The purpose of this study was to explore the conceptions, feelings and attitudes of elementary and junior high school students toward the topics of aging, the elderly, death, and dying. To gather data, an announcement was made to all schools within the state that the Rhode Island Gerontology Center would sponsor a contest for all school children…

The Comic Book Project was launched originally as a way of putting into practice some of the most important educational research of the last decade--that is, the correlation between involvement in the arts and performance in academic subjects (Deasy, 2002; Fiske, 1999). This article is not necessarily about comic books; it is about children…

Children's drawings about reading and writing have unrealized potential for helping uncover the literacy narratives students bring to school and use to make sense of reading and writing. In this article, we highlight how one boy's drawing about literacy revealed his interpretation of his school's policy on violence as a topic of writing, which…

"Setting" A single primary school which serves a mixed socioeconomic area in the north of Scotland. "Method" Parents gave demographic details about their family and information about whether their children had been breastfed. Twenty- three children, aged 6, took part in three focus groups which were conducted by two…

Through content analysis of interviews based on a class art activity, a study of 15 first-graders investigated children's perceptions of a good story. The story was based on children's interpretation of artwork they had created. Through the use of content analysis, three major themes of the children's stories were identified: (1) animals as main…

This paper describes the creative activity of two first graders and identifies moments of creative activity that reflect the integration of strands of experience. Children's and adults' creativity are compared. Topics include: (1) the role of novelty in art; (2) the creative act as an interaction of individual, product, and culture; and (3) the…

"Gruppo Futuro" (Future Group), a novel educational project linking futures studies to multimedia and giving children control of the content of their instruction by focusing on their views of the future, was implemented in a Swedish fourth-grade class. Participating in the project were 29 children in Tullingebergsskolan, their teacher,…

Examined the mechanisms of peer influences on fifth-grade children's drawings. Observed the socio-collaborative processes by which children influence each other's artistic styles; found gender differences in content, technical quality, and meaning. (JPB)

Discusses a six week art class project for elementary school children that lasted for six weeks. Explains that the students painted sunflowers in the style of Vincent van Gogh over the rust spots of a pickup truck. Reports that the painting served as great publicity for the art classes. (CMK)

Environmental influences on the development of children's reflective capacities and their knowledge of freehand drawing were investigated among preschool, kindergarten and first-grade children. One aspect of the social context of drawing was considered: the interactions that take place when children draw in the company of peers. Tapes of…

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)

This paper reports the findings of an inquiry into the role of visual arts in early childhood education. The inquiry consisted of three parts: (1) a review of documented practices of and literature about art in early childhood education; (2) a field study that investigated the place of art activities in 10 preschool and nursery school settings in…

This paper examines art, a discipline that bears striking parallels, and differences, in the way it is practiced and valued in the United States and Japan. In Japan, art is a valued part of the elementary curriculum warranting as much time as science and social studies. In the United States, art is generally thought of as something extra to do if…

The purpose of this study is to show that there is a gradual and measurable development in the drawing of space representation concepts. A further purpose is to show that children's drawings of a village (which represent relations among concepts) may be a better measure of their conceptual maturity than their drawings of a man (which represent a…

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the use of young children's artwork in the assessment of reading abilities. The research method for the study was qualitative, and the design followed an interpretive approach. Subjects were 12 transitional-first grade students (a transitional-first grade allows a child with normal academic ability…