•  
  •  
 

Abstract

An undergraduate seminar on African-American Art History was used as a case study to explore how critical perception skills may be developed through the implementation of interactive exercises. Active looking, creative connections, and experiential learning were among the pedagogical approaches embedded into the content. The goal was not to write a revisionist history of the subject matter but to utilize existing resources to reconfigure how the historical narrative may be discussed and articulated through diverse vantage points. Examples of assignments are provided as models and SoTL thought experiments. Reflections upon the definition of ‘critical perception’ versus ‘critical thinking’ and ‘visual thinking’ are also included in the article. Consideration is given to ways of using critical perception to cultivate a sense of empathy and flexible reasoning. Critical perception is regarded as a cornerstone of art historical practice presenting educators with an opportunity to teach a skill set which could be leveraged to raise awareness about the relevancy of a discipline that is all too often relegated to the edge environment of academic curricula.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.