Kate McWatters
Thesis 1
Literature Review
This literature review explores the role contemporary art museums potentially
play in early education students’ artistic development. Recent studies on museum
education can be grouped into three distinct themes. Such themes include: Museum
learning experiences, Museum education strategies, and student development and
response.
Museum Learning Experiences
Contemporary Art in Museums
Add a little intro here to introduce this quote…the category seems general and you are
getting right into constructivism so introduce the context and then transition to
constructivism…
Educator and museum theorist George Hein deems constructivism to be an
essential part of learning in contemporary museums. According to Hein, meaning making
in museums is heavily reliant on an individual’s past knowledge and experience. He
describes it as “an educational theory that recognizes the importance of individual
meaning making and makes it a central part of pedagogic practice” (p. 16). Individuals
construct knowledge in museums based on personal experiences and contexts.
Constructivism also “provides opportunity for visitors to validate and express their own
interpretations” (p. 18). Hein urges museums to design exhibits and programming that
allows visitors to construct their own knowledge and interpretations in order to have
valuable visitor learning experiences.
Art Educator Lewis Lankford also supports constructivist museum
learning. Lankford describes the recent shift in museums’ focus to prioritize
education and visitor learning from diverse perspectives . Museum Education
has become more inquiry-based, and favors individual experience, rather than
purely focusing on historical content. He states that in contemporary museum
education,
Learning is generally understood as a complex, nonlinear, active process in which
individuals draw upon previous knowledge and experiences and apply these to
their interpretation and understanding of present circumstances. In other words,
individuals construct meaning rather than receive it passively, and they do so
within particular ecological contexts. (p. 145)
Lankford, like Hein, suggests that museums to adapt this constructivist theory in exhibits
and programming in order to enhance visitor learning. As a result, visitors potentially
“form their own interpretations, ask and pursue their own questions, and find personal
relevance in the museum’s exhibits and programs. The institution would thereby be
transformed from and authoritative repository of inert knowledge into a dynamic,
meaning-making museum” (p. 146).

Contemporary Art in Society I think that this is what could work as an intro of the
category above…we discussed this last week these first two categories can be
combined into one
Art educator Brent Wilson asserts that looking at contemporary art is essential in
understanding current culture and society. Contemporary art is part of the visual culture
in which we are all immersed, and it often acts as a reflector or response to society.
Wilson claims that studying contemporary art is inherently more relevant to students than
art of past societies, given that it is directly related to their lives. He states that,
Contemporary artworks, artifacts from visual culture, and the theories, ideas, and
ideologies that surround them are of our time and they hold the possibility of
informing us, more than art and artifacts of previous eras, about our contemporary
lives, they probe and problematize contemporary society, and they raise issues
pertaining to our values and our aspirations. (p. 216)
Conversations revolving around contemporary art allow students to participate and reflect
on their environment and surroundings. Students become actively involved in both the art
world and participants in contemporary culture.
Art Educator Julia Marshall also describes contemporary art as an effective tool in
illuminating critical social and cultural issues. Marshall states that some contemporary art
is “transparent,” and “reveals the thought processes by which that form was conceived.
These works make the thinking (or cognition) behind their ideas and forms visible; they
are easily seen in the form of the work. In allowing us to see the conceptual strategies
behind them, these works make these processes accessible, teachable, and learnable.
Students can see, learn, and use the processes for generating statements in their own art
(p. 39). By discussing the work and processes of contemporary artists with students,
these pieces become more approachable and understandable. Not only do these
conversations lead to in-depth conversations about contemporary culture, but artists’
processes become accessible and applicable to student art-making.
Kerry Freedman classifies contemporary art as one element in the extensive context
of current visual culture. She asserts that “contemporary culture has become visual” and
that “global culture is rapidly shifting from text-based communication to image
saturation. Visual culture is seen on television, in museums, in movie theaters, on
billboards, on computers, in shopping malls, and so on, and the evidence of influences is
overwhelming” (p. xii). By bringing contemporary art into conversations with students,
young artists have the opportunity to critically think about the inundation of imagery they
encounter in their daily lives. Great!
Viewing Art in Museums
Again introduce your categories you need to watch your transitions and help the reader
follow your sequence ..you list what each author says but think about how one quote may
or may not relate to the other and articulate it….
Arthur Efland also asserts that social context has affect on how people view art in
Art and Cognition. He classifies cognition into three orientations in learning: symbolprocessing, sociocultural, and integrated theory. The sociocultural theories “assume that
reality is socially constructed, and that it emerges in and through the communicative
transactions individuals have with one another” (p. 53). Therefore, social context plays
an integral role in how people view and relate to art. Museum environments have the
potential to draw upon visitors’ past social experiences, while creating new ones in the
context of a public space.
In “The Trouble with Contemporary Art,” Pat Villenuve and Mary Erickson
contemplate the majority of Americans’ attitudes toward contemporary art. Villenuve and
Erickson conclude that most people’s failure to understand contemporary art stems from
a lack of preparation, tools, and education. They provide context by first detailing the
Five Stages of Aesthetic development. These include: Favoritism, Beauty and Realism,
Expression, Style and form, and Autonomy. Another integral factor Villenuve and
Erickson suggest to be important is the development of viewpoints. They state that “as
people develop in art understanding, they acquire more viewpoints and can use those
viewpoints with more sophistication, and can consciously choose the viewpoints they
find most appropriate for understanding individual works of art” (p. 93). Viewers also
need to develop reflective thinking skills in order to recognize that “knowledge is
challenging” and “responses are constructed by evaluation of multiple sources” (p. 94).
Villenuve and Erickson suggest that it is the obligation of educators to mediate the
experience between viewers and challenging artwork and that “carful attention to
viewers’ abilities and artwork selection are critical to facilitating positive learning
experiences about challenging works of art” (p. 96).
This section can probably be expanded do you have extra literature?
Museum Education Strategies
Again watch your transitions…this category flows well after the category mentioned
above but help the reader by introducing and actually articulating the need of educators
to strategize effective ways to facilitate learning and understanding….and then introduce
the various sub-categories namely the strategies themselves.
Recent literature on museum education reveals that educators have been favoring
interactive learning experiences back this up (where did you get this information) if it is
yours then define interactive (some people think it is synonymous with interactive
technology) ..over historical, content- based lectures. One quote (brief) Museum
educators utilize strategies that promote dialogue, interaction, and inquiry. Why?
Valuable museum experiences involve interactive discussions that emphasize multiple
points of view and individual meaning making. Elaborate a bit more ….
Inquiry based strategies.
In Looking at Art in the Classroom, Rebecca Shulman-Herz introduces the
Guggenheim Museum’s investigation methodology. Shulman-Herz defines inquiry as a
“teaching strategy in which the teacher poses open-ended observation and interpretation
questions about a work of art, and the conversation grows naturally out of these
questions” (p. 12). When viewing an artwork, the educator structures the conversation
around investigative questions rather than delivering pure historical context and
interpretations. Shulman-Herz describes a typical art investigation to be about 10-20
minutes long and involves five open-ended questions. Art investigations typically
“[begin] with questions that invite students to make observations, and then [move] into
questions that ask for interpretations of the artwork, as well as asking students to make
connections between the art and their own lives or other areas of study” (p. 7). These
open-ended questions are then answered resulting from individual students’ observations
and interpretations. The following conversations are then inherently relevant to the
student’s personal experiences, and therefore lend to meaningful artistic discussion.
Olga Hubard also describes interactive museum education strategies by
emphasizing the importance of dialogue while viewing art. Hubard distinguishes dialogue
into two distinct forms: predetermined and interpretive. Subcategories of interpretive
dialogue include thematic and open dialogue. According to Hubard, predetermined
dialogue is utilized to “help students arrive at concrete understandings, identified by the
teacher in advance” (p. 41). Students are invited to arrive at the predetermined
understanding in their own way by responding to the educator’s intentionally guided
questions. On the other hand, interpretive dialogue favors a more organic artistic
understanding. Interpretive dialogue is defined by Hubard as emphasizing “the
philosophical notion that the meaning of an artwork is not fixed but ever-evolving; it
continues to reveal itself through every new interaction” (p. 42…(Gadamer, 2000; Iser
1980) how to cite this????) Interpretive dialogue can be thematic or open. Thematic
dialogue is characterized by limits set by the educator. Students are then encouraged to
explore limits adhering to the thematic limits set by the educator. Open dialogue supports
multi-dimensional learning and embraces a wide variety of responses. Hubard states that
each form of dialogue can be used within the same discussion. However, it is essential
that the educator remain transparent and open about the direction of the dialogue.
“Transparency of a teacher’s purpose can prevent the frustration that surfaces when, for
example, students assume the teacher is interested in their interpretations, when in reality
she is trying to guide them towards a predetermined idea” (p. 44).
George Hein suggests that museum educators utilize constructivist-based
approaches to ensure valuable learning experiences for visitors. Hein states,
“constructivism argues that both knowledge and the way it is obtained are dependent on
the mind of the learner” and that “learners construct knowledge as they learn; they don’t
simply add new facts to what is known, but constantly reorganize and create both
understanding and the ability to learn as they interact with the world” (pp. 3-4). Instead of
objectively absorbing content, constructivist theory suggests that learning results from the
past experience, knowledge, and context of the individual. Additionally, constructivist
strategies focus on providing maximum visitor exploration and learning. Hein says that
constructivist theory “argues that in any discussion of teaching and learning the focus
needs to be on the learner, not on the subject to be learned” and museums should “focus
on the visitor, not the content of the museum” (p. 6).