On the goals and outcomes of arts education

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (7) ◽  
pp. 15-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Heller
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Vast Amount ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Theatrical Performance ◽  
K 12

Supporters of K-12 arts education often make the case that when students study music, dance, theatrical performance, and the visual arts, they tend to improve in the academic subjects as well. But, as Lois Hetland explains, that’s not the best way to advocate for greater investments in arts instruction. In fact, a careful analysis of a vast amount of empirical research found no conclusive evidence to support the claim that studying the arts leads to better performance in math, reading, or other subjects. To make a stronger case for arts education, she argues, advocates should point to the specific kinds of knowledge and skill that students can learn only through the arts and which can empower them to think and communicate in ways that are essential to their lives and to the health of the wider community.

scholarly journals The cognitive aspect of interactive learning and teaching in visual arts education

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-152
Author(s):  
Zlata Tomljenović
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Teaching Process ◽  
Cognitive Aspect ◽  
Visual Arts Education ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Cognitive Activities

The task of contemporary visual arts education is to enable quality interaction among all subjects of the teaching process, through which the students are encouraged to think, imagine, and develop higherorder cognitive activities. The objective of this empirical research study was to verify the differences in the results of students in the control and experimental groups (n=285) regarding their knowledge and understanding of visual arts content. Analysis of the results shows that the students in EG showed significantly better results compared to the students in CG, which means that the interactive model of learning and teaching positively influenced the students’ understanding of visual arts content.

Arts Education as a Vehicle for Social Change: An Empirical Study of Eco Arts in the K-12 Classroom

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeniffer Sams ◽  
Doreen Sams
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
The Arts ◽  
K 12

AbstractArts education has been part of the United States K-12 educational system for over a century. However, recent administrative policy decisions addressed theeconomic bottom lineand the 1983 report,A Nation at Risk, and complied with theNo Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001(U.S. Department of Education, 2001). These decisions resulted instandardisationof both core curricula and testing, leaving arts programs to function in a diminished capacity, curtailing both individuality and creative thinking. This study unpacks the role of the arts as change agents with the ability to: address current discourse; question ideologies and culture; convey complex problems in artistic form; engage the viewer in aesthetics; provide a perspective not found in regimented thinking; and empower creative problem solvers. This work also highlights the role of eco-art as a medium for addressing complex environmental challenges. The study also empirically examines, through a self-report survey, K-12 arts educators’ perceptions of integrating eco-arts into curricula. Findings revealed respondents’ desire to integrate eco-arts into the arts curricula and identified the most significantly perceived barriers to integration, as well as the role of policy on practicality. The authors also identify the study's limitations and recommend areas for future research.

scholarly journals This time without ‘feeling’: Children’s intuitive theories of art as a logical basis for learning progression in visual arts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Maras
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Epistemological Beliefs ◽  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Australian Curriculum ◽  
Logical Basis ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Experiential Process ◽  
The Subject ◽  
K 12

Learning in Visual Arts has traditionally been framed as an experiential process in which feeling and intuition complement the development of aesthetic knowledge. However, while art can be about feelings and processes that develop students’ expressive capacities, the complexity of art understanding and thinking extends beyond this narrow common-sense assumption. I argue that this assumption, which is represented in the Australian Curriculum: The Arts (ACARA, 2015), and even more firmly resonates in recent proposals for the revision of this curriculum (ACARA, 2021), obfuscates the conceptual and theoretical bases on which students make progress in art understanding. This paper examines the proposition that art understanding emerges progressively and can be described in conceptual terms, the basis of which can be identified in empirical research on the emergence of children’s intuitive theories of art. This paper examines how selected studies articulate the cognitive grounds on which students’ ontologies of art and epistemological beliefs are represented in their reasoning about art over time. It is argued that an empirically supported conception of learning anchored in students’ cognitive development in art that recognises the theoretical commitments underscoring their conceptual and practical reasoning in visual arts practices K–12 provides a logical basis for articulating progression in the subject.

The Western Australian Art and Crafts Superintendents’ advocacy for years k-12 Visual Arts in education

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-130
Author(s):  
Geoffrey William Lummis ◽  
Julia Elizabeth Morris ◽  
Graeme Lock
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Visual Arts Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Specialist Teachers ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Western Australian

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to record Visual Arts education in Western Australia (WA) as it underwent significant change between 1967 and 1987, in administration, policy, curriculum and professional development. Design/methodology/approach – A narrative inquiry approach was utilized to produce a collective recount of primary Visual Arts teacher education, based on 17 interviews with significant advocates and contributors to WA Visual Arts education during the aforementioned period. Findings – This paper underscores the history of the role of Western Australian Superintendents of Art and Crafts and the emergence of Visual Arts specialist teachers in primary schools, from the successful establishment of a specialist secondary Visual Arts program at Applecross Senior High School, to the mentoring of generalist primary teachers into a specialist role, as well as the development and implementation of a new Kindergarten through to Year 7 Art and Crafts Syllabus. It also discusses the disestablishment of the WA Education Department’s Art and Crafts Branch (1987). Originality/value – The history of primary Visual Arts specialists and advocacy for Visual Arts in WA has not been previously recorded. This history demonstrates the high quality of past Visual Arts education in WA, and questions current trends in pre-service teacher education and Visual Arts education in primary schools.

scholarly journals Contextualizing Aesthetics as Social Engagement for Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam I Attwood
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Arts Teachers ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
K 12

Aesthetics is a type of literacy; however, it has been missing in generalist meta-analyses of teacher education. This article adds to the literature by synthesizing aesthetics theory, especially for implications of the historical development of ideas related to visual arts and aesthetics broadly defined for inclusive teacher preparation that promotes social engagement. Various viewpoints are explored in this article for contextualizing the field of aesthetics education as it relates to the preparation of generalist K–12 teachers who are not training to be fine arts teachers. With context, generalist K–12 teachers can be equipped to integrate the arts across other content areas.

Locating visual arts education in a post-liberal arts landscape

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-159
Author(s):  
Jason Swift
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Educational Assistance ◽  
Visual Arts Education ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of

This article explores the current climate and location of visual arts at post-secondary institutions in a growing post-liberal arts climate in the United States. It discusses the future of visual and liberal arts education in a socio-political climate that appears to value career-ready degrees and profit over scholarship and the cerebral, emotive and visceral importance of education and the arts. The history of conservative efforts to remake post-secondary education and government efforts to defund it are discussed, providing context for the shift to a post-liberal arts landscape. A growing divide and class separation are investigated as an outcome of the efforts made to de-liberalize colleges and universities and defund educational assistance programmes, potentially placing it in the hands of the upper class and out of the hands of the middle and lower classes.

Advancing our futures – Educational potential of interdisciplinary artistic projects to children ‘at risk’ in Denmark and South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-431
Author(s):  
Charlotte Svendler Nielsen ◽  
Liesl Hartman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Cultural Challenges ◽  
Hermeneutic Phenomenological ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Educational Potential

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Seoul Agenda for Arts Education (2010) calls for ensuring equitable access to arts education for all, strengthening the quality of arts education and harnessing its potential to contribute to resolving social and cultural challenges. In both South Africa and Denmark, a practice–policy gap exists between what the curricula prescribe in the area of arts education and what is experienced to be happening in the everyday life at schools. This gap contributes to creating inequality in terms of access to arts education. It is therefore important to find ways that might give access to arts education to a broader range of children, and to find out how their participation might contribute to advancing their future opportunities. This paper explores how arts education policies can be enacted within schools in both Denmark and South Africa. It takes as its point of departure a project that investigates the potential of an educational practice that integrates dance with visual arts and involves multicultural groups of children, teachers and artists in two school classes in South Africa and Denmark. It focuses on what importance arts education might have, especially to those children in the two classes who are ‘at risk’, by illuminating their experiences and opportunities for learning through integration of dance and visual arts. In this study, a phenomenologically inspired concept of learning, which includes enhanced awareness, theories of multi-modal experience in the arts and Todres’ concept of ‘soulful space’ contribute to illuminate educational potential of the artistic-educational approaches that were developed in the project. Through a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology, children’s experiences were elicited through reflective group dialogues involving ‘stimulated recall’ based on photographs of them engaged in different activities and drawings that they had created, which reflected their experiences.

scholarly journals What is going on in early years music planning? A study of early years teachers' weekly plans

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-126
Author(s):  
Susanne Garvis
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Approach To Learning ◽  
Social Success ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Children First ◽  
Quality Learning

ARTS EDUCATION IS AN Important element of the early years curriculum. Children first learn to express themselves through the arts (dance, drama, media, visual arts and music). Furthermore, numerous studies provide evidence that quality learning experiences in the arts contribute in significant ways to social success and impact positively on a child's academic achievement and long-term education. In Australia, early years teachers are expected to teach arts education. This study explored the weekly planning of 76 early years teachers across kindergartens, preparatory classes and Years 1, 2 and 3 in Queensland, Australia. Settings took a structured ‘curriculum-focused’ approach to learning in the early years, which made the exploration of planning important. Our study looked for segments of time devoted to music throughout the week. Content analysis was used to interpret the weekly plans, with three themes emerging: (1) The majority of the weekly plans were dedicated to literacy and numeracy; (2) Little time was devoted to the teaching of music apart from the scheduled 30-minute music lesson with a specialist teacher in some schools; and (3) Of the limited number of weekly plans that featured music, activities were teacher-directed. These results provide insight to the current understanding and value of music education in the early years curriculum. Key messages can be drawn about the importance of professional development, music advocacy in the early years, and curriculum and policy planning.

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