How can reflection (on their own works and the works of other artists) influence students' artistic thinking and processes?

Seminar Title

How can reflection (on their own works and the works of other artists) influence students' artistic thinking and processes?

Student Reflection

6th Grade

Middle School

Art

All Disciplines

“Why are we writing? This is art class!” Too often, art as a school subject is viewed less as a scholarly class and more of a “fun” break from thinking and grades. While it is important for many students to simply enjoy the process of art-making and the freedom it allows, I also believe students (often unknowingly) benefit from the more open-endedness art class encourages. By giving assignments with no “right answer,” students are exposed to a learning style not often used by some of the core subjects - critical and creative thinking. In addition, many students appreciate the almost therapeutic nature of art-making, including the ability to tailor their projects to a personal story or interest. To help students better understand the hows and whys of the importance of art, I focused on the use of digital portfolios and student reflection. By implementing portfolios as a tool for reflection and feedback, I hoped to encourage more thought and autonomy in students’ art-making. While this action research was directed towards middle school art students, most of these strategies could be used or adapted to suit upper elementary and high school students as well, in any subject matter that would benefit from visual and written feedback and reflection.

Within my initial readings for my Review of Literature, numerous types of reflection-prompts were suggested; however, given the visual nature of art class and my previous experience with it as an elementary teacher, I decided to try using Seesaw (an online portfolio platform for students to view, comment, and reflect back on their and others’ work). In order to better teach students how to reflect and use those reflections to further their work and thinking, I started by introducing Seesaw and artist statements to be completed after each assignment. Further into the first quarter, students also completed three VTSs (Visual Thinking Strategies) in which they viewed, analyzed, and discussed famous artworks. The last two data collection strategies I used were initial, midway, and final surveys about student reflection, and two one-on-one conferences with students to verbally discuss their thinking process during reflection. Each of these actions gave multiple glimpses into students’ thinking processes and whether or not their artistic reflections were deepening or affecting their artmaking. Overall, most of the strategies I implemented are beneficial to students’ thoughts about art and are ones I hope to continue into future teaching. While I did not notice a significant change in student artwork - either in relating to themselves personally or in creating more detailed or time-consuming artwork - there was a noticeable increase in student understanding and attitudes about reflection as a whole and that it is an important part of learning and developing self-awareness. With my next semester of students, I hope to further integrate the idea of self-reflection by implementing self-assessments for each assignment. My hope is that the clarity of what qualifies as “quality work” will become more evident, as well as a higher sense of student ownership in their artwork overall.