To foster learner focus and deepen engagement while embracing contemporary standards for teaching art and other subjects, teachers must help students more fully understand art images, objects, and events, present and past, so that they can understand the relevance and significance of art in their lives. Using a balanced approach that attends…

This visual arts project was initiated at the West Virginia University Laboratory School (Nursery School) several years ago and has assisted children in reproducing prints of famous artists. Using the principles of behaviorism in conjunction with developmentally appropriate practice has helped young children to extend their knowledge in the visual…

The visual arts can be an important and rich domain of learning for young children. In PreK education, The Task Force on Children's Learning and the Arts: Birth to Age Eight ("Young children and the arts: Making creative connections", Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership, 1998) recommends that art experiences for young children…

In past years, teachers without professional training in the arts have often been able to avail themselves of summer institutes that introduced them to specific works of art and followed up with artists in the classroom, performance, or trips to an art museum. But what happens when such support is no longer available and teachers have to function…

Since the dawn of time, human imagination has resulted in creating extensions of self (that is, tools) as a means to overcome obstacles produced by genetic limits. Whether the tool extends thought or sense; whether the tool is organic, such as language, or inorganic; and whether electronic, digital, or analog, the artist plies the science or…

Highlighting the fundamental concepts of discipline-based art education (DBAE), this essay supports a comprehensive elementary and secondary education visual arts teaching approach that features content and skill learning in art history, production, criticism, and aesthetics. Section 1, "The Arts and the Mission of Education," considers:…

This booklet provides the technical information necessary in handling exhibits of paintings, prints, sculpture, tapestries, and artifacts of interest and value to students. It was published in response to widespread interest, by college union staff and students, in the development of good art exhibit programs and permanent art collections. The…

This report summarizes the results of a research project to examine arts participation patterns in 12 diverse communities across the United States. The research involved two major components: (1) the administration of an arts participation survey to randomly selected households in each area, and (2) research into the supply of local arts programs…

A detailed history of United States government involvement with the arts from 1780 to 1985 is provided in chronological form. Entries range from notes documenting John Adams' and Thomas Jefferson's commitment to the arts to notes on annual budgets and allocations. Separate sections contain lists of the original members of the National Council on…

Describes a project designed to enhance the development of preschool children's aesthetic awareness. Explores how the project presented strategies and materials that can be readily incorporated into the curriculum for any group of young children. Strategies included focusing children's observations; making art happen; and expanding artistic…

This paper focuses on two questions: (1) Can visual arts be an effective way for students to express what they have learned in social studies?; and (2) Can creative activity improve motivation, participation, attitude, and enhance learning in social studies? The sample for study was drawn from 75 fifth-graders in 3 classes in a school located in a…

A checklist is provided to help civilization teachers identify relevant aspects of the visual arts. The goal is comprehensive treatment of works of art by focusing on the aesthetic dimension, social context, and the artist's experience. Activities are suggested for integration of aspects of the arts while practicing language skills. (Author/MSE)

The author describes a lesson she did on abstract art with her high school art classes. She passed out a required step-by-step outline of the project process. She asked each of them to look at abstract art. They were to list five or six abstract artists they thought were interesting, narrow their list down to the one most personally intriguing,…

Until recently, little scholarly attention has been paid to the art found in children's books. This study describes a project with a fifth grade class in an effort to increase their ability to critique book illustrations. Ten slides from picture books were shown to one experimental and one control group. Students were asked to critique the…

This guide is designed to help teachers develop sequential and creative art education programs in elementary and secondary classrooms. Specific goals focus on enabling students to perceive, describe, and respond to the aesthetic qualities of the natural and man-made environment; to analyze, judge and value works of art; to acquire a knowledge of…