Creative Arts Develop Problem Solving Skills
Art Teaches How to Make Judgments about Qualitative Relationships
Mar 7, 2009
Drawing on the work of Dewey, Eisner explains that the creation, appreciation and understanding of visual form in general, and visual art in particular, is a mode of activity he considers to be a form of intelligence.
“The production and appreciation of visual art is a complex and cognitive perceptual activity that does not simply emerge full blown on its own.” [Eisner. 1972, p113]
Definition of Qualitative Intelligence
Dewey advanced the idea that intelligence is the quality of an activity performed in behalf of inherently worthwhile ends. On this account, intelligence is a verb, a type of action, not a quantifiable noun, something that one possesses. For Dewey, intelligence is the way in which a person copes with a situation that is problematic.
Qualitative Intelligence as Problem Solving
When applying this notion of “intelligence” as problem solving to they way students learn to make meaning through the modality of visual art, Eisner develops a descriptive argument [2002, p114]. He describes a process whereby students identify a problem, select qualities and organise them so that they function expressively through a medium.
- a student who sculpts paints or draws is solving a problem
- he or she must find a way to transform, in some medium, an idea image or feeling
- they start with a blank piece of paper, a lump of material or data in electronic form
- the student uses this raw material to articulate a vision
- during this process they hope to be responsive to the consequences of personal actions, when managing material so that it functions as a medium
- when manipulating the media, the artist learns to be aware of the happy accident that is inevitable in the creation of artworks
- through this learning strategy it is hoped that the student will develop an ability to manage anxiety, frustration and tension. The ability to forestall closure allows for the possibility of openness to a moment of unity and cohesion
- students learn to recognise moments when the whole work comes together
- during the process students will develop an ability to cope with thousands of interactions among visual qualities. Moments of cohesiveness, clarity and unity will emerge through the child’s use of material
- upon reflection students (perhaps in conversation with others) will conceive of his or her artistic purpose and recognise meaning
Eisner calls the ability to problem solve in this way qualitative intelligence, because it deals with the visualisation of qualities expressed in images. The activity is directed at the creation and control of these qualities. It is generally recognised that artists work with seven elements of design
Mediation through Artistic Thought
Qualities are mediated through thoughts, which are managed through process, which terminates in a qualitative whole. The qualitative whole is an art form that expresses an idea or emotion by virtue of the way in which those qualities have been created through organisation.
People use this form of intelligence throughout the course of daily living. Artistic decision making occurs when people select furnishings for the home, design a brochure, create a website layout or decide upon what clothes to wear. The ability to do this is not simply given at birth, as one aspect of a genetic bundle of attributes. Rather, qualitative intelligence is an educable mode of expression which develops through experience and (hopefully) with guidance.
Intelligence, in this sense, is capable of expansion and through expansion it expands the potential understanding of students. Through the arts teachers assist students to raise their consciousness and increase their capacity to interpret their world.
The tendency to separate art from intellect and thought from feeling has been a source of difficulty for the field of art education. One of the results of this distinction is a lessening of the value of the creative arts fields of inquiry within the curriculum. Such a dichotomous distinction does not do justice to art nor to education.
For another presentation of this view see The Philosophy of a Creative Arts Educator Wisdom is the Legacy Left by Harry Broudy.
References:
Dewey.J, Art as Experience. NY: Minton,Balch and Company, 1934
Eisner.E, Educating Artistic Vision. NY: Macmillan, 1972.
Eisner. E, The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Yale University Press. 2002.
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