Lynne Silverstein

One of today’s challenges for arts organizations is to bring our teaching artists’ best work to the “shared endeavor” of making the arts a part of every child’s PK-12 education. My experience suggests that arts organizations can offer the best work to that shared endeavor when we invest in long-term professional learning for our teaching artists.

INVEST (in-vest) verb

to use, give, or devote (time, energy, funds, etc.),
to achieve something that offers potential appreciation in value

When we invest in the knowledge and skills of our teaching artists, we increase the value of their work with schools.  But, what kind of investment is needed?

Over many years, I’ve watched the Kennedy Center invest in professional learning for its teaching artists and have seen that investment’s positive impact on the quality of the work that is offered to schools. Their investment in professional learning includes five components:

• Orientation
• Instruction
• Feedback
• Ongoing communication, and
• Peer exchange
  

Puzzle Pieces of Professional Learning Components

These components work like pieces of a puzzle that can be organized in various ways to create a long-range plan for professional learning.

Depending on the role a teaching artist plays (e.g., performing, leading residencies or teacher workshops), arts organizations tailor the specific activities within each component.

Some thoughts about each component:

• Orientation familiarizes teaching artists with your organization and your expectations for their work. I’ve noticed that teaching artists that are new to an arts organization enter the relationship with widely varying understandings and expectations. Unless we develop a shared understanding about our arts organization’s philosophy, policies, programs, procedures, and expectations, we risk working at cross purposes. Surprisingly, this professional learning component is often overlooked.
  

• Instruction is content-rich, engaging, in-depth instruction targeted to a specific area of need. It takes into account current best practices in education and translates them to the needs of teaching artists. For example, instruction may focus on lesson design, classroom management, or working with students with disabilities. In my experience, instruction is strongest when it engages teaching artists in lively discussions, participatory activities, and guides them to apply their learning. Recognizing the need for access to quality instruction, The Kennedy Center has invested in creating, and making available nationally, series of instructional seminars on a variety of topics relevant to a range of teaching artists.  Embedded in this instruction are opportunities for teaching artists to network with colleagues and to give and receive feedback on their work.

• Feedback offers a way we can guide the work of our teaching artists toward mutually-identified goals. In my experience, the most helpful feedback is offered in collegial conversations that start with the teaching artist’s perspective and examine how that perspective aligns with participants’ and the arts organization’s observations. I believe that openness to feedback is a critical disposition for teaching artists.

• Ongoing Communication is critical. We need ways to share ideas and information with our teaching artists so that as our organization’s thinking evolves, they can grow along with us. Through ongoing communications we can provide new information and also highlight teaching artists’ experiences, challenges, and accomplishments.  I’ve seen ongoing communication take many forms, including newsletters, electronic bulletin boards and Wikis, as well as regularly scheduled meetings.

• Peer Exchange allows arts organizations to recognize and capitalize on our teaching artists’ skills and expertise for teaching their colleagues. This exchange can take place during sharing sessions on particular topics, mentoring opportunities between experienced and less experienced teaching artists, and conversations about articles or books. A word of caution: I’ve noticed a tendency to overuse sharing sessions at the expense of planned instruction.  Arts organizations and teaching artists often benefit from outside input that sheds new light on existing ways of thinking and working.

Supporting the Development of Expertise

The Development Spiral

It’s difficult to bring our best work to the “shared endeavor” of making the arts a part of every child’s PK-12 education if we work only occasionally with our teaching artists. When we hire teaching

artists to provide one performance, residency, or workshop, we cannot expect them to invest deeply in their learning. We may offer some feedback, but often missing are ongoing opportunities to learn and hone their work over time.

The Development Spiral, a simple graphic developed by the Kennedy Center, shows an ongoing process that yields expertise.

Each loop of the Spiral has three parts—planning, presenting, and evaluating. The Kennedy Center guides teaching artists through each three-part loop, multiple times, with the same work.  I’ve seen remarkable results—sharpened expertise and a refined clarity of work that has great value for schools.

A Commitment to our Teaching Artists

Arts organizations make a commitment to our teaching artists when we offer multiple, ongoing opportunities to do their work and hone it through professional learning. That commitment is an investment that pays off in the quality of our programs. Ultimately, arts organizations, and the teaching artists with whom we work, become even more valued partners in the “shared endeavor” to deliver quality arts education to all students.

Please consider the following questions and comment below:
Arts Organizations: In what ways do you invest in teaching artists’ development?
Teaching Artists: From your perspective, what kinds of arts organization “investments” have helped you to refine your work? What do you still need?