Hollistic Development - Discuss Questions 5 and 6 (Jan 20)

Discuss Questions 5 and 6
How will you create a holistic portrait of the learners in your classes? What will you need to know about them and how will you apply your knowledge?

As a teacher of art, why do you think the knowledge of holistic development is important in providing appropriate instructions for your students?

Creating art to meet the learners needs is very important. I think addressing the learners needs and interests and incorporating those attributes into their art would create an open experience and making something meaningful for the student. The question of how can I create a holistic portrait in my class is a very challenging question because students are individuals and have their own interests, strengths and weaknesses. I know generally teachers would most likely lean towards a self portrait project which may or may not get the student to include interests and other attributes of themselves.

Another challenge to this question is that different students excel in specific media. Some students are more comfortable at drawing and some tend to favour sculpture. To get all the students to make a self portrait of themselves to which ever medium they are comfortable with would be good except that helping individual students with their specific mediums may be time consuming.

I think an interesting twist to a holistic self portrait project for students would be to make a poster advertising themselves as a product for consumption like a toy or action figure. Students in this era are more knowledgeable with technology which will be good for the students. For the students who are not as knowledgeable with technology, they will be able to learn from peers and from playing with the photo editing programs and the cameras. The students can also list off their strengths so they can focus on the positives. As a teacher this provides me useful knowledge on the learner and provides a friendly way for the students to learn about each other.

As a teacher of art, knowledge about holistic development is important because you can teach the learners something that is applicable to their needs and something that is relevant to them. The learner is the audience that the teacher must cater to and not the other way around.