No art lesson, art course or scheme of work goes to plan. If things go wrong, which often they do, the teacher may reflect upon what actions can be taken to improve things. This is where the course evaluation comes in. The following are the most common examples that may cause an art teacher to reflect.
Solutions for Art Teachers
The resources create difficulty, for example, the studio easels are tatty and malfunction, the room is small, the chairs are not comfortable or the artificial lighting causes unwanted glares. Other problems might include:
- The activities for the art lesson were too advanced for the art group; the activities were not challenging enough.
- The lesson plan did not take into account the speed at which the students work, meaning some finish before others and have nothing to do.
- There are not enough activities within the lesson plan to keep students occupied, or the activities take too long.
Again, a lesson plan that works perfectly for one group may not necessarily work for another. Making provisions and incorporating flexibility as well as differentiation is essential. This is where the reflective cycle in teaching art comes in.
What is the Kolb Cycle?
David Kolb (1984) believed that learning could only occur when the reflective cycle has taken place or in other words, improvement can only occur from past failures. The reflective cycle consists of four stages. These are: concrete experience, reflection, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. The experience is the task at hand without any reflection or cognitive thought. Once the experience has happened, the teacher might reflect upon it. This involves stepping back and reviewing what has gone wrong (or right, for that matter). The third stage is conceptualisation which involves actively making adjustments, modifying and making necessary changes. Only when these three stages are complete can the experimentation stage commence. This involves taking the changes and embedding them into the practice. The cycle is complete.
Improving Art Lessons
The reflective or ‘learning’ cycle might be repeated many times, each time, involving small increments of improvement. According to Kolb, everything practiced in mankind must go through the reflective cycle for the practice to improve. Without the reflective cycle, learning and improvement cannot take place. Similarly, the Kolb cycle will help the teacher (and the students) in finding solutions.
Problem Solving for Art
As a result of reflection, the teacher might move the furniture around, add more art activities, suggest students bring lamps or make an official request for replacement easels. Again, things may not go to plan, which will make more reflection necessary. It is a good idea to keep a teacher log, to put into writing the issue, going through the four stages of the reflective cycle. Then, solutions are more likely to be found.
Rachel Shirley - I have written and illustrated several art instruction books entitled Oil Paintings from your Garden and Oil Paintings from the Landscape ...
