Art Studio as Thinking Lab: Fostering Metacognition in Art Classrooms

Abstract

What can high school art classes offer to both aspiring artists and students who have other interests and goals? Here’s an answer: thinking skills. Thinking skills are essential for all learners, and both art creation and encoun-tering art provide opportunities for complex thinking and, therefore, for honing conceptual skills. Beyond that, art experiences can spur students to reflect on how they think and to expand and refine their thinking. That is to say, art classes can cultivate metacognition. This article pursues both trains of thought and describes how an art class can be an art thinking lab—a site for everyone to practice thinking and develop metacognition together in the context of creative work. It describes pedagogy and curriculum developed by Kimberley D’Adamo, an art teacher at Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California, with support from her students and from Julia Marshall, the co-author of this article.