Art, design & teaching great quote

by | Sunday, January 17, 2010

Steve Wagenseller, a student in my 817 Learning Technology by Design seminar wrote something so cool in the class forum that I felt that it was worth recording on my blog…

…One of the differences between art versus design is that a user has to approach the art, design has to approach the user.

Though, William James famously said, “Psychology is a science, teaching is an art,” (see the original quote in context here) I have always believed teaching to me closer to design and I think Steve captures in a very succinct way what the difference between art and design is – and why teaching is more design than art.

There is however, one aspect of the quote by James that is worth pointing out. Most people quote just the segment that I did, ignoring what he said right after that. The complete quote is as follows:

I say moreover that you make a great, a very great mistake, if you think that psychology, being the science of the mind’s laws, is something from which you can deduce definite programmes and schemes and methods of instruction for immediate schoolroom use. Psychology is a science, and teaching is an art; and sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves. An intermediary inventive mind must make the application, by using its originality. [emphasis mine]

Read the part in bold once again, “science never generate arts directly out of themselves. An intermediary inventive mind must make the application, by using its originality.” Even if we replace the word “arts” by “design” (as I have been arguing) the second part of the quote, the one emphasizing the importance of the “inventive mind” to develop “originality” still hold true. This creativity is essential to good teaching, and allows us to push beyond the science of psychology into the design of real learning experiences.


A few randomly selected blog posts…

Posthumanizing creativity

Posthumanizing creativity

Dr. Kerry Chappell is a professor at the University of Exeter’s Graduate School of Education. She merges her training in dance, her doctorate in experimental psychology and interest in education to develop a transdisciplinary research program on better understanding...

From Tech to Ed Tech: Distance to the moon

For one reason or another, I have three consecutive posts regarding the earth and sun and moon - i.e. the local area in the solar system. I had just completed my previous postings (on on seeing through eclipses and measuring the radius of the earth) when I came across...

TPACK @ AERA, 2009

I did not go to AERA this year - choosing instead to go to Chicago to Keynote the Engaging Minds: Pedagogy and Personalism, the 2009 DePaul Faculty Teaching and Learning Conference. We did have a paper to be presented there (and I am sure our Iowa State friends must...

The role of Vitamin D in beta-cell function

Who says scientists can't have fun. I just discovered a series of videos on (where else) YouTube about scientists expressing their doctoral research through dance!!! What can be cooler than that? Check out one of the winners: The role of Vitamin D in beta-cell...

Krishnamurti & Dewey in the Metaverse

Krishnamurti & Dewey in the Metaverse

I am writing a paper with Marina Basu about how John Dewey's and Jiddu Krishnamurti's philosophies of education and their implications for learning in increasingly mediated environments. While working on the paper, it struck me that it may be fun to see what Bing Chat...

William Kamkwamba, TED talk

I had written a couple of days ago about William Kamkwamba, a Malawian high school student who built a windmill by looking at pictures in a book. From Bob Reuter's website (Keep IT Simple!) I discovered a TED talk that William had given in England, back in July....

Creativity and Mindfulness at Work

Creativity and Mindfulness at Work

The next article in our series around mindfulness, creativity, technology and learning focuses on the work of Dr. Erik Dane. (This is part of a larger series that we been working on now for almost 10 years for the journal TechTrends). The first article set the stage...

TPACK at SITE, AERA & ISTE: Newsletter #36

TPACK at SITE, AERA & ISTE: Newsletter #36

Modification of the TPACK diagram to capture all the sessionsrelated to TPACK in three upcoming conferences. Here is a link to Issue #36 of the TPACK newsletter—a special spring conference issue that contains citations and abstracts for all of the TPACK-focused and...

Taare Zameen Par

Taare Zameen Par (loosely translated as "Stars on the earth") is a new movie produced and directed by Aamir Khan, one of Bollywood's biggest stars. He also acts in it. What is unique about this movie is that despite its Bollywood trappings, it is a somewhat serious...

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *