Each day countless numbers of high school students remain standing at the threshold of the door to meaningful learning in art history because of traditional authoritative instructional methods and content. With the keys of feminist pedagogy, interactive teaching methods, and the new art histories, the teacher can now unlock that door and lead students to personally relevant learning on the other side. A case study using both qualitative and quantitative research methods was conducted in a secondary art history classroom to examine the teacher's pedagogical choices and the degree to which they enable meaningful and relevant student learning. The analysis of multiple sources of data, including classroom observations, revealed statistically significant correlations between the teacher's instructional methods and the content, as well as their impact on student meaning-making.

In response to ideological issues that have emerged the last two decades from feminism, multiculturalism and postmodernism, the introductory art history survey is undergoing major revisions not only in structure and content, but also in instructional methodology. Art history professionals and art educators alike are questioning whether pedagogical methods traditionally employed in the survey are adequate for meeting the goals of visual literacy and development of critical and analytical skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of supplemental study resources for art history survey students, specifically an interactive multimedia (IM) computer program designed to help students acquire and retain a deeper understanding of works of art. Two research questions were asked: Is IM a more effective instructional format than traditional slide study on achievement measures? Will use of IM impact students' levels of understanding and strengthen and direct their choice of search strategies?

“In what ways does teaching with folk arts inspired visual arts-based instruction enhance community building among elementary students in a Title I school?” was the primary research question in this study. Agreeing with past and present day research that the construct of community is vital to social and cultural capital, this research attempts to determine how the notion of community benefits both students and teachers in the elementary art classroom. Folk art was utilized because this genre was accessible in terms of locality and familiarity among students and teachers. The purpose of this investigation was to produce teaching strategies and methods that show how community can be formed in the art classroom. The participants were elementary students, Grades 2 and 3, in a Title I school located in Denton, Texas. This investigation was conducted under an action research methodology. This approach to research is intended to be transformational, emergent, and accommodating. I recorded observations, field notes, and conversations from the participants. Emergent themes were discovered through content analysis and conceptual maps. Results from this investigation concluded transformation is only possible if the person wants change to happen. Data also showed that community and art education are symbiotic. Transformation, growth, and …

This study was designed to examine how four-year-old children might be able to respond and interpret works of art. Informed by Jean Piaget's and Lev Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development, and building on Micheal Parsons' and Abigail Housen's theories of aesthetic development, the study investigated whether or not four-year-olds are able to expand their initial responses to achieve deeper levels of understanding about works of art.

I proposed that both Bruner's (1963) idea of the spiral curriculum and Yenawine's (1992) theories of teaching for visual literacy in the museum set the stage for significant learning for students when used together. If school teachers lay a foundation of knowledge about a museum object, especially through museum resources, then the student may transform and apply this 'prior knowledge' (explicit memories from the classroom) while on the museum visit tour. When docents utilize Yenawine's (1992) methods toward the goal of visual literacy, the semantic knowledge of the classroom is then fused with museum learning, building stronger memories and facilitating deeper understanding as students learn about museum objects. This research explored the correlation of these two theories in a qualitative manner based on observations of actual museum visit preparation in classrooms in Casper, Wyoming, and how it related to a museum tour at the Nicolaysen Art Museum and Discovery Center. The research revealed that conditions do exist within the community that would facilitate Bruner's (1963) idea of a learning spiral, yet not in the manner envisioned. The observed conditions toward a spiral was accomplished through the participant teachers relating the museum exhibit to their operational curriculum in a variety of …

The primary question of this study is: How does the disruption of African art discourse influence a group of university students’ perceptions of African aesthetics? This inquiry developed from previous studies on the exclusion of modern and contemporary African art in Western art museums. Through the theoretical lens of Postcolonial Theory and Critical Multiculturalism, this research conceptualizes the dominance of traditional African art in art museums, art history, and art education as a Western hegemonic discourse that normalizes perceptions of Africa and African aesthetics as the fixed primitive Other. Thus, this research applied Action Research (AR) methodology coupled with Transformative Learning Theory (TL) to disrupt the discourse of African art; with the purpose of affecting positive changes in perceptions of African aesthetics. The participants for this study were 10 students in a course (Art 1301 Honors Art Appreciation) I instructed at the University of North Texas in the fall (September–December) 2013 semester. Data was collected, analyzed, and interpreted from participants’ assignments and my research journal. This study comprised a dual enquiry on: 1. Discourse and Meaning-making; and 2. Disruption and Transformation. First, the study analyzed students’ perceptions of African aesthetics from their learning experience of traditional African art in an …

This study explored the perceptions of 74 activity directors responsible for the intergenerational programming that is currently taking place at shared-sites, facilities where older adults and young people receive services and programs simultaneously in a co-located space. Data for this study was collected through a national survey of 149 shared-sites collected from the Generations United data base. the questionnaire asked respondents about their facility’s intergenerational programming, demographic information, and perceived sense of community exhibited by participants in the intergenerational program. Descriptive data regarding the location, primary emphasis, ages and number served, and specific program characteristics, including visual art programming, at IGSS facilities were collected and analyzed. Results from the analysis were reported with limitations. There was a statistical significance suggested in the association of the frequency and duration of art activities with some of the sense of community variables. the study is valuable in determining the current demographics of IGSS facilities that offer visual art programs. Further research needs to be conducted to answer questions regarding the specific role that the visual arts play in creating a sense of community among intergenerational participants at shared-site facilities.

The problem of this study was to determine which of a list of forty-seven art competencies designed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for K-12 art specialists were most essential for early childhood and intermediate elementary classroom teachers. Four-point Likert-type scaled instruments were designed and sent to three types of North Carolina educators: (a) 200 elementary classroom teachers, stratified into two equal subgroups of early childhood and intermediate teachers; (b) 100 K-12 art specialists; and (c) all art teacher educators employed at colleges and universities with state approved programs in art education. These subjects were asked to respond to the relevance of each competency for the elementary classroom teacher.

This research seeks to explore how the metal arts are taught to women in Kuwait in an undergraduate setting, making the call for the use of feminist pedagogy when teaching the metal arts to women in Kuwait. This research is achieved using the qualitative methodology of analytic autoethnography. The theoretical framework is a feminist lens bridging the social construction of gender with the gendering of objects and feminist standpoint theory. The data comes from the experiences of creating three of my own pieces of artwork as well as the pieces themselves in tandem with historical, political, and cultural contexts. The analysis from this research is then bridged with feminist pedagogy in order to begin to develop an inclusive metal arts curriculum for women in Kuwait.

This study explored the state of art education in Turkey as revealed by pre-service art education university instructors, and the potential of incorporating visual culture studies in pre-service art education in Turkey. The instructors' ideas about visual culture, and popular culture, the impact it might have, the content (objects), and the practices within the context of Turkey were examined. Visual culture was examined from an art education perspective that focuses on a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the perception and critique of popular culture and everyday cultural experiences, and the analysis of media including television programs, computer games, Internet sites, and advertisements. A phenomenological human science approach was employed in order to develop a description of the perception of visual culture in pre-service art education in Turkey as lived by the participants. In-person interviews were used to collect the data from a purposive sample of 8 faculty members who offered undergraduate and graduate art education pedagogy, art history, and studio courses within four-year public universities. This empirical approach sought to obtain comprehensive descriptions of an experience through semi-structural interviews. These interviews employed open-ended questions to gather information about the following: their educational and professional background; their definitions of art education and …

This study examined the influences of a variety of verbal and non-verbal strategies on the language acquisition of six fourth grade ESL students in a discipline-based art education classroom. The art teacher/researcher spoke only English, and the students spoke Spanish almost exclusively. The art instruction occurred during eighteen 30 minute sessions, over a period of five months. The program involved the whole language approach, collaborative/cooperative learning, and the study of art concepts through verbal and graphic symbol cue cards and images of art works. Data were amassed from transcripts of video recordings, student and teacher interviews, and reflective notes. This study showed highly successful results with student growth in language acquisition and comprehension of art concepts.