Week 11 Reading & Reflection

  As Winner mentioned, it is hard to realize the value of arts as a subject through the typical way of analysis considered a scientific method. Many schools have still marginalized arts because they only see, understand and evaluate arts through a narrow and outdated view. I'm ashamed to admit it, but it's true that I involuntarily have similar prejudice toward arts before entering master’s program in art education. Even though I have loved arts, it always seemed to be left out of the main school curriculum during my school days. Even art teachers as well as many other teachers didn’t seem to deeply realize the educational value of arts. Therefore, I perfectly agree with Winner that without knowing what is learned in art class, we cannot possibly guess at what might transfer outside of the arts. The habits of mind Winner introduced are certainly general and important ways of thinking which could be developing through arts. It provides a chance for me to be more aware of how studio activities effectively develop various abilities. Reading the habit of mind, I was thinking about the effectiveness of application of VTS. Since the strengths of VTS and the habits of mind have much in common, it would be much more effective when VTS actively participate and contribute to studio activity. VTS discussion could enable students to be fully inspired and to help them get more actively involved in the studio activity.      

 Soep’s article about Critique gave me some inspiration about week 12’ studio activity and VTS discussion as a peer critique. I had never experienced the process of critique in art classes. So it is a quite unfamiliar concept to me but in contrast, I could be more impressed by its effectiveness. Reading this article, I realized Week 12’s assignment would be very beneficial to me because it could provide me a chance to research the effects when VTS discussion as a critique is used in art classroom. The process of VTS discussion is surprisingly similar to those of Soep’s ideal critique that students speak spontaneously about a given project, respond to feedback from others, and decide whether to modify their own aesthetic judgments in light of their critics’ reactions. Thanks to these articles, I have a better understanding about the studio activity and VTS discussion as a peer critique. I am really looking forward to meeting my students for this new challenge.