Date: 19-Apr-2010
From: Maher Bahloul <mbahloulaus.edu>
Subject: Chapter Proposals: The Use of Film in Education
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Book ProposalMaher Bahloul & Carolyn Graham
Proposed Title:The Use of Film in Education
Call For Chapter Proposals
IntroductionWhile traditional teaching and learning curricula had dissected areas ofknowledge and limited most subjects to their specific areas of focus, anumber of scholars have challenged this approach by promotinginterdisciplinary fields. Of particular interest to this book are thestudies that promoted learning through an arts medium, in particular thefilmmaking medium. As such, filmmaking, being an area of expertise taughtin Films and Performing Arts’ departments, joins and merges with otherareas of knowledge, to serve as a learning catalyst, hence the intertwinednature of the two disciplines.
In his 2009 book ‘The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking InspiresLearning’, Theodosakos writes that filmmaking “enables students to exploreany curriculum subject through the active process of making a film aboutit” (p. 30). While learning with films and video-based materials are quitestudied in the education literature, learning through filmmaking is arelatively recent experience which calls for more reflection and analysis.Theodosakos’s book is a step in the right direction. Other books such asMcBrewster, Miller & Vandome 2009, Simkins et al. 2002, among otherspromote learning through learners’ meaningful involvement in variousgroup-based production projects.
The book The Use of Film in Education focuses on the use of camera insideor outside the classroom to promote and enhance learning in general andlanguage learning in particular. The desire to improve communication in NewLanguage Learners (NLL), for instance, has resulted in armies of thinkers,philosophers, educators, psychologists, neuroscientists, not to forget theteachers themselves debating the most effective and efficient tools andmethodologies to boosting learners’ interest (Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun2000), stimulating their learning desire, and providing them with a newmeans of communicating their ideas, feelings, and experiences in arelatively fluid tongue.
In fact, teaching through arts in general had already reached severalareas of knowledge such as learning new languages, mathematics, sciences,history, geography, literacy to mention a few. Research has clearly shownthe extent to which the use of such arts media as theatre, music, dance,poetry, visual and performing arts boost learners’ comprehension of thesubject matter, better their academic experiences, and help them becomemuch more successful individuals. In other words, learning through the artshas proven fruitful at various personal, interpersonal, and life-longlevels (Clark 2009, Winner 2007, McIntire 2007, Catterall 2006, Peterson2006, McCarthy et al. 2005, Goldberg 2004, Deasy 2004, McDonald and Fisher2002, Efland 2002, among many others).
However, unlike various arts experiences, filmmaking has to yet have itsfair share. While playwrights, poets, painters, musicians, dancers, andvisual artists had been going to educational institutions and step-by-stepmaking it to the classroom (Remer 2003), film makers have not been activelyrecognized as such and called for to be part of the teaching team.
The book The Use of Film in Education reports on the various production-basedprojects which had called for the camera to work with the learners. Indoing so, the book would like to include case and research studies thatinvestigated the use of video-based projects, especially films, tofacilitate the learning of any academic content be it language, math,history and alike. In other words, analyses of project-based productionsthat involved learners as key actors for the sake of assisting learning areenlisted in this book. Successful analyses of the production projects fromconception to post-production passing by execution stages should beanchored within consult current learning, psychological, and cognitivetheories so that a theoretical framework is checked.
While a priority will be given to studies related to full fledged shortsand longer movies in which features and the dynamics of filmmaking as apedagogical tool are highlighted, we will also consider a number of otherproductions which had focused on video-based activities, sketches, anddocumentaries. The book will also include highly specialized reports fromcurrent performing arts centers relevant to the use of the camera ineducation hoping to unveil their successes and highlighting the challengesthey face.
Objective of the bookThis book aims at unveiling works which had used the camera to mediate thelearning of a new language or any other academic subject. The book chapterswill be organized into three sections: (i) Conceptual and theoreticalframeworks, (ii) Learning through filmmaking, (iii) Learning throughvideo-based production projects. The first section will highlight therationale behind the filmmaking and video-based production activities; thesecond will include case studies that focus on learning throughprofessional filmmaking. As such, it exposes this glamorous medium andunveils its dynamics in relation to learning. The third group of chapterswill include studies investigating the use of the camera in the classroomwhether to film a particular activity, performance, or sketch. Writers willhighlight the nature and focus of such production and report on thesuccesses and challenges they had noted during and after the activity wasfilmed. In sum, the volume will offer a survey of the use of the camera topromote learning from both a professional and amatory perspectives.
Target AudienceThe book is of interest to all professionals in the field of education.Whether at elementary, secondary, or tertiary institutions, teachers,curriculum designers, and school psychologists will find the bookinformative. Given its multi-disciplinary nature, experts in education,assessment, cognitive science, and theories of learning will find the bookhighly inviting for reflection and keeping them abreast with currentexperiments in the field of learning through performing arts. The book is avaluable read in education courses in general and for TESOL students inparticular.
Recommended topicsThe topics to be covered should fall within each of the three book sections:
Section I: Arts Education, Conceptual basis and cognitive framework- Edutainment and Learning- Approaches to filmmaking in education- Filmmaking and arts education- Filmmaking, process, and multiple intelligences theory- Cognitive theories and filmmaking- Filmmaking vs other arts and performing arts activities
Section II: Experiencing Learning Through Filmmaking (i.e.,analyses of casestudies with a focus on any of the following issues)
- Creativity, filmmaking, and learning- Motivation, filmmaking and learning- Schools, logistics, and filmmaking- Filmmaking, post-production, the DVD and learning- Filmmaking, evaluation, and assessment- Collaborative learning through filmmaking- Methodology and filmmaking- Learning styles and filmmaking- Filmmaking, successes, and challenges
Section III: Learning through other video-based productions
- Using the camera to promote learning- Arts, camera, and group projects- Learning through video and multimedia projects- Activities and classroom videotaping- Courses, documentaries, and learning
Submission procedure
Participants are invited to submit on or before June 15, 2010, a 2 to 3page chapter proposal clearly explaining the focus and concerns of theproposed chapter along with a short biographical blurb. Authors of acceptedchapters will be notified by July 10, 2010. Full chapters are expected tobe submitted by November 30, 2010. All submitted chapters will be reviewedon a double-blind peer review basis and authors of accepted papers will benotified by January 15, 2011. Guidelines for preparing the chapters will besent upon acceptance of proposals. Successful chapters are then revised andresubmitted by April 1, 2011, and the final acceptance notification will beon April 30, 2011. The book publisher will soon be announced.
Summary of Important Dates:Chapter Proposal Submission: June 15, 2010Chapter Submission: November 30, 2010Review Process Notification: January 15, 2011Chapter Revision and resubmission: April 1, 2011Final Acceptance Notifications: April 30, 2011
Inquiries and chapter proposals along with a short CV should be uploadedthrough the book’s website. If for some reason, you could not access thelinks, please sent your materials to the following address: Maher Bahloul(mbahloulaus.edu).
Editors:
Maher Bahloul is the Director of an Education Through Arts Institute (MaherLanguage Institute MLI) which he founded in 2007. MLI promotes learningthrough filmmaking (www.maher-language-institute.com). A graduate ofCornell University, he is currently an Associate Professor of English andLinguistics at the American University of Sharjah. At MLI, he focused onpromoting language learning through bilingual video-project productions,especially films. Dr. Bahloul has various publications which cover issuesin theoretical and applied linguistics the latest of which is a 2008 bookpublished by Routledge. In relation to promoting learning through arts, Dr.Bahloul has presented in a number of international conferences the mostrecent of which is INTED 2010 held in March, 2010 (Valencia, Spain). Seewww.bahloul.com for more information.
Carolyn Graham is the creator of Jazz Chants, which connect the rhythm ofspoken American English to the beat of jazz. She developed the technique ofjazz chanting during her twenty-five years of teaching ESL in the AmericanLanguage Institute of New York University. She has also taught at HarvardUniversity and has conducted workshops in the NYU School of Education,Columbia Teachers College in New York and Tokyo, and elsewhere throughoutthe world. She has also worked with regular and special needs learners. Ms.Graham is the author of numerous Jazz Chants books, all published by OxfordUniversity Press. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkKLmLNl2hs formore on Carolyn)
Education Field(s): Applied Linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Arts inEducation, Edutainment.
Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Cognitive Science
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