Project Context For ten years Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) Teaching Artists have been my aesthetic education teachers during intensive five-day LCI Summer Institutes and three-day Winter Institutes. During that time, faculty in the Division of Education at Lehman College have participated in the LCI Teacher Education Collaborative (TEC) so that we can include the LCI aesthetic education process across the teacher preparation curriculum for undergraduate and graduate teacher candidates. The LCI aesthetic education (AE) approach contrasts with other approaches in which the focus is art history or skills in art or musical performance. Instead, AE entails exploration of the media and craft involved in the creation of a work of art to enable the expression of one's responses to that work of art. At LCI Institutes, faculty explore different art forms such as painting, collage, sculpture, and physical movement. We tried out musical instruments and developed extemporaneous musical compositions. These experiences deepened our noticing of the craft and vocabulary of various art forms. We were asked to describe whatever we saw, and then to connect this to our prior experiences and feelings. We were encouraged to ask questions about the work of art and to read further. Frequently we were asked to journal about our experience and its meaning for us--our interpretations, memories, and explorations. The LCI process of reflective journaling parallels the reflective journaling advocated by Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC). We often began WAC sessions by journaling about our experience with the topic we were going to address. Also, at the core of both LCI and WAC is the inquiry process. The LCI teaching artists (TA) and WAC faculty are master teachers who are consistently constructivist in their approaches.

Description of the Course In the Spring of 2007 I tried out many of the experiences I had enjoyed during the LCI Summer Institutes in my course "Aesthetic Education: Visual Arts." Teacher candidates had opportunities to explore various entry points to works of art. They tried out different media such as drawing, painting and collage to experience their possibilities. They analyzed the formal elements of paintings. They visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art five times and the Museum of Modern Art once during the semester. During the two and a half hours of each trip to a different wing of the Metropolitan Museum, we explored and discussed as a group, and each of the teacher candidates wrote about a work of art. We looked at Pre-Colombian and African sculpture, Japanese prints, Greek and Roman sculpture, an early Renaissance triptych, 19th-century European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, and surrealist paintings. During each visit we did guided noticing of one work of art as a group. Everyone contributed to a discussion of what they saw, describing and then interpreting it. The teacher candidates also wrote their own written responses to another piece they selected, initially as an unstructured written description and reflection and, in later visits, in response to a questionnaire (see link Guided Inquiry Questionnaire). Guided Inquiry Questionaire

References Berger, J. et al. (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting System and Penguin Books. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: The Seabury Press. Greene, M. (2001). Variations on a Blue Guitar: The Lincoln Center Institute Lectures on Aesthetic Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Holzer, M. (2007) "Teaching and Learning at Lincoln Center Institute." New York: Lincoln Center Institute for the Visual and Performing Arts. <www.lcinstitute.org.> Lincoln Center Institute

The Focus of My Investigation My research questions were: 1) Does writing enhance Lincoln Center Institute (LCI) experiences when teacher candidates do a self-assessment of their written reflections on works of art? 2) Do teacher candidates articulate more of their capacities for Aesthetic Learning after they complete multiple assessments over a semester in a course on "Aesthetic Education: Visual Arts"? To facilitate this self-assessment, I adapted rubrics developed by a colleague to assess Aesthetic Learning capacities (see link below.) I thought that analyzing teacher candidates' self-assessments of their written reflections at the beginning and toward the end of the semester was one way of discovering whether or not they had demonstrated growth in those capacities after a semester in which practices of LCI and WAC were integrated. Lincoln Center Institute has developed capacities for students at their High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry (Holzer, 2007). These capacities--which include Questioning; Exhibiting Empathy; Noticing Deeply: Identifying Patterns; Making Connections; Creating Meaning and Reflecting/Assessing--are also relevant to teacher candidates. Working with colleagues to develop rubrics for aesthetic education outcomes enabled me to find a lens through which to qualitatively assess aspects of aesthetic education (AE) that are typically not assessed. I thought that teacher candidates' self-assessment of their reflective journals using the capacities was one way of finding whether or not they would develop those capacities to a greater extent after a semester in which practices of LCI and WAC were integrated. Capacities Rubric

Approach to Assessment I tried two kinds of self-assessment using the aesthetic learning capacities with the teacher candidates in my Aesthetic Education: Visual Arts course. To introduce the teacher candidates to self-assessment, in the class after their first trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I gave out the rubrics (see link above) with the definitions of each of the LCI capacities for Aesthetic Learning. I asked them to develop a grid with each capacity at the top, to identify in their initial written descriptions of the work of art they had selected at the Met any sentences that they thought related to that capacity, and to record that sentence below the capacity. I made it clear that these capacities were for self-assessment only and would not be used in the final grade. Instead their final grade would be based on their essays and dialogues with Maxine Greene in response to the text we used (Greene's Variations on a Blue Guitar), and their final projects (a curriculum unit integrating aesthetic education, social studies and literacy). From this exercise, I learned that I need to read written directions for using the rubrics because a few misunderstood the directions. Two teacher candidates, for example, wrote questions about the piece they had viewed once they returned to class, instead of at the museum. Later in the semester, I tried a second method of self-assessment. I asked them to write about a Velazquez painting (in the form of a poster of "The Water Carrier"). This was not in response to the Guided Inquiry Questionnaire that they used in the museum, but an in-class, low-stakes (ungraded) essay. During the next class session, I distributed the rubrics again with a copy of their essays and asked them to look for any sentences that they thought reflected the capacities. Whenever they found any they were to highlight them with a yellow highlighter and write that capacity in the margin next to them. In a second step to establish the extent of inter-rater reliability, I distributed a copy (with name erased) to another classmate to do the same analysis. I also followed the same procedure with a third copy in order to determine whether there was consensus between the author, the classmate and me in analyzing the same essay.

Results To evaluate the results of the second self-assessment, I tallied the number of times the capacities were identified (by the author, the classmate and me). Of eight teacher candidates, three authors and I agreed on all seven capacities being present or absent; one author and I agreed on six capacities; and four authors and I agreed on five capacities being present or absent in their self-assessment. I found that of eight teacher candidates, among five there was more agreement between the self-assessment by the author and me than between the author and a classmate. In those five cases the classmate had not identified as many capacities as the author and I had. In three other cases, I had identified two more capacities than either the author or the classmate. For example, for the category of "questions," I identified not only direct questions but also sentences including terms such as "as if" or "perhaps" or "as though" (indicating implicit questions). Therefore, I found another clarification I need to make in the description of the capacity of questioning. Overall, did the teacher candidates demonstrate and identify more of their capacities later in the semester than they had in their first written reflection? Of the seven teacher candidates that participated in the first and later reflections, the majority did expand their repertoire. One increased her awareness of her capacities from three to six, another increased from three to four, three teacher candidates increased from four to five, another from four to six, and one who identified and demonstrated six capacities in her initial self-assessment continued to do so later in the semester.

Sample Teacher Candidate Reflection #1 The first reflection (see below) gave evidence of noticing deeply (1); implicit questioning through the use of "maybe, probably, perhaps" (2); identifying patterns (3); making connections (4); exhibiting empathy (5) and creating meaning (6). Teacher Candidate Reflection #1 There are two men, an older man, dressed in clothing that appears torn and very distressed; and a younger man whose clothing is much more well maintained.(4) The older man in the painting is holding on to the handle of a large jug, which probably holds wine. He is holding on to the base of the goblet, while the younger man is holding on to the goblet at the stem. (1) It seems like the older man is taking the goblet, perhaps to refill it for the younger man. (2)(3) They both have a rather pensive look on their faces, pensive as well as sad. (5) Neither man is looking up, or at the other. Lurking in the shadows, a figure of a young man appears. The two men in the painting stand out in the forefront, whereas the figure in the back is faded, barely visible; but noticeable. He appears to be holding a cup up to his mouth. He seems to be looking at the exchange between the two men. (6) It's almost as though the shadow in the back is the young man in the forefront. (4)(6) The older man seems like someone who is maybe giving a serious piece of advice to the younger man. (6) Something that the younger man really needs to think about. Link to the image of Velazquez's "The Water Carrier"

Teacher Candidate Reflection #2 The second reflection also gave evidence of noticing deeply (1); implicit questioning through the use of "look as though" "I'm unsure..., it's like he was meant to be a ghost" (2); identifying patterns (3); making connections (4); exhibiting empathy (5) and creating meaning (6).

Teacher Candidate Reflection #3 The third teacher candidate's reflections also gave evidence of noticing deeply (1); implicit questioning through the use of "It may be" "perhaps" "seems"(2); identifying patterns (3); making connections (4); exhibiting empathy (5) and creating meaning (6).

Acknowledgment I would like to thank Rachel Ihara for all her assistance in putting this snapshot on the website. It was so helpful to have her feedback and suggestions for editing and clarifying the text.