The art of looking is a museum and art gallery teaching tool at the core of the Visual Thinking Strategies, a Harvard School of Education pedagogy initiated as an educational experiment for schools across the United States almost two decades ago. Today, a large number of schools implement this teaching method to increase student engagement in a…

During a classroom-based study that explored the teaching and learning of visual elements of art and design, Grade 7 students had the opportunity to read four graphic novels. Theoretically, the research was informed by social semiotics, visual literacy, sociocultural theory, and Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reading. The instructional unit…

The visual public record of the early West represents a site of national, continental, hemispheric, and global configurations of territory, power, and imagination. The early photograph reproduces the contradictory encounters between industry, settlers, and Indigenous communities as a particular future is envisioned and contested. The…

A small campus of an American university located in Vienna, Austria, which has typically focused on management courses, seeks to introduce a new kind of art program. Planners developed an art major with a sociological emphasis on visual culture. Students are given a chance to explore the images they are bombarded with every day and to gain new…

Identifies concepts relevant to aesthetic literacy, suggests possible procedures for instruction, examines different interpretations of aesthetics, and presents a curriculum model for aesthetic literacy. (Author/JDH)

Line, shape, color and texture have always been the universal components of visual expression. Together these elements form a visual language. This packet is designed to be used as part of the Thematic Tour "First Look" offered by the Georgia Department of Education. The material explores some of the ways people use pictorial language;…

The first step in learning to appreciate art is learning to classify a work according to its primary purpose. The artist creates art for one of three reasons: to recreate the physical world (Imitationalism); to express an idea or feeling (Emotionalism); or to create an interesting design (Formalism). A classified work may then be critiqued by: (1)…

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 rationale for this seminar was to strengthen the discipline-based art education (DBAE) stance and extend its horizons. The format of the proceedings featured a speaker followed by a respondent and group discussions on each of the four issues addressed by the seminar. Dennie Wolf explained how current research in child development and cognitive…

An examination of 19th century U.S. art and literature reveals the country's strong identification with nature, the ideals of individual freedom and pioneer courage, and the faith in human nature embraced by the immigrants who expanded the country. In the 17th and 18th centuries, U.S. painting reflected the styles and standards of English art. By…

This is an experimental textbook for teaching about the visual arts at the elementary level. The content answers five questions about art: what is art; who makes art; what are the sources for art; why is art important to you; and why is art important to society. At the end of each section of the text is a set of questions and suggestions for…

Beginning with a discussion of the functions of art, the author traces the various connections between visual forms and the personal, social, and physical dimensions of everyday life. These are examined in the light of the impact art has on psychological expression, social description, the communication of ideology, the design of useful objects,…

This study attempts to gain information concerning the receptive, as opposed to the creative, aesthetic experience by talking to museum professionals who spend their working lives identifying, appraising, and explicating works of art. The study is based on an underlying assumption that rules and practices for looking at art exist and must be…

Developed for intermediate and low intermediate adult and young adult English language readers, this book describes selected aspects of art and paintings. Topics covered include how to: (1) understand art as part of the environment that can be seen and felt; (2) recognize illusions; (3) comprehend the language of paintings; (4) read a picture; and…

Works of visual art contain an inner dynamism and energy that an individual's perceptual apparatus can translate into kinesthetic impressions, movement, and sound. Through this translation, a child's natural energies can interact with the artwork through multiple sensory experiences, enriching art appreciation. After a brief examination of the…