[MUSIC] Let's spend a few minutes discussing why activities and experiential learning are important components of a rich education for students. First, we wanna outline some of the philosophy behind why and how students benefit from learning through doing. The philosophies we'll mention are ones that many museum educators base their teaching practices on and have for decades. John Dewey was one of the first thinkers to begin writing about the importance of experiential learning in education. He argued that in order for education to be most effective, content must be presented in a way that allows the student to relate the information to prior experiences, thus deepening the connection with this new knowledge. He believed that the teachers supports and guides the students to independently discover meaning. Another important philosophy is the theory of multiple intelligences, proposed by a developmental psychologist Howard Gardner. This theory holds that different people are intelligent in different ways, and there isn't just one kind of intelligence, each learner has a unique blend of intelligences. Gardener defined a range of intelligences including Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic. Gardener's theories have influenced museum educators focus on creating a multitude of access points for students when exploring a work of art. We'll share activities that involve writing, drawing, movement, sound, design, play, and discussion. Peppering our lessons with different types of engagement creates more opportunity for all students to participate, have choices, and work in a way that is comfortable to them. Even within one activity, we'll share ways in which you can offer multiple options to your students. >> We wanted to lay down some definitions for terms you'll be hearing throughout the course. Over the next four weeks we'll be introducing and demonstrating a multitude of strategies that we'll be referring to as Embodied, or Experiential learning. These are teaching strategies that build upon a theory of learning known as constructivism. Let's start with embodied. Before the 20th century, most philosophers drew clear distinctions between the body and the mind. 17th century philosopher, Renee Descartes, for example, viewed learning as a process by which the mind and the mind alone acquires new sets of information through logical reasoning. Over the past century, discoveries in cognitive science and educational psychology have complicated this purely rationalist view of learning. We have evidence that physical, emotional, and other embodied responses play as an important a role in learning as do rational thought processes. This integration of body and mind seems particularly relevant when teaching with art works or objects, which have the potential to engage us on many different levels. Physical, Sensorial, Emotional, Social, Cultural, as well as Conceptual. Strategies and activities that elicit embodied responses are an important part of teaching with works of art. Embodied forms of learning include strategies that are either Discursive or Non-Discursive. Discursive strategies involve the use of language or dialogue. For example, say you asked your students a series of questions about an artwork and they respond verbally or in text. That's a discursive exercise. Non-discursive approaches encourage learners to engage beyond the use of language. Non-discursive activities might incorporate sound, movement, drawing, or game play to tease out physical or emotional responses, which may be difficult to express through discursive means. Experiential learning, as the name might suggest, is the process of learning through direct experience. Art educators have been using experiential learning methods for decades, but it's not a new idea by any means. In fact, over 2,000 years ago, Greek philosopher Aristotle said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.". As I mentioned earlier, experiential and embodied learning methods are rooted in a learning theory called constructivism. It's a theory that's gained a lot of attraction in art and museum education over the past three decades. Drawing upon the work of educational scholars and developmental psychologists including, John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky, constructionism is the theory that learners can construct knowledge by making connections between their own lives and the newly presented subject matter. Constructivist learning has two essential requirements. Number one, the learner has to be actively engaged in the learning process. And number two, learning takeaways or outcomes cannot be externally imposed. So what do I mean by this? Well, constructivist theory posits that learning is most powerful and memorable when a student conceive, smell, taste, feel, hear, or otherwise observe the evidence for themselves. Now what they notice resonates with and builds off of the knowledge and experience they bring with them. In constructivist learning, meaning making happens at a very personal level. No matter how beautifully composed your exhibition or how rigorously you've designed your lesson plan, understandings that are imposed externally will never be as meaningful, powerful, or effective than those an individual will construct on their own. [MUSIC]
