First Group Curricula Design Philosphy

Students construct their own knowledge through classroom learning activities focused on art history, art criticism, studio processes, and aesthetics (Walker, 2001). Through the use of problem solving skills, informed by the cognitive development curriculum philosophy (Eisner, 1985), students acquire tools with which they can make meaning of and navigate their world. Students will be provided with an active environment where they can learn to create while coming to know and understand the world through art. They will encounter opportunities in which to visualize different outcomes. The visual arts provides tools that assists learners across other academic disciplines, allowing them to understand other subjects, including science, language arts, and mathematics.




Walker, Sidney R., Teaching Meaning in Artmaking (Worcester: Davis Publications, 2001) p. xiv.

Sarah Ryan: Another Draft that will likely be drafted again

So here it goes again, still feeling a bit flustered and think I will need to rework it, but it has major points that i agree with and will be useful for the group phil.

Through the merger of two philosophical approaches to art education that put the arts in the realm of cognitive behavior, students will learn skills that will better enable them to see, discover, construct, analyze, problem solve, and communicate. Once understood, and part of the students repertoire of knowledge, there will be countless opportunities to translate those skills into viable forms of problem solving, interpretation, and communication in their daily lives. The philosophical roots of this approach can be found in the Cognitive Development Curriculum, which champions process and the ways in which art can be utilized to both seek out and solve problems, and Scientific Rationalism, a philosophical approach that puts arts in the same standing with other academic disciplines by defining knowledge that can gained through the study of art. Students will gain tools with which they will be able to make meaning of and navigate their world. Through the study of visual arts students will expand and broaden their notion of literacy. To echo Sigesmund’s interpretation of Goodman: “Literacy is not simply reading words, literacy means the decoding of symbol systems. If you do not educate children in reading symbolic forms, they are functionally illiterate (1998, p. 205).” Visual arts are an important and valid method of communication; students will gain proficiency in understanding and communicating with visual language. They will be equipped with additional means of working out and communicating their own personal understandings of the world. Through a comprehensive study of the arts, students will be better prepared and will have a wider array of tools as they delve into complex communication systems.

i am open to any comments or criticism.

Laura Sapelly's Teaching Philosophy, Draft 10/13/09

A second stab at my philosophy....

A Constructivist Teaching Method:

Student will discuss, question, analyze, and interpret art objects across time and cultures within an art curricula combining the disciplines of art history, art criticism, and the philosophy of art. Drawing upon their own reservoirs of artistic, personal, and cultural experiences, students will pursue personal communication and meaning through the making and analysis of their own art works. They will be required to defend their aesthetic decisions and provide a critical analysis of their own and their peers’ work.

Sidney R. Walker, Teaching Meaning in Artmaking (Worcester: Davis Publications, 2001) p. xiv.

Group teaching philosophy...Sunday...

First up: Group teaching philosophy. Put up a brief summary of your own teaching philosophies, and then each of us should take a mad stab at a group philosophy. Try to put up your philosophies by Sunday, so we can all attempt a summary for Wednesday's class....Have a great Columbus day weekend...