Based on the National Gallery of Art’s popular Art Around the Corner professional development program for teachers in Washington, D.C., this five-unit online course provides everything you need to begin creating a culture of critical thinking and collaboration for any classroom, subject, or level. You do not need an art background or museum access to successfully integrate the course materials into your teaching. Your willingness to experiment with new teaching practices is all that is required. The strategies presented in this course are adapted from Artful Thinking pedagogy, developed by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. You will explore three thinking dispositions, using eight thinking routines that are easy to understand and implement with STEAM curricular content. Starting with the disposition of observing and describing , you will learn how to guide your students in slowing down, using their senses, and communicating impressions of what they see in a work of art…and in other things. Next, the routines used in the disposition of reasoning with evidence ask students to make hypotheses about the art and support their arguments with observations. Finally, the questioning and investigating disposition challenges students to hone their natural curiosity by expressing their wonderings and formulating open-ended questions. Throughout, you will discover the power of art to develop your students’ inclination, motivation, and ability to think deeply. When you enroll, all the resources you need for your classroom to strengthen critical thinking by using art will be immediately available. We recommend spending a few hours learning and practicing each section before progressing to the next. The online course environment features over 20 videos and interactive tools: a zoom tool to examine works of art at full resolution polls to compare your thoughts with those of other participants discussion boards where teachers around the world share ideas, plans, and results authentic lesson demonstration videos that model routines led by real classroom and museum educators with students of varying ages, with corresponding downloadable lesson plans interview videos on topics like using thinking routines with emerging language learners and making accommodations for all learners Participating with a global network of educators who, just like you, want to hone their abilities to teach critical thinking skills and explore arts integration will be an added bonus to your course experience.
An excellent online course offered by edX: how it works
edX courses consist of weekly learning sequences. Each learning sequence is composed of short videos interspersed with interactive learning exercises, where students can immediately practise the concepts from the videos. The courses often include tutorial videos that are similar to small on-campus discussion groups, an online textbook, and an online discussion forum where students can post and review questions and comments to each other and teaching assistants. Where applicable, online laboratories are incorporated into the course.
edX offers certificates of successful completion and some courses are credit-eligible. Whether or not a college or university offers credit for an online course is within the sole discretion of the school. edX offers a variety of ways to take courses, including verified courses where students have the option to audit the course (no cost) or to work toward an edX Verified Certificate (fees vary by course). edX also offers XSeries Certificates for completion of a bundled set of two to seven verified courses in a single subject (cost varies depending on the courses).
An edX learning programme under Other Experiences
