integration t education - msu denver...

BY JULIA MARSHA

t is time for new ideas and models for art education. Cdevelopments in contemporary art, learning theory anieducation itself demand new approaches and provide iration and guidance for change. Each area brings parti(

components to the table but they all have one primary elenin common: a call for an art education that is better connectthe concepts and ideas behind art and art practice, and to ainquiry outside of art. I propose an art education that is buithese broad and deep connections. I call it substantive art ifgration and believe it to be a core principle of an exemplarleducation. Here is a summary of the foundations of this ap!an explanation of substantive integration and a sample prothat demonstrates how it plays out in practice.

Integrationt Education

Contemporary ArtContemporary postmodern art offers

new ways for understanding and makingart. Current art is eclectic, taking manyforms, styles and approaches. It oftenquotes images and styles from visualculture and global visual traditions, aswell as from Western art history (Efland,Freedman, & Stuhr, 1996). It is concep-tually based, and it emphasizes ideas(Freedman, 2003a). It also frequentlyuses irony and humor created through

L L surprising juxtapositions and incon-

gruous combinations. It finds new forms,

urrent processes and content in areas outside thedomain of art (Marshall, 2005).Above all,

nsin ar contemporary art is focused not on pureinspi- form or aesthetic pleasure but on making

cular meaning or reinterpreting meaning

nent (Efland, Freedman, & Stuhr, 1996).ted to Therefore, contemporary art practice

reas of promotes an art education that: (1)

It on foregrounds thinking and conceptualiza-

ite- tion, building conceptual and technicalskills simultaneously: (2) utilizes currentart strategies; (3) appropriates or quotes

)roach, images from visual culture and art; (4)ject looks at art in an anthropological way-

examining how art expresses cultural

NOVEMBER 2006 / ART EDUCATION 17

values and meanings; (5) teaches a myriadof techniques, materials, forms and artgenres, including experimental and inter-disciplinary genres; and (6) has meaning-making as its primary objective. Becausecurrent art focuses on content from allareas of life, it also calls for curriculumintegration.

Cognitive Theory:Constructivism, Connectionsand Imagination

Constructivism had its origins in theearly 20th century in the pragmatisttheories of John Dewey (2001), and wasshaped by two seminal figures:Jean Piaget(1963) who explained learning in termsof an individual acting autonomously,and Lev Vygotsky (1978) who under-stood learning as a process influenced byculture and dependent on interactionswith others (Efland, 2002, Freedman,2003b, Noddings, 1995).The two majorbranches of constructivism, the cogni-tive-developmental approach (Piaget) andsociocultural theory (Vygotsky), sharesome core tenets and are at the center ofcurrent learning theory (connectionism)(Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, Eds., 2000).Its basic principles are: (1) learning is aconnection-making process, where thelearner links new experience to priorexperience in order to acquire new infor-mation and to make sense of it; (2) thelearner constructs his or her knowledge;(3) learning is an active process of interac-tion and experimentation; (4) knowledgeis built through successive steps that buildupon one another; and (5) we learn mostoften from others.

Understanding is the ultimate goal oflearning (Bransford et al., 2000), and agood way to build understanding of infor-mation is to use or apply it (Dewey, 2001).This is where art comes in.An art lessoncalls for students to translate informationinto visual images or to take that informa-tion further and to apply it in imagina-tive ways. Imaginative applications buildunderstandings of the information. Makingimaginative projections leads to learningthat is personal and meaningful becausethe learner plays with the information andconstrues it in his or her own way.

In this approach, art findsits content in all areas ofhuman thought and activity.Therefore art as researchcalls for an art educationthat is inquiry-based,concentrates on learningas the goal, is guided bylearning theory and is alsofully integrated with otherareas of thought.

Constructivists also understand playas a mode of learning (Vygotsky, 1978).Play is experimentation and dependson imagination to see multiple applica-tions and a sense of freedom to try manynew or different things. Creativity inartmaking demands a sense of freedomand play (Szekely, 1988). However,constructivism suggests that learning isbest accomplished when there is somestructure.Artistic play is essentially alearning process and therefore requiresorganization, guidelines and goals withroom for individual experimentation andinterpretation (Pitri, 2001). Constructivistlearning theory also calls for project-based learning where lessons build uponeach other (Katz & Chard, 1989).Artprojects with multiple lessons or stepsare good examples of this.As the centraltheme of constructivism is connectionmaking, it calls for art lessons that areconnected thematically, where conceptsare introduced and revisited in many ways.These themes should be big ideas, keyconcepts or essential questions (Daniel,Stuhr, & Ballengee-Morris, 2006)-themesthat stem from and have meaning in life(Anderson & Milbrandt, 2005).With itsemphasis on conceptual connections,constructivism also suggests that learningin all subjects, art included, is facilitatedand enhanced by integration with othersubjects.

Art as Research(Art Education Theory)

The notion that artmaking constitutesa form of research is gaining momentumin art education with texts by Sullivan(2005), Gray and Malins (2004) andMacleod and Holdridge (2006) providinginsights into its theory and practice.Artas research calls for a radical rethinkingof the premises for making art. Knowledgeconstruction replaces personal expres-sion, object-making, and aesthetic pleasureas the primary goal of art practice, andimage- or object-making is viewed as anintegral part of a learning process.There-fore, the cognitive processes that underlieimage-making become the focus.The roleof visual imagery in creating, distillingand embodying ideas and in generatinginsight and learning are highlighted. Art asresearch also fuses learning/research withcreative process. It understands creativeprocess as the way in which artists createnew knowledge through experimenta-tion, reflection and imaginative synthesisand projection. It also emphasizes howartmaking generates knowledge, not bycoming up with new facts but by rein-terpreting or restructuring knowledge(Sullivan, 2005). In this approach, art findsits content in all areas of human thoughtand activity.Therefore art as researchcalls for an art education that is inquiry-based, concentrates on learning as thegoal, is guided by learning theory and isalso fully integrated with other areas ofthought.

Art Education Principlesand Structures

National and state frameworks andstandards in art education promote an artseducation that is reflective -calling for adeeper and broader approach to thinkingin art. Based on California standards andframeworks, there are five areas throughwhich to channel thinking about artand art practice: aesthetic perception,aesthetic valuing, cultural heritage,creative production, and connections,applications and extensions. Withaesthetic valuing, the frameworksrequire lessons to focus on meaning andexamine art images as meaning-makersand mediums for communication.Withaesthetic perception, they promote the

18 ART EDUCATION / NOVEMBER 2006

notion that the formal qualities of artconstitute a language through which ideasare explored and conveyed.With culturalheritage, they connect art to othercultural expressions and place art in thecontext of culture and social life. Creativeexpression indicates that making originalimages and objects is a critical componentof arts learning.The last category, connec-lions, applications and extensions,explicitly calls for finding the intersectionsbetween art and other areas of inquiry.The art education principles representedin standards and frameworks necessitatelessons that go deep: mining the conceptsbehind images, ideas and processes-andbroad: making a web of connectionsbetween art content, artmaking and otherdomains and ideas.Therefore, they do notisolate art as a hermetic field but call foran integrated arts education that connectsto all areas of inquiry.

Substantive Art IntegrationPictorial image-making fosters under-

standings of concepts from disciplinesoutside of art (Edens & Potter, 2001).Artmaking is a medium through whichwe learn, interpret and communicateabout life and the world (Anderson &Milbrandt, 2005).These stances suggestthat integrating art into the curriculummakes sense. Moreover, integration doesnot devalue art as a domain unto itselfbut acknowledges its power and scope(Marshall, 2005). Integration comesin many forms, ranging from the mostsuperficial (illustrating content fromother domains) to deeper explorations(examining concepts that domains havein common).True integration is a substan-tive approach that explores and explicatesconnections between areas on a concep-tual and structural level (Clark, 1997). Inart, this means exploring fundamentalcommonalities and differences betweenart and other areas (especially how ideasare researched, conceptualized andcommunicated) and makingthem explicit throughart practice (Marshall,2005).

An Example Project:The Life and Times of Super-natural Hybrids

Here is an example of a series of artlessons in the form of a project thatillustrates the principles of substantiveart integration. In this series of exercises,image making and storytelling providecontexts and catalysts for explorations offundamental concepts from art, science,mythology, and popular visual culture.Although the project is made up of simplelessons, it becomes substantive and exem-plary through the extensions and connec-tions made in the project (the way simpleideas are mined for connections andextended beyond surface meaning to theconcepts that underlie them) and the waythese concepts are discovered and madeexplicit through the activities.

This project is most appropriate forupper elementary and middle school. Itwas developed over time in our preservicecourse at San Francisco State Universityand serves as a model for arts integrationin our teacher preparation program.

Lesson One: Creating HybridCreatures. In the first lesson, studentsinvent synthetic hybrid animals througha highly structured process. It begins

with a drawing lesson in which studentsdraw three "real" animals in pastel chalkson three large pieces of paper by firstdrafting the geometric shapes that liebeneath the animals' complex formsand then drawing the organic lines anddetails over the geometric structures.In sketching the animals, students honetheir observation and rendering skills.The models used for drawing are naturalhistory illustrations from 19th-centuryEurope (see collections of these illustra-tions in Harter, 1979).These images workwell because they are clear renderings ofthe anatomical characteristics of animals.Students are instructed to choose threeanimals from three different species.Through brainstorming species anddiscussing how animals are categorized,students learn about taxonomy in biologywhile gathering a breadth of possibilitiesfor their animals.

After the drawings are completed,students look at pictures of mythologicalanimals. Hybrids such as Ganesha (India),mermaids, griffins and fairies (Germany,England, France),Anubis, Sphinx andPtah (Ancient Egypt), Dragons (China)and Naguales (Mexico) demonstrate thathybridized fantasy creatures are a tradi-tion all over the world and show that


Students cometo view scientificillustration as away of researchinga subject throughobservation andinterpretation.

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Life Cycle of the Terwilliker's WoolyBu-Guk, by Gabriel Gamboa.

they often are embodi-Sments for supernatural

powers. Here the lessonconnects to mytholo-gies and spiritual tradi-tions and also provides

i insight into creativity

and creative process.The creative strategyof synthesis, a processof combining alreadyexisting "real" things tocreate new entities, isintroduced in discus-sions of how theseanimals are created

through joining parts of different animals.We find synthesis in nature when geneticcombinations generate new organisms.In nature, combinatory possibilities aregoverned by natural laws and change islimited. Synthesis in human creativity,however, is not constrained by naturallaws; while the human imagination beginswith what it knows and often models itscreations after what it has seen or expe-rienced, it can break out from nature'srestrictions to create something reallynew.With this in mind, students cut theiranimals into parts and rearrange thesecomponents to create new hybrids.

Examining contemporary hybridanimals in Western art and visual culturethat embody powers and powerfulconcepts updates the tradition of hybridanimals as symbols of powers. Specificexamples from contemporary art are

Thomas Grunfeld's hybrid transgeniccreatures composed of parts fromtaxidermied animals in the Misfit Series(1994) and the computer-collaged animalsin Hybrids (2000) by Eva Sutton.Theconcepts embodied in these creaturesare the power and menace of biotech-nology, especially genetic engineering. Inpopular culture we find similar powersand anxieties personified in robots,cyborgs and other synthesized creaturesfrom science fiction, comic books andvideo games.This theme of hybridizedcreatures is timeless and robust. Becausethey have both ancient roots and are partof contemporary popular global culture,hybrid animals have a lot of resonance insignifying current forces and ideas todayand therefore can serve as mediums forstudent exploration and expression aboutissues in their lives.

Lesson Two: 'Researching' theAnimal. This lesson further integratesscience and art by exploring the waysimagery is used in research and howvisual images function as language. Init, students imaginatively 'research' andconstruct their animals' lives as they applythe style, aesthetics, and graphic devicesof scientific illustration to create, exploreand tell about their creatures.

The lesson begins with a presentationof natural history illustrations of animalsdating from the Age of Enlightenmentto the present.These illustrations comein a variety of forms and have differentorientations and focuses. Many depictanimals in their habitats; many display the


anatomy of animals; and others illustratewhat animals do, what they eat, and howthey live. Rendered realistically and ingreat detail, these illustrations are essen-tially visual representations of information.Their ability to explicate is enhancedthrough the use of visual devices suchas magnification bubbles, cutaways andcodes (numbers and letters). In studyingthe visual language of these images,students come to see how imagery canconvey information clearly and explicitly.The overt coding in these pictures alsoprovides an introduction to the waysmeaning is conveyed in all kinds of visualsigns and symbols in art and visual culture.In noticing the illustration's aesthetic qual-ities and the interpretive style of the illus-trator, students can see how these worksborder on art.Above all, students come toview scientific illustration as a way ofresearching a subject through observationand interpretation. Here students see howimage-making functions as a medium ofresearch.With all of this in mind, studentsdraw "portraits" of their hybrid animals inthe expressive yet detailed style of JohnJames Audubon.

Students give their animals mock Latinnames inspired by Linnaeus' system ofbinomial nomenclature, which namesorganisms by genus and species.Thishighlights the importance of categoriza-tion and naming in scientific research andconnects the animals' identities to theirgenetic heritage.They then imaginativelydissect their animals, drawing the animals'anatomies- skeletal structures and/orinternal organs.They isolate anatomicalparts and characteristics that are distinctto their animals and draw these charac-

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Hybrid, by PatrickSantiago.


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The curriculum presentedhere ... is a work in

progress; each semesterit evolves into a newcreature. It performs as notonly a model but also itssubject matter serves as ametaphor for substantiveart integration. Exemplaryart education is, after all,a grand hybrid, a synthesisof many things.

teristics as part of a full animal drawingor in magnification bubbles.After drawingfive or six illustrations, students have fullydeveloped their animal's physical char-acteristics.They then draw two or threedrawings to illustrate the lives of theiranimals-where they live, their activi-ties, habits and diets.As these are hybridcreatures, they are free from naturalconstraints or realism and students can beas fanciful as they please.

Lesson Three: Stories and Myths.Prepared with all the information theyhave developed, students write storiesabout their animals and illustrate themthrough drawings and collage.A photo-copy machine is a helpful tool in thislesson. Students photocopy their firstpicture, the Audubon-style illustration,many times and in many sizes. Havingmultiple images of the animals frees theartist to try many iterations and possi-bilities and to make groups of his or heranimal. It also encourages students totrade animals.When animals from onestudent pop up in another student's story,the project becomes a social experience-a collaboration.

Graphic novels, comic books, andillustrated children's books can provide

models for these stories. Creation myths,allegories, science fiction and fables canoffer motifs and story lines.The storiescan evolve in any way; teachers can guidethe development of stories according totheir curricular requirements in academiccourses or they can leave the subjectmatter open.Taking clues from contempo-rary art, the stories can focus on currentsocial, political, cultural, and environ-mental issues.They can also include foundimages from popular culture and addressstudent life today.They can incorporatecollage and use postmodern art strate-gies such as appropriation, bricolage(constructing images from whatever isat hand), synthesis and juxtaposition tocreate irony and humor.These storiesand illustrations can then be bound intobooks. Book-making could be lessonnumber four.

Lesson Four or Five: Product Linesand Three-Dimensional Animals.Following examples from popular culture,students can develop product lines togo along with their stories. Productscan include souvenirs--stuffed animals,toys, tools, packages, foods and clothing.Students can visit the local mall toresearch product lines and souvenirs.


Turtleflyfalo: A Creature's Journal, by Bob Holloway.

They can make their products from anymaterial-papier-mAche, ceramic or air-dryclay, or cloth and stuffing.

In this culminating lesson, studentsexplore the personality and anatomy oftheir animal further and make it more"real "Transforming an animal drawinginto a three dimensional object requires agreat deal of problem-solving in building aviable structure-thus developing cogni-tive as well as physical skills. Students alsohave experience in using lots of materialsto create textures, coloration and patternson the skin of their creatures.This lessonalso addresses commodification andcommercialization of stories, myths andpopular characters in contemporaryculture.

From here the project can progressinto other lessons that integrate scienceand contemporary art. One suggestionis to build natural history-style dioramasfor a Museum of Unnatural History thatdisplay the three-dimensional hybrid

animals interacting in their habitats.Thislesson introduces the art of natural historydioramas and the genre of installation artpracticed by artists such as Mark Dionand Fred Wilson who curate and displayobjects in cabinets, vitrines and othermuseum-style displays to construct narra-tives and make comments on museumdisplay and cultural biases (Wilson) orresearch, science and ecology (Dion).

Assessment of the ProjectThis series of lessons meets the criteria

set by the basic tenets of an exemplary,substantive integrated art educationbecause it:

1. Integrates art with other areas ofinquiry and thought (connecting art,science, mythology and storytelling) insubstantive ways.

2. Is in sync with constructivist theoriesof learning and understanding. It callsfor active participation and construe-

tion of knowledge through progressivestructured steps. It promotes learningthrough connections and extensionsof ideas. It enhances learning throughimaginative play, projection andapplication.

3. Connects image-making and artmakingto research. It focuses on knowledgeconstruction through reinterpretationof information. It uses creative processin constructing knowledge.

4. Connects to contemporary artpractice, processes and ideas such asbricolage, irony and humor.

5. Connects to art history and globalart traditions under a unifying theme(of hybridization) and links them tostudents' lives.

6. Builds a variety of artmaking skills.7. It lends itself to reflection on critical

ideas in art and related fields-makingconcepts and relationships explicit.


Sometimes, he just wanted to disappear,

Conclusion: SubstantiveIntegration in Practice

Exemplary curricula are critical to anexemplary substantive integrated arteducation.Developing and implementingcurricula requires broad and deepknowledge of art practice, learning andeducational theory, visual culture and arthistory but also some understanding ofthe basic principles and practices in otherareas of inquiry to which art is connected.Most importantly, it requires imaginativethinking and research in uncovering andmaking explicit the concepts beneathimages and ideas (thinking deeply), inconnecting them to related ideas (thinkingbroadly), and in developing imagina-tive and playful exercises that allow forstudents to discover and connect ideasthemselves through research and play.

Contemporary theory and structuresin art and education provide us with thegroundwork and a map for this.The bril-liance of these foundational theories andstructures is in their call for curricula thatare structured and thoughtful but also

flexible, evolving and open to new ideasand processes.The curriculum presentedhere is just one example. It is a work inprogress; each semester it evolves into anew creature. It performs as not only amodel but also its subject matter serves asa metaphor for substantive art integra-tion. Exemplary art education is, after all,a grand hybrid, a synthesis of many things.

Julia Marshall is Associate Professor ofArt Education at San Francisco StateUniversity. E-mail.'[email protected]

REFERENCESAnderson,T & Milbrandt, M. (2005). Artjbr life:

Authentic instruction in art. New York:McGraw Hill.

Bransford,J., Brown,A., & Cocking, R. (Eds.)(2000). How people learn:Brain, mind,experience and school Washington, DC:Commission on Behavioral and SocialSciences and Education, National ResearchCouncil, National Academy Press.

Clark, E. (1997). Designing and implementingintegrated curriculum. Brandon,VT:Holistic Education Press.

Daniel,V, Stuhr, P, & Ballengee-Morris, C. (2006).Suggestions for integrating the arts into thecurriculum. Art Education, 59(1), 6-11.

Dewey,J. (2001). Child and the curriculum.New York: Dover (original published in1902).

Edens, K., & Potter, E. (2001). Promotingconceptual understanding through pictorialrepresentation, Studies in Art Education42(3), 214-233.

Efland (2002). Art and cognition: Integrationinto the curriculum. NewYork:TeachersCollege Press.

Efland,A., Freedman, K., & Stuhr, P (1996).Postmodern art education:An approachto curriculum. Reston, VA: National ArtEducation Association.

Freedman, K. (2003a).The importance ofstudent artistic production to teachingvisual culture. Art Education, 56(2), 38-43.

Freedman, K. (2003b). Teaching visual culture:Curriculum, aesthetics and the social lifeof art NewYork:Teachers College Press.

Gray, C., & Malins,J. (2004). Visualizingresearch:A guide to the research process inart and design. Burlington,VT:Ashgatc.

Katz, L., & Chard, S. (1989). Engaging children'sminds: The project approach. Norwood, NJ:Ablex.

Macleod, K., & Holdridge, L. (2006). Thinkingthrough art: Reflections on art as research,New York: Routledge.

Marshall,J. (2005). Connecting art, learning andcreativity:A case for curriculum integration,Studies in Art Education, 46(3), 227-241.

Noddings, N. (1995). Epistemology and educa-tion. In Philosophy of Education (pp. 9 8 -120). New York: HarperCollins.

Piaget,J. (1963). The origins of intelligencein children (M. Cook,Trans.). New York:Norton. (Original published 1952)

Pitri, E. (200 1).The role of artistic play inproblem solving. Art Education, 54(3),46-51.

Sullivan, G. (2005).Art practice as research:Inquiry in the visual arts.Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.

Szekely, G. (1988). Encouraging creativity inart lessons. New York:Teachers College.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The devel-opment of higher psychological processes.Cambridge MA: Harvard University.

RESOURCES FOR IMAGESThomas Grunfeld and Eva SuttonHeiferman, M., & Kismaric, C. (2001). Paradise

now: Picturing the genetic revolution.Saratoga Springs, NY Tang Museum.

Anker, S., & Nelkin, D. (2004). The moleculargaze:Art in the genetic age. Cold SpringHarbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryPress.

Mark Dion and Fred WilsonKwon, M. (1997). Interview with Mark Dion. In

Mark Dion (pp. 8-33)- London, UK: Phaidon.Berger, M. (2001). Fred Wilson: Objects and

installations 1979-2000. Baltimore:University of Maryland.

Hybrid Animals in Illustrated BooksDixon, D. (198 1). After man:A zoology of the

future. New York: St. Martin's.Harris, N.,Turner, J., & Aston, C (1998). Very

mixed-up animals. Brookfield, CT:TheMillbrook Press.

Sendak, M. (1988). Where the wild things are.New York: HarperCollins.

Natural History IllustrationsFord, B. (1993). Images of science. NewYork:

Oxford University Press.Harter, J. (1979).Animals: 1419 copyright-

free illustrations of mammals, birds,fish, insects, etc..'A pictorial archive fromnineteenth-century sources selected by JimHarter NewYork: Dover.

Kastner,J (1991). The animal illustrated:1550-1900. New York: Harry N.Abrams.

Robin, H. (1992). The scientific image.New York: Harry N.Abrams.


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TITLE: Substantive Art Integration = Exemplary Art EducationSOURCE: Art Educ 59 no6 N 2006

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