Week 5 Reading & Reflection

Week 5 Reading & Reflection

. Critically examine this article through a VTS lens, relating Glatthorn & Barron’s concept of the “good thinker” (cited by Leschnoff) to VTS

. What opportunities does ambiguity in works of visual art offer students in the visual art classroom? How might VTS methodology unlock these opportunities?

As a VTS proponent and person who had received art education, being forced to only absorb art historians’ interpretations while appreciating visual arts, I know how bored and meaningless process the conservative and unilateral art criticisms were. I could hardly think deeply about any of artworks. Needless to say there were no students’ interactions and possibilities to have various interpretations. Anyway, because of these experiences, I might have a crush on VTS.

I believe ambiguity could open many possibilities for students to critically and freely think about the visual arts based on their experiences or cultural contexts as Barron point out while explaining the concept of “good thinker”. Ambiguity of artworks could also efficiently attract students’ attention since it is uncertain so it could make them curious. Ambiguity of teacher’s behavior could be understood as a non-judgmental manner. In terms of that the ideal art criticism Leschonoff claimed is very similar to VTS. But I think VTS is more developed concept and has more strength since questioning, teacher’s behaviors and image selecting of VTS were created to maximize the effectiveness of critical and open-ended discussion. Through VTS, students could search for possibilities, based on evidence, toward reaching that goal and they could develop a point of view or an interpretation of the artwork based upon evidence.

.Do one or more images in your VTS Unit Curriculum contain ambiguity that can enhance individual and group meaning-making? Describe and explain.

I think my unit curriculum contains enough ambiguity and uncertainty. I especially try to consider ambiguity when selecting images for the lessons. Besides, my students are elementary schoolers, the images need to have interesting narrative as well as ambiguity.

Looking back on the last lessons, I concluded the ambiguity or uncertainty of the images were enough and intriguing enough to my students. They not only offered various interpretations above on ambiguous factors but also kept agreeing and disagreeing and actively participated in the group meaning making. Their interactions looked more systematical and profound compared to the last semester. I am pretty sure that they are certainly learning how to use their background information and cultural context in order to critically think and successfully interpret the works of art.