IN THE NAME OF ETERNITY
“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” Robert Heinlein
I always used to rushing to class and getting some peace behind the lectern, especially when the course was starting, and I was not familiar with the students, and it was like a corps to protect self-doubt behind and achieve a relative calm. But, as time went on, I came to a time when I could find peace and confidence when I could interact with my students. Furthermore, this happened when I did not find myself in front of the students, but I felt alongside them, so I continued to work with students and encourage them to participate in the class, and it was a remembrance time that I felt how much can I learn from them when I am not lecturing. Although learning outcomes are essential, how effective is the class, and how can I carve a permanent beneficial experience in the student’s mind are further.
The first step of walking in a classroom starts by getting to know the students and their area of interest. I might have different students from different backgrounds, and they might want to continue their major in various fields of art. The goal is to guide them on how they can apply the outcomes in their interest.
Art theory and history of art are foundational courses. For this reason, the second step would be contextualizing the history of art and make a reliable bridge to connect history to the present by using examples and some other activities like comparative brainstorm to find similarities and differences. These activities motivate the students to find themselves in history. In this sense my class is like a time machine!
Questions are the way learning gets started and the way to involving students in the class. It is one of the best strategies for involving students in the class. A big question creates a big idea, and a big idea is closer to an expected outcome. For example, can they visualize and compare the age that we are working on with the former and next age? How does it look? Can they place themselves at that age? Questions can motivate students’ curiosity. They can combine different abstract ideas with their actual knowledge of the subject through analyzing artifacts of the age.
Bringing some historical knowledge to contemporary life is one of the most critical parts of the study of history. The students work hard to find their talents and their field of interest. From here I provide timely feedback as I encourage them to provide insights for each other. During their learning process students produce and present their work reflectively and systematically considering the diverse feedback they receive.
Using technological devices is one of the critical parts of some of the theoretical classes as they can help both students and teachers to be motivated all the time and also, this is the best way of delivering the objectives of the class instead of lecturing all the time. I encourage the students as well to use presentation technology to have a powerful influence on their other classmates.
The best exciting step of this process is when students are applying their achievements in their area of interest. I might have a different student from graphic design to fashion and from multimedia to film study. I will let the students apply their research and reflection by presenting the outcomes in the form of a piece of a production that can be an essay, a design, a documentary video or a piece of handicraft. It would not happen unless they recognize, understand, visualize, imagine, image, and create their outcomes.
Reza Hosseiny / 2019