Curriculum - what's missing?
Elliot Eisner is an artist, teacher and educational theorist who has written on educational reform, and is a leading voice in arts education. I first encountered his ideas in Curriculum Theory. One concept we explored in the class was hidden or implied curriculum; Eisner takes this further to include 'null curriculum' - that which is not taught - in his discussion of curriculum.
The following is a summary of Eisner's ideas on explicit, implicit and null curriculum.
The following is a summary of Eisner's ideas on explicit, implicit and null curriculum.
What I found interesting here was the idea that by neglecting certain ways of learning, we send a message to students that there is only one way to learn, or one approach to solve a problem, or one way to demonstrate learning. This caused me to reflect on my own practice, considering how much I relied on single ways of teaching, learning, and showing knowledge.
Why we need the arts
Eisner was an advocate for the arts in public education. In The Arts and the Creation of the Mind (2002), he outlines the unique contributions the arts make to the development of thinking, particularly open-minded, creative thinking. The National Art Education Association presents a summary of his ideas on their website, http://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/Eisner_10_Lessons_2013.pdf.
As a music teacher, I have had to justify the place of music in the curriculum. Usually, I talk about the skills students learn through music: teamwork, through playing in ensembles; self-discipline, through individual daily practice; and appreciation for the aesthetic side of life, through listening to and appreciating music. All of the arts can also serve as gateways to appreciation of other cultures. I also believe that humans are 'wired for sound', that we are built to respond to music, and that creativity is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. Eisner's ideas have expanded my vision for what the arts can do. Rather than pointing to higher math scores for music students (a questionable conclusion from research, and one which justifies music based on success on other fields, rather than on its intrinsic value), I can now discuss some of the exciting ways in which music (the arts) develops students' minds.
Reforming education through the arts
Eisner was also an advocate for educational reform. Eisner combined his advocacy for the arts and his passion for reform in education in a 2002 lecture at Stanford University, "What can education learn from the arts about the practice of education?" (cited as Eisner, 2004). He bemoans the direction of education towards uniformity under the influence of accountability. "What we are now doing is creating an industrial culture in our schools, one whose values are brittle and whose conception of what’s important narrow. We flirt with payment by results, we pay practically no attention to the idea that engagement in school can and should provide intrinsic satisfactions, and we exacerbate the importance of extrinsic rewards by creating policies that encourage children to become point collectors. Achievement has triumphed over inquiry. I think our children deserve more" (Eisner, 2004:3).
In contrast, Eisner outlines his vision for education, based on artistic ways of thinking. It begins with a claim which is startling at first glance: "The the aim of education ought to be conceived of as the preparation of artists". He then explains that 'artists' are "individuals who have developed the ideas, the sensibilities, the skills, and the imagination to create work that is well proportioned, skilfully executed, and imaginative, regardless of the domain in which an individual works" (Eisner, 2004:4)
The intelligences or ways of thinking that the arts brings to education are:
In contrast, Eisner outlines his vision for education, based on artistic ways of thinking. It begins with a claim which is startling at first glance: "The the aim of education ought to be conceived of as the preparation of artists". He then explains that 'artists' are "individuals who have developed the ideas, the sensibilities, the skills, and the imagination to create work that is well proportioned, skilfully executed, and imaginative, regardless of the domain in which an individual works" (Eisner, 2004:4)
The intelligences or ways of thinking that the arts brings to education are:
- Making qualitative judgments. When creating a work of art, the artist constantly makes qualitative decisions to guide the creative process along. These judgments are made in the absence of a formula or rule. This is strikingly similar to Dede's description of higher-order thinking as working out how to solve a problem when all of the standard approaches have failed, when the rules and formulae no longer apply (Dede, 2010).
- Having Flexible Goals. In the process of creating, new possibilities arise. The artist improvises in response, creating a product which may be quite different from the initial plan. Dewey called this 'flexible purposing'. Eisner advocates having open-ended goals in the classroom, to allow students to explore learning in ways which may not have been anticipated by the teacher. In The Arts and the Creation of the Mind, he celebrates the delight which comes with the surprise of creating something unintended. "Surprise is one of the rewards of work in the arts" (Eisner, 2002:8).
- Form = Content. The genre in which an artistic idea is presented is part of the idea. Similarly, the way something is said becomes part of the message (this connects with Marshall McLuhan's "the medium is the message"). Eisner here echoes his earlier work on curriculum, as he ponders the implied message given in the way we teach, and in the way school districts focus on test scores.
- We know more than we can tell. Not everything knowable is expressible; the limit of our language is not the limit of our knowledge. Here Eisner is urging education to move away from traditional language-based ways of demonstrating knowledge, to include more diverse forms of expression. According to Wikipedia, Eisner once debated Howard Gardner on whether a novel could be submitted as a thesis. In the Masters Program, I have seen students use videos, visual displays and other non-conventional forms to demonstrate learning.
- Medium matters. In the arts, students need to work within the constraints of their particular medium - water colours or oil paints, jazz band or string quartet - and master that medium. The same is true in other subjects: the writer must master language suited to a particular form, for example. What mediums are we providing students to work within and master? Here Eisner ponders - in 2002 - the capability of the computer to create new ways of thinking by providing new mediums within which students can work. Eisner reminds us that the environment which we create for our students, the kinds of learning activities, the mediums, we provide for them, will shape their thinking. "The school curriculum can be a mind-altering device. And it should be," he declares (Eisner, 2002:9).
- Intrinsic Motivation. When creating a work of art, the reward is fundamentally personal: the satisfaction one gets from one's own artistic expression, and from overcoming the challenges of the medium. This intrinsic motivation is needed for students to be motivated to continue learning beyond and outside of school. In fact, it really is needed within school, if any real learning - engaged, inspired learning that is embedded in the learner's construct - is to occur.
"I am talking about a culture of schooling in which more importance is placed on exploration than on discovery,
more value is assigned to surprise than to control,
more attention is devoted to what is distinctive than to what is standard,
more interest is related to what is metaphorical than to what is literal.
It is an educational culture that has a greater focus on becoming than on being,
places more value on the imaginative than on the factual,
assigns greater priority to valuing than to measuring,
and regards the quality of the journey as more educationally significant
than the speed at which the destination is reached.
I am talking about a new vision of what education might become and what schools are for."
- Elliot Eisner (2004:10)
more value is assigned to surprise than to control,
more attention is devoted to what is distinctive than to what is standard,
more interest is related to what is metaphorical than to what is literal.
It is an educational culture that has a greater focus on becoming than on being,
places more value on the imaginative than on the factual,
assigns greater priority to valuing than to measuring,
and regards the quality of the journey as more educationally significant
than the speed at which the destination is reached.
I am talking about a new vision of what education might become and what schools are for."
- Elliot Eisner (2004:10)
I have found Eisner's vision an uplifting counterpoint to both the current data-driven educational climate and the kind of thinking encapsulated by the '21st century' movement. In reading and summarizing his work, I was struck again and again by how easy it is to become fixed in a set way of thinking, as he caused me repeatedly to think 'outside of the box'. I also reflected on the nature of the creative process, applying his art-based principles to my own field, music. I have often thought that my favourite form of musical creativity, improvising, is 90% brain-based, and only 10% related to technique; it's more mind than fingers. Eisner's powerful exploration of the forms of thinking generated by the arts has confirmed and deepened that belief, and caused me to reflect not just on what happens when I play, but on what is going on in my students' minds as they learn music.
Above all, I find Eisner's stirring vision of what school could be a powerful motivator for continuing to seek change, working toward a more enlightened and more enlightening model of education.
Above all, I find Eisner's stirring vision of what school could be a powerful motivator for continuing to seek change, working toward a more enlightened and more enlightening model of education.