Teaching leadership presents a challenge as students come into the topic with underlying assumptions of what makes for a good or bad leader. The experiential exercise described here brings together the worlds of leadership and art to elicit the students' implicit leadership theories. We have students look at works of art and relate them to their…

As an adult educator for more than 30 years, I have always searched for ways to incorporate creative expression into my teaching practice through engaged pedagogy and student assignments. My major influences came not from educational sources but from the art world and from natural surroundings. In the early 1990's I discovered New Brunswick-based…

"Induction" refers to the process in which people generalize their previous experience when making uncertain inferences about the environment that go beyond direct experience. Here we show that interim tests strongly enhance inductive learning. Participants studied the painting styles of eight famous artists across four lists, each…

In this article, I show how I enhanced my understanding of my practice as an artist, researcher and teacher using a self-study approach in my recently completed Master of Technology (M.Tech.) dissertation in Graphic Design. As part of my M.Tech. research, I conceptualised and developed a creative teaching tool that I named "PicTopics."…

We present a set of exercises designed to be used in a survey astronomy course, an introductory astronomy laboratory course, or in secondary education. The exercises use the great works of Vincent van Gogh but could be easily extended to other works of art. We also include a brief description of our current practices, lectures, and group questions…

One can easily find a choice studio. In this choice-based art classroom, the students move comfortably within an organized structure of space, time and materials, managed by the teacher. They are well aware of their responsibilities and their possibilities. The teacher helps them to mine their lives and interests for the content of their…

In this article, the author shares how she changed the way she engaged with Alex, a student who was reluctant to do art projects. While reflecting on Alex's objections to doing art projects, she noticed one concern in particular that arose again and again: he wanted to play. Alex experienced the shift into art-making as a break from playing with…

Murals have become a powerful art form for portraying antiwar, human rights, social justice, and human dignity issues. Educators and artists have conducted mural workshops with adolescents in international settings to educate them about peace, human rights, and cultural tolerance. Learning with murals has been shown to be pedagogically meaningful…

In this article, the author shares tips on how to keep students interested in learning about still-life art lessons. She relates that her main goal was to formally introduce students to observational drawing and the element of value. She shares that to prevent her students from losing interest, she keeps her time short, keeps the project simple,…

In Kathleen Loomis's preschool classroom at the Bennington College Early Childhood Center, the goal for children is not to produce beautiful and expressive artworks or to learn specific methods of working with art media--although those things do happen. Here, the curriculum is built around the philosophy that learning to think and create with art…

Miriam Schapiro's moving artworks take on a life of their own, without the use of traditional chiaroscuro or muscular-skeletal correctness. Taking on the medium of mixed-media collage and raising it from banal reality to high art, Schapiro infuses her work with enough art elements and design principles to stimulate rooms full of art students at a…

A powerful motivational force for painting activities may be found in the study of artworks by outstanding artists. The focus here is on the Twentieth-Century movement, Abstract Expressionism. Students are encouraged to combine discoveries of experiment with thoughtful development of their work. Recommended for junior/senior high school painting…

The author discusses techniques of making students aware of colors. (MF)

This article describes how the students in Maine greatly benefited from the original artworks donated by the famous artist William Thon. Thon was a 20th century artist celebrated in Maine for his paintings of coastal landscapes, turbulent seascapes, sailboats, and fishing boats. Thon, who was widowed, childless, and blind, has left his…

The monotype is a singular work of art created by transferring an image from one surface to another. Methods and suggestions to help elementary and secondary students make watercolor monotypes are discussed. (RM)