By Kristina Budels, Princeton Day School, NJ, student of Elaine Hohmath-Lemonick
2
Learning, Knowing, Owning
“ It's a very ancient saying,
But a true and honest thought,
That if you become a teacher,
By your pupils you'll be taught. ”
Oscar Hammerstein, from The King and I
There are three separate stages of mastery of any skill or knowledge set. In photography this is particularly apparent. When we look at the range of photographers from the first introduced novice to the master we can observe these three levels in action. With making a non-metered exposure on an overcast day the novice will ask or look up how to calculate the exposure, and as they progress they will go through this path less and less. At a point they will no longer need to look it up: they will rely on their memory of an exposure chart that told them the exposure. When the photographer has internalized non-metered exposure they react to the light condition by just setting the exposure controls. Those who have internalized this skill do not look up or refer to a memory of what they have looked up—they simply apply the correct camera setting.
Another way of viewing these three levels can be seen when learning a second language. First, as the vocabulary is learned, a dictionary is used to translate and understand meaning. With knowing, the vocabulary has been memorized and recognizing the second language word involves extracting the mental meaning translated from the conversation. Thoughts are likewise constructed in the first language and then mentally changed into the second language for transmission.With owning, there is no first or second language. You converse and get meaning in either the first or second language, and the thoughts and meanings exist without translation. Owning in photography is working in the language and meaning and methods of photography without translation or transliteration.
“ 1. Teaching is never just a system or technique.
2. Teaching is not teaching but rather working with.
3. Have an honest love to teach and share, and a commitment to values.
4. Be brave, assume everything is legitimate.
5. Be more a searcher than a finder.
6. I wear pink glasses—/am highly optimistic.
7. Every success can pollute.
8. Provide a wide range of freedom to create.
9. You must push a person away from his competence.”
Gyorgy Kepes
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA
Learning
First you learn. Learning is a journey not a point of reference. Learning starts with an introduction to material, ideas, or concepts. Depending on the complexity of the learning task, the abilities of the learner, and the resources provided, the journey would take various numbers of steps and varying time.
Learning has been defined as an activity that produces a meaningful change in behavior. This means that learning is active, not passive. It does not happen through osmosis. There have been numbers of studies and a sizeable amount of research into how this journey progresses. While divisions of learning range from three to eight major types of learning, they all have similar ideas within them.
There are many maps to how learning happens. These commonly include learning from perceptions, relationships, conditioning, motor activities, episodic situations, problem solving, and emotional understandings. While these aspects of learning photography are separated for discussion, it needs to be realized that for the most part several are active at any one place in the process.
“We think too much about effective methods of teaching and not enough about effective methods of learning.”
John Carolus, S.J.
Perhaps the most noted map is Bloom's Taxonomy, which defines three domains of learning—cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. In Bloom's these are further divided for a more complete picture of how learning happens. For this model of the learning activity, cognitive learning involves learning mentally, in areas of “knowledge.” This is an intellectual set of learning, including building mental data, the comprehension and application of the data, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Bloom's second area is affective or emotional learning. This second area includes valuation and organization of values and perceptions. Last in Bloom's domain structure are psychomotor learning activities. These include awareness, readiness, reaction, and response learning from simple to complex, adaptation, and orientation.
“I think all of Bloom's applies to teaching photography. Give the students experiences in all domains and realms. You need to use not only the cognitive domain and the affective domain but also the psychomotor domain. It is a natural progression, it is the way we think.”
Art Rosser
Clayton State College and University, GA
To better view this taxonomy we can look at how various aspects of imaging education are described within the various learning domains. Within the cognitive domain, that defines gaining knowledge and facts. Materials in areas such as photographic history and the science of imaging that are learned to support the other domains and producing photographs are easily seen as part of the cognitive domain. The cognitive materials are not learned simply to possess knowledge, but as the underpinning for producing photographs or as support knowledge for function associated with other domains. It is sometimes easier to discuss areas of the cognitive domain in the aspects of teaching because they can be viewed methodologically within the traditionally defined education.
While the cognitive domain is about gaining knowledge, learning in the affective domain can be seen as being about learning about how to appreciate the world around us. Areas within the affective domain such as aesthetics and interpretation of photographs use items gained in the cognitive domain to support this domain's learning. This domain defines how we perceive, value, and organize photographs.
“Young children, as artists, have not yet been taught how not to see.”
Sally Rand
Lansing Community College, Ml
Finally, of the three domains, there is the psychomotor. This is learning how to actually make your human system make photographs, e.g., learning to follow the action in an athletic event to be able to capture the critical moment. The learning in this domain is the most physically active. Beyond the kinesthetic assumption there is a strong perceptual portion of this domain. This is learning to use the sensory system to coordinate activities that will end in a successful photograph.
Bloom's is not the only approach we can use to view learning in photography. A more recent approach by Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard, reminds us that students do not learn, remember, perform, and understand the same way. He postulates that there are multiple intelligences and identifies these seven: Linguistic, Logicalmathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal. On this basis, one would expect a student with logicalmathematical multiple intelligences to do well in a technical photography program, whereas a student with a spatial and musical intelligence should do well in a fine art photography program. One could speculate that effective teachers and chairpersons have high intrapersonal multiple intelligences. An advisor or counselor would do well with a high interpersonal intelligence. A dancer, to be successful, would need to possess a bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.
Regardless of the way we break up the way learning propels knowledge and understanding we can see that learning is a concept that differing types of learning will be easier for some than others. Many aspects of learning photography can fit into more than one of these learning styles. Therein lies the strength of coming to helping others learn photography with differing approaches. What works for some will be less effective for others, but there are other avenues to assist the learners.
“There are as many different learning styles as there are teaching styles. The challenge for a teacher is to be constantly aware of this and work to assist each student in his way of learning. ”
Anonymous
Of the many aspects of photography that follow through from the earliest to the most advanced is exposure. Early in the learning the learning will be memorization, episodic learning, and the building and application of mental data. As the learning progresses it will move to learning in areas of perceptual awareness, analysis, and evaluation. When the learner moves to the concepts of the zone system and measuredphotography the problem solving uses most of the aspects of the cognitive domain. As the learner moves beyond the technical aspects of exposure, they will move into more of the affective domain. The learners will start to learn the emotional and value aspects of photography. Then, when the learner internalizes exposure ideas and concept steps, on their travel they move between all the learning domains. This is also true with the other major areas of photographic capture and processes.
Exposure is more in the cognitive domain than in the other two domains. Many activities in photography rely more on the other two domains, particularly with advanced ideas moving the learner into affective learning. Learning to critique must start in the affective domain in learning, to see and value one's own and others'pictures.
Psychomotor learning is involved in the capture of a photograph. First one must develop an awareness of what is to be photographed and how best to capture what is being experienced. One could think of this as visualization, the first and perhaps the most important stage in creating a photograph for the serious photographer. Then comes the positioning of one's self and camera, and the readiness to click the shutter at the right moment.
One of the assignments that Minor White would give his students verges on the psychomotor type of learning. A student walks around in a particular environment looking for something to photograph. When he becomes aware of what he wants to capture, he sits quietly with camera in hand and eyes closed, thinking about what is in front of him. At some point in his thoughtfulness, he slowly opens his eyes, beholds what he sees, and photographs it.
“Learning is a process, removing the care about making mistakes, enables the students to explore and attempt new things.”
Betty Lark-Ross
Chicago Latin School, IL
Starting Learning
Regardless of what area of photography education or training, the learning is a set of steps along a path to success. This is the key to understanding how to better affect the learner. Though the path may be easiest seen in one domain or style of learning, there are other ways to assist the journey to the final goal. In Eastern thought it is said, “One destination, many paths.”
An issue of the learning journey is, how do you get the first step to happen? To answer this question photographer/teacher John Sexton relates, “The single most important thing Ansel [Adams] shared with me was an excitement for photography. By inspiring me he made learning photography automatic; he created a sponge for learning photography. He turned on the switch with excitement, then he provided the information needed to succeed.” In John's words, “The teacher has to be there to create an interest and then be there with technical support.”
We are not Ansel Adams but still need to turn the switch on for those who have come to us to learn. The ways we find to inspire our students will go a long way to start the learning journey with vigor. Examples of what can be done, a history of previous successes, is one way. Depending on the success of previous learners, this will be effective to activate learning.
One of our colleagues who taught statistics to photo students discovered on his first class session that the students felt no need to learn statistics and had little interest in the subject other than it was a required course. To remedy the apathy, he spent the next two sessions, not in teaching statistics, but rather on “selling” them on the importance of statistics, not just to photography but to their whole way of thinking. Once they bought into this, the path to learning was cleared.
A particularly good way to encourage is to show work beyond expectations. This gives exciting goals for learning. This tends to be very effective in intermediate learning situations. If there is very strong work from learners at the same level as those starting this step in learning, that can be shown in connection with high-level examples reinforcing the goal of the learning. Comparing learners'excellent work with established photographers provides positive examples. When others see that someone at their level has made exceptional work that is compared to high-level work, they can transfer their own goals to that of comparing favorably.
While the level of learning shown in the assembled photographs may be beyond the reach of the learners, encouraging trying to attain the level shown provides the confidence that will be required of them to reach their goals. It is as important to encourage as it is to present information and methods. The earlier in the learning process, the more importance the encouragement will be in turning on the switch.
As an example, assemble a group of visually exciting work including the best historical work from an individual at the level of learning desired. It is quite common that early learners in photography will make astounding images that will compare well even with work of established photographers. After presenting the group of images to the learners, challenge them to find the “learner's” image. If the historical image is strong it may be difficult for others to correctly discern the work at their level of learning. When this happens the new learners transfer their perception of their status as photographers to a higher level. A major switch was just turned on.
Regardless if the difference between the “learner's” image and the established photographers'images is found, there are benefits to this approach. When the new learners are asked to define the reasons for their choices or the qualities that formed their decision, they internalize the steps they will need to accomplish to attain the goal level of learning.
The caveat for the learning journey is that it is very dependent on the level of the learner. This leveling is both biological and experiential. Approaching issues before the learner is ready or prepared is counterproductive. For the most part, photography is a vertical learning paradigm going from one related and interconnected subject to the next. The sequential nature of photographic learning reinforces the concept of the learning journey. As the learner progresses they do not stop using previous learning but continue it on to succeeding steps of process or information.
“Certain subjects yield a general power that may be applied in any direction and should be studied by all.”
John Locke
When Ralph Hattersley was teaching at RIT, one of his former students had landed a position in Hollywood creating glamour photographs of movie stars. Ralph asked him to send some of the photographs he had taken for the students to look at, and he did. Hattersley placed the photographs on a display panel in the classroom and had the students study the photographs for a time. After about 20 minutes of looking and talking among themselves, he asked them to comment on the photographs. They all had high praise for the work. When they finished praising the work, Hattersley shocked them by pointing out a number of ways the photographs could have been improved. Thestudents were stunned and will long remember not to be taken in by glamour when assessing the quality of a photograph.
Photographic learning also has levels of mathematics and science embedded in most areas. Because of these interrelationships of subjects and expanding technical levels, sequencing of learning is important. Part of the learning may need to be simple math and science.
“‘Reinventing the wheel’is more than a cliché. It is a process…a learning process. ”
Lois Arlidge-Zakia
University of Rochester, NY
Because of the linear nature of the photography process, there is a need for the learner to become aware and internalize the way the parts fit together. This includes more than simply understanding that there are interrelated parts of photography. To make the most out of the learning, the algorithm of the photographic process must become part of the learning path. Therefore, like much of math and science, the way this system relates its parts is as important as the information that makes up the steps. Or, as has been said in Gestalt Philosophy, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
When we look at the various levels of education in photography we see that these facets of the way the learning is structured means that effectively helping others learn entails being aware of “ageappropriate learning” for younger learners. While this book does not deal with the developmental stages in learning, it is clear that the human brain develops and that certain aspects that will be learned in photography will have to wait for the physiological development of the learner to reach a level where certain concepts can be learned. This is true for both technical and aesthetic aspects of photography.
Learning Objectives
Particularly with the linear steps of photographic learning, objectives are useful. A learning objective is exactly that, the measurable end point of a part of the learning or learning sequence. By conceiving of what the learner will be able to demonstrate because of the learning activity, the measurement of learning is not what was taught but rather the outcome of the teaching. For many situations these are required for institutionalmeasures. This means that the learning can be “objectified” and made measurable against stated learning outcomes.
Learning objectives have over the years taken on aspects that are useful. First objectives need to be shared with the learner. This prepares the learner for reasonable expectations of the learning. By having an expectation of what they will gain in the learning process, the learner can be aware of their progress toward the learning objective.
“If you do not know to which port you are sailing, no wind is favorable.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Next, objectives are written in an active voice based in the outcome demonstration. The active voice allows the learner to understand what will be learned and the measurement or standard that will be used to judge learning. Specific language better communicates this concept of outcome-based objective. Descriptors such as demonstrate, list, calculate, perform, etc. give the written objective its active voice. For example, within the cognitive domain the objective could be to name three important 20th-century woman photographers; in the affective domain it might require writing a critique of Edward Weston's photograph, “Nude 1936”; and within the psychomotor domain it might specify to demonstrate the proper set-up of a view camera to correct for perspective when photographing a tall building.
On a legal side of objectives, there have been situations where poorly written objectives have created liabilities for institutions, when learning objectives are not met. This makes choosing the voice to write the objective critical. Because of the litigious nature of society today, some individuals see that the objective written in the syllabus is a guaranteed contract to be used when learning success does not happen. If institutional pressures are to avoid liability, then a more passive objective should be written that places the responsibility on the learner. If very active-voiced objectives are written, then strict scrutiny, measurement, and evaluation of the learning activities need to be applied.
The measurement of the learning will need to be finer as the objective becomes more specific. In writing a general objective for a course there is more to consider if the methods of measurement are greater. With a specific technique-based objective the measurements are tightly aligned with the peculiarities of the technique.
To illustrate the differences and a form of written learning objectives let us look at both a course-based and a specific objective for a learning activity.
“Upon successful completion of this course the student should be able to describe and explain how a digital system captures and processes the image light to a completed image. ”
“Upon successful completion of this unit the student will be able to acquire a printable negative with color negative film using the ‘Sunny 16 Rule. ‘”
Knowing
Knowledge is a goal of learning. While not the end of all learning, it is naturally seen as the end for the first part of the journey. We say that we learn to know. However, knowledge is not the same thing as knowing.
While learning changes behaviors, knowing is the internal construct that allows for continuation of the learned changes and the categorization and organization of information, data, processes, and ideas. It is the ability to recall these aspects of our memory that characterizes knowing. Knowing is the ability to recall and apply the data, concepts, and meanings from the learning activity.
“My nightmare is creating disciples; someone told me that ‘students were not a glass to be filled, but a lamp to be lit' (Church Teaching Today, © 1998). I don't want people to say, ‘Bob told me.’ But if I can light the spark of their understanding then it is limitless.”
Bob DiNatale
Ben Franklin Institute of Technology, MA
In photography there are many things to be learned and a knowledge base continuously expands. This means that knowing happens in components of the complex processes. Because of this modular aspect of photography, the learner will come to knowing for various portions at different times. Because of individual differences, coming to knowing will be similar to learning with different orders and speed for arriving at this stage of the cognition process.
As we know more, we generate interconnected “look-up-tables” (LUTs) for the various parts of photography we have learned. The interconnected nature of photographic methods, processes, and knowledge involves many groupings. As knowing increases, the interconnections are strengthened by the synergy between the mental LUTs. From these synergies, further learning can happen based on syntheses that strengthen the interconnections. Once knowing happens, the learner can move toward mastery. Mastery is this synthesis of information and data from the LUTs for a specific area of photography. Mastery becomes a transitional part of the journey as well as one way to view the end point of the learning journey.
| Look-Up Table for Basic Daylight Exposure (BDE) from Brooks Institute of Photography | ||
| Light condition | Light value | Exposure |
| If the shutter speed is 1/ISO | ||
| Sunny Day | BDE | f−16 |
| Sunny on snow or sand | BDE + 1 stop | f−22 |
| Hazy | BDE − 1 stop | f−11 |
| Normal cloudy but bright | BDE − 2 stops | f−8 |
| Overcast or open shadow | BDE − 3 stops | f−5.6 |
| Lighted signs (to see the color) | BDE − 5 stops | f−2.8 |
| Stage lighting (bright stage) | BDE − 5 stops | f−2.8 |
| The following settings will require adjusting shutter speed as well as f-stop | ||
| Bright city streets (Times Square) | BDE − 6 stops + 6 stops | |
| Fireworks, night football, store windows, stage lighting (spot lighting) | BDE − 7 stops + 7 stops | |
| Night baseball, inside schools and churches (well lit) | BDE − 9 stops +9 stops | |
| Flood-lit buildings | BDE − 11 stops + 11 stops | |
| Distant city | BDE − 13 stops + 13 stops |
While traditional learning is one route to knowing, it is not the only way. Two ways that can be seen as effective ways to reach this level of
Audrey; by Emily Crichton, Albion College, MI, student of Gary Wahl
learning use experiential or mystical learning. Apprenticeships function as experiential learning, even to the point that in many cases the apprentice will perform many tasks that are seemingly unrelated to the goal of the learning, but either reinforce other learning experiences or direct learning by tangential effects. But most important in the apprentice experience is that younger learners interact with other individuals with more knowledge or experience. The purpose of extended apprenticeships, life experiences, is to apply acquired knowledge to ongoing efforts that move the known ideas or facts to part of life.
“As a photographer you test your equipment and go with it; as a teacher you need to be able to present more than just your way of doing something.”
Dirk Fletcher
Harrington College of Design, IL
The other way of knowing is innate. In the Eastern, American Indian, and other philosophies and mysticisms, the way of “knowing” is often spoken of as using the Heart-Mind. This means that the knowing, not intellectual or learned, is found in a non-mental construct. For these types of thought the act of knowing is about the way of learning more than about the end point of learning. The aspect of knowing is not what you can read in a book. In Eastern thought the act of knowing comes from within. It is not that far from Galileo's statement of “finding it within himself.” In many of these philosophies there is a concept for heart that includes more than the organ that pumps blood and more than the mind's reasoning. This is a soul or persona beyond the ability of Western ideas to logically objectify learning.
Perhaps the most important concept in this knowing is that it is not intellectual: it does not come from the mind. Many of the Eastern philosophies reject intellectualization of thought. Instead they place their effort in understanding from life, as opposed to understanding from intellect. In this philosophy, photography can be learned from doing as well as in a curriculum.
Owning
The highest point in the learning journey is when what has been learned is owned. This is where there is no longer knowledge retrieval for application. With owning there is no mental interaction required to make thetype of photography that is desired. Owning means that you extend what has been learned and know from a conscious to an innate function.
Often we perceive mastery as owning; however, it is a transitional point between knowing and owning. Mastery is the use of previous learning with ease. We see masters of photography as those who continually produce exceptional images with a combination of vision and technique. These individuals seem in total control. This is possible while seamlessly moving from LUT to LUT.
Truly owning is not interacting with the mental portion. It is making photographs with full confidence that the image will be what was intended. Owning at its most powerful is like an athlete in the “Zone,” that magical time when things just go the way they should without coaxing or referring back to a mental space.
In making a digital photograph as an example of this concept, you look at using a personal exposure system that you have learned, tested, and experimented with for years. At the beginning, learning is how the f-stops, shutter speeds, light, and post-exposure computer processing affect the production of an image. Then you gained a knowing control of the materials and processes so that you no longer looked at notes or a manual to assure control. This became easy and you felt mastery of making the image.
In the continuation of this example, you go to make a digital photograph and, as you start to work, the LUTs interact with ease and f-stops, shutter speeds, and all the other parts that make an image dominate the mental aspects of photographing. Then at some point the concentration of dealing with the ideas is pushed aside. At this point the knowledge changes to owning. The photographic process becomes an extension of all the learning and knowing that has come before, and reliance is not an issue. You have accomplished what the learning journey was for…you own this area of your photography.
It is not an all or nothing idea; rather it is a concept of differing abilities. The goal in photography is owning the methods, processes, and knowledge, but it is unlikely that all areas of the field will be owned by anyone. There will be areas that are owned, while in other areas knowing is exhibited and still others are still being learned.
Assisting Learning
We normally think of assisting others in their learning quest as the role of teaching. And that is a good basic name for this task. So how do we teach?
The most important part of “teaching” is to align the learning style, learning type, and learner's abilities. This means that we need to take into account issues of age, mental and intellectual readiness, desire, and complexity of the material to be taught.
In many cases formal educational pacing covers the age readiness issue. For the most part, primary, secondary, high school, and college institutions take care of assigning a level to the learner who will be taught. Through matriculation controls, the learning abilities for the learner are established. While not as clear, even in the less formal accessible areas of workshops, self-assessment is used to determine similar levels of readiness and abilities in any cohort of learners. Regardless of how the levels are established, our part addresses how we match learning to the level of the learner.
As mentioned previously, age appropriateness is the first and perhaps the easiest area of matching that we will encounter. Particularly in the younger years there are some concepts that will go over the abilities of many learners, if they are not at a high enough developmental stage to acquire the type or meaning of the material. While not directly addressing age appropriateness, the concept of “learning, knowing, owning” will follow learners as they grow from youth to adolescent to adult. Beyond the type of knowledge, the domain or type of learning is better approached with an idea of the age of the learner in mind. Young learners will be better with psychomotor and basic perceptual learning activities. For the very young it may be just the idea of holding the camera and reacting to an object in front. The complexity of the ideas of exposure and process may be too mentally difficult for the very young.
With development of the learner's mental abilities, the idea of switching from simply acquiring an image is exchanged with ideas of looking for images and learning of the time basis of photography. At this point, ideas in line with more perceptual constructs of looking for pictures become good tools for bringing the learner into the temporal nature of photography. In terms of the domain we can move to the earliest cognitive stages of learning. While doing this it should not be expected that the learner create a knowing space, but instead should start to generate the ideas that this may happen in the future. Learning activities that expand the areas and their connections in photography are appropriate at this point. The learners will tend to compartmentalize the various aspects of photography and this is also appropriate to teaching this material.
At the point in time, we can see younger students starting to put together the relationships between premier visual ideas and how photography can communicate those ideas. When this happens the learner is ready to move both to more cognitive learning and to beginning to create LUTs. This will move the student toward knowing; however, it cannot be assumed that the learner has actually accomplished this level and that more learning will be involved to create the mental data needed for knowing.
By the time learners enter secondary education, they have started to create their knowing spaces. This means that with many tasks that the learner will be reacting in a knowing manner. The learner can then move forward into more advanced cognitive domains and can start synthesizing the interactions between the photographic process and their ideas and wishes to communicate.
In advanced levels of the secondary education, learners have moved solidly into “knowing” and are intellectually ready to engage in areas that will advance their learning in more affective domains. At this level the learners will be expanding their visual perceptive skills. Also they will start to become involved in valuation considerations at higher and higher levels. As the learners proceed through the secondary level of learning, emphases need to start moving toward integration of visual concepts and how they relate to technical processes.
It is at this level of learning that critique can become more valuable. Because the learners are starting to “know” portions of photography, they will be able to use critique statements to their benefit as they are expanding learning.
Learners who progress to either advanced academic or vocational standing, through entering collegiate or vocational educational settings or entering into apprentice situations in the workplace, will start to exhibit mastery, particularly within technical aspects of photography. While we would like to be involved in others ’mastery, it is an aspect of an individual's learning when knowing changes, through mastery, to owning portions of the photographic process.
As learners advance they will start to synthesize information from LUTs with visual concepts coming from their perceptions or from instruction designed to move them from tactical to aesthetic issues. This would indicate that, with the learning path, activities and avenues for investigation and research need to engage in synthesizing known techniques and emerging ideas of aesthetics.
The adult learner exhibits the qualities that might be anticipated from the novice through points of mastery. Through workshops, individuals will advance through levels depending on their desire, preparation, and ability to learn. When looking at aligning learning activities for adults/workshop learners, the strategy is to first ascertain the readiness of the learners for the educational objectives.
Expectations of Passing through Learning Levels
Though many students will pass through courses, schools, colleges, and universities, this in no way will indicate the level of learning that they have accomplished. It is normal for a person to be stuck at the level of knowing without ever reaching the point of owning. The level of study does not indicate the amount of photography that a person has mastered. Nor does accomplishment of a grade or degree deny that someone without that grade or degree has no knowledge. The path of learning does not require formalized education or evaluation.
“Rather than having all the answers, have all the questions. The answers are not going to help the student but the questions will.”
Barbara Houghton
Northern Kentucky University, KY
This is also true for portfolios. Since portfolios are our selection from larger bodies of work, they do not show the totality of the learning process but only the best of the work accomplished through a period of time.
The expectation for learning within less formal educational opportunities will be more dependent upon the entering desires and abilities of the learner. As we will discuss later, workshops are not always about learning and thus in a workshop the potential for defining learning depends upon the reason the individual shows up for the workshop.
Also part of the discussion of expectations of learning is the reality that curricula accentuate certain types of learning at the expense of other areas of learning. This is a continuing controversy between technical education and artistic education. It is not uncommon to find individuals with many years of study having a vast knowledge in how to discuss images, and limited abilities in how to make photographs. The inverse of this situation is also common.
Though we may not have expectations for the level of learning, it is important that we determine the type of learning as we prepare ourcurricula. Because early learning is more information-based, it is easier to plan. If our intention is to have “knowing” as a result of the learning, then this is not as clear-cut in the planning process, though testable. “Knowing” can be tested but owning cannot be. Thus any relationship between the learning path to owning or mastery is the hardest education to create. For the most part owning will happen beyond formalized educational processes.
Further, expectation fulfillment for the learner is the only true method of ascertaining the success of learning. This may or may not align with our goals for the educational construct that we are in.
Learning Is Change
As was defined at the beginning of this chapter, learning is as an activity that produces a meaningful change in behavior. Though there are many models that explain these changes, from the standpoint of assisting others in learning, two methods seem appropriate. These are transitional change and transformational change.
Transitional change is effective. It changes the learner by moving them from one point within the informational field to another. This typifies learning processes and much of the cognitive domain. In this type of change, the learner amasses information that functions to give the impression of movement through the information field. This defines moving along the learning path, e.g., moving the learner from using average metering to using selective tone metering. It changes the tool they have and how it is used.
Transformational change is affective. When transformational change happens the learner alters their way of incorporating knowledge and this changes how they use what they have learned. Transformational learning synthesizes and rearranges information to allow taking on the new way of seeing. This would be the transformation of having a learner change the way they perceive the visual world to implement the Zone System: reacting to the light as no light being Zone 0, middle tone light as Zone VI, and bright light as Zone X, rather than thinking about how they will just measure the light.
Eric Liu, on the Diane Rehm Show (01.27.05), has said that transformative teachers must listen to learners to be able to assist them in reaching their educational goal. In order to transform there is a need to understand not just the goal of the learning, but also the environment and starting points for the learner.
An illustration for a New York Times advertisement showed Central Park with people enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon reading the newspaper, with some walking around, some sitting on benches or the grass, some roller skating, a few walking their dog, and a couple in a boat on a pond in the park. Everyone seemed to be pleasantly occupied reading the Times. Below the illustration, in large, bold headlines, were the words OPEN MINDS FLOURISH IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF TRANQUILITY. As a teacher, think of this each time you enter your classroom environment, but be cautious: A colleague who taught at RIT at the time that Carl Chiarenza, Bruce Davidson, Pete Turner, and Jerry Uelsmann were students there had his own idea of where open minds might flourish. He held class in a local bar named Jake's. The students loved it and it was the talk of the campus until the director of the school found out. Being a sympathetic administrator, he did not forbid the practice. Rather, he invited the faculty member to his office and asked if he would hold class on campus because of legal concerns.
Humor
Learning does not need to be hard nor does it need to be only serious. Humor can be very effective in preparing the learner to accept new information. Often levity is considered counter to learning programs but the opposite is most often the case. Using humor utilizes mental capacities in similar ways that new learning does.
Much of humor is based on the juxtaposition of unrelated information. In a similar way, if we wish for learners to accept new ideas, we need the mind to function in a manner similar to the reaction used in humor. This action—connecting new and unrelated information—can create the desired learning. Therefore, having fun, laughing, and telling jokes can be excellent methods to prepare the mind to learn.
Who Is Responsible for Learning?
We must look at the responsibility that we place on ourselves as teachers and on our students as learners. It must be seen that the responsibility for planning the path of learning falls to the teacher. This is similar to the role of a travel agent who plans the trip but does not take it. The learner is the traveler on this path. The better the path, the easier the travel. But in the end it is the learner's responsibility to learn, not the teacher's. Teachers facilitate learning.
Learning Photography
It can be said that photography is actually one of the most modern of arts, not just in terms of its contemporary nature but by the fact that it pulls together parts of the modern world, as a communication medium and in its reliance on the technology of making pictures. Since the introduction of photography in 1839 and now with the introduction of digital imaging it can be said that to be a master photographer/imager one must learn a high level of technology along with the sophistication of the artist.
The end product of photography is a visual language. The comment that “a picture is worth a thousand words” reinforces this concept of the photograph as communication. And just as the written word has multiple parts in the construction of a story so a photograph has multiple parts in constructing the image. A verbal language has thousands of words and an image has thousands of image elements. Where the written language uses pencils or keyboards to enter the words, photography uses its processes and technologies to capture the parts of the picture. In these two examples we see that the verbal language as well as the photographic language use tools to create their elements for meaning. In this way we can see that to effectively teach photography we need to teach a technique and a concept of meaning.
While the technology of making an image can stand by itself, the technology by itself does not necessarily create meaning. The meaning comes from the way that the artist utilizes elements to communicate intent. The image maybe a product of the technology, but the meaning is a product of the artist. True mastery in photography is accomplishment of both technique and aesthetics. If we look at photographs in museums we will see that they exhibit the mastery of technique but also that they have an artistic value. Therefore, to assist learners in striving to this level, we must teach both.
“For me, the intellect is always the guide but not the goal of performance. Three things have to be coordinated and not one must stick out. Not too much intellect because it can become too scholastic. Not too much heart because it can become schmaltz. Not too much technique because you become a mechanic.”
Vladimir Horowitz
Making photographs/images is a divided approach to the end product. It is not that either part can be disregarded, only that each part plays its specific role in creating the final image as seen by an audience. Though the photographer can learn either the technology or the aesthetics of image making, it is clear that to master the medium you need to know both. This means that the learning paradigm in photography must include richness in both technology and aesthetics. For the teacher this means that approaching the idea of photography also needs to include teaching technology/technique as well as teaching artistic ideas.
For photography and imaging this art/technique duality can be defined as knowing “how” to make pictures and “why” we make images. In the next two chapters we will discuss the “how ” of teaching the techniques and the “why” of teaching the aesthetics of photography. In making the division between techniques and aesthetics we need to address how we will teach each of these portions. We must recognize that these areas of concern we define for learning photography will be dealt with somewhat differently. This does not mean that we will use different presentation methods to teach these areas, but that our approach and expectations for outcomes will vary.
“All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
Arthur Schopenhauer