Class Art Gallery

Students express a belief or opinion with a small image and 100-word statement on an 8 ½ x 11 page. The class views these “Art Exhibits” and listens appreciatively as each student makes a one-minute oral presentation.

Martha Balshem, Ph.D.
Professor, Sociology Department/
Special Asst. to the President for Diversity
Portland State University
Portland, OR, 97207-0751

Background
In college classes, we expose students to diverse ideas, creating opportunities for them to compare their own beliefs and backgrounds to those of other people. We ask them to write essays and term papers with a clear statement of their own point of view, hoping that they will learn to construct opinions that are well informed. In many classes, students express curiosity about the beliefs or experiences of their classmates. We engage our students in self-definition and in exploring diversity of thought. Ironically, however, it is often difficult to situate these enterprises in explicit expression of the foundational or unchanging personal views that students bring with them to college. In fact, in a number of ways, we structure classroom discourse so as to discourage personal expression. The unintended consequence of this is that our students learn to hide their own beliefs.

The Class Art Gallery assignment gives students an opportunity to reflect on an assigned aspect of their personal belief or opinion and express it to other class members in graphic, written, and oral form. Class members view and listen to each other’s statements, and everyone experiences self-expression and appreciative listening in a non-judgmental environment. This can be used to bring out the emotionally-based connections that students have with material that has been taught or is about to be taught. It can also be used to surface the foundation of conceptions or misconceptions on which students will attempt to construct new knowledge.

Implementation
I originally did this assignment in a “Faith and Reason” Freshman Inquiry class, In the middle of fall term, as a “stop and think” transition between two sections of my course. Students were given four weeks to complete the assignment (during which time they also worked on other projects). Students could easily do this assignment in one week, although two weeks would probably be preferable.

When handing out the assignment sheet, I emphasized the difficulty and importance of self-reflection, and asked them to spend some “thinking time” with the assignment before committing anything to paper. I told them that on the day the assignment was due, we would spend the entire class period looking at the exhibits, and that each student would do a one-minute presentation to explain their own exhibit to the class. I reviewed the assignment sheet carefully and made everyone stick to the rules: no more than 18 words for the belief statement; an interesting and creative computer-generated graphic; a 100-word explanation of the belief and of how the graphic related to it; and an actual signature including the date signed. Everything was to fit on one side of a plain 8½ by 11 piece of paper.

On the class day before the assignment was due, we spent ten or fifteen minutes at the end of the class clearing off one of the classroom bulletin boards. This emphasized to the students that I placed a great deal of importance on the assignment. On the day that the assignment was due, I brought cheese and crackers and juice to class, to approximate the amenities available in a real art gallery opening. Every student but one brought an exhibit that fulfilled the assignment. We spent the first ten minutes of class setting up the exhibit. I had brought a length of butcher block paper and six markers, and pressed six students into service making a banner for the center of the exhibit. I did not involve myself in the design of the banner. It read: “Faith and Reason: What We Believe.” We tacked it up and tacked our thirty or so exhibits around it. I had designed my own exhibit, which I put up with the others. The students were then assigned to approach one person in the class to whom they had never spoken, and show that person their exhibit. This was an effective ice breaker. The students then took seats facing the exhibit, and came up one by one to talk for one minute about the graphic and written elements of their exhibit. The class was instructed to say nothing at the end of the presentation—in particular, no questions—except one-sentence appreciations of the form “[I liked/I appreciated/I was moved by/] [your graphic/what you said/what you wrote].” Two appreciations were given for each student, and then the class applauded and the student presenter sat down.

At the end, I allowed time for general discussion and debriefing. I took a few moments to make some general, non-judgmental observations about commonalties I saw in the exhibits, and expressed my appreciation of how powerful it was simply to listen to people. A major theme in the students’ comments was surprise that we were able to reveal our beliefs, many of which were religious, without conflict.

Follow-up:
The following questions can be used during class discussion (see below for ideas as to how to use them for large classes).

• Why do you think that it is so hard to talk about differences of belief?
• Have you ever been in or witnessed a situation in which a difference of belief caused a conflict? If so, please describe that situation, identifying clearly what each party in the conflict seemed to believe. State each party’s beliefs as accurately and insightfully as you can.
• What role do you think differences of belief play in the world today?
• What social, cultural, economic, and political factors do you think might tend to heighten or lessen conflict based on deeply held beliefs?

Materials/Resources
The assignment sheet used for the “Faith and Reason” class is attached.

 Adaptability
This assignment can be adapted to focus on political belief, scientific belief, opinion on a controversial issue, a definition of an important term, and the like. It was originally done in a humanities context. The “Faith and Reason” class had recently read Plato’s analogy of the cave, which had highlighted the extent to which each of us lives within a particular world view. This thought is one of many that lead us to a curiosity about the views of other people.

In science classes, this assignment could be used at the beginning of a unit to surface misconceptions or non-scientific views related to concepts to be taught. This could be done before teaching scientific material related to matters that are publicly controversial or counter to popular common sense. In a first-year Biology course, it could be “Evolution—What I Believe.” In Physics, it could be “Why the Earth has Seasons.” If the instructor reviews and analyzes the students’ “exhibits,” he or she could then acknowledge and address the most common misconceptions held by a particular group of students. Learning theory tells us that giving students the opportunity to express their misconceptions or incomplete understandings makes it easier for them to take in new knowledge.

The class I did this assignment in was an hour and fifteen minutes long, so there was time for the ice-breaker, the one-minute presentations, and the debriefing discussion. In an hour-long class, there might not be time for the debriefing. Students could be asked to reflect in writing on a brief reflection sheet. If an e-bulletin board or chat room were available to the class, people could reflect later through an assignment to post to that. Alternatively, the discussion could be held in a subsequent class.

In a class of 300 students, it would be difficult to post all the exhibits. In some classrooms, there may not be room. If a Teaching Assistant is available, he or she might post the exhibits before class, or scan them and post examples that show the most common types of responses. A large class might be given fifteen minutes to browse such a display. Alternatively, a PowerPoint could be made of a selection of typical or interesting responses. In the case of public display of the work of a few students, it would be particularly important to be sure that all students knew that their work might be posted. In case of scientific or other misconceptions, the instructor might want to show the selected work without showing the students’ names. Also, in large classes, there might not be enough time for extended discussion. Students might be assigned to write a brief answer to one or more of the discussion questions above. Most students would love to get a tiny amount of credit (as in “One point extra credit!”) for just jotting down an answer to one of these questions and handing it in. It could prove useful to read these, especially if you are asking students to write down a misconception of some sort.

In large lecture classes, discussion could happen in small groups. In classrooms with fixed seating, some students will need to twist around in their seats to the row behind them to form discussion groups. These groups can be given three minutes to discuss. Alternatively, people could just take two minutes to share with the person next to them. Depending on the topic, the instructor may then ask just a few students to volunteer something that was said in their group or pair. Either small groups or pairs allows most students a chance to talk (a simple moment of active learning) and asking a few students to speak to the whole class allows the class to have a brief common experience.

Reflections
The Class Art Exhibit was one of the high points of the term for my students. As I noted above, many students voiced surprise that we were able to reveal our beliefs, many of which were religious, without conflict. It was also a good experience for me. The students were surprised when I tacked my exhibit up along with theirs. I did my one-minute presentation first, and that modeled for the rest of the class what I expected. I told them that this was a wisdom that had proven itself to me over the span of several decades. I was glad to have the opportunity to say it to them.

Many of my students lacked any cultural context for the term “Art Gallery.” The week before the exhibit assignment was due, I assigned the students to view an exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, which is a few blocks away and offers inexpensive admissions for students. For the great majority of the students, it was their first trip to an art museum.