The present research investigates the experiences of preservice visual arts teachers in the planning and application phase of a course focusing on visual culture in the special teaching methods course. This course in Turkey provides information about how and with what type of methodologies arts-related topics should be taught in visual arts…

Visual arts theory is fundamental to facilitating visual literacy, or students' ability to decode and construct imagery. Visual literacy skills support students' participation in contemporary society. This doctoral study uses a mixed methods approach to investigate students' engagement in visual arts theory, as increased engagement may facilitate…

In interactive media, it is the spaces between the text that are as important to read as the text itself. Visual literacy is a vital form of reading in an increasingly pictorial world. This paper examines the grammar of visual literacy by analyzing the discourse of a group of adolescents and the way they interpret multi-layered, seriated, and…

Highlighting many of the author's own experiences as an artist and an art instructor, this paper laments the problem of visual ignorance among contemporary children and proposes a course in basic visual literacy. Such a course would teach form and content as interactive and synergistic concepts rather than as separate attributes. Students could…

Art history is a hybrid discipline that combines the verbal with the visual, yet the limiting verbal approach traditionally has defined the field. Another problem at the university level is that different types of classes define visually literacy differently; for example, art education programs emphasize perceptual and cognitive angles while art…

Past uses of art reproductions in schools and mass media publications are described, along with political, economic, and aesthetic issues raised by such usage. The presentation focuses on concerns associated with present and future educational use of reproductions, whether electronic or some other form. Issues of selectivity and aesthetics are…

This paper discusses current changes in the teaching and learning of artistic rendering in light of technological advances that may cause teachers to rethink both what is taught, and the manner in which the results of the artistic process are valued and evaluated. The two methods of generating a photorealistic computer image are described,…

The essential task of sharpening students' sensitivities may be facilitated by the curriculum, instructional program, and personnel of the school. Aesthetic education is basic because it is founded on the creative integration of sensing, feeling, intuiting, and thinking. The arts curriculum may be used to sharpen students' awareness and…

For the most part, the visual component has been ignored in programs developed to improve the general education of undergraduate students. At the University of Cincinnati (Ohio), however, a general education program has been developed that includes a visual literacy component. Faculty development workshops have been held to remind faculty members…

The puzzling quality of modern art, in both its complexity and its simplicity, symbolizes a barrier between the student and the elite's privilege of power. Too frequently, students have been taught that art is a secret, a code to which only teachers have the key, and that there is only one correct interpretation of a work, which must be imparted…

The goal of an introductory graphics course is fundamental visual literacy, which includes learning to appreciate the power of visuals in communication and to express ideas visually. Traditional principles of design--the focus of the course--are based on more fundamental gestalt theory, which relates to human pattern-seeking behavior, particularly…

This paper discusses the relationship between "language" and "visual language." The paper describes two integrated teaching projects (children ages 4-11) in Croatia in which English as a Foreign Language and the visual language are presented as two potential common languages for young people to improve their communication in…

This paper illustrates and explains the relationship between drawing ability and spatial and visual-perceptual ability; it defines those terms and explores their connection to intelligence and information processing as well as their potential implications for education and training. Discussion covers results of recent studies, which suggest that…

The purpose of this in-progress study is to try to find commonalities between visual proficiency and artistic performance. In order to assess visual proficiency, a test of spatial ability is being developed and pilot tested. Student performance on the test will be recorded and examined in relation to two traditional measures of student art…

Educators should be encouraged to develop elementary school students' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the visual arts in an integrated approach to curriculum development in the schools. Instruction in the visual arts is frequently presented in isolation from other subjects, but resources are available to support reinforcement in…