Artistic Ways of Knowing in Gifted Education:
Encouraging Every Student to Think Like an Artist

Joanne Haroutounian's article, Artistic Ways of Knowing in Gifted Education: Encouraging Every Student to Think Like an Artist," has now been published on Taylor & Francis Online and is in Roeper Review, 2017, issue 39: 1.

Converting STEM into STEAM Programs

This book examines the push and pull of factors contributing to and constraining conversion of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education programs into STEAM (science, technology, engineering, math and arts) education programs. The chapters in this book offer thought-provoking examples, theory, and suggestions about the advantages, methods and challenges involved in making STEM to STEAM conversions, at levels ranging from K12 through graduate university programs. A large driving force for STEM-to-STEAM conversions is the emerging awareness that the scientific workforce finds itself less than ideally prepared when engaging with so-called ‘wicked problems’ – the complex suite of emerging, multifaceted issues such as global climate change, social injustice, and pandemic diseases. Dealing with these issues requires cross-disciplinary expertise and the ability to insert technical and scientific understanding effectively into areas of public planning and policy.

The different models and possibilities for STEAM, as the next phase of the STEM revolution, laid out in this book will promote research and further our understanding of STEAM as a forward-thinking approach to education.

The ideal teacher sees opportunities for integrating ideas from multiple disciplines into every lesson. This book offers many worthwhile suggestions on how to do that deliberately and systematically.

For the last several years, calls for expanding STEM education have grown, but so too have concerns about technocratic approaches to STEM. This volume challenges the community to consider broader views on STEM by focusing on the place of arts education within this movement. The chapters offer much needed, new perspectives on the (re)integration of the arts and sciences.

Joanne Haroutounian contributed the chapter entitled "Artistic Ways of Knowing: Thinking Like an Artist in the STEAM Classroom."

Artistic Ways of Knowing

Dr. Haroutounian developed the idea of Artistic Ways of Knowing as a way to recognize the importance of including the perceptual/cognitive process involved in artistic creative decision-making in gifted/talented identification procedures.

The process includes metaperception - the artistic parallel to metacognition and provides a framework for realizing how artists think when making creative decisions. Every child should have the opportunity to learn to think like an artist.

Artistic Ways of Knowing:
How to Think Like an Artist

Dr. Haroutounian has spent a lifetime working in the arts with gifted students in performance, as well as helping teachers to identify and develop talent. Artistic Ways of Knowing: How to Think Like an Artist is the result of her insights and experience, examining the perceptual and cognitive processes inherent in learning and interpretation. Understanding these processes allows teachers to develop creativity in the classroom, nurture talented students, and encourage everyone to "think like an artist."

The book begins with perspectives of artistic and aesthetic knowing from artists and scholars across the fields of education. It then explores each element of artistic knowing, which includes "Sparkler Experiences" that provide hands-on workshops to help students realize how to think and perceive in each art form: the visual arts, music, dance/movement, and theater/drama.

Artistic Ways of Knowing is a text for gifted and arts college coursework and a resource for professional development. But it is also of wider interest, as the goal is to provide readers with a more thorough understanding of how artists think and perform and how this kind of knowing expands in depth and breadth beyond cognitive/academic parameters. The ultimate goal is to encourage everyone to experience artistic "knowing."

As befits a book about the arts, this book contains classic works of art in full color that can be studied in the classroom, as well as unique photographs that illustrate aspects of the creative process.

Think Like an Artist:
Lessons for Experiencing
the Artistic Creative Process

In Think Like an Artist, Dr. Haroutounian offers teachers of the arts and enthusiastic classroom teachers a series of lessons to enhance artistic experiences for students. This book contains more than a dozen lessons in each of the four arts domains: the visual arts, music, dance/movement, and theater/drama. The lessons range from easy to moderate to challenging so that every student has a chance to experience the artistic process, no matter the level of talent or ability. Some of the lessons are linked with other arts domains or with academic areas, and many of them can be modified to include current topics of study in the classroom or within the broader academic curriculum.

Each lesson includes objectives, materials needed, and the location and timeframe for the activity, as well as the interpretive arts elements that are used in the lesson. This is followed by clear, step-by-step instructions, sample questions to guide the activity, and tips for identifying students who show potential talent. The lessons end with extension activities that can allow students to pursue areas of interest further. Some lessons also include resources for delving deeper into the subjects inherent in the lesson. In addition, there is an extensive list of resources at the end of the book that provides recommended readings for almost any artistic topic. This book is a valuable resource for teachers who wish to give their students greater exposure to creative arts experiences.

Arts Talent ID: A Framework for the
Identification of Talented Students in the Arts

"The identification of students who show potential or developed talent in the arts has long been neglected in the Gifted/Talented identification process. One basic problem is the lack of an identification process that can be used easily and reflects criteria deemed pertinent by arts specialists as well as those in the gifted field. Arts Talent ID presents just such a framework, based on analysis of criteria from identification and audition forms of specialized arts schools and the NRC/GT. My goal is to encourage the identification of artistically talented students as an accepted part of the identification process. " - Joanne Haroutounian

Arts Talent ID: A Framework for the Identification of Talented Students in the Arts offers specialists in the fields of gifted education and the arts an effective and pragmatic way to identify students who display potential talent in the arts (music, visual art, movement/dance, theater).

The identification framework includes an overview of recommended arts identification procedures and their comparison with normal gifted/ talented procedures. The framework offers criteria for identification that recognizes arts-specific talent characteristics based on analysis of identification and performance/ portfolio assessment instruments used by arts specialists and gifted/arts programs across the country.

Forms used in the identification process are constructed across similar categories and formatted for ease of use by classroom teachers, gifted/ arts specialists, and outside adjudicators. The Arts Talent ID framework provides a comprehensive arts identification procedure that can be pragmatically implemented in any school—from general classroom observations through to specialized audition/ portfolio assessments.

Kindling the Spark:
Recognizing and Developing Musical Talent

(Oxford University Press, 2002)

"Kindling the Spark gathers stories, studies, and ideas about musical talent into one source that seeks to guide teachers, parents, and musicians in understanding this complex topic. I hope this book will inspire the reader to enjoy the aesthetic dynamic that is integral to musical performance. If the next time you encounter a musical performance by a youngster, concert artist, or street musician you tune in and listen for that spark, I will have succeeded." - Joanne Haroutounian

Are some children born with musical talent or is talent acquired through training? Joanne Haroutounian characterizes potential musical talent as a spark that is waiting to be noticed, kindled, and nurtured. With clarity and intelligence, Haroutounian has gathered insight on musical talent from the fields of psychology, music, and education into this valuable resource book for parents, musicians, and educators.

"A must for teachers, parents, students, nonmusicians, and performers who want a readable and well documented guide for the complex task of recognizing and nurturing musical talent."
– Dr. Sally Reis, National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented

"Presents a really insightful picture of what being a musician feels like from the inside, and how that is different from other talents, artistic and otherwise. This is crucial to the understanding of the value of music by school principals, school teachers, and parents."
– Sue Kahn, Director Preparatory Division, Mannes College of Music