TEACHING FOR

ARTISTIC BEHAVIOR

Teaching for Artistic Behavior, or TAB for short, is a constructivist approach to art education that puts students at the center of learning and creating.

A TAB studio provides space for students to explore, create, and tell personal stories where the emphasis is on PROCESS over PRODUCT. A TAB classroom mirrors a real-life art studio in the way students collaborate, share resources, and work on projects that interest them.

The first two weeks of each class will be spent doing "studio boot camp", where students will learn the ins and outs of the various studios, including safety and clean up. We will also spend a significant amount of time with the 8 Studio Habits of Mind, which is how students will be assessed.

Here is what a typical day will look like in the studio:

5 minute demonstration on a technique, concept, historical artist, contemporary artist, etc...
Studio time: artists will set up their studios and work on their current pieces
Clean up
Share
Reflection

Teaching for Creativity

The 8 Studio Habits of Mind

8 HABITS OF THINKING LEARNED FROM ARTISTS

Over a decade ago, researchers with Harvard’s Project Zero identified The Studio Habits of Mind. Through research, Lois Hetland and her team classified and named eight Studio Habits which include: Develop Craft, Engage & Persist, Envision, Express, Observe, Reflect, Stretch & Explore and Understand Art Worlds. Since then, the eight Habits have been a continuous force in reshaping how progressive art education is organized and administered. As you can see, these are not novel ideas in art ed. They are, in fact, the basis of best practices in the art room. When you introduce the Habits in the art room, students become more mindful about their practice. (thearofeducation.edu 2015)

Studio Thinking is a framework designed by practitioners at Project Zero (the research arm of Harvard's School of Education). Out of the Studio Thinking framework comes the Studio Habits of Mind, a set of eight dispositions that an artist uses. The wonderful thing about these dispositions is that they offer a language for critical thinking that spans across every discipline.

Studio Habits of Mind (SHoM) empower students to articulate their learning in any subject matter, and provide an entry point for learning based on individual choice and need. They are not hierarchical, and they can be used in guided instruction or constructivist teaching modalities.

The 8 Studio Habits of Mind are visible on the image above. These Habits correlate to the work we do in class as well as the reflective artist statements that are required for each project.

How Students Benefit from TAB.pdf

Other TAB Info

Tab Site

Constructivist Teaching

Multiple Intelligences