Room to Respond

Responding to art (by making or by response to another’s art) is not like applying factual information or strict methodologies that have to be solved like a scientific enquiry. One feels their way. But, the feeling is not arbitrary, it is formed as a response to the object, event, image, material, action or insight. It is formed into something communicable. In the classroom, this feeling can be interpsychological (between people) or interpsychological (inside the individual), as Vygotsky wrote about in ‘Mind in Society’ in 1978.

The stimuli for the response may be physical or psychological, in the form of materials or tools or something like a discussion or introduction to an art movement or critique of the pupil’s cultural landscape.

Activity theory emphasises the social construct of art making and art response by pointing out the connection between individuals in the formulation of ideas and the individual’s response to the stimuli of their environment. Meaning can be formulated as a mutual response to my presentation of an art element or art movement or work of art, but in this I also acknowledge the individual learning backgrounds of the pupils.

Each pupil has a diverse history and response to the stimulus and each should be acknowledged. With this in mind, I recognise the dangers of spoon-feeding ready-made formulae, as this may suppress the individual response and quash the individual motivation. I have observed the use of the sketchbook as a tool for pupils to take responsibility for their learning in terms of making their learning visible. Pupils have stopped asking ‘what should I write’ in the first year class on Friday mornings. This class has started to understand that it is their personal response that matters.

It is, of course, important to impart the canons of knowledge to pupils. But, it is of equal importance to imbue the pupils’ responses with the importance merited. There is a constant shift between skill and expression. There is a continuum in the development of understanding for the pupil when moving from imparted knowledge to embodied experience of this knowledge. Reflection plays a huge role in this understanding. I would like pupils to spend more time on reflection of their learning. I refer to Kolb’s Learning Cycle, where the concrete experience; reflective observation; abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation are interlinked through what Schon (1983) refers to as ‘reflection-in-action’, but in no particular sequence.

 Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

• Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. New York, Basic Books.