Art Education

The Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education marks a milestone in the field of art education. Sponsored by the National Art Education Association and assembled by an internationally known group of art educators, this 36-chapter handbook provides an overview of the remarkable progress that has characterized this field in recent decades. Organized into six sections, it profiles and integrates the following elements of this rapidly emerging field: history, policy, learning, curriculum and instruction, assessment, and competing perspectives. Because the scholarly foundations of art education are relatively new and loosely coupled, this handbook provides researchers, students, and policymakers (both inside and outside the field) an invaluable snapshot of its current boundaries and rapidly growing content. In a nutshell, it provides much needed definition and intellectual respectability to a field that as recently as 1960 was more firmly rooted in the world of arts and crafts than in scholarly research.

Part One: Biological Bases Aesthetics, Psychobiology, and Cognition by Colin Martindale Analog Art and Digital Art: A Brain-Hemisphere Critique of Modern Painting by Paul Vitz Part Two: Psychological Bases Creativity and Problem Finding in Art by M. Csikzentmihalyi and J.w. Getzels Personality and Scientific Aesthetics by H.J. Eysenck Part Three: Philosophical and Social Foundations Aesthetics as Foundations of Art Education by H.S. Broudy On the Deschooling Artists, or, the Meaning and Functions of the New Avant-Garde by Stefan Morawski Part Four: Issues in Education Cultural Dimensions in the Teaching of Art by June King McFee A Propositional View of Aesthetic Experienceing for Research and Teaching in Art Education by Ronald W. Neperud The Significance of the Computer in Art by Edward R. Pope Programmed Paintings: Elementary School Children's Computer-Generated Designs by Joachim F. Wohlwill and Suzanne D. Wills

The ideas, people, and events that developed art education are described and analyzed so that art educators and educators in general will have a better understanding of what has happened (and is happening) to visual art in the schools. Peter Smith raises the issue of art education's inordinate emphasis on Eurocentric art. He challenges the often expressed notion that the field of education is the cause of art education's problems and proposes that confused conceptions within the art world are just as much a root of the difficulty. No other book in art education history gives such close and analytical attention to the careers of women in the field. The materials on Germanic cultural and historical influences are unequaled as is the scholarly treatment of Viktor Lowenfeld, probably the most influential single figure in 20th-century American art education.

At a time when Americans are increasingly concerned with finding jobs and economic stability, supporting families, and surviving in the global economy, many consider the arts to be a luxury, a frivolous distraction which entices students away from real learning. In Strong Arts, Strong Schools, Charles Fowler argues that, far from a luxury, the arts are a vitally important part of our society and our schools. Speaking directly to educators, policy makers, and parents alike, Fowler presents a compelling defense of the arts and their importance in our lives. The arts illuminate "life in all its mystery, misery, delight, pity and wonder." Without them, students are deprived of learning what it means to be truly human. The arts teach students how rather than what to think. Highlighting the crucial effect of the arts on learning, he contends that the arts teach skills that other basic subjects cannot--critical thinking and problem solving, judgment and independence, attention to detail and craftsmanship, and an openness to other cultures and ways of thinking. Arguing on behalf of the arts, Fowler shows how the arts can enliven and extend the entire school curriculum by integrating different subjects in innovative interdisciplinary ways, sparking the interest of at-risk or special needs students. "The best schools have the best arts programs," writes Fowler. "Excellence in education and excellence in the arts go hand in hand." In eighteen compelling essays, Fowler demonstrates the importance of the arts in our culture and the necessity of rescuing the arts for our future. Beginning with an overview of the context in which the arts operate, he offers an honest and sometimes distressing overview of the state of education and arts education today. He then examines the arts and economics, presenting a carefully researched exposition of the significance of the arts and their relationship to science and industry. Showing how the arts provide a more comprehensive education, he shows why the arts engage students and make learning relevant and fun. Tackling the controversial question of curriculum, Fowler addresses such questions as who should study the arts, which arts, and whose culture should be taught. Citing a shameful neglect of creativity in our culture, he highlights the negligence of the schools in teaching students to be creative and inventive thinkers, and he shows the capacity of the arts to communicate these essential skills. Fowler concludes the book with suggestions for reform and with practical strategies for winning the support of school boards and school administrators. Finally asking "how do we get there," he offers specific recommendations for changing our schools, providing equal opportunity for all, and--perhaps most critically in today's economic climate--paying the bill. In this elegantly written, passionately argued book, Fowler presents a convincing case for teaching the arts to all children. "A downtrodden army of cultureless children," Fowler warns, "is marching toward a barren and depleted adulthood and taking the future of our civilization with them." Strong Arts, Strong Schools is a clarion call to action for any teacher, parent, policy maker, or citizen concerned about the fate of the arts in American society and about the state of our schools.

American education in the arts and aesthetics has been harmed by the late 20th-century "hard-boundaried" approach, which overvalues specialization and discourages integrated, interdisciplinary approaches to understanding history, theory, and practice in all the arts. Detels analyzes this marginalization of the arts and aesthetics in American education and suggests that a widespread interdisciplinary integration of the arts is essential in order to provide students with necessary communication and interpretation skills the future.

Issues in Art and Design Teaching draws together a range of pedagogical and ethical issues for trainee and newly qualified teachers of art and design, and their mentors in art and design education. Arguing for a critical approach to the art and design curriculum, the collection encourages students and teachers to consider and reflect on issues in order that they can make reasoned and informed judgments about their teaching of art and design. Among the key issues addressed include: * Challenging orthodoxies and exploring contemporary practices; * Measuring artistic performance * Art history and multicultural education; * Research in art and design education; * Transitions in art and design education: primary/secondary and secondary/tertiary; * The role of art and design in citizenship education. Newly qualified and trainee teachers will find Issues in Art and Design Teaching invaluable for its thoughtful and stimulating coverage of the central concerns in this subject.

The Routledge International Companion to Education addresses the key issues underpinning the rethinking and restructuring of education at the beginning of the new millennium. Each chapter gives a contemporary account of developments in the field, and looks to the future and the directions that new activity and inquiry are likely to take. All the chapters are written from an international perspective.

Assessing Expressive Learning is the only book in the art education field to date to propose and support a research-supported teacher-directed authentic assessment model for evaluating K-12 studio art, and to offer practical information on how to implement the model. This practical text for developing visual arts assessment for grades 1-12 is based on and supported by the results of a year-long research effort primarily sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, involving 70 art teachers and 1,500 students in 12 school districts in Florida, Indiana, and Illinois. The purpose of the study was to demonstrate that creative artwork by K-12 students can be empirically assessed using quantitative measures that are consistent with the philosophical assumptions of authentic learning and with the means and ends of art, and that these measures can reliably assess student art growth. A further goal was to provide a rationale for the assessment of student art as an essential part of the K-12 instructional program and to encourage art teachers to take responsibility for and assume a leadership role in the assessment of art learning in the school and the school district. Assessing Expressive Learning: reports on current assessment methods but also stresses a time-tested portfolio assessment process that can be used or adapted for use in any K-12 art classroom; includes the assessment instruments used in the study and several case studies of art teachers using electronic portfolios of student work, a bibliography of major art assessment efforts, and a critical review of current methods; is designed to be teacher- and system-friendly, unlike many other art assessment publications that provide only a review of information on assessment; and both documents an experiment where artistic values and aesthetic issues were considered paramount in the education of K-12 students in the visual arts, and also serves as a guide for the conduct of similar experiments by art teachers in the nation's schools-the research methodology and results are reported in an appendix in a format that will enable educational researchers to duplicate the study. This volume is ideal as a text for upper-division undergraduate and graduate classes in visual arts education assessment, and highly relevant for college art education professors, researchers, and school district personnel involved in the education and supervision of art teachers, and researchers interested in performance measurement.

For all involved in teaching young children, this timely book offers the necessary tool with which to develop a broad, creative and inspirational visual arts programme. Presented in two parts, this text covers both theoretical and practical angles: * Part one investigates contemporary early childhood art education, challenging what is traditionally considered an early years art experience * Part two puts theory to text by presenting the reader with numerous inventive visual art lessons that imaginatively meet goals for creative development issued by the QCA The author strikes the perfect balance between discussion of the subject and provision of hands-on material for use in lessons, which makes this book a complete art education resource for all involved in early years art education. Teachers, trainee teachers, or nursery teachers, who wish to implement a more holistic art curriculum in the classroom whilst meeting all the required standards, will find this an essential companion.