Hello All: This is a departure from assigned reading which we will discuss in class. I am interested in discussing constructivist methodologies in relation to museums as well as schools. "art" holds as much reverence in the field of aesthetics as "math" can in schools: One way to view/learn about it....
Marcos Stafne
Memorandum 2
Logics of Inquiry/ Professor Tobin
February 11, 2008
Lankford, E. Louis. "Aesthetic Experience in Constructivist Museums." Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol 36, No. 2. pp 140- 153. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
The struggle for art museums to adopt constructivist methodologies is highlighted in this essay about the interrelation of aesthetics and meaning making. In the past decade art museums have made the leap from transmission models of education, to constructivist models, placing visitors to museums in the socio-cultural context of how art was conceived. By placing a greater emphasis on visitor interrelation to the world that surrounds the art, as opposed to the art itself, museums are allowing more access to the visitors who may not have the knowledge to initially interpret how art effects them.
Lankford stresses that the total environment of the art museum also adds to the ability of the visitor to make connections with the art. Every nuance of the actual space from lighting, to how the art is hung, creates associations with personal experiences of the individual. The museum is also a free-choice environment, where people are free to explore as much or as little as they choose. Special consideration must be taken by exhibition designers and curators to allow for an appropriate environment for meaning making to take place in. The visitors bring as much to the work of art, as the work of art can impart to the visitor.
Lankford also encourages the development of constructivist learning activities in museum, but not at the expense of accuracy and content. It is the museum's role to distinguish fact from fiction, and lead visitors in multiple ways to share in the experience that a museum has to offer.
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Marcos A. Stafne
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1 comment:
Marcos,
It is interesting to see the parallels between learning in the classroom and learning in the museum.
The things that we talk about in the classroom--learner autonomy, learner-constructed process as well as learner-constructed knowledge, multiple entry points, non-linear presentation of material--may or may not happen in the classroom, but the nature of the museum as "a free-choice environment, where people are free to explore as much or as little as they choose" forces these things to actually happen if the museum is to effectively achieve its goals.
Mathematics and art (as is the case with science and other curricular areas) are both ways of making sense of the world and as such, the work of people in either field can and should inform the work of people in the other(s).
Thanks for broadening our horizons.
--Mitch
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