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- Nikita Oakley
Peer Collaboration: Developing higher order thinking skills in critical and contextual studies through animation.
This qualitative action research study seeks to investigate and explore visual literacy, communication skills, critical and creative thinking of Junior Cycle visual art students. The project is in part, a response to the recent reforms within the Junior and Senior Cycle Visual Art curriculum. The research focuses on Junior Cycle key skills as laid out in the Junior Cycle Visual Art Specification (2016), primarily managing thinking and information skills, whereby it looked to develop good quality pedagogical practices and methodologies. The research reflects a growing emphasis on students’ autonomy over their learning, authentic exploration of art and increased practice with higher order thinking skills as seen in the OECD (2019) study on Fostering Students’ Creativity and Critical Thinking: What it Means in School.
The project was designed that through group work, students would create paper and card stop motion animations based on a selected object from The Museum of Hidden History. Multiple methods of data collections were used to gain insight into the junior cycle participant group. The findings of this study demonstrated a greater engagement with visual literacy and creative thinking skills along with an overall improvement in participants communication skills.