The Art of Teaching
Christopher Staley’s The Art of Teaching: An Artist’s Search for Meaning is a book on art pedagogy that explores the intersections of art and life, directed at professors and students alike. The book will include a wide range of topics, from insights on collegiality to why asking questions can be more important than providing answers. In The Art of Teaching, Prof. Staley will help students navigate the liminal space where art and life inform each other.
Anticipated publication date: Fall 2024
The Art of Teaching
Christopher Staley’s The Art of Teaching: An Artist’s Search for Meaning is a book on art pedagogy that explores the intersections of art and life, directed at professors and students alike. The book will include a wide range of topics, from insights on collegiality to why asking questions can be more important than providing answers. In The Art of Teaching, Prof. Staley will help students navigate the liminal space where art and life inform each other.
Anticipated publication date: Fall 2024
Table of Contents
1) First Day
Why is the first day of class so important?
2) Listening
Why is listening essential to teaching?
3) Autobiographies
How can autobiographies be so important?
4) Critiques
What makes a good critique?
5) Creativity
Can you teach creativity?
6) Caring
Why should caring matter to students?
7) Questions
Why are questions more important than answers?
8) Doubt
How can doubt be beneficial?
9) Personal
What is the value of making it personal?
10) Failure
How can failure be truly meaningful?
11) Competition
How can competition be so unhealthy?
12) Assignments
Why are some assignments so effective?
13) Reading
How can reading enhance teaching?
14) Community
What are simple ways to build community in the classroom?
15) Pottery
Why teach pottery?
16) Quality
What is quality?
17) Metaphors
Why is everything an artist makes a metaphor?
18) Timing
Why is timing everything?
19) Mentors
If advice can be so valuable, why do we often not ask for it?
20) Broke
What can we do to fix education?
21) Wisdom
What’s the difference between information, knowledge, and wisdom?
22) Art
Why is art the most important subject being taught in school?
23) Motivation
Where does motivation come from?
24) Risk
Why is learning both exciting and uncomfortable?
25) Drawing
How can drawing change how we think?
26) Humility
How does sincere humility manifest itself in the classroom?
27) Curiosity
Can you teach curiosity?
28) Vulnerability
Why does being vulnerable matter in the classroom?
29) Collegiality
Why is collegiality so difficult in academia?
30) Boundaries
Why are boundaries so important?
31) Touch
How does pottery challenge the hierarchy of our senses?
32) Round Robin
Why is it important to hear from every student?
33) Social Media
How is social media used?
34) Behavior
How does art relate to emotional intelligence?
35) Fire
What can fire teach the potter about life?
36) Ego
What role does ego play in teaching art?
37) Grades
How do grades influence learning?
38) Social Justice
How do we change inequities in academia?
39) Joys and Sorrows
Why are both important to acknowledge?
40) Last Day
Why are final thoughts important?
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Chris Staley
Chris Staley, Distinguished Professor of Art at Penn State University, was selected to be the Penn State Laureate for 2012-13 and was awarded Penn State’s Milton Eisenhower Distinguished Teaching Award in 2017. Prof. Staley’s work has been featured in many collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection, the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of Art, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
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