This week, we are tasked to look over the first assignment and start making some research. The goal of this assignment is to create a critical summary which further develops our understanding of the curriculum by focusing on a certain topic or concept in curriculum studies. In my case, I chose to research about “Art-based education and the curriculum.” Finding alternatives to teach math, especially in a creative way, is something that I wish to achieve. It is also the sole reason why I chose Mathematics education as my major and Visual Arts Education as my minor. I want to integrate the two fields in hopes to have a more effective schooling experience for my future students.
Through researching this topic through scholarly websites like google scholar, I found journals written by Chlöe Brushwood Rose, Stephanie Springgay, Carl Leggo, and others. The scholars’ views in art-based education and its correlation to curriculum aligns with my views. I found that art-based education is a way to make schooling “more dynamic” by integrating art into student’s education. As stated in the lecture last week, art education and critical thinking are the lowest in rating in terms of importance in education. I think we should remember that art comes in many shape and form. It does not have to be about drawing. By enhancing student’s critical thinking and reasoning skills, this also unlocks their artistic ability to think of other ways to better their understanding in comparison to just memorizing terms.
Since I also love videogames and I am a strong believer that games can be integrated in education, I want to include Chlöe Brushwood Rose’s journal, named Virtual Curriculum: Digital Games as Technologies of Aesthetic Experience and Potential Spaces, as part of my argument. I believe that videogames are digital artworks made for its players to expand their critical thinking through puzzles, strengthen their reasoning through the use of story mapping, and so on.
My steps are to compile quotes to eventually create a concrete argument for my critical summary. In the critical summary, I would ask the questions:
- What is art-based education and how can it change the curriculum?
- Why is art-based education important (to students and the curriculum)?
- What are the benefits of this type of education? What does it lack?
- How do scholars define art-based education? Do you agree with this definition? Why or Why not?
- How is this definition differ from other scholar’s definition?
- How does this type of schooling will improve/not improve the curriculum?
It is important to find quotations that somewhat answers this questions, so that is where I am heading.