testing the templeton theory by: whitney carnahan
TRANSCRIPT
TESTING THE TEMPLETON THEORY
By: Whitney Carnahan
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM AND PURPOSE OF RESEARCH
So I wanted to do research on something that would change some part of the world of art education.
I felt that there was a huge problem that new teachers face
We are bombarded by all of these different teaching styles and methods, but which one is right?
Answer… to be determined
SIGNIFICANCE OF PROBLEM
NATIONAL ART ED. CONFERENCE = CHAOS IN MY BRAIN
TEACHING STYLES◦Teacher directed vs. child centered◦Medium centered vs. meaning centered◦Authoritarian vs. constructivism◦Constructivist teaching vs. choice based◦GLEs?◦Assessment?◦Expected vs. unexpected outcomes
YOU CAN CREEP OUT LATE AT NIGHT AND FIND A FANTASTIC BANQUET!!!!
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND SUB QUESTIONS
RESEARCH QUESTION:◦How can we help improve curriculum and confidence in post baccalaureate art educators within their first 5 years of teaching experience?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND SUB QUESTIONS
SUB QUESTIONS:◦How confident are new teachers in their curriculum? Why are they or why not?
◦Which teaching styles are art educators aware of and using within their first five years of teaching?
◦Could improving this help with the retention of art educators?
DEFINITION OF TERMS
TEMPLETON THEORY- A method of choosing the perfect concoction of teaching styles to best suit a teacher and his or her students (ME)
CONFIDENCE- According to the Oxford Dictionary, confidence is a feeling of self-assurance arising from one's appreciation of one's own abilities or qualities.
CONSTRUCTIVISM- In constructivism, learning occurs through experiencing the world. This 20th-century theory is built on the work of psychologist Jean Piaget, who believed that children build their own knowledge through play and their experiences. Constructivism also takes cues from psychologist Lev Vygotsky and his understanding that learning is a social activity (Saraniero).
DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHILD CENTERED- A teacher may distribute pieces of paper and encourage children to make whatever they want or encourage them to visit the easel or art center. In this approach, children have much input and choice (Schirrmaker, 2006).
TEACHER DIRECTED- The teacher has an idea of what to make and how to go about it. Specific directions are given to ensure a recognizable product. Often, there is little input from the children (Schirrmaker, 2006).
CHOICE BASED/TEACHING FOR ARTISTIC BEHAVIOR- regards students as artists and offers them real choices for responding to their own ideas and interests through the making of art. This concept supports multiple modes of learning and teaching for the diverse needs of students. The learning environment provides resources and opportunities to construct knowledge and meaning in the process of making art. Choice-Based Art Education utilizes multiple forms of assessment to support student and teacher growth. (TAB, 2009)
DEFINITION OF TERMS
MEANING CENTERED- Meaning-Centered Education is an educational philosophy that places meaning making at the center of the teaching-learning process (http://www.meaningcentered.org/meaning-centered-education/).
ASSUMPTIONS
I’m assuming that most new teachers struggle with this same problem
I’m assuming that students wouldn’t come out of art programs as well rounded artists if they all were taught using just one teaching style
I’m assuming there is a way to hit all of the NAEA standards.
I’m assuming there are teachers out there that are just doing one kind of teaching method and sticking to it.
LIMITATIONS
Study may potentially not be applied to a larger population due to the sampling
TIMEAccess to other art roomsGeographical
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
How confident are new teachers in their curriculum? Why or why not?◦ “As any experienced teacher might well remember, at the
beginning stages of his or her career, he or she may have been influenced by vague feelings of intimidation or desperation. Obviously, the more self-confident a new teacher feels, the less he or she would be overwhelmed by such initial feelings of fear or despair. Apparently, new teachers are in need of some general guidelines or maxims to boost their self-confidence so that they can function more confidently in dealing with different types of circumstances that might arise in the classroom” (Noroozizadeh, 2013).
◦ “There is a lack of confidence amongst generalist primary teachers to teach art (Green & Mitchell, 1998). Welch (1995) claimed that poorly designed tertiary art education programs may negatively affect the confidence of preservice teachers to teach art” (Hudson, 2006).
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Which teaching styles are art educators aware of and using within their first five years of teaching?
“When students are not introduced to a wide range of meaning making strategies (and encouraged to analyze and re-purpose strategies they absorb from popular culture), they tend to fall back on hackneyed, kitschy image-making techniques” (Gude, 2013).
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Could improving this help with the retention of art educators?http://www.artbybrina.com/blog/why-i-quit-teaching.
html“Some teachers lack confidence in teaching art.
With teacher advisory service support for visual art teaching reduced this year, schools need to find new ways to help teachers gain confidence” (Bowell, 2010).
RESEARCH METHODS
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH◦Phenomenonological
“the study of an experience and its essences” (La Pierre and Zimmerman p.35)
Narrative◦Wanting the raw stories or “confessions” of first year art
teachers
HISTORICAL RESEARCH◦Need to know all sorts of teaching styles
forwards and backwards
PERMISSIONS AND CONSENT IRB
PERMISSIONS◦I will need permissions from the new teachers
so I can use their personal letters as data samples.
IRB CONSENT
DATA SOURCES/COLLECTION
DATA SOURCES◦Student art work◦Different lesson plans and outcomes using different teaching styles
◦Interviews with new teachers◦Letters/Reflections from at least 40 out of 50 new art educators
INSTRUMENTATION/TOOLS
A CALL FOR LETTERS:Prompt: Are you confident in your teaching at this point? Why or why not? What are the most important things you have learned from experience alone? What are your biggest questions right now that you would like answered in the realm of art education?
SAMPLE LETTERS
Am I confident? Loaded question: Honesty, depends on the minute, class, day, and week. There are some moments of "heck yeah, I can do this" then in a blink of an eye desire a big bowl of ice cream to cry in. The first year of teaching is literally throwing yourself into the deep end and hoping you float. I do, however, believe I can control a class, but I question my ability to impact and connect art to my students. I shouldn't have, but was almost overwhelmed with the amount of activities outside the realm of teaching. In a perfect world teachers would just be required to teach and focus on their students and craft verses the never ending requirements. Grated as a first year teacher there are massive "becoming an adult" growing pains along with getting comfortable with teaching. I do look forward to the confidence boost that will come with completing my first year teaching. With each and every situation I have learned to look at it as a growing experience that I will learn from. No one will be prefect at teaching and everyone has something to learn. The best thing a new teacher can be is flexible... Because there is just no way of knowing what is going to happen.
The most important thing I have learned from my first months of teaching is: forgiveness. I'm not and never will be prefect or have everything organized and my life put seamlessly together. Teaching is messy. And students are troopers - if we are honest with short comings they are adaptive within reason and understanding. Kids (even five year old kindergarten students) are dealing with more at home than I ever dreamed of. I never imagined that I would hear my students mention family members in jail or how "mommy, gets so mad at me." Students need forgiveness, love, and support.
Falling under self forgiveness... Is the ability to know that things are going to go poorly and fail. There is no way around failure. But within failure is reflection and growth.
Answers I'm looking for... Tough question. This question always makes me feel rather dumb... I never know what questions to ask. I often feel like I should have questions, but I'm often lacking the inner understanding to communicate my general unknown feeling.
I guess my biggest question would have to fall under purpose. In the future of education, what will the purpose of art education become, or will it exist at all? We are told over and over again about the need for creative critical thinkers, but "the arts" are being cut from schools. Where is the future of art going and if that falls under common core, which will require me (at some level) to teach math, reading, and writing will I be taught the current instructional method?
DATA ANALYSIS
Search letters from teachers for “informal patterns or emerging concepts, such as repetitive words or ideas that are often hidden” (La Pierre and Zimmerman, 1997).
Search for commonalities or differencesLook at the gaps or “unmarked spaces”
(Amber Ward).
POSSIBLE FINDINGS/OUTCOMES
One possible outcome of this research could be a curriculum guide for new teachers helping them find their way and their own “style.”
Another possible finding is that teachers may not struggle with this idea at all. I may be alone in this boat…
Another possibility could be that they are struggling with something completely different that isn’t being addressed.
TIMELINE & BUDGET
2 years◦ May: Send out invitations to participate along with writing prompt. Begin writing
personal narrative about my teaching experiences. Ask for them to be returned within 2 weeks.
◦ June: Complete interviews with new teachers in the area about their first few years of teaching. Possibly record them.
◦ July-December: Analyze data.◦ January: Interview first year teachers in the middle of their first year of teaching to
get more data. Where is their confidence?◦ February: Analyze more data◦ Spend another year designing lessons and a workshop based on my findings and
present at a spring conference. Set up website for teachers to enter stories or have them e-mail me: free Send out invitation to participate include envelope with address and
return postage ready to go: $50.00 for stamps and $5.00 for envelopes Interviews with new teachers: to be determined based on destination and
gas pricesLetters and Invitations designed Fall 2014 Invitations mailed Spring 2015 Analyze Data Budget: Envelopes/paper/stamps = $100
REFERENCES
Saraniero, P. (n.d.). The Kennedy Center: ARTSEDGE - the National Arts and Education Network. ARTSEDGE: Constructivism: Actively Building Arts Education.
http://www.artbybrina.com/blog/why-i-quit-teaching.html http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/ Noroozizadeh, S. (2013). ESSENTIAL MAXIMS CONTRIBUTING TO
NEW TEACHER'S CONFIDENCE AND EFFICIENCY IN THE CLASSROOM. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 6(4), 133-150.
Hudson, P., & Hudson, S. (2007). Examining preservice teachers’ preparedness for teaching art. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 8(5).
Bowell, Ian. Primary Visual Art Teaching: 'Supporting Teacher Confidence' [online]. Set: Research Information for Teachers, No. 2, 2010: 10-16.
http://teachingforartisticbehavior.org/21stcenturyskills.html Schirrmaker, R. (2006, January 1). Child Centered Art vs. Teacher-
Directed Projects. communityplaythings.com.
REFERENCES
Meaning-Centered Education. (n.d.). MeaningCentered Education MeaningCentered Education Comments. http://www.meaningcentered.org/meaning-centered-education/
Gude, O. (2013). New school art styles: The project of art education. The Journal of the National Art Education Association, 66(1), 6-23.