Interest Driven Arts Learning

In her report, "New Opportunities in Interest Driven Arts Learning in A Digital Age", Kylie Peppler argues that although art education in schools has decreased due to lack of funding and a greater scholastic focus on math and science, there is a huge source of creative learning happening outside traditional educational settings. Peppler describes how researching why and how children express themselves artistically is vital in promoting artistic growth and learning what peaks children's interest in the arts. She explains that because children and teens spend so much time using technology, like social media site, TV, video games, and music media they already have an knowledge of what certain technologies do. Because they are familiar with technology, they can expand their knowledge in ways that encourage personal growth and productivity. She mentions the website Scratch (which I blogged about earlier) and lists it as a valuable instrument for teaching kids about how to create their own games and graphics instead of just absorbing them.

I think that it would be interesting to create this knowledge and research of interest driven art with Nan E. Hathaway's idea of the learner directed classroom where students decide what, when, and how they produce art.

If we could extend our knowledge of what makes students excited about art and learning, perhaps then we could incorporate this knowledge into creating art classrooms that allow for serious artistic exploration. We could choose the resources that seem to appeal to students the most and set up stations for them to engage their interests.


We could then use students interests in the art room and apply these same interests into other aspects of school, like math and science. So for example, if students are interested in creating video games on scratch, we can use this technology in math classrooms to get students interested in math also!