Developing complex knowledge

:

* Lessons

from looking at

art

Shari TishmanHarvard Project Zero

January 30, 2009

Beginning at the end: 2 claims

• Looking at art teaches thinking

• Looking at art can inform instructional design

Agenda

1. Research background

2. Explore an image

3. Complex knowledge – what it is,

conditions that encourage its

development.

The Harvard Art Museums

• With renovation at hand and new construction ahead, the museums look ahead to an expanded educational mission.

• The study centers as inspiration

The Agnes Mongan Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs The Fogg, 1st floor

Busch - Reisinger Study Room BRM, 3rd floor

What do people learn in study centers?

How do they come to learn it?

Several strands of research

Review of existing studies and documents

– Interviews with staff involved in study centers (curators, others)

– Visitor observations and interviews in the study centers-experts and novices.

– Interviews with faculty from Harvard and other local institutions—users and non-users

A study center can be anywhere…

The study center mindset:

• Expectation of extended time, deep looking, open-ended inquiry, own impressions as a source of information.

Look at an image

What do people learn in study centers?

• Materials and methods

• History, cultural contexts, interpretive perspectives

• Artistic and creative processes

• Personal knowledge and connections

• metacognitive knowledge (knowledge about knowledge and thinking)

In study centers, people inquire and learn about many

different kinds of things.

Complex knowledgeInquiry and understanding across multiple dimensions

Why should we care about teaching skills related to the development of complex knowledge?

Why is art especially suited to developing skills involved in pursuing complex knowledge?

How do people learn in study center settings?

Some important conditions

- Cognitive framing

- Cognitive directions

Time

Expectations

– taking time– deep looking – own impressions as

source of information.

Framing the experience

Raffaele da Montelupo, Italian (c. 1504 - 1566) Torso StudiesDrawing. Brown ink and traces of red chalk on cream antique laid paper, attached to cream antique laid paper.

Four cognitive directions

Directing the experience

Picasso, Studies of a Rooster, c. 1896Drawing, Colored chalk on beige antique laid paper

John Cage, Concert for Piano and Orchestra, Solo for Piano, 1957-1958. Drawing , Black ink and graphite on cream translucent vellum paper

What do we know?

1. Look long

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Portrait of Mme. Ramel, 1852. Drawing. Graphite and white chalk on

tan wove paper

• Look wide

• Look deep, look for details

• Look again

• Describe

• Bracket conclusions, interpretations

What do we know?

2. Ask questions, seek puzzles

Paul Klee, Landscape wagon No. 14. 1930

• Ask lots of questions

• Ask different kinds of questions

• Look for puzzles, tensions, surprises

What do we know?

3. Explore comparisons, connections, juxtapositions

Max Beckmann, Sleeping girl.. 1922

• Explicitly reach for connections backwards and forwards

• Create juxtapositions

• Explore comparisons, metaphors, analogies

What do we know?

4. look for complexity

Kandinsky, Composition 1922

• Look for layers, hidden factors, layers, multiple dimensions, causal complexity,

• functional complexity, interpretive complexity, multiple perspectives and narratives

The Importance of cognitive emotions

SurpriseBeauty, aesthetic

appreciation

Curiositydistaste, discomfort

Looking at art (with a study center mindset) teaches thinking by encouraging the pursuit of complex knowledge.

Summary: Lessons from looking at art

If complex knowledge is your teaching goal, looking at art has lessons for instructional design: - cognitive framing - cognitive directions

For a full report of the research: http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/HUAM.htm

*Sofonisba Anguissola, (c. 1535-1625) Three Sisters Playing Chess.

Image activity / 3 sisters

• Activity: (10-15 minutes)• 1. Take a minute to look quietly at the image.

Start by letting your eyes wander. Then mentally note 10 or so things you observe. After a minute (I’ll give the signal) turn to your neighbor and share some of your observations. Identify something you observed but didn’t notice right away.

• Take some comments• 2. Look again at the image. What questions can

you ask? Think about different kinds of questions. Look for puzzles, surprises.