This study is a multi-method exploratory quantitative and qualitative examination of the degree to which students produce, share, and learn vocabulary and cooperative skills as they carry out three types of individually and cooperatively structured art-based tasks regarding carefully selected and sequenced artworks. The artwork was selected from, and the tasks were adapted from Visual Thinking Strategies, an approach for teaching art appreciated and critical thinking skills. There has been little research that reports the degree of vocabulary through the use of images in general, very little research on cooperative learning and language learning, and an extremely limited amount of research on cooperative learning carried out in the field of foreign language learning through the use of artwork in the Japanese context. This study aims to fill these gaps. There were five main purposes of this study. The first purpose was to explore the range of vocabulary elicited through the cooperatively structured art-based tasks regarding the artworks. The second purpose was to measure students’ learning and use of two cooperative skills as they carried out the art-based tasks. The third purpose was to examine the implementation of the art-based tasks adapted for language learning in the Japanese college context investigated in this study. The fourth purpose was to explore the degree to which vocabulary is produced, shared, and learned in the adapted art-based tasks. The fifth and final purpose was a qualitative and quantitative examination of students’ attitudes towards the art tasks and towards working cooperatively in groups. To answer questions based on the purposes listed above, AntWordProfiler was used to analyze students’ production of vocabulary as they wrote their individual comments about the artworks and the RANGE feature of AntWordProfiler was used to analyze the frequency of particular vocabulary within and across groups in the group activities. The degree of learning was measured through pretests and posttests adapted from the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale. Finally an ANOVA was used to compare the vocabulary learned in the individual and cooperative drawing tasks following a Latin Square design. The qualitative study involved examination of many sources of data, including the worksheets students filled out as they carried out the art-based tasks, the artwork they drew, and audio recordings. Finally, a combined qualitative and qualitative survey at the end of the semester allowed an exploration of students’ opinions regarding art-based tasks, working and learning in groups, and the class as a whole. The results to the 12 research questions showed very little predictability in the specific vocabulary elicited, but did find patterns in the frequency of vocabulary elicited through the artworks, especially in terms of the percentage of vocabulary elicited. Students showed a significant increase in vocabulary knowledge between the pretests and posttests on all tasks, although there was a significant difference in vocabulary learned by students who did the drawing task individually for one artwork over those who drew that artwork in cooperative groups. A frequency analysis of student self-reports of their use of the cooperative skills they were taught and an examination of audio recordings showed they used and processed their use of the skills in ways that cooperative research suggests are beneficial for learning. Finally, the results of the quantitative and qualitative course-final survey showed that students had generally positive attitudes towards both the learning vocabulary using artwork and working in groups and that students enjoyed interacting and learning from fellow group members. There were some negative views of the cooperative tasks that need to be addressed in future use of these tasks, primarily making students aware of the reasoning behind the way they were being asked to carry out the tasks. The findings showed teachers can use artwork with confidence that students will learn vocabulary and that students are generally positive to the cooperatively structured art-based tasks. Future research needs to be carried out with other artwork, in different contexts, with students at different levels of language ability, and with additional art-based tasks. / Teaching & Learning

Concept cartoons are a didactic tool, which are alike cartoons and address concepts and phenomena within the science subjects. The available Concept cartoons on the Swedish National Agency for Education's website are mainly aimed for pupils from 10 to 15 years old, however there are only a few for pupils from 7 to 9 years old. This study aims to describe and develop various aspects in a Concept cartoon to make primary school pupils' prior knowledge visible of a specific biological content. The method of the study is design research and has been used to develop a Concept cartoon for pupils in ages six to nine, based on data from audio recording and observation. Based on a Concept cartoon conversations were held and recorded together with groups up to three pupils. Through three design cycles, we have analyzed and developed a Concept Cartoon that will highlight the pupils' prior knowledge of bird survival. In the data, some visual and textual aspects can be distinguished that are significant for the students to be able to express their biological prior knowledge. The results from the study show that students in year two discuss and relate to the visual aspects before the textual aspects in a Concept cartoon. With the removal of details that do not refer to the biological content and the introduction of false statements, students direct a greater focus on the concept of the Concept cartoon and social learning occurs. / Concept cartoons är ett didaktiskt verktyg som efterliknar serieteckningar, samt tar upp begrepp och fenomen inom de naturvetenskapliga ämnena. Tillgängliga Concept cartoons på Skolverkets webbplats riktar sig främst till årskurs 4–9, och det finns bara ett få till årskurs 1–3. Den här studien syftar till att kartlägga och utveckla olika aspekter i en Concept cartoon för att synliggöra just lågstadieelevers förkunskaper om ett specifikt biologiskt innehåll. Studien har utgått från designforskning för att utveckla en Concept cartoon för åk 1–3 baserad på data från ljudinspelning och observation. Under studien spelades samtal in i grupper om 2–3 elever i årskurs två där samtal har förts tillsammans med eleverna utifrån en Concept cartoon. Genom tre designcykler har vi analyserat och utvecklat en Concept cartoon som ska framhäva elevernas förkunskaper om fåglars överlevnad. I data kan några visuella och textuella aspekter urskiljas som är betydelsefulla för att eleverna ska kunna uttrycka sina biologiska förkunskaper. Resultatet från studien visar att elever i årskurs två diskuterar och relaterar till de visuella aspekterna före de textuella aspekterna i en Concept cartoon. Med borttagning av detaljer som inte syftar till det biologiska innehållet och införandet av falska påståenden, riktar eleverna ett större fokus på konceptet för Concept cartoons och ett socialt lärande uppstår.

Art-oriented pedagogical approaches have been successfully applied to optics and photonics education. We will describe how art-based programs that incorporate a Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) approach can be used by optics and photonics educators. VTS encourages both a deep appreciation of the content of optics images and phenomena and a highly participatory approach to understanding them. This type of approach has been used by the authors in a variety of educational settings including teacher professional development workshops, museum and science center-based programs, after school programs and in two-week intensive summer academies for students. These approaches work well with multiple age groups including primary and secondary grade students, university students, and adults who may have little apparent connection to optics and photonics. This art-science hybrid approach can be used by university professors, optics/ photonics professionals who do public programs, museum educators, and classroom science teachers.