To ensure that students are given the opportunity to learn about art by working as artists, they must be given choices. If a student makes “cookie cutter Art” without being allowed choices, they may be learning something about art, such as a skill or new concept, but they are not authentically making Art. Giving students choices does not mean that the teacher is absent. The Teaching for Artistic Behaviors (TAB) approach to Art Education is a child-centered choice-based approach, making the student totally responsible for the decisions of what to make, how to make it, what materials to use, and how long to work on it.
I’m attracted by the idea of TAB- students being real artists instead of making what they think I want them to make (no cookie cutters!), but I do have a few reservations. My reservations are more practical than theoretical, such as
- If students are responsible for what materials they use, how do you order adequate supplies with a limited budget?
- How do you ensure students experiment with different media and encourage them to try new things if they are content to use the same materials each class period? (I know I have some students who want to do nothing but paint, or use clay for the whole year.)
- Students are obviously responsible for their learning and designing their assignments, but how do you make sure they are pushing themselves and not coasting when they are allowed to work at their own pace? (Sadly, when I have 6th graders who chose to make a snake for their project because they think it will be easy but "can't" roll a coil and want me to do it for them, this is a concern.)
If you use TAB in your classroom, I would love to hear about your experience with it. I'm not ready to totally jump to the TAB ship, but I am interested in incorporating more aspects of it in my classroom. I've read that demos and introductions are used to cover the standards and that makes sense, I just wonder how the rest of it works in practice, rather than in theory.