Action Research

I am a curious person. I love to ask questions (sometimes to the despair of my children!)

Thinking, considering, questioning, picking at, guessing, challenging, back-tracking, checking, revising and refocusing daily.  I have the good fortune to be married to a man who also loves to challenge and who helps me work though things.  I also appreciate my office mates – both critical and inquiring people, who are infinitely patient with me as I wrestle with ideas and agonize over concepts, struggling for clarity. Each time I start by saying, “I hope your not too busy, but….”   Or “What do you think would happen…”  and “I just don’t understand how to ….”  And they engage once more with me, helping me find my way, probing my thinking, massaging an idea until I can let it go once more.

Lunch, yesterday, was another example. I had been explaining how my thinking was changing again and can sum it up thus:

I thought we were forming a community of Arts Educators so that we might feel strength from numbers. To combat the isolation of being the only odd ball in your school. But I’m finding that as we clarify our roles, agree to common beliefs, and philosophy, so to our identity becomes more clear.  With this clarity of purpose comes the question “so what?” How is this meaningful to anyone else? Can we sit up at the big boy table and talk confidently about what it is we do and why it is important? In these days of assessment where do we stand? We need to move toward a Culture of Evidence (to use Dr. Burnaford’s title of a CAPES project in Chiacago).

As I fumbled to articulate these thoughts, I realized it captured a fairly accurate progression of my thinking.  It all seemed to make perfect sense.

The building of the community identity was indeed an important step in the process, but it allowed us to move into a new arena for discussion.  As we give voice to our world we are in a better position to share it with others – to make our case!

I sat at the lunch table, quietly contemplating this awareness. Sounded good, yup, makes sense. Uh huh….

Next, my colleague innocently asked me, “How much are you driving the process? Do you think the teachers in your committee look at you as wearing the “Mantle of the Expert”? Does your word carry more weight because you are a consultant?”

I looked at her and thought, “She found the elephant in the room!” Does my power and authority = compromised collaboration? What does that do to my understanding of my role?

The committee is engaged in a process of coming to understand the terms of Studio Thinking, our identity and common purpose and I think the process thus far has allowed it to happen.  It is a process I designed intentionally to include input and direction from the group, to build the concept of community.  But what is our community doing now? What comes next? I am ready to move us into some new territory, into what I have identified as a natural progression from the process. I also see it having a “big picture” ramification to our work. It will provide validation to the Arts through a firm grounding in assessment for learning.

BUT, are they ready to move into this arena of learning?  As the one who sets the agenda I also have the power. How does this impact our working environment?  We meet again on Monday (3rd action) and this needs to be my question for the day as we work.  We will be reflecting on our process, looking at collaboration, exploring ways to appropriately use technology, the purpose of documentation, and the connection to assessment. I’m concerned that we will be trying to cover too much in too little time (but we have so little time!) I may be pushing too much, too soon.

Upon reflection, it seems apparent that we need to consider our process and direction. I will try to use a VoiceThread for the discussion and will link (or embed) it when done.

We are a curious community indeed – we are curious about the world around us, curious about learning and the way things work…. and we are often seen as curious to others. This curiosity binds us together and will help us move forward.

(Holly Hildebrand “Poppies”)

Action Research: Action 1

Yesterday the Studio Thinking committee met for the first time.

After months of planning, discussing, writing and reading the moment of truth arrived.  I had carefully prepared for the meeting by creating an agenda that would have:

structure

organization

meaningful information

time for reflection, interaction and discovery

flexibility for teacher input and direction

It was much like preparing for an Arts lesson! And like the classroom, I could not anticipate their reaction to the workshop and had to be ready to respond and revise on the spot.  Teaching requires us to be ready for anything, to read the group and to manage the climate.  I did not want to overwhelm them with information or influence them with my own beliefs.  My primary goal was to create a community and to help us find our common language and shared philosophy in Arts Education (regardless if it’s drama, dance, music or visual arts).

I was surprisingly tired after the day was done, but also very pleased with the outcome.  The group expressed appreciation for the chance to talk, to share ideas and to not feel so isolated.  We are looking forward to our next meeting when we work with the artists and with creating a collaboration project. I introduced the research on Arts Education and critical and creative thinking, we deconstructed the Studio Thinking habits of mind and they agreed to continue with the Action Research plan.  They have also agreed to join the Arts Ed 2.0 Ning so that we might use it to share our work with one another.

Data Collection 1:

The teachers completed a survey meant to create a picture of how they view themselves (as artist/teacher), their thinking about class environment and perceptions of critical and creative thinking skills.

We discussed Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and compared it to the eight Studio Thinking Habits of Mind. This became a useful tool for talking about our practice and the levels of thinking we call upon regularly in our work.

Next Steps:

a) On Oct. 2 we will join 25 teachers from the division to work with three artists for a day. The workshop will focus on Responding to Art and will be based around an exhibition called “Mixed Messages: Fragmented Stories”.  We will be working as artists: thinking, expressing, exploring, and creating together. How does it feel to be the participant instead of the deliverer of the experience?  What was my process? How does this work influence me in the classroom?

b) I will visit with three of the six teachers and document (video) a session with students. We will watch the video together and talk about their practice – thinking skills, studio habits, process and student learning.  The conversation will focus on how the teachers perceives what happened with what they see in the document. The conversation will allow for reflection about their practice and may lead them to an action research question of their own.

c) The teachers will complete a final survey in November when we meet to plan our collaboration.  Though this will be the final step of the data to be collected, the teachers will continue on the committee for the remainder of the year.