Didactics Tips for Art History and Other Image-based Classes

Pumped and scared? Sounds almost right for the start of whatever semester. Inspired by a recent twitter thread  started past Jennifer Dudley, an art history Ph.D. pupil in the UK, to solicit tips around didactics, we decided to crowdsource this week's post by asking the AHTR customs what advice they would give someone just starting out in the classroom.

screenshot of twitter thread

We were overwhelmed by the responses we received, and invite y'all to check out the discussion that took place on AHTR'south Facebook Group. For this post, we've edited the comments to produce a "Tiptop Ten" list, that highlights the primal themes that emerged and includes a sampling of the community's comments with a few annotations and boosted resource. As with any pedagogy advice, employ what makes all-time sense for you lot and your teaching context.

1. Less is More. Take a breath. Slow down.

  • My communication is "less is more." I know when I offset started teaching I tried to show too many objects from any time period and it is really overwhelming for the students.
  • If yous find yourself thinking about "covering" fabric, stop and consider what that ways. That'south almost a checklist. Let students have time to breathe and procedure data–spend time with the works and concepts and don't stress near not getting to everything you envisioned at the start of the semester.
  • Really get into a piece of work, don't merely run through a agglomeration of slides. Model and make sure students know HOW practise practice a visual assay, stride-by-step. [Ed. note: we have some great models for this on the AHTR Library page]
  • Stop regularly throughout the semester and have the form do formal analysis on an image. They become better at it, and it is thrilling!
  • Requite students details and odd bits of information that you notice interesting most certain objects and artists. YOU think art history is cool! Show them why.
  • Don't worry about covering everything. This may exist the only class of this kind they ever take, and they'll usually exist most receptive to the things that you personally are about excited to teach.
  • Use pop culture equally a teaching tool: demonstrate connections, encourage comparisons, raise broad issues nearly visual modes of communication.

Meet also Julia Sienkewicz's 2016 article "Against the 'Coverage' Mentality: Rethinking Learning Outcomes and the Core Curriculum" in Art History Teaching and Practice.

2. Don't over set up.

  • Don't over prep. When I was starting, the best affair for me was to put time limits on myself considering I was panicking. Fearfulness of failure and not knowing everything (which is impossible) doesn't aid you be a improve instructor.
  • I always requite the caveat that they (the students) need to bring their lives and experiences to the classroom because I don't know everything. It's important to exist confident in your knowledge, but human at the same time.
  • Remember that y'all know more than the students. Fifty-fifty if yous don't know everything (which y'all never will). Exist confident and exist enthusiastic. You don't need to be the encyclopedia, you are an invitation to an amazing field of knowledge.
  • Admit your mistakes.
  • Model research for your students; don't pretend to know it all. If they ask a question you really don't know, discover out and give them a source next form. If in that location are a lot of questions, have students look for the answer for your next meeting. In inquiry classes, have a inquiry day together in the library when they really kickoff their inquiry.
  • Know that if you're tasked with teaching something outside your preparation/area, it's ok to just be one or 2 steps ahead of your educatee.

3. Teach intentionally.

  • Structure is a good matter for all students (and teachers!) Develop patterns that work for you lot and them. Everyone loves to detest repetition, but structuring class time and assignments then they are relatively predictable can aid everyone plan. This is really important for intro classes where everything is new to your students.
  • M ake certain every concluding item of your course counts towards well-articulated learning goals. Don't waste fourth dimension policing behavior that is not direct relevant to those goals. Teach only what y'all actually believe in, and don't be afraid to be an iconoclast. :)
  • Be transparent in what you look from the students in terms of the assignments. It should not be a mystery as to why they are asked to complete specific assignments. A follow upwards discussion of that assignment relating to the course is also a good idea. Information technology reinforces learning throughout the semester and not simply on exams.
  • Deadlines are not fix in stone on either side of the lectern. Tell your students what they have done, what they are doing, and what they will exercise, and explain how that fits into the larger scheme of things at least once during every class.
  • Build "catch up days" into your class schedule so you don't get flustered and feel similar yous're backside. Go out open up days where yous tin adapt content to better serve students' interest, or have students help shape the day's topics and activities.
  • Realize art history serves equally an interdisciplinary subject field in many institutions, fulfilling several aspects of the curriculum. Be prepared for the students to need support and introduction to basic background information, such every bit specialized terminology and technical concepts.
  • Rubrics, rubrics, rubrics. Learn how to build good ones equally it volition salve you a lot of grading time and frustration. See AAC&U'due south Value Rubrics  for adaptable models to download.

4. Build lessons effectually images.

  • Arrange your lectures visually–work out what images you need to prove and the club; then work out what you demand to say. Don't experience you must write it word for give-and-take. The images act as prompts.
  • How you sequence images when you're prepping is actually crucial, since they're much more important prompts than written notes when you're in the classroom.
  • Realize the students need hooks to the material and information. Give them fundamental images upon which to focus.
  • Present information with genuine artlessness by avoiding written notes as much every bit possible when lecturing. Apply real objects and excursions as much as possible. Build discussions with a few examples to start, then focus on the student'southward analyses–solo or as modest teams–using things they may not have seen before.
  • Consider keeping slides in "sorter style." Information technology reduces the tendency to present content as a linear narrative, and allows you to pull up slides as they become relevant and/or to focus class give-and-take around a specific topic.

Slides were a hot topic in a number of forums this calendar week, so hither are some related ideas nosotros desire to share:

There was this not bad twitter thread, started by Jason Hill, asking almost the dissimilar formats art historians utilise in their slide-based presentations. Of special note: stay abroad from bright white backgrounds, which may exist hard for students with dyslexia to process, and utilize larger font sizes for greater accessibility.  There was also this Smarthistory weblog post, recommending an  alternative  to standard presentation software for images used in class .

5.  Don't reinvent the cycle. Ask for help and look for models.

  • Don't experience like you take to reinvent the wheel in terms of content. Seek out existing materials, from lecture notes to assignments to grading rubrics and beyond. First time teaching involves more than lectures and grading, so cut yourself a little slack. You can always revise lectures and assignments yous outset with. Finding great models helps you to eventually augment and create new content. There's no shame in information technology, and information technology can aid brand your teaching much better. That's what AHTR is for!
  • Sentinel others teach!  Seek mentors, nourish teaching conferences (or run into if your institution has a Middle for Instruction and Learning), observe museum educators, and adapt useful techniques to your style and needs.
  • Avoid the studio vs. art history rift. Talk to your studio colleagues most pedagogy and what types of fine art history would enhance the whole curriculum.  Consider sitting in on a critique; observe a studio class and invite studio faculty to observe you; explore opportunities to team-teach and collaborate in other inventive means.
  • Fine art History may role as a form(s) where students learn inquiry and writing skills. Gear up to teach them and teach them well. Connect to the support services bachelor on campus (reference librarians, writing center, peer tutoring).
  • Be prepared to teach writing skills! I felt broadsided by the lack of writing skills when I started my TT job. Slowly, I added writing workshops, handouts on what a thesis is/isn't, handouts on "rhetorical signpost" words, etc.

6. Don't talk so much.

  • You don't accept to–and you shouldn't–talk constantly. Give students fourth dimension to process, reply, or simply write almost how class ideas relate to their own feel and noesis. Y'all'll learn the unexpected ways that course material connects to things they're into, and it helps students practise metacognition , which bolsters learning.
  • Rather than tell students . . . inquire students. Encourage them to speculate, reason, infer, and explain possible answers earlier presenting information. (ie: Why do you lot think it'due south called the Renaissance?)
  • Don't only present information in a lecture; take students discuss a topic beginning in small-scale groups then you tin can follow up with a mini lecture. Or, vice versa.
  • Refrain from standing behind the lectern dumping a lot of content. Engage students in active learning – recall-pair-share exercises, art history speed dating, art history editions of Jeopardy and Family Feud, reenactments, or debates.
  • Incorporate in-class writing assignments such as those in James Lang's Modest Pedagogy

Come across Marie Gaspar-Hulvat's "Agile Learning in Art History: A Review of Formal Literature,"  in Fine art History Instruction and Do.

vii. Expose students to art (IRL).

  • Get students to visit museums!!! Nothing replaces seeing real works of art in person.
  • If you cannot personally accept classes to museums, be sure to assign a museum paper or assignment. Ideally, allow the student cull the object to work with as a way to increase their investment and interest in the project.

AHTR's Visiting the Museum Learning Resource includes a multifariousness of ideas for museum-based assignments and activities.

8. Don't look away.  Engage in discussions of difficult topics.

  • Set yourself and allow infinite for difficult conversations about gender and race in art history.
  • Help students sympathise the cyclical nature of history (accept them hash out controversies such as condition of antiquities in present twenty-four hours museums) and the unifying features of cultures (how do different cultures handle the relationship between heritage and modernity) and big bug (similar theocracy).
  • If you're practicing in the U.Due south. or Canada, both acknowledge the native land yous are on and engage students throughout in what that means for the learning yous're doing, regardless of the period or topic in fine art history. Be willing to acknowledge that you're likely learning with them. Download the #HonorNativeLand guide, and find more resources at https://usdac.us/nativeland

Many resource are available that can support faculty in facilitating productive conversations and exploring ways to create a more inclusive learning environment. Explore workshops and materials bachelor at your institution, or discover them online.  Nosotros also recommendBister Hickey andAna Tuazon's post in AHTR Weekly on means to decolonize the art history classroom.

9. Instruction is a practice. Information technology (and you) volition change, evolve, and continue to get amend over time.

  • A course is never finished. Y'all should always expect to brand even small adjustments equally you build your repertoire. We push our students to improve and so we should be willing to do so as well.
  • Have someone else read your student evaluations and summarize them back to you. Where you succeed, you can celebrate with someone else. And don't obsess over that one comment–talk information technology out.

10. Be human.

  • Let your sense of humor show through.
  • Adopt a pedagogy of kindness equally Catherine Denial recently shared in Hybrid Pedagogy.
  • Recognize students face real life challenges and support them as best you lot tin can. Adopt OERs such as smarthistory.org, advocate for nil-cost courses, and include a  bones needs argument on your syllabus.

If you've read this postal service to the very end, you lot care most your teaching, and that's the critical office. Nosotros see you. Brava. Keep going. And please keep to share your ideas and advice in the comments below.