Artistic Ways of Knowing in Gifted Education: Encouraging Every Student to Think Like an Artist

Abstract

After decades of fluctuating presence in gifted education, the arts are surprisingly establishing themselves in academic classrooms, spurred by arts integration with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula or science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). This renewed interest provides the opportunity to recognize the artistic process as an effective way to deepen and enlarge the scope of academic content. Teachers can readily identify potentially talented students in their classrooms who immerse themselves in arts activities. Students in every classroom, if provided with substantive arts integrated curricula, can learn to perceive with discrimination, metaperceptively mold creative interpretations, and communicate these performances/products expressively to others with insightful critiques. Artistic ways of knowing mirror the artistic process and provide the opportunity for every student in every classroom to think like an artist.

Keywords:

• artistic ways of knowing
• arts, arts talent identification
• gifted
• gifted education
• metaperception
• STEAM

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joanne Haroutounian

Joanne Haroutounian serves on the music faculty of George Mason University and is active internationally as a consultant in the areas of piano pedagogy, music, artistic thinking, creativity, and gifted/arts talent identification. Her gifted/arts publications include Kindling the Spark: Recognizing and Developing Musical Talent (Oxford University Press), Artistic Ways of Knowing: How to Think Like an Artist, and Arts Talent ID: A Framework for the Identification of Talented Students in the Arts (Royal Fireworks Press). She has contributed chapters in multiple gifted journals, with over 25 publications offered through Kjos Music Company. Her college text in piano pedagogy, Fourth Finger in B♭: Effective Strategies for Teaching Piano, is used in colleges across the country. Dr. Haroutounian is the founder and director of the MusicLink Foundation, which provides long-term private instruction to promising students in financial need. Refer to http://www.musiclinkfoundation.org. E-mail: [email protected]