Education Commons^™

Trauma-Informed Teaching Perspectives Of Arts And Non-Arts Educators: A Mixed Methods Study For Transformational Change, Annie C. Shrawder

Education Doctorate Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand and answer the overarching research question: To what extent are PA educators prepared to recognize and respond to students impacted by trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)? This question is investigated using a mixed methods action research design on the preparedness of k-12 arts and non-arts educators within one school district. This study unpacks the level of preparedness of educators teaching students with trauma and adverse childhood experiences. The data analysis provided perspectives of non-arts teachers and arts teachers in one school district. Additionally, academic research revealed that the arts positively counteract …

Digital Bridges: How Art Educators Build Professional Learning Networks On Twitter, Jennifer Heyser

Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology Dissertations

This qualitative case study explores the experiences of K-12 art teachers in the United States who participate in the #K12ArtChat, as a form of professional learning. Grounded in social constructivist learning, connectivism, and informal learning, this study addressed how and why art educators use Twitter Chats for professional growth and the potential impact of participation on their teaching practices. Five themes emerged from this study: Twitter's role as a professional development art education platform, the fostering of personal relationships and support, active community participation and advocacy, continuous professional development, and any perceived pedagogical shifts. With a significant emphasis on combatting …

How Can Educators Implement Nature-Based Learning To Increase The Well-Being Of The Whole Child?, Jennifer Hubert

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This project is a collection of materials presented in a website format that dives deep into the benefits of nature-based learning, specifically answering the question: How can educators implement nature-based learning to increase the well-being of the whole child? This website is intended to be used as a resource for teachers, caregivers, and anyone seeking nature-based content for kids. High quality materials have been curated in a central repository for easy access. The sections on Nature-based Social Justice Resources, Art-based Environmental Education and Environmental Justice Resources can influence policy change by bringing awareness to social justice issues and providing concrete …

Dancing Science: Using Dance And Movement As Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies To Increase Motivation, Interest, And Understanding In Middle School Science Classes, Ellis Johnston

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Many classrooms are characterized by students sitting in desks. However, research in embodied cognition shows us that the mind is best activated when the body is moving and interacting with the world. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on bringing dance and movement to an eighth grade physical science class in order to increase their motivation, interest, and understanding. Historically, dance and movement have been used as educational methods in many non-white cultures. More recently, incorporating dance into classrooms has been linked to increased executive function in students of color in at-risk and urban schools. Dancing provides students who …

Equitable And Inclusive Dance Assessment Resources, Christie Owens

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone inquires, how can the Minnesota K-12 Dance Standards (revised 2018) lay a practical framework for dance educators to create equitable and inclusive assessments for student success? A dance teacher addresses the need to expand how standards and success are defined in educational dance, noting circumstances where students of dance outside the dominant culture in the United States experience fewer feelings of inclusion and success when dance standards, curriculum, and assessment do not encompass what success looks like for them given their historical and cultural identities, hindering student ability to become self-actualized and wholistically educated artists. Through a review …

Art-Based Social And Emotional Learning Curriculum In The K-6 Classroom: A Mixed Methods Study, Michelle Fegeley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Preparing elementary school students to succeed in a learning environment that was significantly transformed by a global pandemic will require a major investment in new curricula that focuses more on social and emotional learning and less on standards that primarily emphasize just knowing and doing. This research investigates how the implementation of social emotional learning and SEL-based art activities in the art classroom can help to lower student stress levels in the elementary school art classroom. By providing learners with an opportunity to grow socially and emotionally, teachers may help students understand their feelings and use artmaking as a way …

Cultural Relevance In Art Matters: An Accessible Curriculum, Mary Beth Magyar

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research shows that allowing students room for their artistic voice is empowering and can help them explore their racial identity. In addition to supporting cultural identities, art can enhance one’s mood. Multiple studies show how visual art can build positive mental health and reduce anxiety. There has been a troubling rise in statistics for teenagers with poor mental health and suicide attempts, particularly in the LGBTQIA+ populations. When these students feel welcome at school their mental health is markedly improved. As the No Child Left Behind Policies grew, access to the visual arts decreased. Art does not test well therefore …

Culturally Responsive Teaching In The Art Room, Katherine Starr Dana

Culminating Experience Projects

This project examines culturally responsive teaching in the art education classroom. As diversity in student populations increase in art rooms all across the United States, there is a lack of diversity in the teaching workforce-which remains predominately White and female (Lee, 2012). In order to bridge the overwhelming demographic divide to meet the needs of all students, art teachers must become better positioned to work in increasingly diverse school populations and create meaningful connections to student’s experiences. In order to achieve this goal, art teachers must become culturally competent through the use of culturally responsive teaching. The project is a …

Art As Experience: A Case For Art Museum Field Trips In New Mexico’S Public School Art Education, Zoila A. Caamaño-Pumarol

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Since 2011, multiple studies have found that school field trips to art museums and other cultural institutions produce measurable improvements in standardized test scores, academic engagement, and substantial improvements across a range of factors including empathy, critical thinking skills, and creativity. These findings are especially prominent with children in rural areas, from low-income families, and non-Native English speakers. Nevertheless, the priorities in U.S. public education have shifted away from field trips and art education since the 1980s.

In this case study licensed art teachers in the New Mexico K to 12 public schools shared their experiences, discussed the obstacles they …

How Music Can Be Integrated Into Life Science Teaching In A Way That Enhances Scientific And Musical Learning In Middle School, Erin Hustad

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research has shown that students who learn interdisciplinary content lessons in school have a better understanding of the interconnectedness of the world they are entering. This paper, and the resultant project, focus on the interconnectedness of science and the arts, eventually ecology and music, in order to teach students both scientific and musical concepts. The project was created using backwards design, in order to ensure students have long term learning outcomes that center both science and music. Students first experience the scientific process and reflect on the similarities between scientific inquiry and artistic processes. Students then explore ecosystems and music …

Students Writing Restorative Justice, Rebekah Rentzel

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The need for systemic change has never been stronger. Schools are at a breaking point. In the wake of the uncertainties of COVID and the injustice seen in the racial uprisings after the police murder of George Floyd of 2020, students are dealing with trauma that needs to be addressed in schools. The practices of restorative justice, when applied with a cultural shift within the schools, are powerful ways to support students in their healing (Morgan, 2021). Studies find that when students are at the center of creating a restorative system, it is more effective because it directly reflects the …

Teaching And Integrating Women’S Studies Into The Classroom: Perspectives Of Elementary Teachers, Thomas Lucey

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Women’s studies represent an underappreciated aspect of elementary education. Whether or how classrooms and their resources portray, present, and value women role-models informs both boys and girls about what passes for acceptable communication, treatment, and conduct towards women. Indeed, the extent to which and the basis that a young citizenry is taught to appreciate others informs the nature of the conversations engaged.

This paper describes the results of a research study that interpreted elementary teachers’ perspectives of women’s studies in elementary settings. The online survey was administered as part of the registration for two workshops that prepared teachers in the …

Art Education In Medical Education: Benefits And Challenges, Sara K. Brown

Theses and Dissertations--Art and Visual Studies

Humanity is synergistic with art and medicine. Likewise, art education can be impactful throughout medical education. Art as a tool to develop the next generation of healthcare differs from the clinical goals of creative art therapies. Over the prior decade, many medical schools now provide curricular offerings in the arts and humanities. Less is known about the application in postgraduate medical settings. The focus of this thesis is to review the pairing of artist-educators with postgraduate medical training programs.

One such program is ArtsCAFE (Arts Connect Around Food and Enrichment), an intercollegiate project fusing experienced arts educators with medical educators …

Characteristics Of Culturally Inclusive Art Education Pedagogy: A Historical Document Analysis Study, Fatemah A. Khawaji

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this mixed methods historical document analysis is to identify the characteristics of culturally inclusive art education pedagogy. Using the theoretical lenses of intersectionality, critical theory, and socially inclusive pedagogy, this study seeks to determine the reasons for the misapplication of diversity and inclusion in art education. Qualitative and quantitative methods are applied to the historical document analysis of National Art Education Association articles in two major journals: Art Education and Studies in Art Education. The findings indicate that for the last 20 years, 20% of the articles published in Studies in Art Education and 30% of …

Enacting Poiesis: Centering Teaching Artists' Stories Across Educational Contexts, Shanita Bigelow

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Access to art education is limited for many historically excluded students. Teaching artists are instrumental in providing opportunities for students to engage in art educational programming. In this qualitative, critical narrative inquiry, the professional identities, teaching philosophies and practices of three teaching artists are explored. Teaching artists carry multiple professional identities and utilize them to best navigate pedagogical potential within and across educational contexts, inside and outside schools. Through semi-structured interviews and document analysis, their distinct pedagogies were examined and analyzed. Their pedagogical approaches could serve as models for other teaching artists and educators, generally. Findings revealed that their teaching …

Classdojo And The Effects Of Gamification On Student Engagement Within The Third-Grade Art Classroom: An Action Research Study, Amanda Wrenn Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the impact of technology integrated gamification strategies on third-grade students’ engagement in an art classroom at an elementary school with a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) based curriculum. To increase student engagement, educators and evaluators not only need to understand how engagement has been defined, but also how to assess the options for measuring it. Appropriate use of technology and gamification in classrooms may increase aspects of student engagement, evidenced by taking initiative and responsibility for learning, using resources wisely, and having an interest and desire to pursue information …

Inclusion And Disability As Curricular Practice, Kelly M. Gross

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

As policies regarding students with disabilities in education have changed to support inclusive approaches, the field of art education must consider the translation of these concepts to Prek-12 art and design curriculum. This study examines inclusive curriculum content regarding the inclusion and representation of disability in Prek-12 visual art and design classrooms in Illinois. It utilized a descriptive survey design that involved art and design education teachers throughout the state. These data provide information on the general state of art and design education while also considering the connections between theory and practice. Data from this study indicate that although art …

Student Perspectives On Interdisciplinary Skill Building, Equity And Empowerment Through Arts Education And Technology During A Pandemic, Joanne Osterberg

Education | Master's Theses

This qualitative research examined how the arts extend to serve as a tool for equity in supporting students of all backgrounds, language skills, and learning levels toward access and development of acumen for learning in all subjects and disciplines. This research is situated in a theoretical framework encompassing theories of learning styles (Dunn, 2000), art education and equity (Kalin, 2012), and pedagogical approaches to the use of technology (Strycker, 2020). Sixteen students participated in a peer focus group in which they developed, reflected upon, and then co-critiqued an art project that evolved through a six-phase process, and two faculty members …

Preventing Teacher Stress And Burnout In An Urban Arts Secondary School Context, Kara Noble

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

Stress and burnout pervade among public school teachers and are heightened in urban schools, where job demands are often high and resources low. Teacher stress and burnout, leading to turnover, is known to be especially high for early career teachers. Many studies have been done that isolate possible contributing factors such as: supervisory support, the classroom emotional climate, student behavior, pupil teacher ratio, access to resources, teacher temporal intelligence, district budgets, job demands and effective classroom practices. Oftentimes, there are multiple contributing factors over periods of time leading to teachers experiencing burnout and consequently leaving the field. In this study, …

Teaching The Art Of Writing As An Artist, Yarrow Mead

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

and almost never given the skills they need to do so. Research shows this discouragement is often tied in with race and class issues in our schools and society. This capstone project sets out to answer the question: How specifically can we teach high school students interested in the arts important skills such as grant writing, and artist biography and statement writing, and why should we be teaching those skills? The project set out to create an accessible website for both instructors and students to help them teach and learn the skills of grant, artist biography, and artist statement writing. …

Choice Based Directing: Promoting Inclusivity In Middle School Theatre Programs, Brooklyn Riggs

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Riggs, B. Choice-Based Directing: Promoting Inclusivity in Middle School Theatre Programs (2021) The research question addressed in this capstone project was, how can implementing Choice-Based Directing promote inclusivity in a middle school theatre program? The capstone documents one theatre teacher/director’s self-created process of directing and teaching middle school theatre students. Choice-Based Directing integrates student voice and choice into learning on stage. The author presents research, personal experience, and the program results of implementing Choice-Based Directing. As an aspect of this work, a professional development for middle school theatre educators was created with the goal of helping teachers and directors learn …

The Trust-Based Classroom: An Analysis Of Current Trends In Social And Emotional Learning And The Development Of A New Trust-Based Approach To Art Education, Ellen Prasse

Theses and Dissertations--Art and Visual Studies

Many current social and emotional learning (SEL) programs cite building trust as a key factor to an effective SEL program. Despite these references, however, they often lack an emphasis on teaching methods of building trust between students and their peers, the teacher, and the environment. Instead they focus on a specific aspect of teaching like the procedural practices of Responsive Classroom or communication and open-mindedness as in Open Circle. Explicitly building trust, however, could create an art classroom atmosphere conducive to high quality learning. This paper analyzes current trends in social and emotional learning and outlines the characteristics of the …

Examining Formative Critique In The High School Visual Arts Classroom, Peter C. Edwards

Online Theses and Dissertations

Formative assessment techniques are integral to high school visual arts teachers’ curricula, but are not clearly delineated by state and national organizations. Additionally, formative assessment in the high school visual arts classroom, defined in this study as formative critique, had not been examined as extensively, and most research investigated either high school core content practices or critique procedures in higher education settings. This qualitative phenomenological study sought to understand commonalities in the implementation of formative critique by high school visual arts teachers in central Kentucky. In this study, six veteran high school visual arts teachers were interviewed, using open-ended questions …

Multimodality In The Art & Media Arts Classroom: A Qualitative Study Of Multimodal Literacies As They Appear In Art & Media Educator Classroom Curriculum And Practice, Kathleen M. Maniaci

Dissertations - ALL

As a visual arts educator, I understand the unique opportunities students have to learn by making, inventing, and creating, to communicate their ideas. The work of the New London Group (2000), the more recent National Core Arts Standards and the National Core Media Arts Standards (2014) and the New York Arts & Media Arts Standards (2017) have significantly influenced this study by reinforcing both the necessity and potential to both art and media arts teaching practices in developing greater applications for multimodal literacy theory, defined by the National Council of the Teachers of English as “Integration of multiple modes of …

Impact Of Implementing Differentiated Spelling Curriculum On Student Spelling Ability Using Words Their Way (2012), Kaleigh Fuchs

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Spelling is an area that can be overlooked within the subject of English Language Arts, and deemed unnecessary by some due to modern technology. When spelling is taught, it is often taught traditionally using rote memorization with the whole class working on the same word list. These words are considered difficult for some students and simple for others. This capstone looks at the concepts of differentiation and developmental spelling word study through the spelling program Words Their Way (2012). This capstone project uses literature as well as action research results to provide insight on the focus of the capstone, differentiated …

An Unlikely Correspondence: Gps And Body In Place, Patti Pente

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This visual essay investigates the significance of GPS technology and the human body in relation to a sense of place. Framed by posthumanism, the poetic images offer an approach to transformative education through a local site. Agency of place is key to this exploration of dynamic relationships with technology, body and the earth. As a creative performance, I executed a series of movements in a place of personal significance, and then further developed the essay through visual poetry. The research is informed by an underlying assumption that creative understanding and artistic analysis can foster deeper environmental care, and although this …

Prosthetic Ontology Into Pedagogy: Applying Garoian’S Theory To The Performing Arts, Elise Lael Kieffer

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

Prosthetic pedagogy, as developed by Charles Garoian, provides a framework for using artificial-real worlds created by the arts to influence and impact teaching practice. The prosthetic space is artificial, separate, from the artist and audience, yet it is felt authentically, as if it were part of their being. Garoian explored prosthetic pedagogy through visual arts and museum experiences. This research further examines prosthetic pedagogy by applying it the Theatre. The art of theatre builds worlds onstage and through performance that allow performers to be and exist apart from their physical selves in the realm of prosthetic reality. The artist and …

Chemistry In Art: The Science Of Dye, Madeleine Gray Burland

Honors Projects

Fabric arts, and the practice of dyeing fabric using various resist techniques, is a tradition that goes back centuries, and is unique among art mediums in its relation to science, as the innovations in dye production have directly affected the art form. The development of synthetic dyes in the 1800’s greatly affected the way fabric is dyed, and subsequently the way clothes were made and consumed. As opposed to dyes made of natural materials, synthetic dyes cam in more colors, were brighter, easier to make in large quantities, and lasted longer since they didn’t fade with repeated washings. The practice …

Building Relationships: Art Making And Empty Bowls, Susan R. Whiteland

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

How can collaborative art making foster relationship building for those involved? A Problem Based Learning project that investigated food insecurity and the creation of clay soup bowls provided an answer for a number of students, and various community members. This article follows the story of a university professor’s involvement with her students in a partnership with a local intermediate school when they pursued an initiative to include art in their STEAM based curriculum dedicated to meeting a local need. Older adults, elementary students, and a variety of other interested individuals joined the effort and demonstrated how art can build relationships.

Pre-Service Teachers And Middle School Students: A Collaboration For Social Justice Art Education, R. Darden Bradshaw

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Our lives are mediated through the visual which informs, in multiple and conflicting ways, our views, our beliefs, attitudes and mores, our choices, and thereby our resulting actions. This barrage of the visual impacts the postmodern student encountered in K-12 education. Students readily gain access to information that was once the sole domain of adults yet the prevailing system of education has not adapted. Visual culture is seldom used as an engagement strategy in school despite its ubiquitous role as hidden curriculum and ever-present place in the world beyond the school.

Social justice education underscores humanizing pedagogy as it examines …