Aesthetic Mediation in Instruction Bridging the Divide through Narrative Nancye E. McCrary

1. Narrative Forms of Instruction: Implications for Researching and Designing the Uses of Story in Multiple Learning Contexts Aesthetic Mediation in Instruction Bridging the Divide through Narrative Nancye E. McCrary _________________ University of Kentucky Presented at the the Association for Educational Communications & Technology Annual Meeting, Dallas, Texas, November 12 - 16, 2002

2. Aesthetic Mediation in Instruction Bridging the Divide through Narrative Reshaping Minds through Aesthetic Experience Controlling Minds with Stories Mediating Attitudes Bridging the Divide Aesthetic Training in Instructional Design

3. Reshaping Minds through Aesthetic Experience Aesthetic mediation in activities of learning facilitates assimilation, internalization, and integration of thoughts (Ent, 1998; Latta, 1998). Assimilation – blending new stories with stories held in mind. Internalization – feeling as another, feeling with another. Integration – rethinking cause and consequence.

4. Controlling Minds with Stories Symbols, Stories, and Meanings Made Don’t Trust a Fox (Bauer, 1935-36) The clever deceitful fox, based in antiquity, commonplace in European folklore and considered a creature of the devil in Greek legend is linked to an image of a Jew swearing a false oath under the Star of David. The Poodle-Pug-Dachshund-Pinscher (Hiemer, 1940) Undesirable traits in animals were ascribed to Jews. Jews were like locusts, the scourge of God; chameleons, deceivers; cuckoos, stealing other peoples homes. Patriotism or White Supremacy? Pride or Intimidation? Power or Genocide?

5. Mediating Attitudes Attitude - a state of mind or disposition, derived from the Latin aptitudin, meaning faculty or fitness (Merriam-Webster, 2001). Attitude reflects potential or possibility for knowing rather than what is already known. (Vygotsky’s ZPD) Attitude is a mental position of readiness to respond in a characteristic way to a stimulus. (The dancer’s posture as a state of readiness, rich with anticipation)

6. Bridging the Divide Human beings make meaning of the events in their lives by associating those events with existing understandings. These schemas are dominant mechanisms for restructuring memories and recall is distorted to fit existing schema (Anderson, et.al., 1996).   JEFF’S STORY

7. Engaging Feelings - Engaging Minds “How we know the world and how we engage with the world are mutually constitutive processes (Gay & Bennington, 1999).

8. Educating for Instructional Design Traditional emphasis on positivistic approaches to evaluating instruction tends to separate designers from important understandings in the arts, and can result in instruction that is anesthetic rather than engaging. When instructional designers are trained in aesthetics and become aware of the potential for aesthetic tools to engage, learning outcomes are advanced and a new potential for generative development emerges (Ent, 1998). Creating and evaluating interactive multimedia learning environments with attention to aesthetically engaging learners in their own learning, creates conditions for interdisciplinary approaches that may advance what is known about human development and contribute to the practice of education at large.

9. Aesthetic mediation extends imagination, sensory involvement and decreases the distance between the instructional content and the learner (McCrary, 2002). The Activity of Learning Activities of Learning Imagination Reflection Negotiation Dissonance Learning Outcomes as New Mental Objects Empathy Interaction Personal Identification Expression