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© 2008 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. This document was developed by Lincoln Center Institute, www.lcinstitute.org. Please feel free to copy with acknowledgement of Lincoln Center Institute as author.

A Guide for Designing an Aesthetic Education Instructional Unit

Entering the World of the Work of Art

1© 2008 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. This document was developed by Lincoln Center Institute, www.lcinstitute.org. Please feel free to copy with acknowledgement of Lincoln Center Institute as author.

Introduction to the Guide

Grounded in the philosophical voices of Maxine Greene and John Dewey, and related to such educational traditions as constructivism, reader response theory, and criticalpedagogy, Lincoln Center Institute’s (LCI’s) approach to imaginative teaching and learning through aesthetic education embraces specific actions. This document is aguide for this instructional approach that starts with a live work of art. As you beginyour own work in imaginative learning, use this document as an organizational frame-work for the creation and implementation of instructional units.

Since the Institute values reflection, this document is filled with open spaces so that you might include your own thoughts, notes and sketches, discoveries, and “Ah Ha”moments. It is a place to capture new understandings and insights discovered on yourown, and in conversations with colleagues. It is meant to be used over and over again as you learn more about how to nurture your students' imaginations.

As you begin this personal and professional journey, keep in touch with us. Look for opportunities on our Web portal for further research, discovery, and continued communications with colleagues. For instance, LCI’s online discussion groups allow participants to communicate by posting messages. Join the conversation: you can postany time of the day.

2 © 2008 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. This document was developed by Lincoln Center Institute, www.lcinstitute.org. Please feel free to copy with acknowledgement of Lincoln Center Institute as author.

Imaginative Learning through Aesthetic EducationBased on a Philosophical Stance

According to Maxine Greene, Lincoln Center Institute's Philosopher-in-Residence,“Aesthetic Education… is the intentional undertaking designed to nurture

appreciative, reflective, cultural, participatory engagements with the arts by enabling

learners to notice what there is to be noticed, and to lend works of art their lives in

such a way that they can achieve them as variously meaningful. When this happens,

new connections are made in experience: new patterns are formed, new vistas are

opened.” (Greene, Variations on a Blue Guitar, p. 6)

Greene’s philosophy, based on the work of pragmatist John Dewey and existentialphilosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, posits that under-standing a work of art takes place in the continuous interaction between the viewer and the artwork, and neither in the work itself nor solely in the perceiver. She also characterizes a work of art as an inexhaustible resource for learning.

Greene, Maxine, Variations on a Blue Guitar: The Lincoln Center Institute Lectures on Aesthetic Education

(New York: Teachers College Press, 2001).


Dewey, John, Art as Experience, (New York: Putnam, 1980).



“…to perceive, a beholder must create his own experience. And his creation must

include relations comparable to those which the original producer underwent.

They are not the same in any literal sense. But with the perceiver, as with the artist,

there must be an ordering of the elements of the whole that is in form, although not in

details, the same as the process of organization the creator of the work consciously

experienced. Without an act of recreation, the object is not perceived as a work of art.

The artist selected, simplified, clarified, abridged and condensed according to his

interest. The beholder must go through these operations according to his point of

view and interest.” (Dewey, Art as Experience, p. 54)

“Imagination is not only the power to form mental images, although it is partly that.

It is also the power to mold experience into something new, to create fictive

situations. It is, as well, the power—by means of sympathetic feeling—to put oneself

in another's place.” (Greene, Variations on a Blue Guitar, p. 30)


Aesthetic Education CoreAn Inquiry Process Composed of:

Art Making

Questioning

Reflection

Contextual Information and Research(through Multimedia and Multidisciplinary Resources)

Imaginative Learning through Aesthetic Education:Lincoln Center Institute’s Approach

An OverviewLincoln Center Institute’s approach to imaginative learning, developed over the past 30years, is based on the belief that works of art provide an “inexhaustible resource.” Eachindividual-child as well as adult-possesses an innate ability to respond to works of art inways that can heighten perception, ignite the imagination, and challenge preconceivednotions. Aesthetic education is designed to foster and support such meaningful encoun-ters with works of art.

As presently practiced by Lincoln Center Institute, aesthetic education consists of a continuous experience with a work of art over time, mediated by a particular form ofindividual and group inquiry. LCI sees this model of inquiry as having application to, andresonance with, disciplines other than the arts. This approach strengthens core skills thatreadily apply across the curriculum and throughout life. Educating with imagination is arigorous undertaking, and the skills of observation, critical thinking, and problem solvingare as relevant to the artistic process as to conducting a biology experiment or solving amathematical equation.

The Institute’s approach to arts and education initially brings students into the world ofimaginative learning and a work of art through participatory activities that include artmaking, questioning, reflection, and contextual information and research. Through theseactive engagements students develop an inside understanding of the artistic choices thatcontribute to the creation of a work of art and activate their own imaginations. As aresult, unexpected connections are made within their daily lives and with the lives of others, and doors to new and imagined worlds are opened.


The Inquiry Process

For LCI, inquiry has a very particular kind of meaning that differentiates it from that typically undertaken in the social or pure sciences. It is also different than philosophicalinquiry, which can focus on the nature of inquiry itself. Based on the work of artists, ourversion of aesthetic inquiry follows closely the process artists use as they create worksof art. As such, it includes, along with cognition (including problem-solving skills andimagination), use of the senses, emotion, and other forms of embodiment.

This particular type of inquiry is facilitated by teaching artists, arts educators, and classroom teachers, as they guide participants' explorations with the process of artisticcreation. All artists, no matter what their discipline, are inspired in some way to exploretheir medium, and in the process of creating something new, ask questions, noticedeeply, imagine alternative solutions, try out these solutions, and reflect on what theyhave done. They go through this inquiry process any number of times until they are satisfied with their results. In order to do this, they must develop capacities related toimagination and creation. It is this inquiry process, initially guided and made transparentby Institute teaching artists, that helps participants in aesthetic education develop thesevery same capacities.


The Capacities for Imaginative Learning

For a number of years, Lincoln Center Institute had been thinking about how itswork would change if it were involved in creating a school from the ground up. The opportunity presented itself with a request for proposals from New Visions forPublic Schools and the New York City Department of Education to establish new small high schools in partnership with outside organizations.

The name of the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry (HSAII), founded in2005, reflects the essence of the Institute’s work. In the proposal, we were asked toarticulate, in a language that 9th-grade students could understand, what they mightlearn at this school that might be different from any other high school. Drawing on thehistory of philosophy and practice in aesthetic education that developed the inquiryprocess described above, we developed the “Capacities for Aesthetic Learning.” Over time, as the Capacities’ connections to the imagination became apparent, wechanged their name, but not their content. Now called the Capacities for ImaginativeLearning, they, as presented to the students at the high school, are:

Noticing Deeply: To identify and articulate layers of detail in a work of artthrough continuous interaction with it over time.

Embodying: To experience a work of art through your senses, as well as emotionally, and also to physically represent that experience.

Questioning: To ask questions throughout your explorations that further yourown learning; to ask the question, “What if?”

Making Connections: To connect what you notice and the patterns you see to your prior knowledge and experiences, as well as to others' knowledge and experiences including text and multimedia resources.

Identifying Patterns: To find relationships among the details you notice, group them, and recognize patterns.

Exhibiting Empathy: To respect the diverse perspectives of others in our community; to understand the experiences of others emotionally, as well as in thought.


Creating Meaning: To create your own interpretations based on the previous capacities, see these in the light of others in the community, create a synthesis, and express it in your own voice.

Taking Action: To act on the synthesis of what you have learned in your explorationsthrough a specific project. These include projects in the arts, as well as in other realms.For example: you might write and produce your own play; you might create a dance;you might plant a community garden as a combined service-learning/science project;you might organize a clothing drive for homeless neighbors as a combined service-learning/humanities project.

Reflecting/Assessing: To look back on your learning, continually assess what you havelearned, assess/identify what challenges remain, and assess/identify what further learning needs to happen. This occurs not only at the end of a learning experience, but is part of what happens throughout that experience. It is also not the end of yourlearning; it is part of beginning to learn something else.

The Capacities for Imaginative Learning (continued)


How Does One Go About Studying a Work of Art?

Experiencing a live work of art through active study and viewing is central to creating an instructional unit focused on imaginative learning. This document illustrates theprocess used by educators and teaching artists to (1) investigate a work of art, (2) develop an instructional unit that involves imaginative learning grounded in a workof art, which is also based on the concerns of students and the capacities they mightneed to develop, and (3) reflect on the experience and the learning that occurred.

The investigation of a work of art begins with a brainstorming session, out of which keyideas are identified and shaped into a generative question known as the “line of inquiry.”Once the line of inquiry has been created, all the ensuing lessons explore and relate backto it. The line of inquiry serves as the doorway into the world of the work of art. It isdesigned to guide the creation and implementation of an instructional unit that focuseson imaginative learning.

The following line of inquiry was developed for the study of Amor Flamenco, a program of Flamenco dance and music developed for the Institute by Carlota Santana: “How does Carlota Santana in Amor Flamenco use contrast in body movements, spatial relationships, and the weaving of sounds to create a sense of power in her dancers?”While the teaching artist directly incorporated elements specific to this work of art, theconcepts of spatial relationships, contrast, and power were important to the teachers onthe particular 9th-grade team that helped develop this line of inquiry. It is an example of one way to find an ideal combination of art focus and educational concern.

We define an instructional unit as a series of experiential lessons surrounding the viewing of a live work of art that includes art making, various modes of reflection, studyof contextual information, and research related to the work of art, as well as furtherquestions that arise from its study. (If possible, the live work is experienced twice todeepen students’ perceptions and understandings.) Students are led through art-makingactivities and other experiential investigations. These experiences spark curiosity andencourage students to ask questions of their own, which lead toward understandingsabout the creative process, the work of art under study, and the skill, vocabulary, andexpressive language inherent to the art form, as well as to questions beyond the arts.

Line of InquiryA line of inquiry is an open, yet focused question that incorporates elements and concepts

found in a specific work of art, and is related to the concerns of students and teachers.

It invites questioning, guides our exploration throughout, and serves as the framework for

constructing experiential lessons.


Line of Inquiry—A Visual

LINE OF INQUIRY

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© 2008 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. This document was developed by Lincoln Center Institute, www.lcinstitute.org. Please feel free to copy with acknowledgement of Lincoln Center Institute as author.

An Overview of the Planning Process

10

WORK

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Noticing Deeply

Asking Questions

Embodying

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Questioning

Reflection

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LINE OFINQUIRY

CREATING EXPERIENTIAL LESSONS

Student Ability, Need and VoiceCapacities for Imaginative Learning


An Overview of the Planning Process (continued)

This overview and the accompanying Brainstorming Guide for Designing an AestheticEducation Instructional Unit form (p. 14) serve as tools to guide the planning process.Educators and teaching artists follow this process when designing an instructional unitaround the study of a particular work of art. The categories highlighted below are meantto initiate discussion and help educators and teaching artists alike delve deeply into theworld of the work of art.

Brainstorming is a non-linear process. The group's discussion may weave back and forth among the different categories, and some responses may fall into more than onecategory. It is important to capture all responses as they occur. The variety and richnessof ideas will inform both the line of inquiry and the related aesthetic education lessonsdeveloped from this process.

Before You Begin Your Brainstorming Process

• Select a work of art (see Imaginative Learning Through Aesthetic Education—Build It in Your Community).

• Know the work of art either by viewing it live (preferably) or reviewingaudio/video recordings, prints or slides, and studying contextual resources.

When You Are Ready to Begin

• Brainstorming: Order the eight categories as you will, but we recommend that you begin your brainstorming process with “The Work of Art” category, capturing the noticing first.



BRAINSTORMING CATEGORIES

The Work of ArtWhat do you notice in the work of art?What do you see? Hear?(Describe what is evident in the work of art itself.)

QuestionsWhat questions occur to you about the work of art?What are you curious about?(What questions do you have that are not answerable by viewing or hearing the work ofart? Such questions represent noticings for which you may or may not be able toresearch the answers.)

Contextual InformationWhat surrounds this work socially, culturally, historically?(What are you curious about regarding the social, cultural, historical, biographical contexts of this work and the artist? You could research the answers to such questionsor noticings.)

Personal/Curricular ConnectionsWhat personal or curricular connections does this work of art evoke?

Activity IdeasWhat experiential activities are you envisioning?(Your activity ideas may be art-based or curricular-based. You gather these ideas as theyarise during the brainstorming process. However, until you have your line of inquiry youdo not know if that activity belongs in that instructional unit.)

Possible Lines of InquiryWhat possible lines of inquiry arise as you brainstorm?(Note them, recognizing that the final line of inquiry has yet to be crafted.)

Key IdeasReflect on ALL the responses documented during the brainstorming process, and identify a short list of elements and concepts present in the work of art that hold thegreatest interest for you and the group. These elements and concepts ARE the key ideas.

Line of Inquiry (Refer to page 8)Distill your list of key ideas and shape them into a Line of Inquiry. Craft a question thatcontains those key ideas, the title of the work of art and/or the artist.



Designing ActivitiesUsing the line of inquiry as a framework, begin to design experiential lessons thatinclude the aesthetic education core: Art-making, Questioning, Reflection, andContextual Information and Research. The lessons consist of several activities that build the students' experience within a given lesson. All activities in a lesson should support an exploration of your line of inquiry. Taught by an educator and/or teachingartist, lessons both precede and follow the one or both viewings of the live work of art.The full arc of lessons, including attendance at the live performance, film viewing, architectural site visit, or museum visit, forms an instructional unit.

“A curriculum in aesthetic education, then, is always in process, as we who are

teachers try to make possible a continuing enlargement of experience. There must

be open-mindedness and a sense of exploration; there must be breaks with

ordinariness and stock response. If this is how we approach curriculum, there

may be a new readiness, a new ripeness in our students and even in ourselves.

There may be an increasing awareness of things in their particularity, of beauty

and variety, and form. People may be brought to watch and to listen with heightened

attentiveness and care. The questions may keep coming. We can ask no more of

ourselves.” (Greene, Variations on a Blue Guitar, p. 28)



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What personal or curricular connections does this work of art evoke?

What experiential activities are you envisioning?Gather the ideas for future reference.

What possible lines of inquiry arise as you brain-storm? Note them , recognizing that the final lineof inquiry has yet to be crafted.

Brainstorming Guide for Designing an Aesthetic Education Instructional Unit

Focus Work of Art: for additional description, see page 12

What do you notice in the work of art? What do you see? Hear?

What questions occur to you about the work of art?

What are you curious about?

What surrounds this work socially, culturally, historically?

THE WORK OF ART QUEST IONS CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION

PERSONAL/CURRICULAR ACTIVITY IDEAS POSSIBLE L INES OF INQUIRYCONNECTIONS

KEY IDEAS L INE OF INQUIRY

Reflect on all the responses documented during the brainstorming process, and identify key ideas that stand out to you and the group.

Distill your list of key ideas and shape them into a Line of Inquiry. Craft a question that contains those key ideas, the title of the work of art and/or the artist.


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Notes


Implementing an Aesthetic Education Instructional Unit

A Philosophy in ActionIt is, as most of you realize, not the kind of undertaking geared to the transmission of pieces of

knowledge or specific skills to passive learners. It involves active learning and the making of

meaning. Learners are thought of and treated as human beings on the way, in quest of

understanding and direction, in search of projects by means of which they may create their

own identities.” (Greene, Variations on a Blue Guitar, p. 110)

As you develop and implement your lessons, bear in mind the following important actionsof aesthetic education practice. We encourage you to use these ways of imaginative teaching and learning as the basic foundation for your work, knowing that the process,itself, will offer you new insights and ideas for implementing an instructional unit.

• Design experiential, hands-on activities that directly relate to the line of inquiry andincorporate art making, questioning, reflection, contextual information and research;

• Create student-centered learning encompassing activities and lessons designed to support exploration and discovery;

• Enter the aesthetic education experience as co-learners with the students;

• Ask open-ended questions throughout the instruction;

• Emphasize developing observation skills and deepening perception through variousstrategies that include a questioning process of describing, analyzing, and interpreting; *see examples on next page (Weitz, The Role of Theory in Aesthetics, p. 27-35).

• Focus art-making experiences on process and choice making;

• Design problem-solving activities that engage the imagination of the individual or the group;

• Layer contextual materials within the lessons or as independent research activities;

• Explore multiple learning modalities to deepen the understanding of a particular concept or element in the work of art and to address different learning styles;

• Allow time for group and individual reflection throughout instruction, including afterexperiencing a live work of art;

• Encourage students to keep a journal of their written reflections, drawings, questions,and research; and post student work on classroom wall as opportunities for reflection;

• Honor multiple perspectives and interpretations to validate individual response andcreate a community that fosters new understandings;

• Make connections to the classroom curriculum and to the lives of the students; and

• Generate new questions both within and outside of the arts.



Weitz, Morris, ”The Role of Theory in Aesthetics,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 15 (1956): 27-35.


Implementing an Aesthetic Education Instructional Unit (continued)

The following three categories of questioning can serve as background as you

begin your own noticing and start guiding others in their own explorations:

(Weitz, The Role of Theory in Aesthetics, p. 27-35)

DESCRIBE: Open questions that elicit pure noticing.A few examples:“What do you notice?”“What do you see?”“What do you hear?”“How would you describe…?”

ANALYZE: Open questions that ask the students to analyze various aspects of thework; how parts relate to other parts or to the whole (how an elementwithin the work compares or contrasts with some other of its elements)and to look for patterns and/or relationships.

INTERPRET:Open questions that ask the students to find their own meaning in thework. Considering their responses to the prior descriptions and analyses,what the students think this work is “about”?

“What do you think is going on here?”“What do you think the artist was trying to convey?”“Is there a narrative, and if so, what might it be?”Keep in mind that interpretations do not have to be literal, but can followa more abstract bent as to the student’s interpretation of the artist’sprocess or intent—or that the work was meant to be considered purely for its abstraction. No interpretation is judged, and the students are asked to describe/explain where and how in the work their interpretationis evidenced for them.

Weitz, Morris, ”The Role of Theory in Aesthetics,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 15 (1956): 27-35.


Suggested Lesson Plan Format

Name:

Work of Art under study:

For grade(s):

Supplies:

Contextual Materials:

Specific Concerns of Students:

Line of Inquiry:

Consider:• How does each activity within this lesson relate to or explore the line of inquiry?• Think of each activity as a layer building upon the previous layer to result in a

deep exploration.• What are some open-ended questions, related to your line of inquiry, that you will

ask students to help guide their noticing and reflecting during the activity? • At the end of the unit, what Capacities do you think you might have elicited or that

the students have gained?

ACTIVITY #1:

Estimated time for this activity:

Description of the activity:

Questions guiding the learning during the activity:

ACTIVITY #2:

Estimated time for this activity:

Description of the activity:

Questions guiding the learning during the activity:


Suggested Lesson Plan Format (continued)

Continue with the above format for as many activities as your lesson contains, culminating with reflective questions regarding the learning process and the students’ experiences with the work of artat the end of each lesson or instructional unit.

Some suggested reflective questions:

• What did you learn?• What is the evidence that you learned it?• What vocabulary have we developed?• What new words do we know?• What are the different things or ideas that we have studied?• What connections are you making between the work we have studied

and other subject areas?• What new knowledge have you added to a subject with which you were

already familiar?• What are you wondering about?• What questions do you now have?• Is there something about this work of art that you wish to research further?

Refer to the Capacities for Imaginative Learning (p. 6) to support you in forming your own end of unit reflection/assessment questions.


“The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean

that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative. Experience and education

cannot be directly equated to each other. For some experiences are mis-educative.

Any experience is mis-educative that has the effect of arresting or distorting the

growth of further experience.… Hence the central problem of an education based

on experience is to select the kind of present experiences that live fruitfully in

subsequent experiences.” (Dewey, Experience and Education, p. 25-28)

“Not only am I convinced that this cognitive, perceptual, affective, imaginative

undertaking we call aesthetic education can alter the atmosphere in schools.

I am convinced it must become central if our schools are to become truly educative,

stimulating, and challenging in the way most of us want them to be.

(Greene, Variations on a Blue Guitar, p. 47)

Dewey, John, Experience as Education (West Lafayette, Ind: Kappa Delta Pi, 1998).




Notes


*Imaginative Learning Through Aesthetic Education—Build It in Your Community has been created as a ”how-to” complement to this document. It addressesthe issues of identifying works of art for study as well as how your school can fund an aesthetic education program, and much more.

Finding Works of Art and Resources in Your Community

See LCI’s Imaginative Learning Through Aesthetic Education—Build It in

Your Community* for comprehensive information on how to identify works of art inyour community that are suitable for study, access and research.

Identifying a Work of ArtResearch possible works of art that are available for students to view. What performances in music, dance, or theater are scheduled in local venues and at the local high school, college, or university? What architectural sites, such as landmarkbuildings, or public art such as murals or sculptures, can be visited? What touring companies can come to your school or local community? What exhibits are in local art museums or galleries? Who are local artists who might come to your school to perform or exhibit?

Some Suggestions of Resources and Where to Find ThemThe following is designed to support you in both finding a work of art to study, and in locating contextual resources to support your aesthetic education curriculum.

• Find a range of materials at public and school libraries, special collections andarchives, and bookstores;

• Visit a Web site. Many performing arts companies, artists, and museums have developed Web sites offering a wide range of information about the artists, their works, and educational materials;

• Request a press packet or a video/audio recording of the work of art from a performing arts group;

• Request a museum or gallery exhibit catalog;

• Try to find the script, if the work of art under study is a play; and

• Gather first-hand information (perhaps in the form of an interview) from the artists, performers, presenting organization, museum representative, or curator.


Lincoln Center Institute’s Web Portal as a Resource

The Institute’s Web portal is a rich resource for educators and artists. It is a portal to aninexhaustible pool of information. You can contribute to an exciting discussion, orbrowse both past and current LCI events. Here are just a few of the ways you might want to interact with our online resource:

• Participate in an active exchange of ideas on topics within the National andInternational Educators community;

• View (and listen to) the reflections on aesthetic education by participating educatorsand students;

• Peruse the news section;• Find out about Professional Development opportunities and register for workshops

and events online; and• Is your organization interested in a customized presentation of the Lincoln Center

Institute practice of aesthetic education? Consultancies are available—find out more!

For research and study of a work of art, view LCI’s electronic library now availablethrough the Resources section of our Web portal. Build a detailed contextual snapshot of a specific era using the Timeline feature of the Facts on File databases. Search forbrief texts to use in an activity with students by searching the Quotations resources inthe Oxford Reference Online database.

Use the Concept Map feature of the Credo Reference database to generate a visual representation of how the different topics uncovered in your keyword search are relatedto one another. Or explore some of the nine Alexander Street Press: Music Online databases to find scores, audio recordings, or articles about musical styles, genres, or artists.

For further development of your work in imaginative learning through aesthetic education, sign up for our online course Lincoln Center Institute Online. Contact us [email protected] or 212.875.5535 for more information about the online courses.

Entering the World of the Work of Art


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70 Lincoln Center PlazaNew York, NY 10023Tel 212.875.5535 fax 212.875.5539www.lcinstitute.org

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