Education Commons^™

Increasing The Academic Pool Of Minority Students For Higher Education, Diane J. Simon

MERC Publications

The review of the literature on "Increasing the Academic Pool of Minority Students for Higher Education" was conducted in response to a request from the Virginia Department of Education R.F.P. #92-3 Team. The paper examines the factors that have an impact on increasing the number of minority students prepared to attend and succeed in college and reviews a number of successful programs, many of which are supported by business and industry. In addition to these two basic areas of inquiry, the R.F.P. #92-3 Team requested that the problem of increasing the minority student pool for college be examined in the …

Performance-Based Assessment: Questions And Answers, John T. Seyfarth

MERC Publications

A number of states, schools and school districts are engaged in efforts to develop and implement new forms of assessment. These efforts are known by several names. Performance assessment, the term used in this paper, refers to tasks that require students to construct responses or take actions to demonstrate specified knowledge or skills. Performance assessment tasks appear in a variety of formats ranging from open-ended questions to demonstrations of skills or comprehensive collections of bodies of work over time. The tasks focus on higher order skills are non-routine and are sometimes loosely structured. Students may be called upon to make, …

Learning Technologies In The Classroom: A Study Of Results, John Pisapia

MERC Publications

The Research reported in this paper focuses primarily on the shot term question, "Do learning technologies effect student learning?" It utilizes a meta analytic technique to review comparative studies of differing technologies under different conditions.

A study had to meet the following criteria to be included in this analysis: It 1) took place in a classroom; 2) had a control and treatment group structure; 3) was free of major methodological flaws, and 4) provided either an effect size or the data to calculate one. The 184 studies selected for this review represent a diverse array of district and vendor evaluations, …

The Limits Of Linear Modes Of Inquiry Into Naturalistic World-Views: A Case Study Of Cherokee Culture, Karen L. Sorensen, Charles G. Wieder

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

We begin with the cultural-anthropological assumption that a people’s world-view is based in concepts of time and process, and is reflected in the ceremonies, customs, rituals, and other traditional patterns of social conduct within the society. In a case study of the Native American Cherokee, linear modes of inquiry, characteristic of Western science, are shown to be limited in their capacity to examine and appreciate these dimensions of culture in pre-literate societies. It is suggested that those aspects of our own culture which are grounded in aesthetic value may also be relatively inaccessible for the same reason. By examining meanings …

Acting Out Caring: An Andogynous Trait, Clayton Funk

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

A problem in gender studies concerns frequent critique of sex-role stereotypes. But how often do we analyze characteristics that men and women have in common? The notion is doubtful that women must be essentially nurturant and empathic, and that men must be analytical and assertive. The strongest educators possess the best of both, no matter the gender, and are usually capable of modeling a sensibility of caring about learning.

Here’S Looking At Us Looking At Us, Amy Brook Snider

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This paper was an introduction to the mini-conference, “The Conference as Ritual: The Sacred Journey of the Art Educator,” organized by Harold Pearse, Cynthia Taylor and myself for the NAEA Convention in Los Angeles, April 1988. Art educators from Canada and the United States along with Dr. Michael Owen Jones, author and director of the Folklore and Mythology Center at UCLA (our non-participant observer) looked at our annual spring pilgrimage to various hotels in the United States from historical, psychological, philosophic, structural, and ethnographic perspectives. As the introduction to the mini-conference, my paper specifically recounts the ways that I, an …

Art Educators’ Responsibility To Cultural Diversity: Or “Where Are You Goin Wid Alla My Stuff?”, Kristen G. Congdon

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The responsibility of art educators to recognize and study the art and context of as many populations as possible is examined in this article. Examples of how artistic expressions have been borrowed, used in different contexts and otherwise removed from their original cultural context are given, and examples of ways that art teachers can help to recognize origins and the artistic functions of many cultures are suggested. By placing art in its context and studying it as it changes, students may begin to understand the artistic source, appreciate the importance of the creative context, and begin to see multi-cultural dimensions …

The Feldman Method Of Art Criticism: Is It Adequate For The Socially Concerned Art Educator?, Tom Anderson

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The structure and inherent values of the Feldman (1981) method of art criticism are debated in some art education circles. On one hand it is argued that the Feldman method, because of its emphasis on formal analysis, lends itself more readily to analytical formalist criticism, and is thus not an adequate instrument for socially concerned art educators. The other side of the debate has it that the method is appropriate for socially contextual interpretation when applied by socially concerned art educators. My thesis is that Feldman's method is well suited for socially contextual criticism of aesthetic forms. I intend to …

Professional Networking In Art Education, Karen A. Hamblen

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The social scientist provides three levels of analysis whereby the sociology of art educators can be examined: (1) statistical information, (2) formal organizational structures, and (3) informal, life-world experiences. Although the first two levels provide valuable information, it is proposed that it is within informal, life-world experiences that professional networking occurs and where the character of much of the field of art education is shaped. In this descriptive and analytical study, the sociology of art educators is examined as a function of networks of power and influence. The discussion is limited to art educators with PhD or EdD degrees who …

The Cultures Of Aesthetic Discourse (Cad): Origins, Contradictions, And Implications, Karen A. Hamblen

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Art has long been accepted as comprising a visual language that communicates cultural values and qualitative meanings through its subject matter, functions, and stylistic characteristics. However, not until this century has visual art also been considered as a language system of signs and symbols amenable to systematic verbal analysis and evaluation. Consistent with this development, in recent years art educators have increasingly proposed that art instruction include various art criticism activities. This author personally considers an interest in art criticism to be a positive development for the field of art education inasmuch as it offers a much-needed counterbalance to the …

Marginal Images: Art And Ideology In The School, Dan Nadaner

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Art has come to connote something that is eclectic and unpredictable. Art may be concerned with the aesthetic organization of visual elements, or it may defy conventional aesthetics; it may seek to interpret visual experience, or it may interpret psychological phenomenon that have no visual manifestation; it may have significant social content, or it may not. Art defies generalizations about its form, but welcomes more readily a characterization of its spirit. Art is inquiring, open-ended, illuminating, often startling. Art is very close to the central concerns and experiential reality of the artist. While it is increasingly difficult to say what …