Education Commons^™

Empower! A Poetry Curriculum For The 21st Century Learner, Misty Maina

Honors Theses

By providing today’s high school students with a multimodal curriculum centered around critical inquiry, worldview, personal relevance, and by providing students will many opportunities to respond to these principles with their own writings, students will be empowered to engage with their learning and the world in meaningful and intentional ways. Empower! poetry curriculum is designed to help students ask questions about themselves, their immediate surroundings and influences, and about the world around them. Students will be encouraged to take the time and energy for deeper thinking and reflection as they engage with the activities of Empower! While there will be …

Art For All: An Inclusive Curriculum For A Secondary Art Room, Michelle Ann Fuller

Masters Theses

Art classrooms in a secondary public school tend to be a place where students feel inspired to be creative, improve social skills and self-esteem. But what about those who have a learning disability? If the art educator establishes a positive and safe learning environment, all students, including those requiring adaptations can create meaningful work. Do art teachers feel prepared to guide students who require extra attention? How can pre-service teachers enter the profession feeling more qualified instructing these students? This thesis explores the support of inclusion in the high school art room by defining what an ideal collaboration might look …

Incorporating Fine Arts Into Online Education, Tosha Tessen Mcdonald

Masters Theses

Art Education has seen many changes. One of the most recent changes in art education has been the step into online learning. The question I sought to answer was whether or not art education could be delivered in the same rigorous manner online as it can be in a traditional school setting. During the 2019 - 2020 school year, I started a position teaching for the Rural Virtual Academy, in which all instruction was delivered online. During my own practice, I researched methods to instruct students virtually. My results indicate that it is quite possible to deliver a rigorous curriculum …

The Influence Of Environment: A Holistic Approach To Middle And Secondary Art Room Design, Leslie Y. Roberts

Masters Theses

This thesis takes an in-depth look at the elements within the classroom and how they affect students physiological and psychological needs and the impact those elements have on students’ academic success. I offer suggestions based on the research for changes that can be made to your current environment to increase students’ academic success. Additionally, through years of experience and additional research on classroom environments within this thesis I have created a floor plan for an ideal middle and high school art wing. This thesis also covers several different approaches to teaching, and I have used this information plus my experience …

Effect Of Implementing A Guaranteed And Viable Ela Curriculum, Christian Manley

Masters Theses

A guaranteed and viable curriculum (GVC) outlines what standards are taught and when; ultimately providing all students with the opportunity to learn identified content over the course of a school year. This paper reviews the impact of implementing a guaranteed and viable English Language Arts curriculum and specific adult practices on ELA proficiency in Battle Creek Public Schools.

This project largely seeks to identify how Battle Creek Public Schools is implementing their English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum in 3rd through 5th grade classes, the adult practice data that contributed to the implementation, and to what degree it is having an …

The Selfie Phenomenon: Exploring The Evolution Of The Self-Portrait In The Photography Classroom, Sarah J. Bentley

Masters Theses

This is a qualitative research project exploring the role of the selfie as a form of cultural expression in the twenty-first century and uncovering the meaningful connections students may discover between selfies and traditional self-portraits, whether modern or historic. Reflections through books, articles, and blogs will be explored. Topics such as the effects of social media on student identity and interactions, purposes of the selfie in youth culture, and current topics and trends of selfie-taking will be examined. A photography curriculum overview is included to facilitate this theme.

The Role Of Arts Education In Closing The Achievement Gap In High Poverty Schools, Deanne Basse

Masters Theses

This paper will review research that identifies different types of poverty and how brain development may be affected as a result of living in poverty. Although research reflects support and understanding by the American people that arts education is important to the well roundedness of youth and, in fact, correlates with higher standardized test scores, arts programs continue to be cut especially in areas of poverty. There is an achievement gap in educational success when it comes to students that live in poverty and that of students in higher socioeconomic situations. Students of poverty are working with increased internal and …

Teaching The Soft Skills Through The Arts: A Supplementary Art Curriculum, Brittany Boverhof

Masters Theses

Soft skills are the ability to work with, for, and among other people, yet we can no longer expect students to develop these skills organically. This research builds on the knowledge that if we want the students we are educating to be successful in employing their own soft skills, then they must be taught. This paper defines soft skills, shows their importance, and introduces practices that are proven to build soft skill ability. I have constructed twelve lesson plans that teach the soft skills through experientialism, working in groups, art, critique, classroom management, and problem solving. This supplementary curriculum provides …

Middle Level Multicultural/Social Justice Art Education Curriculum, Meghan E. G. Andrews

Masters Theses

The way in which children are taught matters a great deal and influences not only their worldview, but also how they view themselves with that world. Through my experiences as an art teacher, I have witnessed a growing need for teaching students in a way that focuses on multicultural and social justices issues in order to help students gain a more well-rounded world view. The art classroom has to power to serve as a safe and effective place to explore these issues. Determining why there is a growing need for a multicultural and social justice oriented art curriculum was important …

Implementation Of Common Core–Based Curriculum In A Fourth-Grade Literacy Classroom: An Exploratory Study, Elizabeth Jaeger

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted by most states by 2010. Yet, many teachers still lack confidence in their ability to integrate these standards into their classroom instruction and this uncertainty undermines their effectiveness. This article presents findings from a study of a fourth grade literacy curriculum informed by the CCSS. The study mobilized the Vygotskian notion of mediation as it applies in a literacy learning context and addresses the following research questions: (a) What were fourth grade student English language arts achievement levels and beliefs about literacy prior to and following the implementation of a CCSS-based curriculum? …

The Negotiation And Development Of Writing Teacher Identities In Elementary Education, Shartriya M. Collier, Suzanne Scheld, Ian Barnard, Jackie Stallcup

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Identity development in writing is a unique process. While many studies have explored the process of developing a professional identity among future teachers, few studies have investigated how teacher candidates develop a writing teacher’s identity. This study explores the development and negotiation of writing teacher identity among 21 pre-service multiple-subject teacher candidates at a large public institution in California. More specifically, the study examines the students’ journeys as they transformed from students of writing in a university methods course to student teachers of writing in a local school district. Our findings indicate that the use of a sociocultural-based approach to …

Creative Concentrations: A Secondary Design Curriculum, Linnea Roberta Gustafson

Masters Theses

Design education, as distinct from art education, has been overlooked as an area of student learning, creative expression, and career potential. This thesis explores the benefits of design education for students at the secondary level, when identities are being formed and areas of future study and work are considered. Guided by the newly published National Core Arts Standards, this paper provides a model design curriculum that introduces secondary students to a design-oriented view of the world, explores design principles through real-world applications, and calls attention to professional career options.

All lessons in the curriculum encourage creative approaches to solving design …

Choice--‐Based Art: Students Who Create, Not Replicate, Hillary K. Moczerad

Masters Theses

The problem that I researched in today’s art education world is how to teach our art students to be problem solving, confident, independent thinkers. It seems that in a classroom that is supposed to be full of innovation and creativity, it is currently falling flat. Through research, I discovered a teaching methodology called Choice-­‐Based Art that claims to eliminate these problems in the art room through student-­‐directed learning and choice while still delivering art curriculum. In order to test these theories, I aligned my classroom with the demands of the methodology and planned a field test with two groups of …

A Gross National Happiness Infused Curriculum: The Promise Of A More Meaningful Education In Bhutan, Sonam Zangmo

Masters Theses

Schooling in our modern society is aimed primarily to secure a career so that individuals will find their places in the political and economic systems. However, many believe that education should be reconceived so that student skills and attributes are understood more fully in relation to their impact on the local as well as the global community. The Gross National Happiness infused curriculum aspires to facilitate the holistic education that would address some of the humanistic values we need in this era. In this paper I study the concepts of Gross National Happiness and how the Gross National Happiness infused …

Elementary Art And Writing, Mary A. Beningo

Masters Theses

The problem that I researched in today’s art education world is how to correlate elementary art curricula with writing curricula. To investigate this issue I field tested a curriculum module that reflects the contemporary issues of writing in art education. The curriculum module under investigation has been designed to correlate my 5^th grade fine arts curriculum with the homeroom teacher’s 5^th grade language arts curriculum.

During this study I worked with 56 fifth grade students and incorporated four writing projects into their fine arts curriculum: a Character Exploration project, a Black-out poetry project, a surrealistic textured paper collage …

Inquiry Based Curriculum In A Public School Art Room: Aesthetic Education And Lincoln Center Institute, Jacqueline Denaway

Masters Theses

This thesis takes an in-depth look at the history of the Lincoln Center Institute (LCI), specifically its aesthetic education philosophy and practices. Included is analysis of the origin of aesthetic education and important philosophical views related to it. Emphasis is placed on the ideas of Maxine Greene, whose philosophy is the core of Lincoln Center Institute, as well as the key skills that are acquired when learning through aesthetic means. Lincoln Center Institute has been a leader in arts education and aesthetic education for several decades. This paper will explore how LCI's philosophy of aesthetic education differs from other philosophies …

Student Thoughts And Perceptions On Curriculum Reform, Douglas D. Vanderjagt

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how students experience and respond to Michigan’s increased graduation requirements. The study was conducted in a large, suburban high school that instituted a change to a trimester system in response to the state mandate. A criterion-based sample of 16 students, both college bound and non-college bound, participated in one-on-one interviews regarding their knowledge about, their understanding of, and their experience with the new Michigan Merit Curriculum, and how this increase impacted the student participants’ high school academic choices and/or postsecondary plans. Additionally, this study engaged focus groups of one or …