Beauty

'Its actually quite beautiful' Mollly aged 5

How do we come to appreciate the intrinsic nature of something? When can we name something as beautiful, not as a judgement but as an intrinsic quality? These questions were prompted as I observed my young friend Molly using a magnifying glass to look at a fly (yes a fly) and comment to herself, 'Its actually quite beautiful' as she saw the intricate pattern of its wings and the detail of its body. In this moment she was intrigued by this life form and able to see it for herself, as if seeing it for the first time. The fly was no longer a nuisance to be swotted and sprayed but beautiful!

Whose eyes do students learn through? Are we allowing students time and space to discover for themselves, to intimately connect with what it is they discovering or are they seeing through our eyes?

This I think resonates with what D’Arcy Norman calls 'mindful seeing'(thanks to Marie Salinger for bringing this to my attention through her blog Just in Time.

“Mindful seeing is the process of turning off the filters, of seeing your surroundings unfettered and unobstructed.

When viewing the world without filtering, even the most boring and banal subjects can become wondrous and interesting."

How do we create opportunities for 'mindful seeing' within in our places of learning? As teachers we need to be very aware of the filters that we apply through our curriculum design and pedagogical practices. Are opportunities created for students to really see their world without the imposition of our filters or perspectives?

Tame and the Wild

If we want gain some sharper insights on our work or take a different perspective on what we do, where do we look? Perhaps we need to lift our gaze and look beyond our familiar terriority. This was the challenge David Perkins from Harvard University presented to us at last year's Project Zero Summer Insitute. He presented two constrasting images for us to grapple with; the tame and the wild and asked how and why do these ideas matter to education.

To my mind came the image of the par terre, a garden form with its ordered and sculptured appearance, trimmed and tranined; a top down order being imposed to create a tamed, but beautiful form. In contrast I imagined the overgrown, self seeded garden that has an emergent order, its own synergy where things find their place rather than being put in place.

Education tame or wild? Is what we offer today in education tame? Has it become an ordered and predictable venture that rarely strays from the plan? If so what is needed to 'wild the tame'? Conversely though we could ask what is good about 'tame', what does it illuminate for us that we may not discover in a wild environment?

These ideas are presented in the following presentation, Understanding Today & Tomorrow




Also see blog post at Contemporary Learning

Slow Learning

What a sumptuous way to describe learning! The bringing together of passion, ideas, people, and taking the time to learn; enjoying the process, the complexity and the product! Geetha Narayanan described slow learning like the slow cooking. I wonder whether what we call education is really learning any more?
Slow Learning

Bicycle Wheel

Bicycle Wheel Marcel Duchamp

A bicycle wheel is attached to a seat. Visitors to the Museum of Modern Art walk around this pieces, gaze at it. Some perhaps wonder how this is Art, others are curious and want to understand how it is Art. Either way or whatever way, what is in front of them draws them into its creation and creates a feeling of curiosity.
‘The work of art is not complete without the perception of the viewer, until she or he begins to ask questions of the work’. (M Duchamp)

This leads me to consider how meaning is constructed and how we understand the role of, in this case the viewer, in creating meaning. How does the placement of self in relationship to the 'object' create meaning? In what ways does the viewer contribute to the 'objects' meaning? Each person viewing this piece of art does so through lens of their own experience. In this way their are multiple meanings that can contribute to some deeper understanding of 'Bicylce Wheel'

In creating something that is somewhat puzzling we are encouraged to spend some time in front of this art piece, to ask questions and test out our thinking in a process of self reflection or with others.

I think this gives us some great questions to consider when we are working with students and the curriculum. Is our curriculum somewhat puzzling, does it invite our questions, is there something to be discovered here, to be tossed around with others, to be contested?

And how then do we allow the students' questions to give us insight into what is meaningful for them in relation to the curriculum? How is this curiosity and desire to make meaning shared amongst students so we get a sense of the multiple meanings that can be created? I like the idea of giving close attention to students' questions as an insight into the meaning they are constructing rather than the answers they give.

Shaking Up the Mind

Since returning from Harvard's, Project Zero Summer Institute I have continued to revisit.... and revisit the experience and reflect on the 'big ideas' explored over the week. While visiting the States I also spent time in some of the wonderful art galleries and museums. With a strong focus on the Arts at the Institute and the experience of these amazing galleries some interesting thinking has taken shape for me.

‘ I wanted to shake up the mind, the mind, to discover something that they wouldn’t without me’

This reflection by Picasso caught my attention as I immersed myself in the amazing MoMA. I began to think about this in relation to education , 'How do we shake up the mind, what opportunities are created for students to see something that they wouldn't necessarily see by themselves .............or as David Perkins commented in one of this presentations at the Summer Institute, 'Is what we offer so 'tame' that there isn't much to discover?'

Where are the points of discovery within our curriculum landscape that shake up the mind? Or is it so carefully mapped that we can not see beyond the map? Our curriculum, our learning spaces need to seek out places of discovery where the learner is engaged in new ways of seeing from many different perspectives.