Every week I read new articles or someone mentions research based articles that show alternative ways to gather and interpret data. The Silverman (2007) article was enlightening in how he used categories to quantify is data he retrieved from journals. After getting past the brilliant idea of using postcards to investigate place, history and language development, I focused on how this can be determined. He chose the four elements of aesthetics, inquiry, creative process and interdisciplinary dialogue and empathy. (2007, p.18) After the class conducted inquiry, discussions, art making (to connect to the student) and journaling, the teacher collected this data. He used emergent information to categorize his findings into the four groups. Silverman based his narrative on this data which gives validity to his research.
I believe I can do the same in my research on young children’s conversations about art. I would have to record or journal their words, but then I could see what themes emerge in order to categorize or search for themes that reflect aesthetic learning.
Silverman, J. (2007). Postcards from another's home: Visual dialogues for cultural tolerance. Art Education, 60(6), 17-23.
Marcia - here's an additional article about postcards in research (with bad formatting):
ReplyDeleteBlock, A. A. & Klein, S. (1996). This is where I am right now: Art education,
curriculum, and postcards. Art Education, 49(3), 20-24.
...and a blog post I wrote showing some of my own postcards I created during my dissertation:
http://lesliegates.blogspot.com/2011/04/postcards.html
And finally - don't forget to label your posts with your name AND the assignment if applicable.
L