Visual Art + Multiple Intelligences

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Visual Art & Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Traditionally schooling has focused on two dominant learning styles – Linguistic and Logical/Mathematical however research lead by Gardner since the early 1980’s, has exposed the limits of this old paradigm. Gardner’s theory has opened up for scrutiny the many ways people engage with and learn from the world around them that extends beyond this narrow configuration. Over the past decade the Visual Art Faculty has embraced this alternative way of viewing what is learned, how it is learned and how meaning is made with a particular emphasis on how girls can benefit from this broader approach. Visual Art programs across Middle and Senior School employ Gardner’s theories as a scaffolding device to enable both a greater awareness of how learning can be tailored to individual needs and also, to broaden the notion of ‘success’ for all students. When a student understands their particular gifts and recognises how they can be applied in the classroom environment to explore the learning experiences provided, they often enjoy a sense of success that may have eluded them previously. Naturally, the confidence gained from this experience can lead to a deeper engagement with, and responsibility for, their own learning and a greater enjoyment of the education process as a whole. Gardner begins with the premise that each of us has an array of intelligences, each of equal value but differently developed, with which we make meaning of the world. For many people, the narrow perspective of the old IQ mentality may have ‘doomed’ them to believe that their way of engaging with the learning experience is inferior because they approach things from ways other than the linguistic/logical model in the first instance. Gardner’s Theory opens the view by giving credence to, those who find other ways to communicate, eg visually or musically. This is not to say that Art at St Hilda’s focuses only on visual expression. We employ an academic approach to the subject but we take many paths to achieve this. A visit to the Art Display in Rosemary Hughes Room on Open Day should convince you of this. “MI provides not simply a justification for art in schools, but a framework for teaching art in a more comprehensive way in order to reach a greater range of students”. (Eisner, 1998, Does experience in the arts boost academic achievement? Art Education 51 (1) 7 - 15) Units of work, such as the Musical Landscapes task in Year 7 approach artmaking as a tool of exploration and meaning making. Students are invited to find visual forms through which to communicate sensory experiences. The senses of smell, touch, hearing, taste and sight are viewed through the lens of visual language to allow students the opportunity to appreciate other ways of giving form to experience. Students make visual responses to the information and then find ways to articulate and translate the visual response in writing and the spoken word, reflecting on how they understand the information provided by the senses. In this unit students listen to a variety of music and respond visually to the layers of sound, in the tradition of Kandinsky and de Maistre. They also smell and taste, touch and see various stimulus items, and discover a language of colour, line and layers of shapes through which they can give form to their particular way of understanding what is presented. In discussions about the art pieces made in this way, students have the opportunity to recognise a commonality of expression that embodies nuances of individual interpretation, leading to a deeper understanding of ‘artistic style’ and personal aesthetics. For background information on this unit and its links to the concept of synaesthesia visit this website http://home.vicnet.net.au/~colmusic/maistre.htm What is seen from this experience is that there is no ‘right way’ other than a deep endeavour to find a personal way to communicate a unique way of ‘seeing’ and a refinement of the skills and processes to better articulate the understandings reached. Engagement with the process of looking, interpreting, and developing ideas through visual means builds confidence that there are other valued ways of knowing and engaging with the world. Guided experiences, familiarity with materials and their limitations, information gained from self-directed research are all tools for understanding. Processes and techniques form the raw materials of perception to give expression to unfolding concepts about the world and the individual’s place within it. Gardner has made many things possible; his theories have opened up a new and rich way to appreciate difference. Einstein failed traditional education – by all accounts, he ‘saw’ the world differently and had the vision to say "Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others."
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