Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile

RUNNING HEAD: VIDEO VIEWING & CONCEPT SYNTHESIS MONA LISA SMILE

Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile Amy S. Crouse

LI 801 Foundations of Information Transfer Mirah Dow, Ph.D. Emporia State University July 7, 2006

Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile Abstract

The movie Mona Lisa Smile, introduces a young teacher, Kathryn Watson (played by Julia Roberts), into a 1953 Wellesley College art department. Her experiences with the students and her fellow faculty members are referred to in the Rubin text when he states: There are many environments in which we find ourselves; and there are many cultures that must be understood (Rubin, 2004). Ms. Watson finds herself in a very strict environment where no one has dared to teach beyond the text, at least in her subject area. The parents and board members are very influential in the subject matter taught and the method of teaching, almost to the point of censorship. The students values have been inbred in them, probably since birth. This paper attempts to view the information process as expressed through the visual medium of the film.

Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile Teaching is a perfect example of the information transfer process. The teacher is responsible for gathering information (creation), researching that information (dissemination),

planning how to use the information in a classroom and then sharing that information with students (diffusion). According to What Is An Information Professional? by Richard O. Mason, professionals have specialized knowledge and they use this knowledge in the service of others (Mason, 1990). Mason also says that information professionals empower their clients to understand and to knowas distinguished from the power to will or to feel. This empowering information, as Fritz Machlup once described it, consists of the signs and symbols that one mind uses to influence another mind (Mason, 1990). The character Julia Roberts plays in Mona Lisa Smile is an excellent example of the information transfer process in education. She goes before a classroom of students who are totally prepared they have read the text in its entirety, they have studied the paintings they are responsible to know. The only thing they have not done is to think for themselves about what it is they are learning and their own thoughts and opinions about the subject matter. She uses her knowledge of History of Art 100 and tries to influence/empower their minds. At the beginning of the picture, the narrator says: All her life she had wanted to teach (Konner & Rosenthal, 2003). This is referring to the main character Kathryn Watson. She chooses the most conservative college in the nation in the 1950s to accomplish this goal. She did not come because she wanted to fit in but because she wanted to make a difference (Konner & Rosenthal, 2003). She does this by challenging/empowering her students to think for themselves. Instead of following in the footsteps of everyone before them, Ms. Watson encourages her students to think outside the box to decide: What is art? What makes it good

Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile or bad? Who decides? (Konner & Rosenthal, 2003). As a teacher, she is forcing them to think

beyond the textbook and the syllabus (utilization). When Julia Stiles character is upset about a C she receives on a paper, Ms. Watson encourages her to submit the assignment again, and that she might even enjoy it. Her statement describes so much of education today, if I wanted to know what he thought, Id buy his book (Konner & Rosenthal, 2003). Students are sometimes in such a hurry to complete an assignment the way they think an instructor wants it that they do not take time to think about their thoughts and opinions regarding the subject matter. According to the article The Ethics of Learner-Centered Education, by Edmund Hansen and James Stephens, Research on motivation suggests that external rewards (such as grades) can stifle young peoples natural curiosity and their tendency toward intrinsic motivation (Hansen & Stephens, 2000). There are two times in the movie when the library at Wellesley College is visited. Both of these are periods of conflict. The first after Ms. Watsons boyfriend leaves and she is studying and researching new lessons (dissemination) to challenge her students thinking. The other time is yet another period of conflict when Betty and Mrs. Warren have their argument over whether or not Betty will be remaining with her new husband. This makes one wonder if the library was used as a quiet backdrop so that an unpleasant scene would not ensue? When one has not seen the movie before, watching it as an assignment caused this viewer to try to read between the lines. I found myself watching for scenes involving the information transfer process itself as well as libraries in general. I also tried really hard to find the tie to Mona Lisa, finding at the end that the title really does not refer to Roberts character as it does remarks made in the movie about the actual painting. Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile 5

There are two excellent examples in the movie of what not to do as an information professional. The first is when Bill, (Roberts fellow teacher and second romantic interest) accuses Ms. Watson of coming to Wellesley to help people find your way (Konner & Rosenthal, 2003). The second is with the contract that the Dean is drawing up at the end of the movie. There are four steps in the contract, each trying to define how the information transfer process will take place, in actuality censoring her class content and telling her what she can and cannot teach. Rather than be a part of this process, Ms. Watson chooses to leave and seek employment elsewhere. If Ms. Watson had read Mr. Masons article What Is an Information Professional? she would have known that she would face unique, uncertain, and equivocal situations in which there is a conflict of values and for which her information solution must take into account the clients psychological and informational states (Mason, 1990). This conflict of values is basically the core of the entire movie. The girls main value in life was to follow the marriage/baby track and Ms. Watsons main value was to be an information professional in an educational institution of higher learning. She did not share the same values as her students but still needed to remain sensitive to the values that had been inbred in them since birth. According to the article by Hansen and Stephens entitled The Ethics of Learner-Centered Education, teaching and learning both require courage. Students and teachers alike must be willing to take risks when approaching something new. Teachers also need to try new approaches, even as they risk failure with students or conflict with a rigid school environment (Hansen & Stephens, 2000). Wellesley in 1953 was apparently an excellent example of a rigid school environment. Had Ms. Roberts character succeeded, a paradigm shift might have occurred in the entire institution. Students might have developed opinions in other classes. It makes one wonder when Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile 6

the learning styles of that particular period began to change and refocus towards a learner-centered environment? My favorite quote in the video is when Julia Stiles character walks into the Art Department Office for what is obviously the first time. She asks Julia Roberts character what all of this is, referring to the various printed/artistic materials hanging on the walls? Ms. Roberts states: different things different days, people who inspire me, artists I admire and editorials I dont (Konner & Rosenthal, 2003). In Milton Rokeachs article, The Nature of Human Values, a value is defined as: a primitive preference for or a positive attitude toward certain end-states of existence (like equality, salvation, self-fulfillment, or freedom) or certain broad modes of conduct (like courage, honesty, friendship, or chastity) (Rokeach, 1973). Ms. Watson embodies several of these values in her character. Self-fulfillment in this case by teaching to the best of her ability and challenging her students to think for themselves. The broad modes of conduct example of courage in teaching challenging subject matter and encouraging students to reject the traditional values and norms (or at least add to them). Honesty, both for herself and others around her. Friendship, both to her students by attending their initiation as an active participant and to her roommate by listening when a sympathetic ear was needed. In the article, The New Information Professional by J.M. Griffiths, the author relates the search for knowledge or information to that of an expedition guide. I truly believe Ms. Watson went on to be a pioneer of new knowledge frontiers. She most definitely had the spirit of the pioneer as referred to in the article (Griffiths, 1998). She did her best to empower her students

Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile

with the knowledge they would need to succeed in the real world whether that world was inclusive of a husband and children or a profession or perhaps even both.

Video Viewing & Concept Synthesis: Mona Lisa Smile

References Achleitner, H. (1995). The impact on emerging technologies on reference service and bibliography instruction. In G. M. Pitkin (Ed.), Information transfer, information technology (pp. 137149). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Griffiths, J (1998, February March). ASIS Bulletin. Retrieved July 7, 2006, from ASIS Web site: http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Feb-98/griffiths.html.

Hansen, E. J. and Stephens, J. A. (2000). The ethics of learner-centered education: Dynamics that impede the process. Change. September-October, 41-47.

Konner, L. & Rosenthal, M. (Writers). (2003). Mona Lisa Smile [Movie] Columbia Pictures.

Mason, R. O. (1990, Fall). What is information professional? Journal of Education for Library Information Science, 31 (2), 122 138

Rokeach, M (1973). American Library Association. Retrieved July 7, 2006, from American Library Association Web site: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/corevaluesstatement/corevalues.htm#access

Rubin, R.E. (2004). Foundations of library and informration science. New York, N.Y.: NealSchuman Publishers, Inc.