Research evidence suggests that summer breaks contribute to income-based achievement and opportunity gaps for children and youth. However, summertime can also be used to provide programs that support an array of goals for children and youth, including improved academic achievement, physical health, mental health, social and emotional well-being,…

This paper reports on a recent action research project: "Enhancing environmental awareness through the arts". This project involved working with two early childhood professionals and 28 children in a long day care centre in the Sydney CBD at the end of 2006. Its aim was to assess the outcomes for the early childhood professionals, and…

For over 30 years, arts education has been a low priority in the nation's public schools. Arts teaching positions were cut, and arts education in schools has dwindled as schools try to increase test scores in mathematics and reading within the time constraints of the school day. Some communities have responded with initiatives aimed at…

There are different types of copying, some involving artistic behaviors and some not. It is important to differentiate these types, separating the replication of conventions from more inventive artistic behaviors. A framework for such examination is applied in a group of pilot studies involving children copying comic strips. (Author/RM)

Contends that using art textbooks is a relatively new trend in art education. Reports on a survey about art textbook use among 64 art teachers involved in an in-service teacher education program. Concludes it is important that the art education field encourages, promotes, and supports research on the use of art textbooks. (CFR)

Conducted through the joint auspices of the National Art Education Association and Illinois State University College of Fine Arts, this national survey gathered data through a mail questionnaire of more than 1,000 higher education institutions located in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. The institutions included two-year and four-year…

This document describes a study to assess the change in students' responses toward the visual arts as a result of their participation in an entrance level art course. The course was structured to provide the students with an understanding of art skills, a recognition of excellence in art objects, and knowledge of diversity of delivery through…

The results of an intensive study of sixth graders' perceptions about art are presented. It is increasingly apparent that students and their variations in perception, preferences, individual aptitudes, styles, personalities, and traits influence instruction and its outcomes as much as does the teacher. (RM)

Uses a case-study approach to examine the role of belief as a catalytic quality in the artistic making and the thinking processes used by children. Describes the processes encountered by children when presented with artistic tasks. Discusses the relationship between belief and the three other main dimensions of artistic thinking and making: social…

This report summarizes and compares the views of six experts in art education concerned with teaching art for students' conceptual understanding at the elementary level. Two art education professors and three public school art specialists who teach art at the elementary level engaged in comprehensive written exercises to address issues related to…

The study with 34 gifted fifth-grade students found that a concrete sequential approach to developing visual literacy was more effective than an abstract visualization approach. Subjects either received guided visualization or direct instruction on such art concepts as shape, form, line, color, perspective, variety, and unity. (DB)

This study explores the relationship between art object preferences and aesthetic attitudes of high school students. A corollary variable was socioeconomic status as determined by the National Opinion Research Center scale. A sample of 443 students, grades 8-12, in a Virginia high school, were studied. The 5-point Aesthetic Attitude Scale was used…

Trainable mentally retarded high school students in Brunswick, Maine, spend three hours out of every school day learning a variety of art and handicraft skills in the Title IV Marketable Skills Project, and the rest of their time learning daily living skills. (DLS)

In 1987 the Alaska Department of Education conducted a survey of the state fine arts curriculum. The resulting information revealed an inconsistency in Alaska Native Arts Education throughout the state. To explore this situation further, the Arts in Education Program conducted its own survey in the spring of 1990, entitled, "Native Arts…

This study reports data concerning spatial abilities of professional art students. It is part of an ongoing collection of data on spatial abilities on the incoming freshman class at a large major private art school. The battery of eight tests has proven to be highly reliable and valid in previous studies with the specific population. Researchers…