Transfer within and beyond DBAE: A Cognitive Exploration of Research Issues.

This exploratory study reports on the effec tiveness of a thematic art unit in fostering transfer within and beyond DBAE. Findings provide evidence (1) that some fourth and eighth grade students engaged in a thematic unit could successfully transfer instructional knowledge to an unfamiliar artwork, (2) that some students' knowledge bases in the four art disciplines evolved through instruction, and (3) that some students evidenced in creased ability in using two knowledge seek ing strategies (formulating questions and considering alternative perspectives) after instruction than before. This report also ex plores implications of transfer research aimed at informing planning of more effec tively integrated DBAE curriculum and of more effective interdisciplinary curriculum planning. Calls for interdisciplinary education are increasing. The National Visual Arts Standards stipulate that "connections [be made] between visual arts and other disciplines" (MENC, 1994, p. 1 27). Old er art educators and students of the his tory of art education will find calls for connection making across the curriculum familiar. Winslow (1939), Ritson and Smith (1975), and many other art edu cators through the years have advocated building connections between the art cur riculum and the general education curric ulum. The Getty Education Institute for the Arts, in partnership with the College Board, has taken a position in favor of in terdisciplinary education in its recent monograph, Connections: The Arts and the Integration of the High School Curric ulum (Boston, 1995). One might argue that the Getty Institute has already played a major role in fostering interdis ciplinary learning in its advocacy of dis cipline-based art education, an approach that draws content from the four disci plines of art making, art history, art criticism, and aesthetics. As teachers continue to struggle with building curric ula that make connections among these art disciplines, they are faced with the additional challenge of integrating this in ternally evolving interdisciplinary art curriculum with the other disciplines of the general education curriculum (Thompson, 1995). Cognition and Transfer Cognitive studies (studies of how people think) may be especially valuable in guid ing educators' planning of broad general education curricula. Efland recently ar gued that because the arts and humanities "contain a degree of indeterminacy" (1996, p. 51), they can be used to in crease students' abilities to reflect. He challenges art educators to examine the cognitive nature of the arts in order to "take the lead in shaping a vision of edu cation that will serve the whole person as an economic, social, cultural, and spiritual being" (p. 55). According to Fogarty, Perkins, and Barrell, "transfer means learning something in one context and applying it in another" (1992, p. ix). Similarly to Efland, Perkins holds that art is "a particularly supportive plat form for improving thinking" (1994, p. 83). He proposes that, with carefully planned instruction, students can learn how to think better by looking at art and transferring that better thinking to many other contexts. Koroscik identifies three interrelated facets of cognition that af VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH ? 1997 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois 43 This content downloaded from 157.55. 39.105 on Fri, 07 Oct 2016 04:27:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor. org/terms feet transfer of art understandings: "the viewer's knowledge base, . the view er's choice of knowledge-seeking strate gies, . and a person's dispositions to ward learning" (Koroscik, in press, pp. 5-6). She argues for more empirical re search in order to more fully understand "what curriculum interventions are most effective for fostering advanced understandings and far reaching trans fer" (Koroscik, in press, p. 23). This exploratory study1 reports on the effectiveness of a thematic art unit in fostering (1) transfer of instructional knowledge, (2) development of students' knowledge bases in the four art disci plines, and (3) development of two po tentially transferable knowledge seeking strategies. Specifically, the study identi fies evidence of students' ability to suc cessfully transfer learning acquired through instruction to an unfamiliar art work. And, it identifies evidence of the effectiveness of the unit on the evolution of students' knowledge bases in art mak ing, art history, art criticism, and aes thetics. In addition to considering aspects of transfer within the art curriculum, this study reports on the effectiveness of a thematic unit on increasing two knowledge seeking strategies that stu dents may be able to transfer to learning beyond the art curriculum. It identifies evidence of change in students' ability to pose new or more advanced questions and change in their willingness to seek or consider alternative perspectives.