This PowerPoint presentation is on Artfulness and its effect on memory, learning, and creative problem solving. Many of the exercises are based on exercises in Jan Chozen Bays' book How to Train an Elephant and the theory is taken from Michael S. Gazzaniga's book Human, The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique ((2008)

1. Artfulness and its Effect on Memory,
Learning, and Creative Problem
Solving
Kathleen (Shokai) Bishop, MS PHD
Florida Literacy Conference
Friday, May 10, 2013

2. Garr Reynolds
presentationzen
“I think instructors and books can help us
become better at presenting well, but
ultimately, like many other performance arts,
it must grow within us (Reynolds, page 123 ).”

3. Exercise: See the Color Blue
“Become aware of the color blue wherever
it appears in your environment. Look not
just for the obvious instances, such as the
sky, but also for subtle appearances for all
variations of blue (Bays, page 95).”

4. The Science of Art
“So the arts may be useful as a form of
learning. …they help us categorize, they
increase our predictive power, and they
help us react well in different
situations…they do contribute to survival
(Gazzaniga, page 226).”

5. The Science of Art Cont.
“Pretend play, such as hide-and-seek,
can develop skills that are better
learned in a play situation than when
they may need to be actually used
Gazzaniga, page 226).”

6. The Science of Art Cont.
• Neurocognitive Adaptation
• Functional Mode
• Organizational Mode (page 222)

7. Exercise:
Pay attention to the light
Expand your awareness of light in all its
forms, bright and dim, direct and reflected.

8. The Science of Art Cont.
“Art is one of those human universals.
All cultures have some form of it,
whether it is painting, dance, story,
song, or other forms (Gazzaniga, page
205).”

9. The Science of Art Cont.
“Thus there are two different
types of aesthetic judgment, one
visceral and automatic, the other
conscious and contemplative
(Gazzaniga, page 209).”

10. The Science of Art Cont.
“Aesthetics is a special class of experience,
neither a type of response nor an emotion,
but a modus operandi of ‘knowing about’
the world. It is sensation with an attached
positive or negative evaluation (Gazzaniga,
page 208).”

11. Exercise: Moon Journal
“I had them keep a moon journal, and they
were to go and look at the moon every night.
And I timed it, and it was lucky, the first night
there was no moon. I want you to write
whatever you want to ... And they kept a
journal for the whole time of the summer
session (Rendon, page 74).”

12. Exercise: Photographs
“Norma Cantu incorporated creation process
practices through the use of photographs…”
She had her students take personal childhood
pictures and meditate on them and then write
about themselves and their families (Rendon,
page 80).”

13. Share Your Final Thoughts and
tips…and
Name one thing you got out of
this session that you can take
back to your classroom and try
tomorrow?

14. References
Bays, J.C. (2011). How to Train a Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in
Mindfulness. Boston: Shambhala
Gazzaniga, M.S. (2008). Human The Science Behind What Makes us Unique,
Harper-Collins: NY.
Rendon, L.I. (2009) Sentipensante (Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy, Educating for
wholeness, social justice and liberation. Stylus: VA
Reynolds, G. (2008). PresentationZen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design
and Delivery. CA: New Riders.