Envisioning the Future: Working toward Sustainability in Fine Art Education

Fine art education provides students with opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills to respond creatively to their experience of society and culture. Fostering creative ways of knowing, thinking and doing requires studio learning conditions that promote the exploration of embodied perceptions, material sensibilities and conceptual ideas that are provisional, socially constructed and ever changing. Traditionally, art schools provided these conditions unchallenged because they were autonomous. Since the 1980s, however, art schools have been integrated into the academy, and face increasing pressure to meet the institutional demands of being in a university. Some argue this changed status means the academy, with its research and pedagogic traditions, is actually straitjacketing creativity. Furthermore, contemporary art practice has changed as artists are increasingly experimenting with interdisciplinary modes of working. This article discusses a two‐year major change initiative, undertaken within an urban Australian art school, designed to respond to this complex set of changed circumstances. It considers ways to address institutional compliance and viability demands while maintaining deeply held values about how to foster creativity in undergraduate students. The outcome is a new organising structure and renewed curriculum for the largest programme offering in the school: the fine art undergraduate degree. Educational renewal is conceptualised as a creative process and the approach to change is thus adapted from creative research methodologies. By treating pedagogy and curriculum design as a creative process, this change initiative, rather than straitjacketing creativity, has re‐envisioned an epistemological framework for undergraduate fine art that will sustain creativity education into the future.     

Stories about creative teaching and productive learning

The article is based on an empirical, interview‐based research project investigating resources and barriers to creative teaching within three Danish primary and secondary schools. The analysis shows how project‐oriented teaching does seem to represent a creativity oasis for both teachers and pupils. Furthermore, the work identifies a distinction between an art‐based and a problem‐solving approach to creativity, and it is suggested that teachers help pupils to work with the various different opportunities for creative learning represented by different subjects in school. Furthermore, a dilemma is pinpointed between the demand that teachers conform to centrally defined test systems, and the challenges facing our societies in relation to bringing up pupils and students who dare to take risks, challenge the existing order and create something new.     

论艺术设计教育中创造性思维的培养

创造性思维是艺术设计中处于核心地位的思维能力,它以发散性思维为主要特征,讲究科学理性和艺术感性的融合,并强调灵感和直觉的运用。在艺术设计教育中培养学生的创造性思维能力,要让学生突破思维定势,学会发散思维;了解创造性思维的过程,学会捕捉灵感,形成创意;要改进评价机制,营造富有竞争力的艺术设计教学氛围来激励和启发学生的创造能力。     

Art and Design Blogs: a Socially‐Wise Approach to Creativity

Many images of the ‘artist’ or ‘designer’ pervade the media and popular consciousness. Contemporary images of the artist and creativity that focus solely on the individual offer a very narrow depiction of the varying ways creativity occurs for artists and designers. These images do not capture the variety of creative processes and myriad ways artists and designers work. Young creatives in particular are choosing to work with a social approach to creativity. An example of this approach is the world of blogging, a form of social media where young creatives have a very active voice. This article explores how creative bloggers, that is, artists, designers and makers who blog about their practice, use a social approach to foster creativity with a sense of community, environmental and ethical awareness, a value framework that is in opposition to the market‐driven notion of liberal individualism. Is there a way to include participation in the broader art and design blogging world as part of art and design education? What can we learn from such a social approach to learning in higher education art and design programmes? This article explores these questions and shares findings of an ethnographic approach to an analysis of art and design blogs. In doing so it argues for a socially‐wise approach to creativity in art and design education as a means of promoting values other than those usually connected to the market.     

Education in the New Millennium: The Case for Design‐Based Learning

This article focuses on current examples of project or design‐based learning at the secondary school level in the context of the increasing importance of creativity and innovative thinking in the twenty‐first century. The authors argue that students today learn more effectively in pedagogical practices that emphasise holistic thinking, active learning, visual media and problem‐solving. Design‐based learning presents new ways for realising long‐term goals and learning outcomes. The purpose of this article is to investigate best practices of design education in the community and to propose instructional resource examples on design to K‐12 school teachers. This article points out the importance of systemised process for the work of design‐based teachers and learners, addresses the study of design as a subject of investigation and a mode of inquiry that engages a variety of student learning styles and makes direct connections between subjects and problem‐solving in daily life. Our belief is that the case studies explored in this article represent the seeds of a new model of education based on creative and applied learning. The exemplar communities chosen for onsite research are the education department of the Cooper‐Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, USA.     

Creativity in the Bronze Age: Bringing Archaeological Research into Contemporary Craft Teaching and Learning through a Live Project

The CinBA Live Project sought to engage students of contemporary craft courses in the UK with Bronze Age creativity. We aimed to explore the ways in which the creativity inherent in prehistoric craft may be used as inspiration in contemporary making. It simultaneously offered institutions a unique opportunity to offer a practice‐led, research‐based live project which was distinct to those generally known to be available to art and design institutions. It offered a different experience within this established pedagogical model in art and design education by using the Bronze Age as a source of inspiration for creative practice through practice‐based research in contemporary craft within the framework of an international academic research project, and suggesting new roles for the interpretation of the prehistoric past through creative work. This article reports on the CinBA Live Project. It outlines the context of the opportunity, details our methods of facilitation, describes the activities undertaken by the students and considers the outputs and post‐project impact of the activity.     

艺术设计教学过程评价方案的研制和实施

过程评价方案是实施过程评价的方法和途径,方案制订的好坏,直接影响过程评价的实施效果和艺术设计人才培养的质量。研制过程评价方案要以艺术设计创新人才培养为目标,以培养创新精神和实践能力为目的。以学生全面发展为根本,以艺术设计教学要求为依据。突出重发展、重创新、重综合、重过程的特色;实施过程评价方案要以提高师生认识为前提,建立保障措施为基础。使过程评价方案的研制和实施成为艺术设计创新人才培养的重要组成部分。     

高师艺术教育舞蹈课探索

随着素质教育的全面实施,复合型、创新型人才培养成为高师教育的总体目标.高师艺术教育舞蹈课应针对课时有限而教学内容无限的矛盾,选择一些具有地方特色及普及性广的教学内容,采用能够调动学生学习主动性和积极性的教学方法,重视舞蹈教学实践活动的开展,进一步提高学生的动手能力、创造能力、模仿能力、表演能力,使学生具备既会教,又会演、会编的能力,初步构建具有西部特色的艺术人才培养模式.     

A Consideration of the Relationship Between Creativity and Approaches to Learning in Art and Design

Creative intelligence is relevant to all aspects of the school curriculum, yet it is through art and design that pupils may come to experience the significance of creativity as a means of exploring innovative and original ideas which offer credence to the individual and affect approaches to learning. This article analyses creativity and the creative process and addresses the links between creativity and intelligence by examining the implications such factors may hold for the teacher when developing approaches to learning in art and design. It focuses in particular on the use of sketchbooks within the context of a number of Art and Design GCSE courses and explores how students have been provided with opportunities to develop creative responses to set tasks. In addition, it sets out to challenge the notion that the requirements of GCSE assessment criteria inevitably restrict creativity and lead to non‐creative formulaic practice.     

The Importance of Conceptual and Concrete Modelling in Architectural Design Education

The design studio is the heart of architectural education. It is where future architects are moulded and the main forum for creative exploration, interaction and assimilation. This article argues for a ‘studio‐based learning’ approach in terms of the impact of design tools, especially sketching and concrete modelling, on the creativity or problem‐solving capabilities of a student. The implementation of a ‘vertical design studio’ model at Gazi University Department of Architecture is reported with examples of students’ works.     

Art and Creativity in the Global Economies of Education

Creativity: what might this mean for art and art educators in the creative economies of globalisation? The task of this discussion is to look at the state of creativity and its role in education, in particular art education, and to seek some understanding of the register of creativity, how it is shaped, and how legitimated in the globalised world dominated by input‐output, means‐end, economically driven thinking, expectations and demands. With the help of Heidegger some crucial questions are raised, such as: How can art maintain its creative ontological and epistemological potential in the creative economies of globalisation? Is it possible for art and the creative arts to act as a process of ‘revealing’ and ‘becoming’ and ‘throwing light’ on the world while working within the market economies of innovation and entrepreneurship where creativity has become a generalised discourse? What matters in this discussion is to find a way to argue for the sustainability of art education as a creative mode of enquiry through which self and the world may be better understood, identity might be realised as difference and being‐in‐time might be possible.     

The ‘Night Owl’ Learning Style of Art Students: Creativity and Daily Rhythm

This article explores the deep‐rooted ‘night owl’ image of art practitioners and calls for attention on a consideration of the time for learning in art. It has been recognised that the human body has its own internal timings and knowing the ‘time’ pattern is important for better productivity in conducting creativity‐related activities. This study surveyed 230 art students and 251 management students in a university and examined if there existed any cross‐disciplinary differences in terms of self‐confidence of creative ability, preferences of a particular time for creativity tasks, and routine patterns for daily activities such as getting up, going to bed and working. The results reveal that the art students have more confidence in their creative ability than the management students; about 58 per cent of the art students feel more creative after 10 p.m., as opposed to 29.2 per cent of the management students; and there exist significant differences between the two groups in terms of what time they get up, go to sleep and prefer to work.     

Fostering Creativity: A Multiple Intelligences Approach to Designing Learning in Undergraduate Fine Art

Curriculum and pedagogy in undergraduate fine art can promote an approach to learning creativity that is more about being an artist than knowing about art. Lecturers can provide a road map for developing particular dispositions, in relation to student ideas and perceptions, to foster personalised creativity. This requires that lecturers have an ability to harness the range of learning approaches and interests that students bring to their studio learning environments. One way of doing this is to construct learning activities in ways that engage students' multiple intelligences so they may acquire deeper understandings of their own creative processes. Fostering this kind of creative think tank is artistry of an educational kind. In this article we explore such a creative think tank by examining a particular lecturer's pedagogical approach. We discuss how and why this lecturer designs activities in a way that draws on multiple intelligences to stimulate learning and foster creativity. Using narratives, we analyse this particular curriculum through the lens of multiple intelligence theory and explore how the pedagogical approach develops the whole person. We found that by attending to relationships and focusing on a plurality of intellect this particular curriculum and pedagogy promotes transformative learning in students studying fine art.     

Moments of Intensity: Affect and the Making and Teaching of Art

Affect often arises unexpectedly within the process of making art (along with other creative activities). In this article I argue for affect as a necessary and constructive dynamic within educational processes specifically for art and design. After a consideration of its recent neglect within art education, I revisit the notion of affect with reference to a number of thinkers who provide different perspectives, but particularly through the lens of the US psychologist Silvan Tomkins. Through him and others I seek to understand how affect can be recognised and cultivated in pedagogic situations. I do so by reflecting on the making and teaching experiences of students following an MA in Art and Design in Education and a practice‐based PhD, as witnessed by me (supervisor/co‐tutor), as recounted by students and as discussed in post‐event conversation/semi‐structured interviews.     

Assessing highly‐creative ability1

This paper presents a psychological perspective of the educational dilemma of assessing highly (high‐level) creative ability (with some connections to contemporary philosophical debate). Assessment of highly‐creative ability is a topic of longstanding debate involving questions of what constitutes creativity; whether the creative mental process is essentially intuitive or essentially rational; whether creative ability could or should be reduced to quantifiable parameters; and whether the most important aspects of creative achievement reside in the initial thinking (invention of ideas) or in the subsequent process of development of the idea (making a work of art, design, etc) or in the end product (the work of art or design itself). The debate is fueled by various philosophical, psychological and educational perspectives, all of which are continuously evolving. As a consequence, learning objectives and assessment criteria are ambiguous and confound the enhancement of creative ability that is the primary purpose of higher education. This paper traces the research and development path that led to an innovative ‘authenticative assessment’ approach to assessing highly‐creative ability that offers a promising solution.     

高校美术基础教学中创作意识的培养

高校美术基础教学作为一种教学手段,在训练学生掌握基本的造型语言和技法模式的同时,更重要的应当是培育学生的一种活性的创作意识,因为基础教学的最终目的是学生能够自主的进行艺术创作,所以创作意识的培养在基础学习阶段是至关重要的.如何将创作意识的培养贯穿于基础教学之中,那么,就要从基础训练内容,艺术发展本体等方面进行深入的探索与研究.     

Learning to Be: The Modelling of Art and Design Practice in University Art and Design Teaching

Learning to be an artist or designer is a complex process of becoming. Much of the early phase of ‘learning to be’ occurs during the time emerging artists and designers are students in university art/design programmes, both undergraduate and postgraduate. Recent research reveals that a critical role in assisting students in their maturing identities as artists and designers is played by artist/designer‐academics teaching in university art and design programmes. By maintaining active art/design practices and drawing from these in their teaching, artist/designer‐academics model professional practice to students. Witnessing and interacting with such modelling is part of the process of students learning the shared discourses, views and practices of the art or design worlds to which they aspire to belong. The modelling of professional practice is critical to an artist or designer's ‘learning to be’ experience because it enables students to access the tacit and nuanced behaviours, languages and cultures that constitute contemporary art or design practice. This article outlines findings from a recent Australian study revealing the role of professional practice modelling in university art/design teaching. It highlights the centrality of professional practice modelling to artist/designer‐academics in their beliefs and approaches to teaching their academic disciplines. In critically exploring the research data and findings this article describes the role that modelling of practice plays and how it comprises a core part of the value that artist/designer‐academic participants contribute to the teaching of art/design education.     

(Re) thinking Emotions in Visual Education Activities: Students' Experiences

This article focuses on the emotions of 13 and 14 year‐old students related to visual art education activities. Our aim is to understand the interference of the students' emotions with the processes of the creation and reception of their own pictures, as well as their characteristics in an art education context. The article adopts a Vygotskian theoretical perspective about emotion and aesthetic education that refers to the biopsychological nature of emotion and its cultural determination. The need to transform emotions in art activities is stressed and the teenagers' pictures are interpreted as a means of communication. The data collection was based on questionnaires and interviews with seventh and eighth grade secondary school students. It is concluded that students' emotions are not only present in the creative process and in its result, but also that they could have a significant positive or negative impact on students' motivation and achievement behaviour in art education classes. In this context, the students' pictures, acting as stimuli, may evoke their emotions.     

Fostering Creative Thinking in Student Engineers

In order to prepare engineering students for a changing future and to help them develop their own capacity for independent innovative thought and creative problem‐solving, we are faced with the need to explore ways of fostering creativity in students within engineering programmes. We see the need to focus on how to access creativity, how to develop an environment which is less constrained and which will allow creative flow. Three case studies are presented which demonstrate the importance of establishing the freedom of the learning process as well as providing motivation, whether extrinsic, in terms of the assessment scheme, or intrinsic. This latter might take the form of helping students to realize that the process of learning is a process of invention in itself and that students need to recognize their existing creativity and capacity for engagement. The very important and yet elusive issue of evaluation is also considered for each course. We discuss how to monitor the level of success in achieving the given objective of fostering creativity in students.     

浅谈美术教学中学生思维创作力的培养

培养学生的创造思维能力是新时期素质教育的重要方面,就美术课而言,艺术的思维创造能力就显得更加重要,因为创造性是艺术的生命。为了更好地加强美术教学中学生思维创造能力的培养,从根本上提高学生的艺术素质,本文根据自己的实践经验,分析了传统教学中的某些缺陷,并从学生、教师、课程安排、教学方法等多方面阐述了在美术教学中培养学生创新思维能力的一些方法、体会。