Children and Their Art by Hurwitz and Day
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Featured: notes from reading and discussions specific to the text
(Click Here to visit further notes from scholarly readings and discussions)
Children and Their Art
Chapter 1, pp. 3-23 NOTES
Fundamental Factors of Education:
Children
Art
Society
Nature of Visual Arts
Decoration, pleasurable to look at
Function
Meaning
Aesthetic Response
Conceptions of the Learner
Early Influences of Philosophy and Psychology
Jean- Jacques Rousseau (Eighteenth Century Philosopher)
-his ideas influenced early childhood education
-advocated teaching related to childhood interests and educational paradigm concerned with the everyday life of
the child
-“let children be children” and “let them learn through self-initiated activities”
John Dewey (Philosopher)
-education involves the direction and control of experience, and a meaningful experience implies active
participation and control on the part of the learners
-Knowledge is not static, nor is it gained in a static environment
-Stimulus-response theory: held that learning consists in establishment of a series of connections, or pathways, in
the brain resulting from a specific response to a stimulus
Gestalt (Psychologists)
-maintained that wholes are primary and the parts derive their properties and behavior from them à the learner
acquires knowledge by achieving “insight”— by understanding the relationships among various aspects of the
learning situation
Piaget
Three stages in Cognitive Development:
-Sensorimotor stage
-Period of concrete operations
-Period of formal operations
The Art Curriculum engages:
-through refined perceptions of aesthetic qualities of artworks
-through analysis and interpretation of the meanings embedded in works of art and visual culture
-through inquiry into social, political, and other contexts that reveal explicit and implicit messages
-through pondering and discussing important questions about the nature and creation of art
Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic
Logical/Mathematical
Spatial
Bodily Kinesthetic
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalist
4 Main Brain Research Findings
Finding 1: The brain changes physiologically as a result of experience. The environment in which a brain operates determines to a large degree the functioning ability of that brain.
Finding 2: IQ is not fixed at birth
Finding 3: Some abilities are acquired more easily during certain sensitive periods, or “windows of opportunity”
Finding 4: Learning is strongly influenced by emotion
Values of Society
Educators’ concerns with the nature of art, and their conceptions of how young people learn, are balanced in the process of education by societal values
Changes in education brought about by:
-space exploration
-the civil rights movement
-the need for safe drivers on our streets and highways
-the problems of alcohol and drug abuse
-the threat of AIDS
-and the many issues surrounding the probability of global warming
…are only a few examples of how the needs and values of society influence what occurs in the classroom
Art Education is especially appropriate and effective to deal with social issues, problems, and values
Ex. -Picasso’s Guernica à masterpiece protesting war and violence
-an Indian statue of a contemplative Buddha
-Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party à feminist statement
Public Attitudes in the Schools
Gains for art as a regular subject in the curriculum
-National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2002 à reported that visual arts are offered to 87% of elementary and
93% of secondary schools
Changes in Art Education
The History of Art Ed
United States Origins: relation to requirements in business and industry or goals of society in mid-nineteenth-century New England
-witnessed how English had raised standards of industrial design to compete favorably with Europe in taste, style, and beauty
-England’s schools of design revitalized in 1850s, producing corps of skilled designers for industry
-Business leaders in US urged for art education to compete in world trade markets
-Walter Smith: 1871, graduate of England’s South Kensington School, appointed director of drawing in public schools of
Boston and state director of art education
-few months later, legislature passed the first law in the US making drawing a requirement in public schools
-Smith began developing a curriculum for industrial drawing
-Founded the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now Massachusetts College of Art)
-Frank Cizek, Austrian expressionist artist and teacher
-1904 – chief of the Department of Experimentation and Research at Vienna School of Applied Arts
-encouraged children to present, in visual form, their personal reactions to happenings in their lives
goal: the development of creative power he saw in all children that he felt could blossom in accordance with “natural
laws”
-Arthur Wesley Dow à developed the Elements and Principles of Design
-artists work with line, value, and color, composing and controlling the elements to create symmetry, repetition, unity,
transition, and subordination, and achieve harmonious relationships between them
-The Owatonna Project, Minnesota community art project
-apply principles of art in everyday life for a richer experience
-promoted home decoration, school and public park plantings, visually interesting window displays
-The Bauhaus, German professional art school
-committed to integrating the technology of the day to artists’ works
-influence, modern art materials, photography, and visual investigation involving sensory awareness entered into
secondary schools
“Is Art Necessary or Just Nice?” –Harry S. Broudy
-Viktor Lowenfeld; “Creative and Mental Growth”
-primary development of creativity with his theory of personality integration through art activities
-involved such areas of personality growth as physical, social, creative, and mental
Comprehensive Art Education
Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE):
-emphasizes the art knowledge, skills, and understanding necessary for the general education curriculum
-to place art education as a regular subject in the school curriculum, increasing it’s status and ensuring access to all
students
-Four major curricular components:
-art making
-art criticism
-art history
-aesthetics
Chapter 1, pp. 3-23 NOTES
Fundamental Factors of Education:
Children
Art
Society
Nature of Visual Arts
Decoration, pleasurable to look at
Function
Meaning
Aesthetic Response
Conceptions of the Learner
Early Influences of Philosophy and Psychology
Jean- Jacques Rousseau (Eighteenth Century Philosopher)
-his ideas influenced early childhood education
-advocated teaching related to childhood interests and educational paradigm concerned with the everyday life of
the child
-“let children be children” and “let them learn through self-initiated activities”
John Dewey (Philosopher)
-education involves the direction and control of experience, and a meaningful experience implies active
participation and control on the part of the learners
-Knowledge is not static, nor is it gained in a static environment
-Stimulus-response theory: held that learning consists in establishment of a series of connections, or pathways, in
the brain resulting from a specific response to a stimulus
Gestalt (Psychologists)
-maintained that wholes are primary and the parts derive their properties and behavior from them à the learner
acquires knowledge by achieving “insight”— by understanding the relationships among various aspects of the
learning situation
Piaget
Three stages in Cognitive Development:
-Sensorimotor stage
-Period of concrete operations
-Period of formal operations
The Art Curriculum engages:
-through refined perceptions of aesthetic qualities of artworks
-through analysis and interpretation of the meanings embedded in works of art and visual culture
-through inquiry into social, political, and other contexts that reveal explicit and implicit messages
-through pondering and discussing important questions about the nature and creation of art
Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic
Logical/Mathematical
Spatial
Bodily Kinesthetic
Musical
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Naturalist
4 Main Brain Research Findings
Finding 1: The brain changes physiologically as a result of experience. The environment in which a brain operates determines to a large degree the functioning ability of that brain.
Finding 2: IQ is not fixed at birth
Finding 3: Some abilities are acquired more easily during certain sensitive periods, or “windows of opportunity”
Finding 4: Learning is strongly influenced by emotion
Values of Society
Educators’ concerns with the nature of art, and their conceptions of how young people learn, are balanced in the process of education by societal values
Changes in education brought about by:
-space exploration
-the civil rights movement
-the need for safe drivers on our streets and highways
-the problems of alcohol and drug abuse
-the threat of AIDS
-and the many issues surrounding the probability of global warming
…are only a few examples of how the needs and values of society influence what occurs in the classroom
Art Education is especially appropriate and effective to deal with social issues, problems, and values
Ex. -Picasso’s Guernica à masterpiece protesting war and violence
-an Indian statue of a contemplative Buddha
-Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party à feminist statement
Public Attitudes in the Schools
Gains for art as a regular subject in the curriculum
-National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 2002 à reported that visual arts are offered to 87% of elementary and
93% of secondary schools
Changes in Art Education
The History of Art Ed
United States Origins: relation to requirements in business and industry or goals of society in mid-nineteenth-century New England
-witnessed how English had raised standards of industrial design to compete favorably with Europe in taste, style, and beauty
-England’s schools of design revitalized in 1850s, producing corps of skilled designers for industry
-Business leaders in US urged for art education to compete in world trade markets
-Walter Smith: 1871, graduate of England’s South Kensington School, appointed director of drawing in public schools of
Boston and state director of art education
-few months later, legislature passed the first law in the US making drawing a requirement in public schools
-Smith began developing a curriculum for industrial drawing
-Founded the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now Massachusetts College of Art)
-Frank Cizek, Austrian expressionist artist and teacher
-1904 – chief of the Department of Experimentation and Research at Vienna School of Applied Arts
-encouraged children to present, in visual form, their personal reactions to happenings in their lives
goal: the development of creative power he saw in all children that he felt could blossom in accordance with “natural
laws”
-Arthur Wesley Dow à developed the Elements and Principles of Design
-artists work with line, value, and color, composing and controlling the elements to create symmetry, repetition, unity,
transition, and subordination, and achieve harmonious relationships between them
-The Owatonna Project, Minnesota community art project
-apply principles of art in everyday life for a richer experience
-promoted home decoration, school and public park plantings, visually interesting window displays
-The Bauhaus, German professional art school
-committed to integrating the technology of the day to artists’ works
-influence, modern art materials, photography, and visual investigation involving sensory awareness entered into
secondary schools
“Is Art Necessary or Just Nice?” –Harry S. Broudy
-Viktor Lowenfeld; “Creative and Mental Growth”
-primary development of creativity with his theory of personality integration through art activities
-involved such areas of personality growth as physical, social, creative, and mental
Comprehensive Art Education
Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE):
-emphasizes the art knowledge, skills, and understanding necessary for the general education curriculum
-to place art education as a regular subject in the school curriculum, increasing it’s status and ensuring access to all
students
-Four major curricular components:
-art making
-art criticism
-art history
-aesthetics
Art Education in Contemporary Classrooms (Chapter 2)
-integrating art w/ elementary classroom
-they ask “essential” questions about art
Modernism vs Post Modernism
M -art influences social norms
-art is accessible to everyone
-outside context
-belief in progress in the history of art/belief that art moves towards new and innovative
PM -context matters
Marxism and Art Ed
-thought is mediated by power system
-integrating art w/ elementary classroom
-they ask “essential” questions about art
Modernism vs Post Modernism
M -art influences social norms
-art is accessible to everyone
-outside context
-belief in progress in the history of art/belief that art moves towards new and innovative
PM -context matters
Marxism and Art Ed
-thought is mediated by power system
Children and Their Art
Chapter 3, pp. 39-46 NOTES
How Children Grow and Learn
Discussing the emotional, developmental, and cognitive aspects if children’s art and investigates relationships between it and the work of the adult artists
Pre Age 2:
-process of mark making with any means
-kinesthetic experience of rhythmic movement
-observable results of their actions
*-provides reinforcement for them to draw and paint
After Development of Individual Symbol System (Ages 2-4):
-art can become a personal language
-not concerned with producing an “art object”
-layers of “scribbles” that are the layers of child’s thoughts/ideas
Preschool and Kindergarten Age:
-artwork becomes more readily discernable and easier to interpret
-ability to create symbols that represent persons, animals, and objects
-can explore emotionally important events in their lives
Stages of Graphic Representation
1) The Manipulative Stage (Ages 2-5, Early Childhood)
-By scribbling, a child literally makes “a mark on the world”
-children come to realize in physical and visual terms that they can exercise control over their environment
-develop a repertoire of vocab of graphic marks, which they create primarily for kinesthetic rewards inherent in the
manipulations of lines, colors, and textures
Visual Concepts: grasping the features of lines, shapes, and textures and learning that materials can be organized in
many different ways
Relational Concepts: construct relationships of order and comparison and apply them knowledgably
Expressive Concepts: recognizing the connections between their actions with art materials and the visual outcomes and
sensations the actions cause
*general stage of initial exploration and experimentation with any new materials
*random manipulation develops into control
Chapter 3, pp. 39-46 NOTES
How Children Grow and Learn
Discussing the emotional, developmental, and cognitive aspects if children’s art and investigates relationships between it and the work of the adult artists
Pre Age 2:
-process of mark making with any means
-kinesthetic experience of rhythmic movement
-observable results of their actions
*-provides reinforcement for them to draw and paint
After Development of Individual Symbol System (Ages 2-4):
-art can become a personal language
-not concerned with producing an “art object”
-layers of “scribbles” that are the layers of child’s thoughts/ideas
Preschool and Kindergarten Age:
-artwork becomes more readily discernable and easier to interpret
-ability to create symbols that represent persons, animals, and objects
-can explore emotionally important events in their lives
Stages of Graphic Representation
1) The Manipulative Stage (Ages 2-5, Early Childhood)
-By scribbling, a child literally makes “a mark on the world”
-children come to realize in physical and visual terms that they can exercise control over their environment
-develop a repertoire of vocab of graphic marks, which they create primarily for kinesthetic rewards inherent in the
manipulations of lines, colors, and textures
Visual Concepts: grasping the features of lines, shapes, and textures and learning that materials can be organized in
many different ways
Relational Concepts: construct relationships of order and comparison and apply them knowledgably
Expressive Concepts: recognizing the connections between their actions with art materials and the visual outcomes and
sensations the actions cause
*general stage of initial exploration and experimentation with any new materials
*random manipulation develops into control