Janice

Social Learning Theory, Creativity, and the Needs of 21st Century Learners

At times I feel my thesis topic is trying to cover too much; that I am trying to include every single piece of this puzzle of teaching. Yet when I think of teaching--teaching art and moving from student to student, I need to be able to change worlds; to slide between subjects at the drop of a hat. I have to be the most flexible and the most compassionate person in the room. Anything and everything can happen in the art room; I often say art involves everything else in the world, plus itself. Metaphors, associations, experiences can go in any given direction and need to be recognized and articulated on the spot. Therefore, it isn't out of the question that a thesis would be as all-encompassing as the practice it reflects.

My methods will be a bit of everything, too---part argument for the relationship between social learning theory and creativity, part critical action social research in my classroom for advocating the importance of creative dispositions, and part tying all this together with the projected needs of twenty-first century learners. Through voicing and shaping interviews, I also want to tell the tale of learning from the students point of view, because I am wondering: if students aren't aware of their learning, have I done as good a job as I maybe could do? I'm thinking a lot about consciousness.

I was talking to a student the other day, and I was trying to give a lot of verbal encouragement. Somewhere in my head I recalled the words--along the line of--

give verbal encouragement with a suggestion for a possible route forward, and then walk away. Don't hover, let the student absorb this and take it forward herself. I can distinctly remember thinking this as I talked to the student, but I couldn't recall where the words came from. Were they from one of the many articles I was reading? Did I hear them in a dream? I have the strange feeling it was a dream. Finally--finally--I feel it happening. The interest in the work is taking over. Life and work are merging with the creative project--the writing and the teaching.