The Magritte method
Mauro D’Arco
The Magritte method: suggestions for a metacognitive and cooperative didactics is the title of my final paper of the TFA 8th Cycle course, as well as a method of my own devising that is inspired by the painting The Clairvoyance by the famous surrealist painter René Magritte. A painting within a painting that sees Magritte self-portraying a bird in flight while he is actually observing an egg. Magritte said that: «Painting must have a function other than painting» and in continuity with his phrase, I have brought the suggestions of the painting back into the didactic sphere to derive a metacognitive and cooperative method for working on oneself, with a student and for a class group. Approaching a learner with this method means doing so with a vision and a plan: as teachers, it can be useful to observe our students, not so much as ‘closed shells’ as they are often presented to us (especially the differently abled), but for the potential (different abilities in the highest sense of the term) that, if well supported by us and by the synergic activities of the entire educating community, they can unveil/unveil and empower. Experienced in workshop contexts has always brought important results and the improvement of positive interdependence.
Keywords
Vision, potential, empowerment, metacognition, cooperation.
