In the concluding chapter of Why We Make Art and Why it is Taught, Richard Hickman believes that a best practice art room model should be implemented schoolwide, facilitating a learning environment that promotes cooperation rather than coercion. He advocates a ‘remodelling of schools and schooling along the lines of the successful art room’ Hickman (2005). He proposes that an art room inspires growth, facilitating the development of pupil identity, and their heuristic learning experience beyond the classroom.
I have found that there are aspects to teaching Art that require approaches that are dependent upon pupil’s prior knowledge, motivation, the level of difficulty of the topic, however, for some students and some more haptic topics a level of experimentation that comes with no preconceived ideas and with low stakes assessment can be motivation enough to maintain engagement, learning and consolidation. New learning is susceptible to loss but practice permits information to transfer from working memory into areas of the brain designated for ‘automatic unconscious processing’ supporting my notion that time spent practicing, building a tacit knowledge, over a longer period of a standard lesson period of 50 minutes, is time better spent. The exchange between the classroom environment and scientific studies is still in its infancy, however, the slow filter of theory into the school system will ultimately enable an extensive support for teachers.
Hickman, R. (2005) Why we make art and why it is taught. p 125 Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press
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