Teaching isn't Linear

The Apex Design Process that students use to work through ideas in the Open Art Room.

Last week I wrote about the content of my ideal art class. Some teachers agreed, others responded with questions:
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That's great, but what about skills?

Students have to learn technique.
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You have to have a plan or it will be a free-for all.

Why do some people assume that TAB means not teaching skills or technique?

I've been thinking about this all week and what I've realized is this: it's hard to visualize a type of teaching other than your own. 

Traditional art classes are linear - the teacher introduces a project and helps the students move through the steps more or less together. Everyone works on the same skill or technique.

TAB classrooms aren't linear- they spiral. In my practice I teach students our Apex Design Process, then support them as they use it to create. 

One Art 1 student's planning for my painting Bootcamp summative assessment - she started with watercolor, tried two compositions then decided to move to acrylic. We discussed each step along the way as she work to develop the skills she needed to create her vision.

Her finished work with obvious growth.

 Students move through the steps of the design process at different paces and they use it to work on their own ideas. The key is that they work through it, always learning and growing as artists. 

How could work like this, this and this be produced without the opportunity to learn and develop skills? 

And why are we so quick to dismiss things that are different?

​TAB is teaching, and in art that means skills and techniques are developed. Teaching doesn't have to be linear to be valid and valuable.