Student choice and connections to what they create is important. As the teacher, we may like an idea and feel it is good for students, but we have to make sure there’s room for personal input. For the bulk of what we do, personal expression is key to students buying into the process, internalizing information, and learning beyond a superficial level. This is where the deeper problem solving happens, where art education shines in its benefits. Working through the process of incorporating or translating their feelings, ideas, and thoughts into their artworks requires students to solve visual problems at the deepest levels.
Art teachers share lessons that focus on student choice and Teaching for Artistic Behavior. Students use an everyday material to express their ideas in 2D and 3D form, experiment with digital drawing apps to alter self-portrait images through collage, engage in discussions about race and identity during a color-mixing exploration, participate in hands-on learning stations to investigate symmetry, and more.
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