Collaborating on Thinking Support for

History, Introduction to Humanities, Communication, Writing

There are many common threads across these disciplines. One that helps put those threads in perspective is the impact these bodies of knowledge, skills, and behaviors will have on the learner’s future. These bodies of knowledge and skills are not ends in themselves, but rather learning these bodies of knowledge and skills prepare the learner for something further from their future experiences. That something further is transfer.

It is clearer today than it ever has been that we can hope to acquaint learners with at most a tiny fraction of what there is to know. College is preparing learners for going beyond the classroom with a focus on education for life, not just a body of knowledge only. How does the information being learned contribute to thinking; education for thinking? It is the ability to think with the knowledge being learned that makes learning meaningful to an individual life.

I put together some thoughts along this line about perception and how the learner being able to organize and interpret the sensory world around them in terms of past experience – perception. The following slides are organized around Introduction to Humanities, but I could have just as easily organized them around communication, history or writing. Substitute your discipline in the slides as you read them. They all strongly rely on comparingand contrasting, as well as cause and effect.

Introduction to Humanitiesand

Thinking Support

Our perception influences how we understand the world around us, how we interact with it. Our perception of reality dictates what we build, how we build, and for whom. In other words, our perception of reality dictates future realties. Our perception of reality dictates what we create and what we see, feel and hear – the arts: paintings, sculpture, literature, music, architecture, etc.

Want to Change the Way You See the World?

What if the perception of everything you looked at and everything you thought about could become

tens of thousands of times more interesting.

And the richer life becomes.

You see, I know a lot about what your girlfriend is feeling when she looks at you and her eyes dilate or constrict. You do subconsciously, but without knowledge about the meanings in her eyes, you do not have the mental tools for consciously seeing and making your next decision. Perceiving art is like that.

Pupil dilation or dilated pupils are considered to be attractive. That has been a longstanding perception across societies and cultures. There is considerable scientific evidence to substantiate pupil dilation attraction.

Look at the painting below and tell me everything you see.

Now look at the next slide and see what you could be bringing to the painting after taking an introduction to humanities class. Introduction to Humanities isn’t just about learning facts about the arts, it is about constructing deeper meaning about what you see and who you are, thus, giving you the mental tools for making life so much more interesting. If you succeed, you will never see the world the same way again.

Look on the next slide at the two-dimensional mind map of the concepts you would be learning about if you were taking Introduction to Humanities. This knowledge gained about painting, and drawings becomes prior knowledge when the learner knows how to apply certain mental processes for deep learning and are used by the learner. Those mental processes are what you will learn in the Introduction to Humanities “Thinking Support” class that is connected to the Introduction to humanities course.

Why is this important? Because perception is literally created by the brain. The more you have to bring (prior knowledge) to what you are seeing or hearing, the more meaning it has. Perception is changed by the organization and interpretation of a piece of two-dimensional art, for example, (painting) in terms of this knowledge and experience you will be gaining. For the rest of your life you will see more around you than others and life will simply and more complexly be richer and more enjoyable. You are not just learning about arts in the humanities; you are preparing yourself for a richer life. Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear? The answer is yes; however, without the knowledge found in the introduction to humanities course and the mental processes for thinking about and learning that knowledge, what one sees and hears is very limited and life is far less rich in meaning.

See the mind map on the next slide about two dimensional art:

Two-Dimensional Art

PART ONE: Chapter 1Introduction to HumanitiesExpanding the Conceptual Framework

The Media of the Arts

Formal &Technical Qualities

Media

Composition

Other Factors

drawingpaintingprintmaking

elements

perspectivechiaroscuro

SenseStimuli

contrasts

dynamics

trompe l’oeiljuxtaposition

focus

principles

value

form

texture

mass

color

line

hue

value

intensity

implication forcontinued direction

linear form color edge

shape of object

relationship:blacks to whites to grays

tint shadeadd blackadd white

purity go hue

physical volumeand density

roughness orsmoothness

balance

focalareas

repetition

unity

rhythm

harmony

variation

equilibrium

asymetricalsymmetry

closed composition

open composition

greatestvisualappeal

Look at the painting below, “The Scream”. Tell me what you think is happening.

Notice that your interpretation of the painting is coming from your own mind. You are making it up. Your brain organizes what it sees along with everything you already know and creates an interpretation of the painting.What if I told you that the building in the background is a slaughter house. Would that change what you think is happening in the painting?

Yes, it would influence your interpretation. This is what happens when you learn about the elements and history (context) of two-dimensional art in the introduction to humanities course. An aim of introduction to humanities is to enable the learner to add concepts and history (context) to their knowledge, which will become prior knowledge with which to organize and interpret the arts encountered resulting in a shift in perception in their future.

The shift in perception is your brain organizing what it is seeing along with your prior knowledge to create an interpretation. Learning in the introduction to humanities course is not just about getting a grade; it is about building the prior knowledge that will shift your perceptions. in the long run, it is about making your life richer and more interesting.

Two-Dimensional ArtThe Media of the Arts

Formal &Technical Qualities

Media

Other Factors

drawingpaintingprintmaking

perspectivechiaroscuro

SenseStimuli

contrasts

dynamics

trompe l’oeiljuxtaposition

focus

Two-Dimensional Art

The Media of the Arts

Formal &Technical Qualities

Media

Composition

Other Factors

drawingpaintingprintmaking

elements

perspectivechiaroscuro

SenseStimuli

contrasts

dynamics

trompe l’oeiljuxtaposition

focus

principles

value

form

texture

mass

color

line

hue

value

intensity

implication forcontinued direction

linear form color edge

shape of object

relationship:blacks to whites to grays

tint shadeadd blackadd white

purity go hue

physical volumeand density

roughness orsmoothness

balance

focalareas

repetition

unity

rhythm

harmony

variation

equilibrium

asymetricalsymmetry

closed composition

open composition

greatestvisualappeal

Look again at the mind map below of the concepts you will be learning in the Introduction to humanities course. The goal of the Support “Thinking” course that goes long with the humanities course is to help ensure that you learn the mental processes that will enable you, as a learner, to more easily learn, retrieve, and apply the concepts below for art you encounter.

Summarizing Art and a Shift in Perception?

One of the first things a learner wanting to “think to learn” about art in the humanities is to

understand the focus of the text and that focus is “on concepts (formal elements and media stimuli)

and perception, as well as on history, which fall within the scope of human endeavor. We are talking

about a shift in perception (effect) in the presence artwork that is the direct outcome of the

organization and interpretation of stored concepts (knowledge - formal criticism) and history

(contextual criticism). When in the presence of a piece of artwork, think of perception as the

organization and interpretation of sensory data (stimuli) in terms past experience (prior knowledge).

You will be organizing and interpreting what you see, hear, or feel (the artwork) and that

organization and interpretation will draw on your prior knowledge (what you learned in the

textbook - the formal elements and sensory stimuli, for examples)

Those endeavors deal with the “fundamental characteristics that make us human - our ability to

intuit and to symbolize. The humanities constitute a larger whole into which the arts fit as one

piece” (text).