In the 1972 Studies summary of his dissertation, Gene Mittler provided an instructional strategy that promised to be an effective means of improving elementary education majors' attitudes toward art. Article gave a brief overview of his study and a reexamination of his research design. (Author/RK)

Points out that art in U.S. community colleges is important and enduring but not obviously central to institutional mission. Discusses results from a survey indicating students reported much greater gains in self-confidence, respect for other people, openness toward new ideas, employable skills, and an awareness of alternatives in education and…

Explores differences among art teachers' personal art preferences, their predicted student preferences, and students' actual preferences, as well as each groups' preferences for styles to use in teaching. Finds high correlations between personal and educational preferences and low correlations between teachers' predictions of students' preferences…

Reports the results of a two-year case study of 144 third and fourth graders' art materials preferences. Results indicate that the students preferred different media for different reasons, with favorites being clay, craypas, felt-tipped pens, and cardboard or wood. Maintains that art educators should take into account students' perceptions about…

This study attempted to simulate learning conditions for art activities in which verbal language variables as predispositions for learning in art could be systematically varied and observations made of their effects on aesthetic quality of art products, aesthetic judgmental abilities, and art acceptance attitudes of early adolescent art students.…

To identify an easy and effective method by which the classroom teacher can expand student art preferences, this study examined three suggested approaches: habituation; art criticism (Feldman-Mittler Methodology); and art production (studio activities). Combinations of these approaches were studied in interaction with students' grade level. (SJL)

Results of this study indicate that students' attitudes toward styles of painting studied were influenced in a positive direction through use of an experimental curriculum. (RW)

Investigates the intentions for and judgments about student artwork from the different perspectives of middle school students and their teachers through teacher-student conversations. Reveals acts of resistance and negotiation as students' ideas, preferences, judgments, and meanings interface with the instructional goals and aesthetic views of the…

Reviews research on the relationship between self-directed learning and selected demographic predictors. Concludes that student age may be an important determinant of success at the college level but is not significant in postsecondary art education programs. Finds that education level is a more accurate predictor among older adults. (CFR)

Results indicated that, for elementary students, art criticism was more effective than a combination of methodologies for developing positive affect toward art works. For junior high students, the combination methodology was more effective than art criticism, the exposure method, or the counterattitudinal advocacy method. (Author/SR)

Explores the evolution of a photomontage assignment in a college-level course for academically unprepared students by summarizing the original assignment and then describing the latest version after a three-year period. Believes that the current assignment promotes aesthetically rich and meaningful artwork from students and a positive shift in…

Discusses a study that compared the effects of selected aspects of a discipline-based approach to ceramic instruction with a child-centered approach. Makes comparisons in relation to fifth grade students' self-concepts, attitudes toward art, knowledge of art, and the aesthetic quality of modeled human figures and ceramic vessels. (KM)

Asserts that educational researchers ideally want their interests, values, and assumptions about life and human purpose interwoven with their research themes. Reviews research in art education. Concludes that one topic to study would be the relationship between art education and life. (CFR)

Participant observation of an innovative art teacher's classroom technique suggested that, despite his popularity with students, this teacher did not fully engage his students' attention. His attempt at using cognitive dissonance to bring about attitudinal change in the classroom left many students baffled despite the effort expended to involve…