Based on Joshua Johnson's 1897 oil-on-canvas painting called "The Westwood Children," this article offers a full-color reproduction and lesson plan designed to introduce students in the primary grades to early American portraiture. (JDH)

A model for the teaching of aesthetic dialogue to intermediate grade students is presented. One outcome of children discussing the aesthetic structure of art is that they transfer this learning and structure to other areas of their life. (Author/RM)

Reasons why art education should be concerned with contemporary visual culture are examined. Three ways the art curriculum can be restructured to respond critically to visuals such as photographs, advertising, television, and rock videos are outlined. (RM)

Aesthetic perception must be taught if we expect students to use it. Within a given society, the creators and viewers of art are socialized to more or less agreed upon aesthetic codes and conventions. (Author/RM)

Aesthetic education has attempted to teach art history and criticism, along with providing traditional art activities. The viability of aesthetic education is criticized, and a step beyond it is suggested. The purpose of this new direction, aesthetic literacy, is to ensure that students become knowledgeable consumers of the visual arts. (CS)

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)…

Presents reasons why art education should be considered a mainstream discipline. The author argues that art educators must use their skills in visual media to communicate the importance of visual literacy. The relevance of art to work skills, language acquisition, and cultural values is examined. (AM)

Presents a model for systematizing the relationships between core content and educational objectives in British art and design classes. The model shows how the expressive, perceptual, analytic and cultural domains of art and design education are interrelated. Available from Carfax Publishing Company, P.O. Box 25, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 1RW…

Describes nine consequences for children who are given the opportunity to work with art teachers. Some of these are that making images provides intrinsic satisfaction; children learn that the images they create can function as symbols; and children's power to conceptualize visual ideas and to use effective means of expressing them increases. (KC)

Examines the relationship between art and technology by discussing the impact of television. Describes this relationship from five different perspectives. Suggests that it remains to be seen whether technology will replace the printed page and lead to a more visually and aurally receptive state. (KO)

This study investigates the relationship of teaching strategies emphisizing visual problem solving through the medium of photography to increased visual perceptual levels in second and third grade students. Twenty-five subjects from three classroom groups were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups labeled Perceptual Principles Group…

Presents a lesson plan based on John Singleton Copley's 1795 oil painting, "Portrait of Nathaniel Hurd." The goal of the lesson is to give students in grades four through six an awareness of portraiture and how portraits record not only character but historical times and customs. (JDH)

"At the Piano," an oil-on-canvas painting completed in 1859 by James Abbot McNeill Whistler, is used as the basis of a lesson designed to help junior high school students analyze the painting's mood, subject matter, and composition. (JDH)

Defines aesthetic scanning, the perceptual activity that artists use when creating art and that connoisseurs use when contemplating it. Shows how to ask questions that elicit information about the sensory, formal, expressive, and technical properties of a work of art. (JDH)

Children at the preoperational and concrete operational levels are influenced by a variety of perceptual cues other than subject matter when classifying paintings. While younger children had little difficulty in classifying paintings done in three stylistic categories, older children were able to perform this task with significantly greater…