This thesis project presents possible uses of Virtual Reality for art education. To understand VR, this thesis reviews the history of using technology in educational environments and explores the concepts, definitions, and characteristics of VR in general. Then, it shows diverse purposes of VR for education and art educational environments. For an art class, the units present the use of Teen Second Life, which is a free on-line virtual world. The units demonstrate how art educators may use Teen Second life for high school art classes to build students’ understandings of their identities by creating their avatars, clothing, objects and artwork and by displaying the artwork in a virtual community. The purpose of this thesis project is to suggest possible uses of VR for art educational environments.

Through this curriculum study, I explored the application of ideas found within contemporary art education to a course of traditional secondary art history. These contemporary art education ideas included: visual culture instruction, interdisciplinary instruction, contemporary art instruction, curriculum development, the use of enduring ideas, and the inclusion of a variety of perspectives based on gender and ethnicity. Through these art education ideas, a new curriculum was formed, that pushed both the students and the teacher toward a more inclusive art history course that made real connections for students and allowed students to be active members in their own learning. Instruction shifted away from lecture and became more dialogue and discussion oriented. Unit examples are included for Romanticism, Dadaism, and American Social Realism.

This thesis provides elementary art teachers strategies for teaching lessons in a method called "differentiation". The purpose of differentiation is to tailor lesson plans to try and meet unique needs of the students. Lessons can be differentiated through content, process, or product. A teacher may choose one of these three areas and provide different approaches to the lesson to meet different learning needs of the students. To meet different learning needs in an efficient way, students are grouped for lessons based on their readiness, interests, or their learning styles. This thesis provides greater detail on content, process, product, readiness, interests, and learning profiles related to differentiation in the art classroom. It also provides practical strategies and lesson ideas for elementary art teachers who want to apply the differentiation teaching method in their classrooms.

When high school art teachers do not understand how their students experience creativity, studio art programs are less effective in fostering student learning than they would otherwise be. Nevertheless, extant research does not reveal a consistent or comprehensive understanding of how adolescents experience creativity in art education. Drawing on Csikszentmihalyi's theory of creativity and flow, this study explored students' perceptions of creativity and its relationship to flow, or the state of consciousness associated with optimal pleasure. This phenomenological study investigated students' perceptions of creativity and flow by interviewing nine high school advanced placement students in a public high school in southwest Florida. Data were drawn from three structured interviews with each subject and a field journal kept by the researcher. The Think Aloud technique used for the second interview provided rich descriptions while participants were in the midst of doing art. Field journal entries were organized according to Bailey's guide to field note classification. Moustakas's interpretation and modifications of the Van Kaam method of analysis provided a systematic approach to transcript reduction. The results of the investigation revealed four themes in the ways students perceive their own creativity, namely, influences, mindset, self-efficacy, and emotions. As they reflected on their perceptions of creativity and flow, students gained a greater awareness of their experience while creating art. Among the study's implications for social change, as art educators elicit these understandings, they foster creativity and transform students' lives in school and potentially, the wider society.

In this thesis, I reflect upon an art educator’s experience teaching boys and developing an art curriculum with a boy focused framework. Two comprehensive units on monsters are included along with research on teaching boys and choice based practices in the art classroom. I also reflect on the creative process of lesson planning with the needs of male learners in mind.

abstract: This qualitative case study of 12, eighteen to twenty-four-year-olds from seven countries provided insight into the learning practices on an art-centered, social media platform. The study addressed two guiding questions; (a) what art related skills, knowledge, and dispositions do community members acquire using a social media platform? (b), What new literacy practices, e.g., the use of new technologies and an ethos of participation, collective intelligence, collaboration, dispersion of abundant resources, and sharing (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007), do members use in acquiring of art-related skills, concepts, knowledge, and dispositions? Data included interviews, online documents, artwork, screen capture of online content, threaded online discussions, and a questionnaire. Drawing on theory and research from both new literacies and art education, the study identified five practices related to learning in the visual arts: (a) practicing as professional artists; (b) engaging in discovery based search strategies for viewing and collecting member produced content; (c) learning by observational strategies; (d) giving constructive criticism and feedback; (e) making learning resources. The study presents suggestions for teachers interested in empowering instruction with new social media technologies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

abstract: We live in a world of rapidly changing technologies that bathe us in visual images and information, not only challenging us to find connections and make sense of what we are learning, but also allowing us to learn and to collaborate in new ways. Art educators are using one of these new technologies, virtual worlds, to create educational environments and curricula. This study looks at how post-secondary art educators are using Second Life in their undergraduate and graduate level curricula and what perceived benefits, challenges, and unique learning experiences they feel this new educational venue offers. This study uses qualitative and participant observation methodologies, including qualitative interviews, observations, and collection of generated works, to look at the practices of six art educators teaching university level undergraduate and graduate courses. Data are compared internally between the participants and externally by correlating to current research. Art education in Second Life includes many curricula activities and strategies often seen in face-to-face classes, including writing reflections, essays, and papers, creating presentations and Power Points, conducting research, and creating art. Challenges include expense, student frustration and anxiety issues, and the transience of Second Life sites. Among the unique learning experiences are increased opportunities for field trips, student collaboration, access to guest speakers, and the ability to set up experiences not practical or possible in the real world. The experiences of these six art educators can be used as a guide for art educators just beginning exploration of virtual world education and encouragement when looking for new ways to teach that may increase our students' understanding and knowledge and their access and connections to others. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Art 2014

This study aims to explore how the art student teaching seminar can serve as a space for inquiry and reflection, and how student teachers process their experiences, negotiate personal meanings, and understand teaching complexities through inquiry based methods. The overarching question in this research study asked: How might participation in an inquiry based seminar impact the meaning student teachers make from their practicum experiences? In order to address this main question, I employed three sub-questions: How do art student teachers perceive and describe their teaching field experiences in a seminar space? What kinds of inquiry activities can facilitate reflection with art student teachers? How do art teachers relate to and value inquiry based methods of reflection?I approached these questions through a constructivist framework that supports the idea that individuals actively construct and reconstruct their own understandings, meanings, and ultimately knowledge of the world through experience and reflection upon these experiences. Utilizing a case study methodology I designed a multi-case qualitative study that aimed to interpret the student teacher seminar through the experiences of four art student teacher participants. I was the facilitator of the student teaching seminar course at a large, public university in the Southwestern United States and the art student teachers and I met roughly every two weeks, over the course of a 16 week semester, on the university campus. I implemented a scaffolded, inquiry based curriculum which offered a variety of methods aimed to encourage inquiry and promote reflection amongst student teachers. Research data consisted of seminar audio recordings, participants' written journal entries, participants' artworks, and my reflective researcher notes. Employing narrative data analysis I constructed a case for each participant using the assignments as both chronological organization and categorical scaffolding for the arrangement and presentation of the data. I then compared the individual cases to identify similarities and differences within the whole. My analysis of research findings indicated the following: First, student teachers identified personal concerns related to affective awareness, vulnerability from uncertainty, desire for efficacy, and identity confusion during their student teaching experiences. Second, written forms of inquiry produced evidence of open-mindedness and responsibility amongst student teacher participants, while artistic forms of inquiry yielded evidence of wholeheartedness and self-knowledge amongst student teacher participants. Third, the data indicated that although benefits could be located in written inquiry, participants attached little value or meaning to this method; whereas, artistic inquiry was perceived as an especially impactful and meaningful method of inquiry by student teacher participants. Overall, the student teaching seminar served as a space where student teacher participants shared stories, described contexts, identified issues, navigated tensions, and exhibited personal and insightful developments that demonstrated reflective learning connected to self-understanding and personal growth. Implications for the research suggest that facilitators of such a course should have a concentrated awareness of the constraints of the seminar structure; approach problem exploring rather than problem solving techniques with teacher candidates; and that there is an acute need for supportive and safe spaces for student teachers to process their experiences through multiple methods. This study generated detailed insight into art student teachers' unequivocally unique, yet fundamentally shared journeys, in processing, negotiating, and ultimately understanding their practicum experiences. Keywords: student teacher, seminar, inquiry, reflection, artmaking, art education

This researcher examined the relationship between visual arts programs and creative thinking skills of high school students taking a foundations of music course and an introductory visual art course. A gap existed in the current literature concerning visual art experience and creativity among high school students. This study was based upon the theories of Eisner, Gardner, and Csikszentmihalyi concerning creativity and art experiences. This researcher used a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design. A convenience sample of 2 high school fine arts classes was comprised of 1 visual art class and 1 foundations of music class, giving a sample of 50 high school students. The visual art class was the treatment group that received visual art instruction. The foundations of music class was the control group that received no visual art instruction. Pre and post assessments were measured using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) after 1 term of instruction. Data analysis using the t-test showed that a statistically significant increase was found in creative thinking skills among high school students with visual art experience. The findings could help educational stakeholders to improve visual art curriculum and to seek funding for visual art programs. The findings will lead to social change in high school art curricula as documented in the current literature to a deeper understanding of the importance of teaching subjects that encourage creative thinking at the high school level. Social change implications include: (a) increased funding for visual art curriculum that will lead to positive social change by enhancing student creativity; (b) encouraging further research on the importance of creativity skills among high school students; and (c) increasing community awareness of the necessity of creative thinking in the global economy and the value of visual art experience in helping students gain creativity skills.

In the ever-changing world of visual arts education, there is a gap in the literature about the incorporation of creativity, risk-taking, and play in the curriculum. The purpose of this study was to understand how high school visual arts educators teach visual arts and creativity in the age of digital media, including the practices art teachers use to engage their students in their development of art-making and ways teachers encourage students to take risks in art-making practices. Utilizing an arts-based research method focusing on four case studies in the Central Valley of California, this inquiry examined the way visual arts educators teach the arts at the high school level. Further, this study used data sources of classroom observations, surveys, and one-on-one interviews. Data analysis utilized the theoretical lens of multiple intelligences to examine the different ways each visual arts teacher teaches visual arts. Findings indicated that there is a need for a common definition of creativity, student-teacher relationships are critical for improving students’ efforts in the arts, learning about the visual arts develops skills that students can use throughout their lifetime, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds tend to be more willing to take risks in their artwork. Recommendations for further research and policy for school leaders conclude this study.