Alanna Gaylord's Art Education Portfolio

Description:

          Teaching for Artistic Behaviors, commonly known as TAB, is a choice-based approach to teaching art. TAB was developed in Massachusetts through over 35 years of classroom experience, and through courses and research at Massachusetts College of Art. It is a popular organization that was developed by and for art teachers and serves to promote and support choice-based art education in all education settings. This choice-based art education approach allows students to experience what it is like to be an artist through authentic learning opportunities and responsive teaching. In the TAB classroom, the environment is redefined as a studio in which authentic artmaking with authentic purpose takes place. Students are provided with real choices for responding to their own ideas and interests through the making of art.

 

Analysis:

          In this choice-based approach the focus moves away from the teacher-directed classroom and instead focuses primarily on the artistic needs, interests, and experiences of the individual students. It supports multiple modes of learning and assessment for the diverse needs of students. Choice-based learning provides the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills through learning strategies that are personalized and adapted to the learner’s own learning style and preferences.

          The Choice-Based classroom provides an environment that encourages students to work in a manner consistent to that of art professionals. Children are encouraged to experiment with media and techniques and to engage with their own personal and meaningful ideas. They are also encouraged to collaborate with other artists to explore, practice, try, fail, and reflect. Students are expected to make connections between their own art and that of others. The more students work to experience, practice, and engage, the more they develop the behaviors attributed to being an artist, which can transfer to other disciplines and other area’s of students’ lives outside of school.

          The more students create authentic art with authentic purpose, the more their minds develop as a whole. This type of thinking is entirely different from learning specific artistic skills or techniques. This approach to art education allows students to make choices of their own and thus strengthen their sense of direction, discovery, essential understandings, creative flexible thinking, innovation and invention, practice and perseverance, finding, developing, and communicating. By focusing education on artistic behaviors and allowing students to make their own choices, instead of focusing purely on the product, art education finally has the potential to attribute a vital role in the creative growth of students.

 

Reflection:

         Teaching for Artistic Behaviors appears to be an infallible approach to art education. With the proper organization and facilitation I can see this approach being extremely beneficial to students’ development and sense of creativity. I believe that this approach with a combination of Studio Thinking’s Eight Habits of Mind would provide an extremely comprehensive and constructive art education curriculum.