Virtual Reality Considerations for Curriculum Development and Online Instruction

For virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) to become effective learning modalities, they must be considered in the context of experiential or constructivist learning which could disrupt traditional instructional and educational practices given their interactive quality. How might educators assess these applications and their implementation to determine their learning potential for online instruction? By applying the studio thinking framework (STF) and the presence pedagogy (P2) model, unique insights may be gained in terms of virtual reality's value to the learning process. Current research shows many similarities between the skills taught in studio art classes and opportunities to learn the same skills in virtual educational applications, while the P2 model has demonstrated its effectiveness in applying pedagogical strategies to collaborative VR environments. Tactics to prepare, apply, assess, and evaluate (PAAE) this technology in educational programs for teachers and school leaders provide a guide for implementation.

Studio Thinking Framework in Higher Education: Exploring Options for Shaping Immersive Experiences Across Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Curricula

With an increase in the number of colleges and universities using virtual reality and augmented reality integrated programs, specific insight for exploring immersive learning approaches utilizing virtual and augmented reality tools and applications in a variety of disciplines is needed. In some instances, pedagogical approaches for creating immersive learning experiences require a sound conceptual framework for course or content design with emphasis on developing opportunities for higher order thinking in virtual reality/augmented reality educational experiences. Public access data were used in this qualitative-directed content analysis study to examine course goals, objectives, and learning outcomes of 14 U.S. Artificial Intelligence universities as to the potential for developing creative and cognitive skills, as described within the pedagogical framework of Studio Thinking Framework. Findings indicated multiple opportunities for creative and cognitive thinking as Studio Thinking Framework was integrated into these immersive spaces.

Youth Neighborhood Maps From Around the World: A Preliminary Look Through a Studio Thinking Lens

This article takes a look at 624 neighborhood maps, drawn by students aged 8 to 18 years from 24 countries, between 2017 and 2018. The maps were made as part of an online cultural exchange program called Out of Eden Learn, developed at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In honor of Dr. Ellen Winner, a preliminary analysis of the maps is offered using The Studio Thinking framework as a lens. Developed by Winner and her colleagues, the Studio Thinking framework identifies eight habits of mind—sometimes called thinking dispositions—that are characteristic of high-quality thinking in the arts and elsewhere. The article focuses on three of these dispositions in particular: Envision, Observe, and Express. With a twist, it also says a few words about a fourth, Understanding Art World.

Beyond the Lab: Influencing Practice and Policy

In this article, the authors describe over 20 years of work with Ellen Winner at Project Zero, a research and development group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This included a cross-arts curriculum and assessment project aimed at practitioners (ArtsPROPEL, 1989–1995), 10 meta-analytic syntheses of the effects of arts learning on nonarts achievement (REAP, 1997–2001), and an observational theory-building study of the dispositions intended to be learned in high school art classes and the structures through which they are taught, meant for audiences of both practice and theory (Studio Thinking, 2001–2013). Ellen’s perspective as an experimental psychologist interacted with ours in fertile ways to make richly rewarding collaborations in our efforts to make sense of art education practices. From how she chooses what she studies, to her eclectic approaches to research, to addressing her work to broad audiences, psychologists have much to gain from Ellen’s methods.

Community music-based structures of learning (CoMu-Based SL): Pedagogical framework for the nurturance of future-ready habits of mind

The landscape in which music is experienced in the 21st century has dramatically changed and scholarship in music education calls for classrooms in which teaching and learning are responsive to the new challenges. Furthermore, within the broader concerns of the place of the arts in the curriculum, the literature calls for empirical evidences grounded in the actual teaching and learning processes in the arts, in order to support claims that they nurture future-ready habits of mind and enhance academic performance. This study responds to these gaps by: (a) adapting the studio thinking framework of Hetland, Winner, Veneema and Sheridan to extract, through grounded theory methods, community music-based structures of learning and observe their corresponding pedagogies to nurture artistic thinking; (b) providing evidence for specific claims of community music such as inclusiveness through evidence of engagement across learner abilities; (c) demonstrating partnerships between community musicians, teachers and researchers; and (d) showing community music’s potential to develop students’ critical musicality.