throughout the brain not in one specific spot. While trying to recall a memory the more sources like sight, sound, movement, and personal involvement the brain uses to reconstruct a memory the more robust that memory will be, thus deepening the case for hands on, participatory learning. Third, memory is dynamic not static, when recalling information and memories. The more actively the brain reviews and relates information to other information, long term memories, through actions, such as singing, writing, and visualizing, will strengthen students understanding and retention of meaning.
The dynamism of our cortex, how it stores information adapting to the need of the learner is an ongoing process. Wolfe continues with her recount of brain functions noting that memory is not unitary and performs memory functions from a variety of angles. The part of the brain that retains long term enduring understanding of concepts, actions and automated performance must originally store the content through a great deal of varied forms of repetition, practice and linking to other long-term stored memory. Lastly, emotion is the primary catalyst in the learning process. The emotion based part of the brain will be dominant over the rational decision portion of the brain if it does not perceive the environment to be physically and psychologically safe. When seen through the lens of an educator this reinforces what we have long known but gives cause to use brain research as a strong underpinning.
5 Minds for the Future, by Howard Gardner
Gardner, H. (2008). Five minds for the future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Howard Gardner explores the kinds of minds that people will need if individuals in society are to thrive in the world to come. Also, in the woven together world in which we live we need to identify the kinds of minds that should be cultivated in the future for the betterment of our world.
The 5 Minds for the Future identified by Gardner refer to 5 characteristics of the mind that Gardner suggests we should grow and enhance. Though we cannot perfectly master each type of mind, Gardner states that we should do our best to maximize what we can of each type of mind. The importance of each mind historically is noted, but the development of these minds will become more critical in the future. He argues that with these collective minds the individual will be well prepared for the unknowns of the future and challenges that persist. On the other hand, those that do not cultivate these minds will be at the mercy of the forces at be in our future. The 5 minds for the future presented by Gardner are:
1. The Disciplined Mind;
2. The Synthesising Mind;
3. The Creating Mind;
4. The Respectful Mind; and
5. The Ethical Mind.
Gardner believes that these 5 minds are in high demand today and will be even more desirable in the world of tomorrow. These types of mind reach across the thought and learning spectrum and that of human ingenuity making the practitioner very desirable in the global scene. Gardner asserts that education is the cornerstone to developing these 5 minds for the future, but the education system of yesterday is just that. It is up to the institution of education to teach and develop these minds in new, more innovative educational practices. Gardner, also adds that others, peers, parents, community members, etc. teach the minds of the future and we must not sit back and take this education of our youth lightly. A crucial point the author makes is that the if you have made a serious commitment to learn the future is yours if you have taken the steps to learn and if the education you receive is arts infused and blends social studies, the humanities, civics, civility, ethics, health, safety and fitness - working to attend to the whole child.
Arts Based Instruction
The Music Teaching Artist’s Bible
Booth, E. (2009). The music teaching artist's bible: Becoming a virtuoso educator. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eric Booth depicts arts integration as the largest experiment in learning in America today. He explains that it is a crucial experiment because many programs are betting on the fusion of arts with other subjects will not only waken curriculum but actually propel the learner to new, serious forms of creative play. Once the learner can take the risk to fail through creative play they can then take greater risks to guide their own creative energy and develop new forms of understanding, perspective, design, and leadership. Booth unfolds, in depth, the ripeness of society today to not only accept but strongly support arts infused instruction. He examines the body of literature that has influenced government and now public mood and perception demonstrating the hunger to increase our society as imagination experts. The connection he makes is that an imagination nation lead to innovation and one’s success in a global, knowledge-based economy and fundamentally vital to thriving in the 21st Century.
Booth continues to layout a working map for teaching artist experts working within the education system. He helps his reader understand what is a teaching artist, how to negotiate the bridge between teacher and classroom and how understand the other world of administration’s program needs and limitations. Booth moves into specifics of learning and development, primarily bringing the reader’s attention to essential skills of the 21st Century artist and why it is critical to create the playground of creation.
TPACK and Technology
Creativity, Self-Directed Learning and the Architecture of Technology Rich Environments
Mishra, P., Fahnoe, C., & Henriksen, D. (2013). Creativity, Self-Directed Learning and the Architecture of Technology Rich Environments.TechTrends TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS, 57(1), 10-13. doi:10.1007/s11528-012-0623-z
Mishra, Fahnoe and Henriksen create the case that students must be allowed to think across disciplines in order to construct the critical thinking skills needed to release them into innovative, creative thinking. Our learners should be encouraged to question, apply previous knowledge and not give up as they explore information and investigation that widens rather than wraps itself up into a neat package. The authors remind us that making connections and synthesizing meaningful concepts requires guidance, real world thinking and activities that grow creative thinking in order to define independent learning skills. The writers assert students must have the advantage of participating in problem based, real world context learning supported by guided practice and enough time to explore and inquire. When these structures are put in place the proper ingredients exist to allow the creative process to flow and innovative thinking to flourish.
The authors describe education as a developing a new landscape, that of the self directed learner. How to facilitate learning that allows students to manage their own resources, work independently, and use purposeful critical thinking skills to solve problems presents the instructional designer with challenges that border the line between chaos and creative construction. Design Thinking and other models are noted as potential avenues that promote essential skills such as brainstorming, prototyping, and evolution of thought and practice.
The final emphasis is to remind educators that the traditional classroom set up will not allow the skills necessary for 21st Century learning to develop effectively and in depth. The educator must take charge and know they are the designers of open ended, technology rich learning environments and instructors can look to what paths they can provide that will help students think outside the disciplines.
Society desires learners who can represent the 4 C’s promoted in education. Employees or employers who can communicate, collaborate, be critical thinkers and use creativity to add to the body of knowledge and establish healthy community development in our society will be the cornerstone to success. The leaders of today are already celebrating and seeking out those deep thinkers who can approach a puzzle or challenge with innovative solutions and strong communication skills. These will be our community leaders, healers, designers, retail artists, scientists, politicians, environmentalists and producers of our next generation.
We speak of qualifications citizens will need to be prepared for the world of tomorrow and expect these to be developed through our education system. These abilities have been described as 21st-century skills and are generally used to refer to certain core strengths such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving. If we, as educators, are to grow students in these talents we need to learn how to design instruction that is not only project based and inquiry driven but we must set in place a platform that allows our children to think for themselves, make mistakes, learn from them and try other options without the teacher correcting and doing the thinking for their learners. Teachers need to ensure that they engage their students in learning and provide effective facilitation using a variety of instructional methods and following different pedagogical approaches aided with technology. Educators should be active participants in their own learning and attend professional development to strengthen their performance and their students’ learning. When teachers grow in their know how and understanding of new design they use it wholeheartedly and with an enthusiasm their students find contagious. When walking into a 21st Century skill based, dynamic classroom environment one might see and hear students working in groups, standing up, walking around discussing options and drawbacks or seated at a computer developing a mind map or webpage for investigating a research problem. One might see students working with hands on models, photographs, and science tools. In some classrooms a visitor might see students acting out a model design or a dance that represents an ecosystem’s challenge. Artistry and imagination needs to become the base we move from as educators.
This literature review will address three merging themes: the creative brain, high quality; transferable learning through arts based instruction, and TPAK;Technological Pedagogical Content in the 21st Century classroom. The first section will address research related to Gardner’s Creating Mind, (Gardner, 2008). The second section will focus on research about creative learning practices and pedagogy. Finally, the third section will discuss the essential use of TPAK in the classroom
The Creative Brain
Costa and Kallik (2007) were interested in how the learner can think about their thinking process in order to help them solve, reason, understand, process, initiate, and create when the learner does not know what to do or when they do not have the correct answer to a problem or challenge facing them. The authors explain that the action and process occurring in the neocortex is what develops our know how and discernment of this knowing. They assert that we can develop strategies and plans for creating what information is necessary and can be aware of our own processing abilities during the actual act of problem solving. The authors posit that the ability to reflect and evaluate the prolificacy of our thinking begins around age 5 and matures around age 11.
The authors review seminal works and research in effective thinking and intelligent behavior looking for patterns that depict clear characteristics of proficient thinking. They examined a wide cross section of society, people from all walks of life. The range included
salespeople, parents, mechanics and more. They identified a set of sixteen attributes that these competent thinkers shared, encapsulated the essence of these attributes and
challenged the reader to contribute to the not yet exhaustive list. The base sixteen habits or ways to focus and function in challenging circumstances of uncertainty include: persisting, managing impulsivity, listening with understanding and empathy, thinking flexibly, thinking about your thinking, striving for accuracy, questioning and problem posing, applying past knowledge to new situations, thinking and communicating with clarity and precision, gather data through all senses, creating imagining and innovating, responding with wonderment and awe, taking responsible risks, finding humor, thinking interdependently, and remaining open to learning. Figure 1 below offers another perspective of the 16 Habits of Mind. The results of this research have placed Costa and Kallik at the forefront of unpacking metacognitive understanding, specifically, applicable to use in the classroom.
Figure 1: Give this illustration a name
Source:
Brain Research in Education: Fad or Foundation?
Wolfe, P. (2015). Brain Research and Education: Fad or Foundation? - Pat Wolfe – Mind Matters, Inc.
Retrieved from http://patwolfe.com/2011/09/brain-research-and-education-fad-or-foundation/
Pat Wolfe offers a clear overview of how education now has the option of using neuroscience to support what has traditionally been healthy, intuitive teaching practice and create or use more strategic, brain based tools or teaching methods. The author urges the audience intending on applying the results of recent brain studies to cautiously and thoughtfully sift through the data to establish what studies should actually be applied to the classroom. Misinterpretations of neuroscience research and results through mediated sources such as news reports and newspapers have given some educators in the recent past room to make broad and incorrect applications. Wolfe reviews core findings about the brain that specifically apply to education, referring to them as catalysts educators can use to construct scientific foundations for making informed decisions regarding instructional practices. She targets 5 brain related components. First, experience shapes the brain, more specifically the brain physiologically grows and learns through experience. Even more interestingly it learns at the deepest level through concrete experiences such as participating in hands on activities and design projects. Secondly, memory is stored and reconstructed all throughout the brain not in one specific spot. While trying to recall a memory the more sources like sight, sound, movement, and personal involvement the brain uses to reconstruct a memory the more robust that memory will be, thus deepening the case for hands on, participatory learning. Third, memory is dynamic not static, when recalling information and memories. The more actively the brain reviews and relates information to other information, long term memories, through actions, such as singing, writing, and visualizing, will strengthen students understanding and retention of meaning.
The dynamism of our cortex, how it stores information adapting to the need of the learner is an ongoing process. Wolfe continues with her recount of brain functions noting that memory is not unitary and performs memory functions from a variety of angles. The part of the brain that retains long term enduring understanding of concepts, actions and automated performance must originally store the content through a great deal of varied forms of repetition, practice and linking to other long-term stored memory. Lastly, emotion is the primary catalyst in the learning process. The emotion based part of the brain will be dominant over the rational decision portion of the brain if it does not perceive the environment to be physically and psychologically safe. When seen through the lens of an educator this reinforces what we have long known but gives cause to use brain research as a strong underpinning.
5 Minds for the Future, by Howard Gardner
Gardner, H. (2008). Five minds for the future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Howard Gardner explores the kinds of minds that people will need if individuals in society are to thrive in the world to come. Also, in the woven together world in which we live we need to identify the kinds of minds that should be cultivated in the future for the betterment of our world.
The 5 Minds for the Future identified by Gardner refer to 5 characteristics of the mind that Gardner suggests we should grow and enhance. Though we cannot perfectly master each type of mind, Gardner states that we should do our best to maximize what we can of each type of mind. The importance of each mind historically is noted, but the development of these minds will become more critical in the future. He argues that with these collective minds the individual will be well prepared for the unknowns of the future and challenges that persist. On the other hand, those that do not cultivate these minds will be at the mercy of the forces at be in our future. The 5 minds for the future presented by Gardner are:
1. The Disciplined Mind;
2. The Synthesising Mind;
3. The Creating Mind;
4. The Respectful Mind; and
5. The Ethical Mind.
Gardner believes that these 5 minds are in high demand today and will be even more desirable in the world of tomorrow. These types of mind reach across the thought and learning spectrum and that of human ingenuity making the practitioner very desirable in the global scene. Gardner asserts that education is the cornerstone to developing these 5 minds for the future, but the education system of yesterday is just that. It is up to the institution of education to teach and develop these minds in new, more innovative educational practices. Gardner, also adds that others, peers, parents, community members, etc. teach the minds of the future and we must not sit back and take this education of our youth lightly. A crucial point the author makes is that the if you have made a serious commitment to learn the future is yours if you have taken the steps to learn and if the education you receive is arts infused and blends social studies, the humanities, civics, civility, ethics, health, safety and fitness - working to attend to the whole child.
Arts Based Instruction
The Music Teaching Artist’s Bible
Booth, E. (2009). The music teaching artist's bible: Becoming a virtuoso educator. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eric Booth depicts arts integration as the largest experiment in learning in America today. He explains that it is a crucial experiment because many programs are betting on the fusion of arts with other subjects will not only waken curriculum but actually propel the learner to new, serious forms of creative play. Once the learner can take the risk to fail through creative play they can then take greater risks to guide their own creative energy and develop new forms of understanding, perspective, design, and leadership. Booth unfolds, in depth, the ripeness of society today to not only accept but strongly support arts infused instruction. He examines the body of literature that has influenced government and now public mood and perception demonstrating the hunger to increase our society as imagination experts. The connection he makes is that an imagination nation lead to innovation and one’s success in a global, knowledge-based economy and fundamentally vital to thriving in the 21st Century.
Booth continues to layout a working map for teaching artist experts working within the education system. He helps his reader understand what is a teaching artist, how to negotiate the bridge between teacher and classroom and how understand the other world of administration’s program needs and limitations. Booth moves into specifics of learning and development, primarily bringing the reader’s attention to essential skills of the 21st Century artist and why it is critical to create the playground of creation.
TPACK and Technology
Creativity, Self-Directed Learning and the Architecture of Technology Rich Environments
Mishra, P., Fahnoe, C., & Henriksen, D. (2013). Creativity, Self-Directed Learning and the Architecture of Technology Rich Environments.TechTrends TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS, 57(1), 10-13. doi:10.1007/s11528-012-0623-z
Mishra, Fahnoe and Henriksen create the case that students must be allowed to think across disciplines in order to construct the critical thinking skills needed to release them into innovative, creative thinking. Our learners should be encouraged to question, apply previous knowledge and not give up as they explore information and investigation that widens rather than wraps itself up into a neat package. The authors remind us that making connections and synthesizing meaningful concepts requires guidance, real world thinking and activities that grow creative thinking in order to define independent learning skills. The writers assert students must have the advantage of participating in problem based, real world context learning supported by guided practice and enough time to explore and inquire. When these structures are put in place the proper ingredients exist to allow the creative process to flow and innovative thinking to flourish.
The authors describe education as a developing a new landscape, that of the self directed learner. How to facilitate learning that allows students to manage their own resources, work independently, and use purposeful critical thinking skills to solve problems presents the instructional designer with challenges that border the line between chaos and creative construction. Design Thinking and other models are noted as potential avenues that promote essential skills such as brainstorming, prototyping, and evolution of thought and practice.
The final emphasis is to remind educators that the traditional classroom set up will not allow the skills necessary for 21st Century learning to develop effectively and in depth. The educator must take charge and know they are the designers of open ended, technology rich learning environments and instructors can look to what paths they can provide that will help students think outside the disciplines.