Counteracting Stereotype Threat in a Digital Art Education Pre-Service Course.
This paper presents ways to counteract stereotype threat and encourage student risk-taking within a required art education course that prepares pre-service art teachers to integrate digital and analog materials and methods in P-12 art studio/classrooms. The majority of students are female (approximately 10:1) have no experience with technology except as consumers, and often identify themselves as people who are “just not good with technology.” At the start of the semester, there is a high level of anxiety and reluctance to experiment with technology among most students. This resistance is addressed in three ways: 1) Playful collaborative learning games, in which peer support and friendly competition helps to overcome anxiety and build confidence; 2) Research into a diverse list of mentor artists (more than half female) who integrate high and low tech methods in their work; and 3) meaningful, purposeful assignments which invite students to integrate prior art knowledge, skills, and passions into their work.
Art Education is a field in which women (primarily white women) are currently and historically over-represented. STEM fields are domains in which women and other population groups, such as African Americans, are under-represented. This imbalance has been partly attributed to “stereotype threat,” a “socially premised psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one's group applies” (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Challenging stereotype threat in art education pre-service education, and building students’ confidence and risk-taking tolerance in regard to the integration of technology in their future classrooms, may help them more successfully overcome their future students’ stereotype threats in art and tech domains.
The arts prioritize conceptual and material exploration in the service of personal meaning-making and aesthetic expression. In this course, staples of the maker education, such as simple circuits, Arduino and Scratch coding, are used to expand students’ personal engagement, arts learning and connections across the curriculum. Art teacher candidates with little to no previous knowledge of digital tools, circuits or coding learn to adapt new methods and materials borrowed from maker education to suit the learning objectives of the art studio. They present their research on contemporary artists who incorporate digital technology in their work, and design lesson plans that use these artists as role models. Design thinking processes, reinforced through peer feedback, are introduced and adapted to help students learn how to plan lessons based on course methods and materials.
By carefully scaffolding tech skills, like soldering and coding, while keeping artistic and creative goals at the forefront, leveraging students’ prior skills and knowledge in the visual arts, all students are able to build confidence tolerance for risk-taking and experimentation through this course.
Art Education is a field in which women (primarily white women) are currently and historically over-represented. STEM fields are domains in which women and other population groups, such as African Americans, are under-represented. This imbalance has been partly attributed to “stereotype threat,” a “socially premised psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one's group applies” (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Challenging stereotype threat in art education pre-service education, and building students’ confidence and risk-taking tolerance in regard to the integration of technology in their future classrooms, may help them more successfully overcome their future students’ stereotype threats in art and tech domains.
The arts prioritize conceptual and material exploration in the service of personal meaning-making and aesthetic expression. In this course, staples of the maker education, such as simple circuits, Arduino and Scratch coding, are used to expand students’ personal engagement, arts learning and connections across the curriculum. Art teacher candidates with little to no previous knowledge of digital tools, circuits or coding learn to adapt new methods and materials borrowed from maker education to suit the learning objectives of the art studio. They present their research on contemporary artists who incorporate digital technology in their work, and design lesson plans that use these artists as role models. Design thinking processes, reinforced through peer feedback, are introduced and adapted to help students learn how to plan lessons based on course methods and materials.
By carefully scaffolding tech skills, like soldering and coding, while keeping artistic and creative goals at the forefront, leveraging students’ prior skills and knowledge in the visual arts, all students are able to build confidence tolerance for risk-taking and experimentation through this course.
This paper presents ways to counteract stereotype threat and encourage student risk-taking within a required art education course that prepares pre-service art teachers to integrate digital and analog materials and methods in P-12 art studio/classrooms. The majority of students are female (approximately 10:1) have no experience with technology except as consumers, and often identify themselves as people who are “just not good with technology.” At the start of the semester, there is a high level of anxiety and reluctance to experiment with technology among most students. This resistance is addressed in three ways: 1) Playful collaborative learning games, in which peer support and friendly competition helps to overcome anxiety and build confidence; 2) Research into a diverse list of mentor artists (more than half female) who integrate high and low tech methods in their work; and 3) meaningful, purposeful assignments which invite students to integrate prior art knowledge, skills, and passions into their work.
Art Education is a field in which women (primarily white women) are currently and historically over-represented. STEM fields are domains in which women and other population groups, such as African Americans, are under-represented. This imbalance has been partly attributed to “stereotype threat,” a “socially premised psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one's group applies” (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Challenging stereotype threat in art education pre-service education, by building students’ confidence and risk-taking tolerance in regard to the integration of technology in their future classrooms, may help them more successfully overcome their future students’ stereotype threats in art and tech domains.
The arts prioritize conceptual and material exploration in the service of personal meaning-making and aesthetic expression. Staples of maker education, such as simple circuits, Arduino and Scratch coding, are used to expand students’ personal engagement, arts learning and connections across the curriculum. Art teacher candidates with little to no previous knowledge of digital tools, circuits or coding learn to adapt new methods and materials borrowed from maker education to suit the learning objectives of the art studio. They present their research on contemporary artists who incorporate digital technology in their work, and design lesson plans that use these artists as role models. Design thinking processes, reinforced through peer feedback, are introduced and adapted to help students learn how to plan lessons based on course methods and materials.
Artist/educators can bring unique perspectives and ways of thinking and working to digital media. At the same time, digital methods and materials can feel quite daunting for pre-service artist educators much more comfortable with clay and paint. Through building an inclusive and supportive learning community, presenting alternative role models, foregrounding contemporary art practices and leveraging students’ own personal artistic and creative experience and goals, stereotype threat can be overcome through the integration of art and technology.
Art Education is a field in which women (primarily white women) are currently and historically over-represented. STEM fields are domains in which women and other population groups, such as African Americans, are under-represented. This imbalance has been partly attributed to “stereotype threat,” a “socially premised psychological threat that arises when one is in a situation or doing something for which a negative stereotype about one's group applies” (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Challenging stereotype threat in art education pre-service education, by building students’ confidence and risk-taking tolerance in regard to the integration of technology in their future classrooms, may help them more successfully overcome their future students’ stereotype threats in art and tech domains.
The arts prioritize conceptual and material exploration in the service of personal meaning-making and aesthetic expression. Staples of maker education, such as simple circuits, Arduino and Scratch coding, are used to expand students’ personal engagement, arts learning and connections across the curriculum. Art teacher candidates with little to no previous knowledge of digital tools, circuits or coding learn to adapt new methods and materials borrowed from maker education to suit the learning objectives of the art studio. They present their research on contemporary artists who incorporate digital technology in their work, and design lesson plans that use these artists as role models. Design thinking processes, reinforced through peer feedback, are introduced and adapted to help students learn how to plan lessons based on course methods and materials.
Artist/educators can bring unique perspectives and ways of thinking and working to digital media. At the same time, digital methods and materials can feel quite daunting for pre-service artist educators much more comfortable with clay and paint. Through building an inclusive and supportive learning community, presenting alternative role models, foregrounding contemporary art practices and leveraging students’ own personal artistic and creative experience and goals, stereotype threat can be overcome through the integration of art and technology.