Blog 8: Contemporary Art & Big Ideas

In my previous blog post, I discussed the connections between art education theories, trends, and assessments. This pedagogy is essentially how a teacher runs his/ her classroom. It is how they approach curriculum and content, while also determining the best possible ways to evaluate student learning. After an educator chooses how they want to approach their classes, in creating educational content such as a unit or lesson, a "big idea" is crucial for narrowing in student focus.

A big idea is a term associated with categories or themes that capture human experiences. It functions as the fundamental elements of the curriculum, instructional content, and assessment. As stated by Sydney R. Walker in Teaching Meaning in Artmaking, big ideas highlight important issues and represent the artist's "overall purpose for art-making, and they tell- in broad conceptual terms- what the artist is about" (Walker, p. 2). Not to be confused with the subject matter, big ideas are concepts as opposed to topics or context. For example, while your subject matter may be portraits or natural materials, your big idea could be the exploration of human's connection with their environments. It is more conceptual and abstract than representational.

Primarily with younger, elementary-aged students, the use of big ideas helps with connecting to the main purpose and keeping consistency within the curriculum. It also fosters a more meaningful understanding of content over superficial obtaining of information. This is because big ideas are, at their core, concepts that students are free to explore. In my experience, when creating lesson plans/ units, the most fun part is coming up with a big idea. Not only is it a means for the organization, but it also can engage students. I love thinking about a variety of big ideas that I could tailor lessons or units around- it is both challenging and exciting to think of the possibilities! All in all, big ideas should relate to students and highlight what you, as a teacher, want to teach them. They should be purposeful, relevant, and modern so that students can be involved fully in the learning experience.

Citation:

Walker, S. R. (2001). Teaching Meaning in Artmaking. Davis Publications.