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Developing complex knowledge: * Lessons from looking at art

Developing complex knowledge: * Lessons from looking at art. Shari Tishman Harvard Project Zero January 30, 2009. Beginning at the end: 2 claims. Looking at art teaches thinking Looking at art can inform instructional design. Agenda. Research background Explore an image

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Developing complex knowledge: * Lessons from looking at art

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  1. Developing complex knowledge:* Lessons from looking at art Shari Tishman Harvard Project Zero January 30, 2009

  2. Beginning at the end: 2 claims • Looking at art teaches thinking • Looking at art can inform instructional design

  3. Agenda • Research background • Explore an image • Complex knowledge – what it is, conditions that encourage its development.

  4. The Harvard Art Museums • With renovation at hand and new construction ahead, the museums look ahead to an expanded educational mission. • The study centers as inspiration

  5. The Agnes Mongan Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and PhotographsThe Fogg, 1st floor

  6. Busch - Reisinger Study Room BRM, 3rd floor

  7. What do people learn in study centers? How do they come to learn it?

  8. Several strands of research Review of existing studies and documents • Interviews with staff involved in study centers (curators, others) • Visitor observations and interviews in the study centers-experts and novices. • Interviews with faculty from Harvard and other local institutions—users and non-users

  9. A study center can be anywhere… The study center mindset: • Expectation of extended time, deep looking, open-ended inquiry, own impressions as a source of information.

  10. Look at an image

  11. What do people learn in study centers?

  12. Materials and methods History, cultural contexts, interpretive perspectives Artistic and creative processes Personal knowledge and connections metacognitive knowledge (knowledge about knowledge and thinking) In study centers, people inquire and learn about many different kinds of things. Complex knowledge Inquiry and understanding across multiple dimensions

  13. Why should we care about teaching skills related to the development of complex knowledge? Why is art especially suited to developing skills involved in pursuing complex knowledge?

  14. How do people learn in study center settings? Some important conditions - Cognitive framing - Cognitive directions

  15. Framing the experience Time Expectations • taking time • deep looking • own impressions as source of information. Raffaele da Montelupo, Italian (c. 1504 - 1566) Torso StudiesDrawing. Brown ink and traces of red chalk on cream antique laid paper, attached to cream antique laid paper.

  16. Directing the experience Four cognitive directions Picasso, Studies of a Rooster, c. 1896Drawing, Colored chalk on beige antique laid paper John Cage, Concert for Piano and Orchestra, Solo for Piano, 1957-1958. Drawing , Black ink and graphite on cream translucent vellum paper

  17. 1. Look long What do we know? • Look wide • Look deep, look for details • Look again • Describe • Bracket conclusions, interpretations Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Portrait of Mme. Ramel, 1852. Drawing. Graphite and white chalk on tan wove paper

  18. 2. Ask questions, seek puzzles What do we know? • Ask lots of questions • Ask different kinds of questions • Look for puzzles, tensions, surprises Paul Klee, Landscape wagon No. 14. 1930

  19. 3. Explore comparisons, connections, juxtapositions What do we know? • Explicitly reach for connections backwards and forwards • Create juxtapositions • Explore comparisons, metaphors, analogies Max Beckmann, Sleeping girl.. 1922

  20. 4. look for complexity What do we know? • Look for layers, hidden factors, layers, multiple dimensions, causal complexity, • functional complexity, interpretive complexity, multiple perspectives and narratives Kandinsky, Composition 1922

  21. The Importance of cognitive emotions Surprise Beauty, aesthetic appreciation Curiosity distaste, discomfort

  22. Looking at art (with a study center mindset) teaches thinking by encouraging the pursuit of complex knowledge. Summary: Lessons from looking at art If complex knowledge is your teaching goal, looking at art has lessons for instructional design: - cognitive framing - cognitive directions

  23. For a full report of the research: http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/HUAM.htm *Sofonisba Anguissola, (c. 1535-1625) Three Sisters Playing Chess.

  24. Image activity / 3 sisters • Activity: (10-15 minutes) • 1. Take a minute to look quietly at the image. Start by letting your eyes wander. Then mentally note 10 or so things you observe. After a minute (I’ll give the signal) turn to your neighbor and share some of your observations. Identify something you observed but didn’t notice right away. • Take some comments • 2. Look again at the image. What questions can you ask? Think about different kinds of questions. Look for puzzles, surprises.

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