While new approaches to displaying art free both the art and the viewer from overly didactic forms of curation, there have been very few attempts to examine how viewers negotiate meaning from art when no goal or directive is provided. While some see difference as the critical factor, others use similarity as a way to introduce new narratives. This dissertation research takes a close look at the kinds of things people observe in visual works of art to expose the specific ways that the offerings in the work are made knowable by its viewer and how different modes of presentation might affect the process. A paired design was developed to find out how juxtaposing works on dimensions of similarity and difference might affect what people see in individual paintings and whether the presence or absence of depictive content would be a factor. In three online experiments, participants were tasked with generating as many single words or short phrase responses as they could over a two-minute time period from a selection of modern and contemporary paintings – 32 abstract and 32 representational. In the first study, paintings were presented sequentially. In the next study, the same pictures were purposefully matched for color, composition, style, and thematic content. In the third study, the same pictures were re-paired to maximize difference. Pairing effected an overall decline in number of total comments for representational paintings compared to isolated single-view sequences. In contrast, significant increases were found for abstract art when the adjacent painting was also abstract. Significant consistency in response patterns for both art types across all three studies provide quantitative and content-based evidence for a normative level of engagement, with specific processing effects relative to art type.

The problem is to determine why fifteen lower grade pupils were absent from school so many times during the previous year and to ascertain whether the pupils' attendance records could be improved in the present year through arts and crafts.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

Abstract not available. / Thesis (M.A.F.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

This study explored the state of art education in Turkey as revealed by pre-service art education university instructors, and the potential of incorporating visual culture studies in pre-service art education in Turkey. The instructors' ideas about visual culture, and popular culture, the impact it might have, the content (objects), and the practices within the context of Turkey were examined. Visual culture was examined from an art education perspective that focuses on a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the perception and critique of popular culture and everyday cultural experiences, and the analysis of media including television programs, computer games, Internet sites, and advertisements. A phenomenological human science approach was employed in order to develop a description of the perception of visual culture in pre-service art education in Turkey as lived by the participants. In-person interviews were used to collect the data from a purposive sample of 8 faculty members who offered undergraduate and graduate art education pedagogy, art history, and studio courses within four-year public universities. This empirical approach sought to obtain comprehensive descriptions of an experience through semi-structural interviews. These interviews employed open-ended questions to gather information about the following: their educational and professional background; their definitions of art education and art teacher education and what it means for them to teach pre-service art education; critical reflections on the educational system of Turkey; perceptions of visual and popular culture; and finally individual approaches to teaching art education. This study was conducted for the purpose of benefiting pre-service art teacher education in general and specifically in Turkey. It provided the rationale, the nature, and pedagogy of visual culture as well as the why and how of visual culture art education in the context of Turkey. Furthermore, it provided insights into the potential contribution of the concept of visual culture to the understanding of art and improvement of art teacher training in the context of Turkey.

Thesis in compliance with the requirements for the Doctor’s Degree in Technology: Language Practice, Durban University of Technology, 2012. / South Africa’s dynamic post-Apartheid education climate is beset by a plethora of new policies designed to transform education. Our county’s educators are expected to be the alchemists of change to create the new and transformed society envisaged in these policies, albeit with insufficient logistical planning and support. Moreover, so many of our schools are operationally dysfunctional, with literacy and numeracy levels at an all time low. Under these daunting circumstances our Provincial Education Department Teacher Development Institution, Ikhwezi In-Service Training Institute, develops training materials and delivers courses aimed at implementing policy while at the same time modelling progressive, internationally recognized and democratic adult-based methodology. In this self-study project of my departmental work with a group of trained educators, I use action research to trace the potential of integrated arts to transform teaching and learning in under-resourced rural and township classrooms. An aspect of this self-study looks at the therapeutic potential of the arts in my own life and career as an arts educator. When my Masters research revealed the dramatic effect a project-like arts approach to teaching could engender, I was motivated by compassion to develop the work further to reach a broader base of learners. I also wished to educate the authorities into mainstreaming the default marginalising of the arts in schools by developing photographic, written and video evidence promoting the arts in schools, mainly to emphasize their holistic educational role, but also as an essential healing, a potential remedy for the ills of the past that continue to impact on the present. / D

Thesis (MA(VA))--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The notion of critical citizenship has become a diverse phenomenon in both South African and global contemporary societies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the teaching and learning of critical citizenship can be improved in the South African context through participation in art-making processes. This was done by following a qualitative approach and a case study design. The following themes were explored in this study: conceptual abilities; the technicalities of practice; art and emotional development; and collaborative art making. The findings in this investigation showed that involvement in art-making processes certainly contributes to the development of a learner’s ability to become more intelligent, self initiated and critical thinkers. The investigation also shows that the visual arts learning area is recognized as an educational practice that encourages critical thinking and the ability to conceptualize, but the implementation of critical citizenship in both the practical and theoretical teaching of art-making processes is currently lacking. It is suggested that a holistic understanding of both practical and theoretical components in the grade 9 visual arts learning area should be maintained on an equal footing. The emotional development of learners is also identified as a source of concern, since it influences a learner’s adherence to participation with others. It is further suggested that collaborative art making urges learners to engage with the ideas of others in the classroom and therefore can encourage tolerance towards other members of the group. Critical citizenship education in the teaching and learning of the visual arts learning area can have more robust impact on the future of a democratic society if it is implemented more directly in the classroom environment. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die idee van kritiese burgerskap het ‘n diverse verskynsel in beide die Suid-Afrikaanse en globale eietydse samelewings geword. Die doel van hierdie studie is om te ondersoek hoe die onderrig en aanleer van kritiese burgerskap in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks verbeter kan word deur deelname aan kunsskeppende prosesse. Dit is gedoen deur gebruik te maak van ‘n kwalitatiewe benadering en ‘n gevallestudie-ontwerp. Die volgende temas is in hierdie studie ondersoek: konseptuele vermoëns; die tegniese aspekte van kunspraktyk; kuns en emosionele ontwikkeling; en gesamentlike kunsskepping. Die studie se bevindinge het gewys dat betrokkenheid in kunsskeppende prosesse bydra tot die ontwikkeling van ‘n leerder se vermoë om ‘n meer intelligente, self-geïnisieerde en kritiese denker te word. Die ondersoek het ook gewys dat die visuele kuns leerarea erken word as ‘n opvoedkundige praktyk wat kritiese denke en die vermoë om te konseptualiseer aanmoedig, maar dat die implementering van kritiese burgerskap in beide die praktiese en teoretiese onderrig van kunsskeppende prosesse tans gebrekkig is. Daar word aanbeveel dat ‘n holistiese begrip van beide die praktiese en teoretiese komponente in die Graad 9 visuele kuns leerarea op ‘n gelyke grondslag gehandhaaf word. Die emosionele ontwikkeling van leerders is ook geïdentifiseer as ‘n bron van kommer, aangesien dit ‘n leerder se samewerking met ander beïnvloed. Daar word verder daarop gewys dat gesamentlike kunsskepping leerders kan aanspoor om met ander persone se idees in aanraking te kom, en sodoende verdraagsaamheid teenoor ander lede van die groep te bevorder. Kritiese burgerskap opvoeding in die onderrig en aanleer van die visuele kuns leerarea kan meer robuuste gevolge vir die toekoms van ‘n demokratiese samelewing inhou indien dit meer direk in die klaskamer aangewend word.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study was designed to examine how four-year-old children might be able to respond and interpret works of art. Informed by Jean Piaget's and Lev Vygotsky's theories of cognitive development, and building on Micheal Parsons' and Abigail Housen's theories of aesthetic development, the study investigated whether or not four-year-olds are able to expand their initial responses to achieve deeper levels of understanding about works of art.