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Each day countless numbers of high school students remain standing at the threshold of the door to meaningful learning in art history because of traditional authoritative instructional methods and content. With the keys of feminist pedagogy, interactive teaching methods, and the new art histories, the teacher can now unlock that door and lead students to personally relevant learning on the other side. A case study using both qualitative and quantitative research methods was conducted in a secondary art history classroom to examine the teacher's pedagogical choices and the degree to which they enable meaningful and relevant student learning. The analysis of multiple sources of data, including classroom observations, revealed statistically significant correlations between the teacher's instructional methods and the content, as well as their impact on student meaning-making.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of constructivist methods on student learning in an undergraduate art appreciation class. Three constructivist learning activities were designed and implemented in an undergraduate art appreciation course for non-art majors at Mississippi College. Through these constructivist learning activities, students were involved in their learning throughout the semester in realistic art roles in which they worked as curators, Web page designers, and artists. Six subjects were selected to participate in this case study. Subject data was collected through three methods: interviews with subjects at three points during the semester, student documents produced during the three activities, and a field journal of observations made during the activities. The multiple data sources were triangulated to reveal nine patterns of learning. The data evidence that constructivism results in a deeper understanding of art and art processes than in a typical art appreciation course in which learners are merely passive recipients of knowledge. This was not only indicated by the nine patterns of learning which emerged from the data, but also in the students' awareness and regulating of their cognitive processes. Although the research provided an in-depth understanding of this case and should not represent or be generalized to the entire population of art appreciation students, the results of this study suggest that art appreciation instructors have an opportunity to facilitate high levels of student thinking and encourage metacognitive skills through constructivist methods such as the ones used in this study.

"The purpose of the study is to determine if through the experiences of an especially constructed learning unit eighth grade students can be helped to become aware of certain concepts concerning American painting and painters. Further, it was the purpose of this study to: 1. Examine the literature pertaining to the history of American art to ascertain the most pertinent and meaningful body of knowledge appropriate to a unit on American art in an eighth grade. 2. Devise the visual means for presenting this material to students. 3. Study the kinds of creative learning activities in art in the eighth grade that would relate to a study of American art, and select activities appropriate to the purpose of the study for the unit. 4. Integrate the material on American artists and their work with the creative activities in an especially constructed unit. 5. Determine by means of especially constructed tests, student's weekly written records, and evaluated student work whether knowledge was gained through the learning unit"--Introduction. / "August, 1962." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Ivan E. Johnson, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56).