This thesis describes a process of teaching figure drawing to adolescents which places importance on the subjective experiences of the students. Traditional figure drawing methods emphasizing the development of visual perceptual skills are integrated with activities which are designed to secure emotional participation, and develop awareness of art as a means of expression and communication. This approach seems to motivate students and to reduce the anxiety usually experienced by adolescents when they are drawing the figure.

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This qualitative case study began with a question: How can interactivity be taught, in particular online interactivity? Additionally, how does the teaching artist’s practice of online interactivity inform their studio teaching of interactive related themes? As such, this study first discloses patterns of the three select digital media artists’ artistic experiences of online interactivity. Then, this study aims to explore the reciprocal relationships between their practices and studio teaching. The three participating artists include: Lynn Hershman Leeson, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Martine Neddam. The three selected artists have worked with digital media, with a focus on the Internet and online web browsers since the mid to late-1990s, when the Web was in the early stages of its public access and information deployment. In order to probe into this study’s research theme through the artists’ own voices, this study conducts in-depth interviews via email and Skype meetings. This study also employs In Vivo coding for data analysis in order to closely examine the interview data. The findings present a unit of discovered key concepts in response to the central research question and its sub-questions. In response to the role of online interactivity in the artistic process, four key concepts have emerged: active participation, relationship, freedom, and artistic language. The artists believe that the creation of online interactivity has its roots in critical reflection of digital culture with humanistic views. In regard to pedagogical and instructional strategies related to the participating teaching artists’ practices of online interactivity, the three primary patterns discovered in this study are: artistic experience, problem-solving and dialogue. Surprisingly, the findings show that the artists’ responses to their pedagogies present a general view of studio art reaching, rather than an emphasis on teaching online interactivity in particular. The artists described that their pedagogies are informed by their practices, which deal with different challenges in a problem-solving process. These problems cover technological skills, practical matters, and mindsets. For the artists, their role of the artist-as-teacher is to guide their students in developing the ability to think holistically, and give them problem-solving skills in the students’ individual artistic processes.

M.S.

This investigation is a study of the effect of adult influence of the directed and non-directed paintings of preschool children, the relationship of the mental age and the chronological age to the acceptance of suggestions, and the relationship of the mental age and the chronological age to the ability to represent form, Factors considered were the length of enrollment and age of the subjects. The subjects were sixteen preschool children, eight of whom were enrolled in the School of Home Economics Nursery School of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia, and eight enrolled in the Radford College Nursery School, Radford, Virginia. Mental age was determined by the Stanford Binet Intelligence Test Form IM. Each subject was given a directed and a non-directed experience using a toy fur kitten and a directed and a non-directed experience using a dog story. Comments of the subjects were recorded in both sessions. The results of the collected data showed that as the chronological age and mental age increases, the ability to represent form becomes greater. Spontaneous verbal expression was greater in the non-directed experiences than in the directed experiences. The paintings were judged to determine which were directed and non-directed. Scoring by the judges shows that verbal interference is discernible in preschool children’s paintings. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to provide a basis for understanding among Tech Prep and School-to-Work change agents, and educational leaders, of the role that Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE) can perform as a part of the core curriculum, within the framework of these reform movements. The literature indicated that the federally supported Tech Prep and School-to-Work reform movements were not acquainted with DBAE reform initiative which were supported by the Getty Education Institute for the Arts through the work of Regional Institutes. Therefore, they had no ideas about the possible worth of art as an education core component. Also, DBAE was not acquainted with Tech Prep and School-to-Work and therefore had established no common terminology to communicate the power of what they do in a manner which was relevant to that audience. The DBAE Regional Institutes provided individuals to assist in the development and validation of the study tools, and to participate in the pilot study. The Regional Institutes also identified the 10 Discipline-Based Art Education experts who composed the national Delphi panel for the study. The findings were reported according to research questions. They show the national Delphi panels' perceptions of which SCANS skills can be developed by Content Standards and Performance Standards from the National Standards for [Visual] Arts Education. The study concluded that: 1) there is a relationship between the Content and Performance Standards taken from the National Standards for [Visual] Arts Education and the SCANS skills; 2) SCANS Basic skills, Thinking skills, Resources skills, Information skills and Systems skills could be developed through the achievement of the Performance Standards of the National Standards for [Visual] Arts Education; and 3) the relationship between the SCANS Workplace Know-How skills and the National Standards for [Visual] Art Education was validated by a national Delphi panel. Recommendations were made for DBAE, Tech Prep and School-to-Work, and Future Studies.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

“In what ways does teaching with folk arts inspired visual arts-based instruction enhance community building among elementary students in a Title I school?” was the primary research question in this study. Agreeing with past and present day research that the construct of community is vital to social and cultural capital, this research attempts to determine how the notion of community benefits both students and teachers in the elementary art classroom. Folk art was utilized because this genre was accessible in terms of locality and familiarity among students and teachers. The purpose of this investigation was to produce teaching strategies and methods that show how community can be formed in the art classroom. The participants were elementary students, Grades 2 and 3, in a Title I school located in Denton, Texas. This investigation was conducted under an action research methodology. This approach to research is intended to be transformational, emergent, and accommodating. I recorded observations, field notes, and conversations from the participants. Emergent themes were discovered through content analysis and conceptual maps. Results from this investigation concluded transformation is only possible if the person wants change to happen. Data also showed that community and art education are symbiotic. Transformation, growth, and cultivation are demands that must be met in order for this relationship to flourish. In addition, data suggested that the role of folk arts-based lessons played a significant role in building community among second and third graders.