The Arts, Loose Parts and Conversations

• Published in: Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies
• Main Author: Smith-Gilman, Sheryl
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: York University Libraries 2018
• Subjects: loose parts; loose-part mindset; open-ended curriculum; arts-based education; early childhood education; preservice teacher education; First Nations
• Online Access: https://jcacs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jcacs/article/view/40356; https://doi.org/10.25071/1916-4467.40356

Educators today are being asked to design curricula whereby learners’ abilities to analyze, question, problem-solve, evaluate and reflect are being provoked. The quest lies in uncovering suitable teaching approaches that will allow critical thinking skills to emerge organically and meaningfully. I argue that an integration of loose parts can offer a methodology and a provocation that makes way for open-ended, divergent and creative thinking skills to be activated. “Loose parts” can be open-ended materials that are manipulated, designed, dismantled and reconstructed in multiple ways. I also see “loose parts” as a mindset, a process-oriented approach whereby meaningful conversations emerge unexpectedly and add significantly to learning. This article presents two stories to show how arts-based approaches and mindfulness to loose parts can unearth thought-filled and caring conversations. The discussion is inspired and written via a reflective lens of personal encounters, first, in a longitudinal research project with young children in an Indigenous First Nations Community, and, second, with preservice teachers in a university class. It is within these periods that students, teachers and families were impacted by loose parts whereby materials and conversations made way for new perspectives in understanding the world.