ADMINISTRATOR

As Director of the Florida State University Foundations program from 2006-2012, I oversaw up to seventy class sections each year. Most were taught by graduate students and contingent faculty. (For a curricular overview and examples of courses taught, go to the Educator link.) Many were emerging educators, just beginning their careers.

To help them strengthen their teaching and to create a supportive network, I worked with Dr. Richard Siegesmund, Professor of Art Education at Northern Illinois University, Jim Elniski (then Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and Adam Kallish (Principal, Trope Collaborative) to co-found Integrative Teaching International. The ITI website is extensive; go to http://integrativeteaching.org  to access our extensive publications and get the latest updates from the current leadership team.

The mission of Integrative Teaching International (ITI) is to foster an international dialog regarding 21st century art and design education. Every two years, a high-energy ThinkTank event brings together master and emerging educators from across the globe to address contemporary issues in higher education. Through a mix of facilitated discussions, workshops and presentations all participants gain fresh perspectives on teaching and learning.

Each of the ten ThinkTanks to date have tackled a timely topic using workshops and extensive discussions by breakout groups. For example, our topic for ThinkTank 5 was Four Minds for the Future. Using Dr. Howard Gardner’s Five Minds for the Future as our inspiration, we focused on:

• The Creative Mind, which embraces risk, synthesizes prior knowledge, and develops new concepts.
• The Constructive Mind, which transforms creative possibilities into tangible objects or actions.
• The Critical Mind, which discerns strengths and weaknesses among multiple options and determines priorities.
• The Connective Mind, which brings all of these possibilities together and provides outreach to the larger community of educators at all levels.

Mary Stewart email address: mstewart3@fsu.edu