Aligning Philosophy with Practice

2 Min Read  •  Arts Integration

This month we have been taking a look at why we teach the arts and whether these philosophies align with our practice.  Thanks to your responses, I was able to narrow down two schools of thought: Education of Art and Education of ArtistryNow it is time to chart these philosophies next to actual classroom practices.  Aren’t you a little curious if your philosophy aligns with your practice?

Let’s Review

In Arts Education: Philosophy vs Practice, we surveyed your general arts education philosophies in order to create two schools of thought.  Most philosophies recorded discussed the importance of arts education as a means to help students, share their thoughts and feelings, live fuller lives, create their own definitions of beauty, think and feel for others, and believe in the impossible.  This helped to develop two distinct arts education philosophies: Education in Art and Education in Artistry.

In Arts Philosophy in Practice, we introduced details of the two philosophies and encouraged you to choose the one that describes your philosophy best.  The Education of Art philosophy believes that the product is the determining factor of mastery and the Education of Artistry philosophy believes that the process is the determining factor of experience.  Neither is right nor wrong, just different approaches.  The results were split right down the middle.  Of our survey participants, 50% believe in the Education of Art and 50% believe in the Education of Artistry.  This is so exciting because art is such a personal experience and this truly shows the vast differences in how we share, encourage, and teach in the arts.

Today

Our next step is to break down the specifics of our teaching to determine if our initial philosophy choice (Education of Art or Education of Artistry) is actual classroom practices.

If you are curious as to whether your philosophy aligns with your classroom practices we invite you to take this quick survey and we will send you your results!

Philosophy in Practice Survey

If you missed the articles leading up to this one, check them out here:

Arts Education: Philosophy vs Practice
Arts Philosophy in Practice

Next Week

Next week will give you a checklist based on the philosophy results that you can use in your classroom practices to ensure accurate alignment.