Jessica Bowlby

30 March 2018

ARTEDUC 4300

Mr. McGuire

Observation 4

The art teacher is student centered because of how he values his student’s personal lives

and their own interests. He incorporates these aspects into his lessons in multiple ways. For

example, his sixth-grade classes had a project that required them to depict their future self in a

job of their choice. The requirements were to use colored pencil and to make the figure appear to

have some type of movement and not just stand upright. There are certain requirements for

grading purposes, but the project is open ended and allows the students to reflect on their lives

and future decisions. Another project that is student centered would be the advertisement project

for the sixth graders. They were required to create an advertisement for anything that they found

interesting. This allows them to look into their personal interests.

The teacher is also content driven because he bases projects around the principles and

elements of art. For example, the sixth-grade project about advertisements was also content

driven because they had to learn how to use a calligraphy pen and how to make different marks

with it. Another example would be the eighth graders clay project. This project allows them to

learn how to work with clay. They have to learn how thick to make their slab, how to score and

slip the clay, and how to create a three-dimensional form.

 When I asked the teacher what he considers to be his essential content, he listed the

following: knowledge, understanding, creativity, developing skills, and response and reflection.

He also gave me a copy of the standards that he uses for his classes. I will attach this to the

observation.

I would say that this teacher’s philosophy includes those of constructivism and

progressivism. I would consider him to use constructivism because the students are able to

construct their own meaning and understanding through their projects and learning. They bring

their own experiences into the classroom and build off of them. The teacher does this by

allowing the students to use their own experiences and interests in their projects. This can be

seen by how he keeps the projects open ended so that the students can build off of their own

ideas and knowledge.

I would also say that he uses progressivism in his teaching because he creates his lessons

to be more choice based. He does this by making requirements for each project, but letting the

students be more decisive in what they create. When asked about this, he said that in his eighth-

grade classes, he lets them focus on what they create and the content, and he focuses more on the

discipline aspects of their projects. He lets them choose their content and does not try to change

this, but he gives most suggestions for the skill based portion of the project.

Our teaching philosophies are similar because I also appreciate using more of a choice

based art education and giving the students more control of their learning. Also, I like to allow

students to bring their personal experiences and knowledge into the classroom and use them in

their projects. I also think it is important for the students to understand the topic that they are

learning, and not just complete the project for a grade. I would consider this to be more process

based and less product based art education.