View this video (7 mins.) report by Prof. Phoebe Wolfskill (Art History IUB) on the results of her bottleneck lesson on visual analysis. She used the One Word Cat for a pre-assessment (78-82%) and then compared that to exam results that followed the lesson (88-96%), about a 10% learning gain.
Decoding work done
Identification of bottleneck -
formal analysis (learning to look)
Description of mental moves needed to overcome the bottleneck -
Identification of bottleneck - I would like students to leave my courses with an ability to examine images critically--the big bottleneck. An analysis of an image involves an understanding that it doesn’t just have obvious or inherent meaning, but rather we read an image in a particular way based on our experiences and assumptions. We must research the artist and his/her spheres of influence as well as the context in which the work was created to better understand the work. Once we have this information, we can make an informed argument about how an image communicates meaning. We narrowed down a bottleneck for this assignment to focus on:
- Formal analysis (attention to style), but not Content or Context. Though these three components (or sub-bottlenecks) are not mutually exclusive, for this exercise, I focused on my prevailing bottleneck, which is formal analysis (learning to look).
Modelling the tasks - Formal Analysis
Step 1: Organization. How is the composition organized? What is placed in the center, what in the periphery? To what effect?
Step 2: Medium. What does the process of painting involve? How does Motley apply his paints and blend his colors in this work?
Step 3: Detail. What colors and textures? Light and shading? What appears “real” and what is distorted or abstract?
Step 4: Analysis. How do you interpret this work based on the above? What do you think is Motley’s point in constructing this painting in this manner?
Practice and Feedback
Write/discuss on this assignment (Painting by Archibald Motley Jr., The Liar, oil on canvas, Howard University, Washington, DC in teams using the questions above
Anticipate and lessen resistance
Wolfskill in video: A student pointed out she’d rather start with the whole painting – what’s the narrative, what’s going on, etc.? and THEN dig into its details. I think she’s right.
-Several students mentioned they need more practice. That I can also offer!
Assessment of student mastery
Wolfskill used the One Word Cat for a pre-assessment (78-82%) on visual analysis and then compared that to exam results that included an improvement in learning following the lesson (88-96%).
Sharing
What Wolfskill learned in this FLC: -Students loved this assignment and
-Learned to look more carefully; many moved closer to the image;
-Animated conversation and even anger expressed at Motley’s aesthetic;
-This activity took much longer than I anticipated! 45 minutes
Researchers involved- This video was created as the final results of Wolfskill's participation in the 2019 Transformative Learning Collegium (Decoding the Disciplines FLC) led by Joan Middendorf (IUB) and Caty Pilachowski (Astronomy) at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Phoebe Wolfskill, Associate Professor, African American and African Diaspora Studies
& American Studies, Indiana University
