Project Result 2

The Be Active, be a Citizen Artful thinking workshops for adolescents and young adults

The original Artful Thinking method aims to help teachers use works of visual art and music in ways that strengthen student thinking and learning. The goals of this program are to help teachers create connections between works of art and the curriculum, and to help teachers use art as a force for developing students’ thinkingdispositions. Using the artist’s palette as a central metaphor, the Artful Thinking “palette” is comprised of six thinking dispositionswhich strengthen students’ intellectual behaviors. These dispositions are developed through Thinking Routines, which are easy to learn and can deepen students’ thinking in the classroom. Young persons will be accompanied to explore their city and to identify areas which can be observed through the “slow looking” approach: they could be for example street-art works, or interesting buildings or natural areas. They will then be supported by youth workers to apply “thinking routines” which will guide them in applying critical thinking to what they are seeing. This action can also be seen as an opportunity for young people living in marginalized neighborhoods to have the opportunity to get out of their neighborhood, understand what is beyond it, explore their city and get a sense of ownership of it. The final result will be a manual on how to implement Artful Thinking sessions with teenagers and young adults in non formal educational contexts.