Slow Looking ─ The Art and Practice of Learning Through Observation

The Power of Slow Looking provides a robust argument for the importance of slow looking in learning environments both general and specialized, formal and informal, and its connection to major concepts in teaching, learning, and knowledge. A museum-originated practice increasingly seen as holding wide educational benefits, slow looking contends that patient, immersive attention to content can produce active cognitive opportunities for meaning-making and critical thinking that may not be possible though high-speed means of information delivery. Addressing the multi-disciplinary applications of this purposeful behavioral practice, this book draws examples from the visual arts, literature, science, and everyday life while incorporating recent research into cognition, curiosity, mindfulness, attention, and direct observation skills. Original, real-world scenarios illustrate the complexities and rewards of slow looking.

Shari Tishman is Lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA, and Senior Research Associate at Harvard Project Zero, where she recently served as Director. She currently co-directs Agency by Design, a project related to the maker movement that is investigating the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning, and Out of Eden Learn, an online learning community and curriculum used in over 1500 classrooms worldwide.