Interdisciplinary Connections through Transmedia Narratives in Art Education

• Main Author: Bea Tomšič Amon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Ljubljana 2020-12-01
• Series: Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal
• Subjects: art and nature; art education; interdisciplinary connections; teachers’ education; transmedia narratives
• Online Access: https://www.cepsj.si/index.php/cepsj/article/view/916

The world of new media has inevitably changed teachers’ and students’ attitude towards information. Data of all kinds and from any scientific field are easily available at any time. Nevertheless, isolated data have nothing to do with knowledge. We refer to ‘knowledge’ when an interdependence of information has a particular significance in defined conditions. How to use and connect this information is one of the primary issues teachers have to engage with since they are still the main organisers of the educational process. Taking into account the objectives of his/her explanations, he/she chooses certain relevant contents, and connects them, striving for an interdisciplinary view of the world that makes sense and gives sense to his/her explanations, all in an attempt to motivate students in their approach to knowledge. This article presents research in which the participants, future art teachers, had to answer a questionnaire that required comparing artistic compositions and compositions present in nature. Almost half of them could not find proper examples, even though the participants were students who should have been able to manage contents from both fields. Understanding how art follows nature is an important goal within the education of future art teachers. Difficulty in connecting data, transferring knowledge, giving meaning to images and understanding visual and verbal discourse seem to be a persistent problem in many aspects of their education. Possible strategies to improve the situation using transmedia narratives are presented in the conclusion.