The inkling was there all along. Back in 2005, in "A Whole New Mind," author Daniel Pink included design--"utility enhanced by significance"--as an essential aptitude for the 21st-century learner. Some attentive independent school educators began looking around. If forward-thinking independent schools are to produce new minds, they maintained,…

Aesthetic learning is a major issue in arts education. The "method of art" is often expected to facilitate in-depth learning not only in the arts but across the curriculum. This article defines aesthetic learning in terms of a conceptual framework based on two dimensions, one representing the goal and the other the means of aesthetic learning. The…

The objective of this research and development was to develop a curriculum for enhancing grade 7 students' aesthetic sense and substantial art learning. There were 2 phases of the study consisting of: (i) the study of basic information about art aesthetics, including the attributes, approaches, theories, problems, and needs, (ii) the development…

In the quest for more effective education, how can direct personal engagement with actual aesthetic experiences--attendance of performances, participation in artistic workshops and activities, and viewing of actual artworks--play an important role? Art educators have a tremendous opportunity to guide students to engage mind, body, and soul--until…

While it would be egregious not to acknowledge the dire state and looming removal of art and music programs in many schools today, it is equally important to recognize that individual classroom atmosphere ultimately begins with and emanates from the primary/elementary teacher. Teaching of young children is a soulful experience; it comes from the…

While the arts in the United States are themselves often controversial, arts in public schools rarely are. That is to say that teachers, administrators, parents, students, and community members tend to agree that the opportunity to participate in the arts is beneficial to students and to the wider society. Whether discipline-based arts education…

This article aims to examine the kinds of teaching practices that correspond to the various educational roles ascribed to the arts within school curricula. Three teaching approaches are analyzed: (1) "teaching the arts", in which the arts are treated as distinct cognitive teaching subjects; (2) "teaching through the arts", in…

This article explores a double-bind in early schooling: a persistent value placed upon presenting multicultural art forms to a child constructed as incapable of grasping what is not familiar. The author argues that this bind is situated within dominant developmental discourses that emphasize the appropriateness of concrete and sequential…

Memories of our schooling and teaching experiences shape our curriculum and pedagogical decision-making process in art education when we become teachers and teacher educators. In this paper, using Hannah Arendt's Actor-Spectator Theory, I engage in retrospective critical introspection of my practices as an art teacher and curriculum developer in…

In September 2008 the author created an encounter between herself and Rick Walker, the Director of Cartwheel Arts, a small community arts company in Rochdale, in the North West of England. As one of the three founding workers of what was then Cartwheel Community Arts in 1984, she hoped to create a conversation which recollected or traced some of…

When artists are inspired to travel in Europe to study art and history of the Western world, Italy is a good place to start. With its ancient architecture, rich cultural heritage, and superb works of art, Italy has been the quintessential center of Western art history for centuries. It was the good fortune of Alabama-based artist and teacher…

This qualitative research study explores the experiences of a diverse group of teacher candidates engaging in an aesthetic line of inquiry within two teacher preparation courses at a large, public urban university in New York City. Research centered on the question "What are the different ways that teacher candidates make meaning from a…

As an artist and educator with a strong interest in environmental issues, the author relates how he was led to ask the following questions: (1) How effective is environmental education, as it is currently taught? (2) How can ecological public art infuse environmental education with new ways of perceiving and addressing environmental issues? (3)…

The aim of this article is to bring attention to an important connection between art education programs and the development of social justice practices in K-16 classrooms. This article is organized into three sections. The first is an analysis of the hierarchical and unilateral approach to education that urban students experience throughout their…

The current study examines how children develop multimodal narratives through the construction of quilt squares and I Am poetry. Creating visual narratives through the use of personal artifacts lays the foundation for this artistic multiple literacy experience. The study focuses on the process and growth that a diverse group of kindergarten…