EDUCATION IN THE ARTS / 2018

Students were able to witness The Healing Power of Expression: A Journey of Trauma, Hope and Transformation , performed by Professor Morejon. The piece, commissioned by the Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders, Margate, 2014, was meant to illustrate the rich creativity that exists in personal experience and how important it is to empower students to make sense and create meaning out of their life experiences.  Following the existential phenomenological approach, the piece illustrates how those stories can also be an epistemological tool when using experience to create knowledge and perform that knowledge. A number of videos were also shared with the class to give examples of how diverse story telling can be and how it can be approach from different points of view. LINK:  Introduction to Story Telling LINK:  Your Unique Perspective LINK:  A Story of Mixed Emotions Link:  The Technology of Storytelling Exercise: The students wrote their own indi...

The students were introduced to the concept of existential phenomenology . We discussed other importance concepts related to the subject. Bellow, there are presented some of the ideas that frame the existential phenomenological approach as a viable epistemological model to apply in the classroom. CONCEPTS   — Phenomenology : A philosophical “practice/method” of observing, recording, and interpreting “lived experience” through vivid and detailed descriptions. The practice of phenomenology seeks to expose, uncover, or reveal “universal” elements of human existence that structure our practical, “particular” empirical situations.  — Transcendental Phenomenology : Largely developed by Husserl, is a philosophical approach to qualitative research methodology seeking to understand human experience. — Existential Phenomenology : Whereas Husserl saw the task of transcendental phenomenology to be that o describing the lived world from the viewpoint of a detached observer,...

The students were introduced to the concept of phenomenology as a philosophical frame for teaching through the arts. Using the students' own experience to build their own knowledge base is a revolutionary concept for established educational programs that do not see the arts as a conduit for the acquisition academic information. They were given the task of searching the Miami Dade County Publics Schools (MDCPS) curriculum;  then to check MDCPS' curriculum for one of the arts of their choice. They looked for a lesson plan template and created a lesson plan that included: objective, assessment, activities, evaluation. A discussion followed through which students shared their choices for teaching. Bellow, some samples of the lesson plans created by the students:  Alexandra Gange Objective (the students will): The students will learn the periodic table by using music and song. Activities / Strategies : Students will form groups of 4 and coll...