Teaching Complex Thinking through Art with the National Gallery of Art

Many teachers around the world shared how transformative the National Gallery’s first online course Teaching Critical Thinking through Art has been for them.

We’re excited to offer you this second course, Teaching Complex Thinking through Art!

The strategies presented in this course are adapted from Artful Thinking pedagogy, developed by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Artful Thinking research discovered that six thinking dispositions can be strengthened by engaging with art. The first course covers three of these dispositions— Observing and Describing , Reasoning with Evidence , and Questioning and Investigating. This second course will explores the other three— Comparing and Connecting , Exploring Viewpoints , and Finding Complexity.

• Starting with the disposition Comparing and Connecting , you'll learn strategies for making comparisons between different works of art and making connections to oneself, curriculum content, and larger issues in society.
• Next, you'll focus on the disposition of Exploring Viewpoints , learning tools for stepping inside the perspectives of figures in a work of art, and how to do so with self-awareness, respect, and empathy.
• Finally, you’ll learn techniques to help your students hone the disposition of Finding Complexity by going beyond the surface of a work of art to consider its parts, purposes, and complexities.

You'll see Live-Action Lesson Videos showing real teachers with students of various grade levels, in math, science, social studies, language arts, and visual arts, discussing art in classrooms and at the museum and demonstrating a thinking routine—a strategy consisting of open-ended questions centered around a thinking disposition.

You'll explore artworks for yourself using thinking routines and zoomable tools. Featured artworks grapple with complex ideas —from mathematical thinking to botany, from family dynamics to forgiveness, and from globalization to indigenous histories. No matter what subject or level you teach, you’ll find lessons and resources that relate to your practice.

In our In-Dialogue Videos , you’ll hear from two Harvard researchers talking with our museum educators. In their conversations, they examine the benefits and challenges of teaching through art different facets of complex thinking.

You’ll be part of a global learning community in which you can document, share, and reflect on your experience integrating art and developing complex thinking with your students.

This course contains an introductory unit and four content units about the following topics:

• Unit 0: An Overview of Complex Thinking and How to Use the Course (2 hours)
• Unit 1: Comparing and Connecting (4-5 hours)
• Unit 2: Exploring Viewpoints (4-5 hours)
• Unit 3: Finding Complexity (4-5 hours)
• Unit 4: Documenting and Assessing Thinking (3-4 hours)