This study describes the effects of a yearlong, multivisit teen program in a contemporary art museum on adolescents' reflections about art. Our purpose was to discover whether this program, focused on experiences with contemporary art and artists with its metacognitive approach, affected students' thinking about their own artmaking. The…

Most art teachers would agree that architecture is an important form of visual art, but they do not always include it in their curriculums. In this article, the authors share core ideas from "Architecture and Environment," a teaching resource that they developed out of a long-term interest in teaching architecture and their fascination with the…

This article presents a thematic, inquiry-based Instructional Resource for secondary students. This instructional resource uses thematic inquiry to facilitate transfer of knowledge. A theme is a general topic that can help students see relationships and make connections--and transfer information to new situations. Students may be more willing and…

Questor is a curious little bird whose four broad questions are helpful to anyone interested in making art or understanding the art of others. He was designed as a character in an online video for children, "Building on a River: Questor's Tale." The video is narrated by Questor, who relates the 2000 year history of architecture along the Salt…

This descriptive study investigates the bases used to support judgments of artworks by preservice art teachers at two large universities. Bases art teachers might use to judge artwork range from personal preferences, to cultural expectations, to criteria drawn from values of various artworlds. The 26 preservice teachers in this study used a…

Presents an online unit titled "Images of Me" to illustrate how themes can build connections to students' prior knowledge, how to use inquiry questions, and how to utilize online art reproductions. Examines how four middle and high school art teachers used the "Images of Me" unit. (CMK)

This is an exploratory, design-based study of the development and implementation of an online art unit designed to teach for transfer. Secondary art teachers implemented a traditional and then a revised Web version of the unit. Four kinds of knowledge (content, procedural, strategic, and dispositional) provide the structure for reporting: a)…

Examines the transformation of the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as the foundation for proposing objectives teachers might use to guide students in borrowing traditional images from their own or others' cultures. Offers a series of six objectives to guide students in understanding and transforming traditional images. (CMK)

Reports the effects of art-history instruction on students' abilities to interpret artwork contextually. Confirms that eighth-grade students are more successful in contextual interpretation; students at both levels can use successfully the historical artist perspective; and art-history instruction at both levels increases students' ability to…

Rather than just being a study of past art works, art history can also be a study of process in which students learn about describing, attributing, reconstructing, and interpreting art. Sheet music is suggested as a possible resource to develop these skills. (IS)

Describes a five-year curriculum assessment and development program in a Pennsylvania school district. Uses the metaphor of a baseball game to describe the project's chronology and activities. Includes a year-by-year project synopsis and evaluative comments about group dynamics and related issues. (CFR)

Postulates a broad, interdisciplinary art education curriculum. The curriculum is built around nine increasingly cognitively challenging understandings expressed as instructional objectives. These objectives incorporate a series of questions examining art's functional, cultural, historic, and social contexts. Includes a discussion of the project's…

Following a preface on the uses of art education history, the author employs historical analysis to identify the current state of art education research as a discipline. Factors working to maintain the schism between art education research and practice are also discussed, particularly stereotyped self-images influencing art educators. (SJL)

Contends that history is a discipline with a great potential which could be exploited in the service of art education. Proposes that this potential be tapped by extending our notions of the educational functions of history and our conceptions of what past events might be seen as historically significant, and by learning to recognize historical…

Four styles of historical investigation are identified: realistic, formal, expressive, and pragmatic. For each style the philosophical assumptions of the historian, the methods employed, and criteria for judgment are discussed. Examples of each style in the literature of art education are also examined. (Author/RM)