Art and Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies For Your Classroom (Coursera)

Art and Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies For Your Classroom (Coursera)

Explore how to integrate works of art into your classroom with inquiry-based teaching methods originally developed for in-gallery museum education.

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Syllabus

WEEK 1
Introduction to Inquiry | Why Engage in Inquiry Around Art?
This course will introduce ways to integrate works of art into your classroom by using inquiry-based teaching methods commonly used in museum settings. It is designed to give you the tools to create meaningful object-based learning activities that can be integrated into a wide variety of curricula. All the strategies covered emphasize literacy and critical thinking skills that connect across disciplines.

WEEK 2
Close-Looking and Open-Ended Inquiry
In this module we will discuss and review the different ways that you can facilitate close-looking with your students and engaging in open-ended, inquiry-based conversation around works of art. Don’t wait to start practicing! Grab a friend or a family member and start leading inquiry-based conversation around a work of art, or anything. As you will see in the Google Hangout video, you can use a digital image or any object that you have around that would lend itself to leading an inquiry-based discussion. These practice sessions are not required but the more you practice, the easier and better your classroom performance will be.

WEEK 3
Activities as Inquiry
This section explores interactive methods that promote an open-ended, two-way exchange of ideas and engage a specific set of skills including close-looking, peer-to-peer learning, creative thinking, and problem-solving.

WEEK 4
Putting it all Together: Making Connections Across Curriculum
In this module we will model ways that you can incorporate inquiry around a work of art into your classroom and make connections to curricula. We will also explore the types of resources that you can access to supplement your lesson development and planning.

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