Arts Classroom Research Articles

Application of Micro-class Teaching Mode in Fine Arts Classroom Teaching in Middle School

Application of Micro-class Teaching Mode in Fine Arts Classroom Teaching in Middle School

A “Good Game” of Readers Responding

AbstractIn this article, the authors describe the impact of a reader response game in an English language arts classroom. They explore the theoretical intersection of game‐based learning and “good games” and transactional theory as a framework for this practice. After incorporating a “good game” of reader response in classes, the authors found that the students increased both their volume of texts read and their engagement across text format/type and genre. The authors conclude by discussing the theoretical and instructional implications of using a reader response style game in the English language arts classroom and beyond.

How Feedback From an Online Video Game Teaches Argument Writing for Environmental Action

Literacy researchers have explored how video games might be used as supplementary texts in secondary English language arts (ELA) classrooms to support reading instruction. However, less attention has been focused on how video games, particularly online educational games designed to teach argumentation, might enhance secondary ELA students’ writing development. In this article, we describe how the pedagogical feedback provided by one such game, Quandary, influenced two seventh graders’ written arguments in advocacy letters addressed to the state governor regarding a local environmental disaster. We compare these two embedded cases to data from 10 focal students, as well as patterns from 114 seventh graders (in five ELA classes). Based on our analysis of screen-capture video of students’ gameplay, drafts of their advocacy letters, and video-stimulated recall interviews, we conclude that game feedback rewarding or penalizing predetermined right or wrong player moves may encourage students to develop argumentation strategies that are less effective in more complex rhetorical situations and may foster a false sense of competence.

Reading Literacy Practices in Norwegian Lower-Secondary Classrooms: Examining the Patterns of Teacher Questions

ABSTRACT We know from previous research that teacher questions can influence reading comprehension development; however, we know less about the reading processes that are required of students through the use of questions. The present study examines teacher questions on texts reviewed during whole class reading comprehension instruction across 51 lessons in 26 Norwegian eight-grade language arts classrooms. Through video observations, the study (a) identifies text-dependent vs. otherwise text-related teacher questions, (b) deductively examines frequency patterns of text-dependent questions based on three reading literacy processes: locating information, understanding, and reflecting/evaluating, and (c) examines the relative time allocated to various question-response literacy interactions arising from text-dependent teacher questions. Findings showed that teachers mostly asked questions that required students to interpret or reflect, while they hardly asked any questions that required students to assess the quality and credibility of texts. Implications for the development of reading literacy proficiency required in today’s society are discussed.

A Sentimental Art Education

Sentimentalism as a genre is known for its association with melodramatic 19th-century novels, such as Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Alcott’s Little Women. But, as a cultural tendency, sentimentalism can be found in a range of 19th- and 20th-century cultural, social, and political phenomena, with philanthropic and educational projects chief among them. The legacy of sentimentalism in art education needs to be recalled when attempts are made to consider race in relation to K–12 art classrooms, as well as with class, disability, and gender dynamics. In this article, I make reference to the Hampton Album, a series of photographs taken in 1900 by Frances Benjamin Johnston, and I focus on three major thinkers to begin assessing the sentimental influence in art education, and gesturing at a pedagogical approach that more thoroughly integrates the role of ongoing conflicts and the intransigence of imbalances in power.

Research: Viral Loads and Downward Spirals: English, Citizenship, and a Context of Crises

This study examines five novice teachers’ perceptions of their preparation, interests, and abilities to integrate citizenship education into their secondary English language arts classrooms. The English teachers in this study highlight the difficulty in promoting progressive, social justice curricula without first grounding that pursuit in personal and participatory citizenship. Thus, as the United States awaits its return to normalcy after COVID-19, this study considers how English teacher educators may anchor courses in ideas of personal, participatory, and justice-oriented citizenship.

The Effectiveness of Pictorial Aesthetics Based on Multiview Parallel Neural Networks in Art-Oriented Teaching.

How to effectively improve the effectiveness of art teaching has always been one of the hot topics concerned by all sectors of society. Especially, in art teaching, situational interaction helps improve the atmosphere of art class. However, there are few attempts to quantitatively evaluate the aesthetics of ink painting. Ink painting expresses images through ink tone and stroke changes, which is significantly different from photos and paintings in visual characteristics, semantic characteristics, and aesthetic standards. For this reason, this study proposes an adaptive computational aesthetic evaluation framework for ink painting based on situational interaction using deep learning techniques. The framework extracts global and local images as multiple input according to the aesthetic criteria of ink painting and designs a model named MVPD-CNN to extract deep aesthetic features; finally, an adaptive deep aesthetic evaluation model is constructed. The experimental results demonstrate that our model has higher aesthetic evaluation performance compared with baseline, and the extracted deep aesthetic features are significantly better than the traditional manual design features, and its adaptive evaluation results reach a Pearson height of 0.823 compared with the manual aesthetic. In addition, art classroom simulation and interference experiments show that our model is highly resistant to interference and more sensitive to the three painting elements of composition, ink color, and texture in specific compositions.

Research on the Application of Red Culture in the Art Teaching Activities of Kindergartens: Taking Jiangxi Bayi Child Care Center as an Example

Red culture is a unique cultural resource in China. It contains rich material carriers and spiritual wealth. It is worth learning and inheriting for every Chinese. Exploiting and tapping the educational value of red culture in kindergarten art teaching activities can not only fully develop and utilize local characteristic cultural resources, but also integrate red culture into children’s art classrooms, so that art activities can be innovatively developed in the new era.

Critical talk moves in critical conversations: examining power and privilege in an English Language Arts classroom

ABSTRACT Critical conversations take on heightened importance with current tensions about issues involving race, income inequality, sexual orientation, and gender identity, both locally and globally. These tensions demonstrate a dire need for classroom discussions about literature to serve as a space where youth engage in rigorous, critical conversations about institutionalised forms of privilege and oppression and learn how to act as agents of change. To address that need, this study explored how teacher talk moves shaped critical conversations in one U.S. secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. Findings illustrate that the teacher engaged in the following four families of critical talk moves to foster critical conversations: inquiry, inclusion, disruption, and action. Implications remind teachers that using critical talk moves to foster critical conversations involves the consistent practice of critical self-reflection, vulnerability, and knowledge about critical theories and pedagogies.

The Promotion of Regional Cultural Resources and the Integration of Visual Art Education—Take Haihunhou Culture as an Example

In the development of the big data era, major changes are taking place in many fields in the world, and the field of visual art education is no exception. Breaking through the old style of aesthetic education, transforming from art education to visual art education, and achieving interdisciplinary teaching is a major challenge and opportunity for art educators. This article takes Jiangxi’s regional culture—Haihunhou culture as the research base, integrates museum research, network interactive experience, local teaching materials and other methods to conduct junior high school art teaching, making full use of the rich cultural and social resources at present, There is a new breakthrough in art classroom education, which more representatively reflects the inheritance, innovation and comprehensiveness of the integration of regional cultural resources and visual art education.

Critical content knowledges in the English language arts classroom: examining practicing teachers' nuanced perspectives

ABSTRACT Manifest in research, national policy, and instructional standards, the United States has a long-documented interest in teachers as ‘content experts.’ Yet, research offers limited empirical examinations of teachers’ discipline-specific critical content knowledges—their curricular agility in noticing and disrupting power and oppression, and working to promote empowerment, joy, and liberation. Accordingly, this study asks: what critical content knowledges are most prominent among social justice-oriented secondary English language arts (ELA) teachers, and how do teachers understand and describe these knowledges? Using collective case study methodologies, this study investigates interview data from five ELA teachers to understand participants’ critical content knowledges and their descriptions of these knowledges. Data were interpreted through deductive and inductive coding and analysis. Findings reveal that teachers’ most prominent critical content knowledges include a) knowledge of disciplinary critique; b) knowledge of marginalized identities; and c) knowledge of supplementary content. Limitations to teachers’ critical content knowledges include a narrow race and gender foci, and discursive avoidance of explicitly naming marginalized identities. Implications for future research aimed at better understanding, supporting, and expanding teachers’ critical content knowledges are discussed.

Project Based Learning Pedagogical Design in STEAM Art Education

This paper explores the potential of Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach in a multidisciplinary art classroom involving STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) education. The PBL approach involves a dynamic classroom approach, which emphasises on long-term learning, interdisciplinary and student-centred art activities. This implementation would benefit the teaching strategies in art projects; helping students understand lessons, improving communication and soft skills, as well as enhancing leadership skills and creativity. However, there are some concerns related to the PBL approach: i) difficulties in finding appropriate teaching strategies, ii) choosing suitable projects, iii) selecting relevant measurement tools or assessing rubrics, and iv) developing learning content to suit the objective and the main purpose of the art curriculum. In identifying this approach’s potential, a study was carried out involving two art teachers in their respective classrooms. Data was collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis of their teaching strategies, which included three main phases of PBL implementation in creating art projects. The findings suggest that the PBL pedagogical design has the ability to improve teaching strategies and with potential to replace a traditional, teacher-led art classroom. The approach is effective in guiding teachers to manoeuvre an authentic art lesson while benefiting the students through emphasis on the artistic process of creating a STEAM project, while focusing on culminating the necessary art content through active collaboration, exploration of real-world challenges and curricular activities’ problem-solving. However, a number of challenges were identified, such as curriculum demand, learning content, teachers’ and students’ attitude, and access to instruments. Hence, a number of suggestions and recommendations are proposed to help resolve the challenges. The implications of the study on arts curriculum, school systems and other higher institutions are also discussed.
 Keywords: Project-Based Learning, Art Education, STEAM

The culture of childhood in (and) spaces of resistance

Providing spaces for children’s culture becomes an issue when it conflicts with or threatens to reverse the notion of ‘legitimate’ culture. Here, legitimate culture refers to the dominant values of the official curriculum and teachers’ cultural values. This article, which stems from an ethnographically oriented pilot study, explores the experience of children’s and adults’ diverse beliefs, ideologies and cultures in an art classroom that is situated in a university facility. It demonstrates how children seek spaces for their culture. Only high official culture, the school culture, and parents’ and teachers’ culture are deemed appropriate, true and good. In the world of adults, children’s culture is often seen as immature, as something to be fixed and refined. Kline suggests that humour and play might be an independent form of children’s culture. What children find funny and humorous may not be funny, or even appropriate, to adults. Bakhtin’s carnival theory demonstrates how a medieval culture used dangerous jokes at the expense of authority. Although the carnival was a temporary festival, it was the means through which the peasants’ marketplace culture was communicated to the officials, and by which they were able to demonstrate resistance – following their own rules, methods and culture. The author employs Bakhtin’s theory to help see the carnival in an art classroom, as children resist the presence of a legitimized culture by continuing to create spaces for their own cultures of pleasure, parody and even the grotesque.

School Students’ Implicit Theories of Creativity and their Self Perceptions as Artists

ABSTRACT High self-efficacy is important in the ability of students to express their creativity, especially in academic settings. However, the research on creative misconceptions that may be influencing students’ self-efficacy is minimal. The purpose of this study is to explore school students’ ideas about creativity, where they originally obtained them, and whether they view themselves to be creative. A survey including several statements about creativity and creative ability reveals a number of conflicting perceptions students have as well as the probability that they hold a certain idea about their own creativity and their creativity relative to others. Self-efficacy and perceptions of creativity have the potential to impact students’ ability to express their own creativity, both in visual art courses and other courses. This study shines light on where these perceptions and misconceptions are from and how prevalent they are in school students’ lives. This is particularly useful information to impact how art teachers, classroom educators, and psychologists alike interpret the creative person and teach creativity in a variety of settings.

Desarrollo de la motivación en estudiantes de secundaria mediante la implementación de un programa educativo en Artes Plásticas basado en el Aprendizaje Cooperativo

Esta investigación analiza el desarrollo de la motivación de estudiantes de octavo año de una institución de educación pública de Costa Rica en la clase de Artes Plásticas (AP) mediante la implementación de un programa educativo basado en el Aprendizaje Cooperativo (AC) (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1994). En cuanto a instrumentos y materiales, para realizar la investigación se adaptó y validó la Escala de Motivación Académica (EMA) (Manassero y Vázquez, 2000) para determinar la Motivación (M) en estudiantes de enseñanza secundaria. Para el proceso de recolección de la información se utilizaron técnicas cualitativas tales como el cuestionario y la observación con el fin de evidenciar los diferentes aspectos de la motivación. La población participante estuvo conformada por estudiantes de octavo año, entre los 13 y 15 años de edad. Asimismo se emplearon dos grupos: uno de estudio y otro control. Se concluye que el desarrollo de la motivación mejoró en el grupo experimental con la intervención de las estrategias procedentes del AC desde el acercamiento cualitativo. No obstante, los métodos cuantitativos de recolección de datos no aportaron evidencia estadísticamente significativa a favor del grupo de estudio ya que el instrumento no fue sensible al paso del tiempo. Por tanto, esta escala no se recomienda para estudios de diseño longitudinal experimental.

Technology Integration: Teaching Elementary Deaf Student English Language Arts

This study examined an elementary deaf education teacher’s experiences and practices regarding the integration of technology into an English/Language Arts (ELAR) classroom. Most deaf students experience challenges acquiring and learning English as a second language. Research continues to indicate deaf students graduate high school with a fourth-grade reading level. Specifically, the study investigated how technology was used to support the development of English/Language Arts skills in deaf students based on McCrory’s model on technological integration (McCrory, 2006). McCrory’s (2016) technology integration model is used to identify the teacher knowledge and use of technology. The model includes four components: representation, information, transformation, and collaboration. Using a qualitative case study design, data was collected using interviews, surveys, and observations. The data collected focused on the teacher only and did not include the students. The analysis showed how the ELAR teacher used technology to teach deaf students in relation to the four components of McCrory’s model. Implications for K-12 teacher preparation and professional development are discussed.

The English Language Arts Classroom as a Multilingual Literacy Community

Literacy educators have long understood the importance of designing multicultural instruction for students. However, in an educational context that is both increasingly multilingual, literacy educators are not realizing that multiculturalism isn’t enough. This article focuses on practitioner friendly recommendations for understanding linguistic diversity in the middle grades, designing physical spaces that support multilingual literacy communities, and designing affective spaces that support multilingual literacy communities. The recommendations in this article rely on data from a qualitative multiple case study to describe the approaches that middle schools recognized as Texas Schools to Watch were used to meet the needs language and literacy needs of their specific English Learner (EL) populations.

“My English Is Its Own Rule”: Voicing a Translingual Sensibility through Poetry

ABSTRACT As part of an ethnographic study of a secondary English Language Arts classroom, one teacher took a critical translingual approach to curriculum and instruction, encouraging students to engage in translanguaging and to explore the intersections of language with power and identity. The larger study’s central question was, what does participation in a critical translingual English curriculum bring up about students’ identities and ideologies in relation to language? Guided by this question, this article details a series of lessons that featured a spoken word poem in which the author used English to reflect on her relationship to Spanish and asked students to explore their language practices in their own writing. This article illustrates that while students’ poems expressed an apparent internalization of deficit language ideologies, they also expressed resistance to those very ideologies through the voicing of a translingual sensibility.

Integrative and illustrative: Multimodal acquisition, comprehension, and composition

In this study, we examine evidence of transfer from reading instruction to students’ learning of language arts and historical content as demonstrated by their independent writing and growth in background knowledge. We taught a unit in a sixth-grade language arts classroom in which students learned about design elements of graphic novels (e.g., line, color) and typical features (e.g., gutter, panel) to bolster reading comprehension, using a historically accurate graphic novel about the American Revolution as an anchor text. We asked, (a) When students are taught about elements of graphic novels during content-area reading instruction, in what ways are they able to demonstrate understanding of those elements in independent compositions? (b) Does this type of instruction also build historical content knowledge? Results indicate that students were able to simultaneously learn about the graphic novel form and the content of the focal text.

The Intervention and Influence of Contemporary Art in College Art Teaching

The unique charm and various expressions of contemporary art itself have a profound impact on China's art industry, and gradually brought a positive effect on the reform of art majors in colleges and universities. Therefore, the author mainly discusses the impact of the introduction of contemporary art on the art teaching work from multiple perspectives in the art classroom teaching activities of colleges and universities through his own teaching experience, in order to provide some references for other teachers.