Transforming University Non-Art Majors’ Art Learning Perspectives by Integrating Informal Learning Strategies Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Chien, Ting Fang Claire Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 27/09/2021 20:09:03 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/627700 TRANSFORMING UNIVERSITY NON-ART MAJORS’ ART LEARNING PERSPECTIVES BY INTEGRATING INFORMAL LEARNING STRATEGIES By Ting Fang Chien Copyright ©Ting Fang Chien 2018 A Dissertation to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF ART In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH A MAJOR IN ART HISTORY AND EDUCATION In the Graduate College The University of Arizona 2018 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Ting Fang Chien 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This is a long journey on the way towards my Ph.D., and I am very thankful to all the people who witnessed and helped me during this adventure. I appreciate my parents and brother’s support: Your love is my greatest support during the entire process. I want to thank my best friends in Taiwan. Feyfey, thank you for so many overseas conversations. Thank you for sacrificing your sleep and for helping me to release my anxiety about the unknown future. Caprice, thank you for being a good academic and close friend, giving me many useful suggestions. A special thank you also goes out to my writing friend, Cat Botelho. It was my greatest luck to meet you at the University of Arizona. Because of you, I improved my writing a lot, and your critical reviews helped me notice the arguments that I should emphasize in the dissertation. In the past five years of study of Art and Visual Culture Education at U of A, I met my academic mentors and art education allies. They became part of my family who supported me in discovering and developing my profession. Thank you Dr. Ryan Shin, Dr. Manisha Sharma, and Professor Sarah Moore: You helped me grow in both theoretical and practical ways. Thank you, Dr. Lisa Hochtritt: Although we met late, you became such a precious friend in my life. Your care and support assisted me in many different aspects to overcome my life and learning struggles. Such warm actions comforted me when I lost my way or could not figure out my next step. Really, I want to give you a great thank you. Thank you, Eryn Neff: Thank you for being such a wonderful friend and colleague over the past five years. Thank you, everyone that I met in this program. You made me feel encouraged and inspired all the time. A great thank you goes to my academic advisor, who is my research and life mentor—Dr. Elizabeth Garber. You are one of the wisest women I have met in my life. It is my honor to have 5 you be my academic advisor. As my academic mentor, you have always offered your kind and full support on my way to pursuit of my dream in this field. You inspired my research interest in arts-based approaches. You challenged me to sincerely consider what art teaching should be good for. Without your critical eyes and comments on my ideas and research, I would not have been able to become the thoughtful scholar I am now. Your patience in waiting for me to understand and realize those blind spots and crazy ideas I had helped me to become a better art researcher and educator. There are also three museum-related educators I want to appreciate particularly. Thank you, Ms. Cass Fey: Without you leading me to approach interpretive strategies, I would not have found my passion in researching them. Thank you, Ms. Morgan Wells and Dr. Marianna Pegno. Thanks for giving me many wonderful opportunities to work with the Tucson Museum of Art. In addition to my friends and academic supporters, I also want to acknowledge my appreciation for all the participants in this study. It was my luck to have you participate in this study, helping me grow as a transformative intellectual. Lastly, thank you, Jimmy. We met in my busiest years. Your patience and company were comforts in uncountable anxious days, keeping me always positive to everything. 6 DEDICATION To my parents and brother. Thank you for the unconditional love. Without your support, I would not have been able to come to the United States and complete my study. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ...........................................................................................................15 LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................20 ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................22 CHAPTER ONE: REVISITING FRAMES OF REFERENCE.........................................24 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 24 Rationale ...................................................................................................................... 25 Research at a Glance .................................................................................................... 28 How Can Transformative Learning be Triggered? ...................................................... 29 Research Questions ...................................................................................... 30 Significance of the Research ........................................................................................ 31 Challenges of the Research .......................................................................................... 33 Before Perspective Deconstruction .............................................................................. 37 Transformative Learning: Learning as a Process ......................................... 37 Informal Learning: Revisiting Daily Life Experiences ................................ 40 Learning, Experiencing, and Reflecting through Making Art ...................... 42 Derrida’s Viewpoints on Deconstruction ..................................................... 48 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 51 CHAPTER TWO: LITERARY REVIEW .........................................................................53 Art Education Studies on Non-Art Major Undergraduate Students ............................. 53 Lacks of Art Knowledge and/or Skills ......................................................... 54 The Art Course is a Requirement for Graduation ........................................ 55 Useful Instructional Strategies for Non-Art Majors..................................................... 55 Encouraging Students to Do Risk-taking Art ............................................... 55 8 Inviting Students to Reflect on Their Personal Contexts ............................. 56 Engaging Students in Experiencing Diverse of Arts Forms ......................... 57 Constructivism in Education ........................................................................................ 58 Being Constructivist Educators .................................................................... 59 Helping Students to Express Their Own Voices through Constructivist Pedagogy ...................................................................................................... 62 Constructivist Approaches in College Art Education Courses ..................... 64 Transformative Learning Theory ................................................................................. 69 Individual Experience .................................................................................. 72 Dialogues and Critical Reflection ................................................................ 73 Arts Methods in Transformative Learning ................................................... 76 Why Transformative Learning Theory? ....................................................... 78 Informal Learning in Education ................................................................................... 81 Definition of Informal Learning ................................................................... 81 How Informal Learning Strategies Can Support Formal Learning Setting .. 84 Informal Learning Strategies in Constructivist Art Education ..................... 87 Constructivist Museum Education ............................................................................... 89 The Contextual Model of Learning (CML) .................................................. 90 Interpretive Strategies .................................................................................. 92 Arts-Based Learning .................................................................................................... 94 Arts-Based Research ...................................................................................