Teaching art or teaching to think like an artist? | Cindy Foley | TEDxColumbus

Summary

The video script addresses the challenges and importance of art education in nurturing creativity. It critiques the focus on concrete, testable elements in education and advocates for a shift towards fostering creative thinking like artists do. The speaker, drawing from personal experiences and research, emphasizes the need to embrace ambiguity, generate ideas, and conduct transdisciplinary research. She argues that art education should encourage students to become 'master builders' of their ideas, rather than passive recipients of knowledge. The summary calls for a thoughtful approach to promoting creativity in schools, not just preserving art education for its own sake, but for its essential role in developing innovative thinkers.

Takeaways

• 🖼️ Art education has been impacted by standards and testing culture, focusing on concrete elements like art history and foundational skills.
• 🎨 The speaker believes art education should focus on developing learners who think like artists: creative, curious, and idea-driven.
• 📉 Creativity scores in the US have been declining, especially among children aged 6 to 12.
• 💡 The Wallace Foundation and Harvard's Project Zero found that quality art education can develop the capacity to think creatively and make connections.
• 🗣️ Communication and messaging are crucial in moving art education from a defensive to an offensive stance, especially around creativity.
• 🤔 Messages like 'I can't draw a stick figure' are problematic and hinder efforts to teach for creativity.
• 🔄 Teaching for creativity involves embodying three essential habits: comfort with ambiguity, idea generation, and transdisciplinary research.
• 🎭 Artists embrace ambiguity as part of their process, and art education should prepare students for lives of not knowing.
• 🔍 Artists are voracious researchers, and their research often spans multiple disciplines to serve their curiosity and further their thinking.
• 🏫 Future education should integrate disciplines like math, art, and science in service to ideas, fostering environments where creativity and curiosity thrive.

Q & A

What is the main issue the speaker discusses regarding art education?

The speaker discusses the issue that art education has been overly focused on concrete, testable subjects, rather than fostering creativity and the way artists think.

What does the speaker use as an analogy to describe the problem in art education?

The speaker uses a kindergarten image-word match quiz as an analogy, highlighting the challenge of matching abstract concepts like art with concrete answers.

According to the speaker, what is the number one thing quality art education can do?

Quality art education can develop 'the capacity to think creatively and the capacity to make connections,' according to research by the Wallace Foundation and Harvard's Project Zero.

What is the significance of the decline in creativity scores as mentioned in the script?

The decline in creativity scores, as measured by the Torrance creativity test, indicates a worrying trend that could impact student success, economic growth, and general happiness.

What are the three habits the speaker believes are essential to creativity?

The three habits essential to creativity, as mentioned by the speaker, are comfort with ambiguity, idea generation, and transdisciplinary research.

Why does the speaker argue that society's clichéd notions of creativity are problematic?

The speaker argues that clichéd notions of creativity are problematic because they perpetuate a narrow view of what creativity is, making it harder for educators to teach for creativity.

What does the speaker suggest is the first obstacle to creative work?

The speaker suggests that the first obstacle to creative work is discomfort with ambiguity, or not knowing.

How does the speaker describe the role of 'master builders' in the context of education?

In the context of education, the speaker describes 'master builders' as individuals who have the courage to have ideas, contrasting with the current model where educators often play this role and students are secondary.

What is the concept of 'transdisciplinary research' as explained by the speaker?

Transdisciplinary research, as explained by the speaker, is research that serves curiosity and is not confined to a single discipline, but rather, various disciplines work in service to ideas.

Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of 'play' in the creative process?

The speaker emphasizes the importance of 'play' because it is a way to kickstart the process of idea generation, allowing for the exploration of materials and ideas without the constraints of a specific outcome.

What is the speaker's vision for the future of art education?

The speaker's vision for the future of art education is one where educators are comfortable with ambiguity, student ideas and interests lead the learning, and disciplines like math, art, and science are in service to ideas, fostering a culture of creativity and curiosity.

How does the speaker propose to change the messaging around art education?

The speaker proposes changing the messaging from 'Don't kill the arts' to 'Don't kill the ideas,' emphasizing the critical value of art education in nurturing creative thinking, regardless of the career path chosen by students.