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John Dewey

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Why art is important in children’s learning

Art can play an important part in children’s learning. This post shares five key reasons why. “Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.” Article 31, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Many education theorists have argued that art has a central role in children’s learning and development. For example, John Dewey – the founder of American progressive education – argued for the need to integrate art into people’s everyday experiences. Eillot Eisner then talked about the criticality of art in public school curriculum and Maxine Greene wrote about its significance in allowing people to imagine the world from multiple perspectives. All of these amazing thinkers built their arguments on the same issue: that art has been marginalised from school curriculum in place of syllabus focused on maths, English, science and technology. A recent example of this can…

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Josef Albers on the wonder of color in art education

Josef Albers Interaction of color book cover www.louisapenfold.com

This post discusses Josef Albers’ classic book ‘Interaction of Color,’ one of the most influential art and design texts of the 20thcentury.  Albers was a painter, designer and educator who is regarded as a pioneer of Modernism. “Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers” Josef Albers “In visual perception, a thing is never seen as it really is” Josef Albers Who was Josef Albers? Josef Albers (1888-1976) was a German-born artist, designer and educator. He firstly trained and worked as a primary school teacher before formally studying painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in Germany. He then taught at the revolutionary art school, the Bauhaus alongside renowned artists such as Paul Klee, Kadinsky and László Moholy-Nagy. Albers’ built his reputation as a both a renowned painter and object designer. When the Nazi’s forced the closure of the Bauhaus in 1933, Albers then migrated to America where he…

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Sharon Shaffer discusses children’s learning with museum objects

Young children have become an increasingly important audience for museums around the world. While many cultural institutions offer something for children, approaches and practices towards this audience vary dramatically across the sector. In this post, early childhood and museum education specialist Sharon Shaffer shares her top tips for connecting young children with museum objects. Sharon was Director of the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Centre (SEEC) for 24 years. The SEEC is a lab school in Washington D.C. with a museum-based curriculum. Children attending the Centre visit and learn in the various Smithsonian museums every day.  The post begins with Sharon telling us a little bit about her background in museums and education. The two of us then discuss topics such as the importance of scaffolding in children’s learning, how learning can be evaluated in museums and the need for flexibility in the design of early year’s education activities. Sharon’s background in…

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Learning

How to use artworks in children’s art activities

Artwork projection at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Artworks can support children in imagining the world differently. I draw upon the work of Maxine Greene and John Dewey to explore the proposition that children’s learning through artworks has the potential to challenge dominant discourses, opening up new ways of thinking and being. There is also a resource list for educators and parents interested in incorporating artworks into children’s learning. “It is not that the artist offers solutions or gives directions. He nudges; he renders us uneasy; he makes us (if we are lucky) see what we would not have seen without him. He moves us to imagine, to look beyond” Maxine Greene (2000, p. 276). Artworks can be used in many ways for many different reasons in learning contexts. They offer rich possibilities for experiencing and imagining the world from new and multiple perspectives. Visual art as well as the arts more generally, have the ability to make people aware of…

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