An important part of the Progressive Education movement, the playground, influenced John Dewey's educational philosophy of learning. "The playground, particularly during the Progressive reform movement of the early 1900s benefited from the widespread belief that play was child's work. Dewey portrayed children as miniature adults who…

What could video games bring to a K-12 visual arts curriculum? Overby and Jones were skeptical about incorporating gaming and virtual worlds into the classroom, but watching their own children engaging in the video game Minecraft changed their perception. As they started researching the game and how these kids were operating within the space, they…

What role can district visual art administrators play in articulating an educationally valuable conception of creativity and in establishing a culture that targets creativity as an educational goal? How can art administrators help teachers implement creativity goals? How can they communicate creativity's importance to principals, parents, and…

This article provides a transcript of an interview with Olivia Gude, member of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards Writing Team. In the interview, Gude provides an overview of the process for writing the new visual arts standards.

Classroom assessment is a hot topic in K-12 education because of compelling evidence that assessment in the form of feedback is a powerful teaching and learning tool (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Although formal evaluation has been anathema to many art specialists and teachers (Colwell, 2004), informal assessment in the form of feedback is not.…

In an era that is rife with aggression and hostility, most art educators hold close to their hearts the belief that they, and their students, can contribute to making the world a better place. Through their acts as teachers and the daily work of art education, they often strive toward creating a space of "non-violence." For K-12…

This article describes how art teachers can work toward changing the power dynamics in their classrooms by using a student centered approach, as demonstrated by an example lesson about contemporary painter Kehinde Wiley. As the class unpacked the idea of power prevalent in Wiley's portraits, the students gave relevant examples of how power…

What does an introduction to and engagement in performance art offer K-12 students? In this article, we respond to this question by proposing a lesson inspired by the artmaking practices of the contemporary artist Erwin Wurm. Performance art can be defined as any form of work that combines the artist's body and a live-action event with or…

National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) Writing Team member Marilyn G. Stewart discusses what to expect from the new "next generation" Visual Arts Standards, detailing the 4 Artistic Processes and 15 Enduring Understandings. This invited essay addresses the instructional aspects of the standards, and looks at how they can help…

Once a month, art educators from the Denver metro area have been gathering together in the spirit of inquiry to explore issues of the perceived theory and daily practice divide. The Theory Loves Practice (TLP) group was started in 2010 by Professors Rachael Delaney and Anne Thulson from Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU) and now has 40…

Advocacy is not new to art education. Over the years, Goldfarb (1979), Hodsoll (1985), and Erickson and Young (1996) have written about the importance of arts advocacy, but the concept of advocacy has evolved with the times. For example, in the 1970s, arts advocacy was described as a "movement" and brought together art educators, administrators,…

3-D animated virtual worlds are no longer only for gaming. With the advance of technology, animated virtual worlds not only are found on every computer, but also connect users with the internet. Today, virtual worlds are created not only by companies, but also through the collaboration of users. Online 3-D animated virtual worlds provide a new…

Since the introduction of personal computers, art educators increasingly have adopted new digital technologies into their pedagogy, yet overall that adoption has been a slow process. Many teachers remain still infrequent users of technology or avoid using new learning technologies in art classrooms. It is important for art education to embrace an…

Public education today is mired in controversy, fraught with well-orchestrated attacks on teachers at every level, from Head Start to higher education. As pointed out by leading educational theorists Henry Giroux (2009) and Diane Ravitch (2011), under the guise of fiscal responsibility, powerful interests in this country have been able to convince…

In considering how policy work might forward arts education, it is helpful to reflect on the present state of music and arts education while looking ahead at future challenges and possibilities. This response to Shuler's (2001) set of predictions related to music education and policy in the twenty-first century addresses such work in the…