Visual immersion for cultural understanding and multimodal literacy

ABSTRACT

When considering inclusive art curriculum that accommodates all learners, including English language learners, two distinct yet inseparable issues come to mind. The first is that English language learner students can use visual language and visual literacy skills inherent in visual arts curriculum to scaffold learning in and through the arts. Second, in facilitating a sense of belonging for students whose home language and cultural aesthetic may be different from those of the dominant school culture, an authentically developed multicultural art curriculum can guide self-efficacy and inclusiveness. Both aspects of teaching art for English language learners can have the added benefits of facilitating collaborative learning opportunities and increasing worldviews for all students.     

An Integrated Unit

In this article, the author analyzes Arthur Efland's Art and Cognition, which advocates study of the visual arts for its cognitive benefits. The author argues that Efland's cognitive premises are largely sound but that his specific recommendations often belie the general principles he espouses. Efland focuses on the interpretation of baffling works that deliberately flout traditional views of what constitutes a work of art. He thereby ignores his own emphasis on the role of categorization in human cognition. Moreover, although he stresses the cognitive importance of individual goals and intentions, Efland favors sociopolitical interpretations. Such interpretations disregard contradictory evidence of the artist's likely intentions and downplay the personal value of art. The author views Efland's emphasis on visual metaphor as inconsistent with his recognition that the visual arts possess a distinctive immediacy and directness.     

The Association between Cognition and Academic Performance in Ugandan Children Surviving Malaria with Neurological Involvement

Background

The contribution of different cognitive abilities to academic performance in children surviving cerebral insult can guide the choice of interventions to improve cognitive and academic outcomes. This study''s objective was to identify which cognitive abilities are associated with academic performance in children after malaria with neurological involvement.

Methods

62 Ugandan children with a history of malaria with neurological involvement were assessed for cognitive ability (working memory, reasoning, learning, visual spatial skills, attention) and academic performance (reading, spelling, arithmetic) three months after the illness. Linear regressions were fit for each academic score with the five cognitive outcomes entered as predictors. Adjusters in the analysis were age, sex, education, nutrition, and home environment. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation models (SEM) were used to determine the nature of the association between cognition and academic performance. Predictive residual sum of squares was used to determine which combination of cognitive scores was needed to predict academic performance.

Results

In regressions of a single academic score on all five cognitive outcomes and adjusters, only Working Memory was associated with Reading (coefficient estimate = 0.36, 95% confidence interval = 0.10 to 0.63, p<0.01) and Spelling (0.46, 0.13 to 0.78, p<0.01), Visual Spatial Skills was associated with Arithmetic (0.15, 0.03 to 0.26, p<0.05), and Learning was associated with Reading (0.06, 0.00 to 0.11, p<0.05). One latent cognitive factor was identified using EFA. The SEM found a strong association between this latent cognitive ability and each academic performance measure (P<0.0001). Working memory, visual spatial ability and learning were the best predictors of academic performance.

Conclusion

Academic performance is strongly associated with the latent variable labelled “cognitive ability” which captures most of the variation in the individual specific cognitive outcome measures. Working memory, visual spatial skills, and learning together stood out as the best combination to predict academic performance.     

Seeking a higher level of arts integration across the curriculum

To seek a higher level of arts integration across the education curriculum, I investigated designs of teaching through arts activities that would motivate educators to adopt the spirit of “aesthetic teaching.” Two different designs were tested, with the second as a continuation of the first. Each ascribes a different educational role to arts activities—in the first design the role of art is that of a teaching medium, while in the second its role is as a teaching approach to the taught subject. The study followed the steps of a “teaching design experiment.” The preschool teachers who constituted the sample used these activities with groups of kindergarteners. The analysis of the data was based on the reports of the teachers, which were examined for indicators of “aesthetic teaching.” The findings of this study suggest that there is a correlation between the educational role of the arts and the level of aesthetic orientation of educators in applying arts integration. Generally, the sample experienced the second design (in which the role of art is that of a teaching approach to the taught subject) as more of an aesthetic teaching situation than the first design (in which the role of art is that of a teaching medium).     

Visual arts education provisions for primary schools in Turkey

This article examines the history of art education in Turkey. Since the beginning, the purposes of the arts and art education have been a point of discussion by various authorities. Whether art education should be taught, and how it needs to be taught, have been at the forefront of educationalists' minds. As a result, introducing certain models of art education has been a challenge. The objective of this article is to present the changes in art education since the 19th century in Turkey. The main focus is on art education practices and policies and an overview of key events in Turkey's history of art education. The article also presents issues related to the importance of visual arts education in Turkish primary school settings. In so doing, this research aims to show readers how past developments helped to create the current visual art education policy in Turkey.     

Formula Fact & Fable

In the light of a decision taken in April 2009 that the arts will be included in a projected national curriculum it seems relevant to examine First We See: The National Review of Visual Education, which was completed in August 2008. That Review recommends the development of a visual education curriculum for the compulsory years of schooling. Under the guiding concept of “visuacy,” a neologism deriving from “visual literacy,” the newly conceived subject is intended to have educational outcomes complementary to literacy and numeracy. I examine the arguments and recommendations of the Review, and briefly examine the methodology of Phase One of the Review (i.e., a literature review, a questionnaire, and school visits) for its relevance to the Review's recommendations.     

SongMakers: An industry-led approach to arts partnerships in education

Reported benefits of arts partnerships with schools range from improvements in students' motivation and engagement in learning to teachers' increased confidence in teaching the arts, and strengthened school and community relationships. Yet, in the scholarship on arts partnerships to date, limited critical attention has been given to the impact of programs primarily driven by government supported industry-based imperatives. There may be legitimate concerns that, in primarily servicing economic or employment needs, industry–school partnerships overlook social and interpersonal aspects of learning in favor of goal-orientated skills training to meet “the market.” This article informs arts education policy and industry directions by acknowledging this concern and reporting on the outcomes of an industry–schools partnership where industry “training” appears to be leveraging a number of more holistic student learning outcomes. Jointly funded by industry and government, SongMakers is an Australian artist in residence program that aims to improve the export potential of Australia's contemporary music industry and contribute to the implementation of a contemporary music curriculum. It involves professional songwriters and producers with international recording experience working as mentors to students who create and produce new music in intensive two-day workshops. This article outlines how the program is demonstrating emergent positive impact not only on students' music knowledge and skill development, and understanding of the contemporary music industry, but on engagement, confidence in learning, and self-efficacy. It does not argue that all industry programs can or will achieve such impacts, but that diverse kinds of arts partnerships in schools can contribute to a viable ecology of quality educational practice in the arts.     

Textile Decorating as a Handicraft

The rhetoric of the creative economy agenda has influenced the revised Ontario curriculum in the arts for grades 9–12. Yet, increasing rhetorical and substantive support for a creative economy agenda in Ontario at large is not sufficiently reflected in the revised Ontario arts curriculum. The expanded agenda is not matched by expanded substantive attention to the arts in the curriculum. Two new elective arts courses have been introduced in the revised curriculum; however, students are still only required to pass one art course to graduate from high school. This article argues that one compulsory art course is not sufficient to respond to the demands of the creative economy and thus recommends that further consideration of the curriculum be undertaken.     

The New Teacher of Art

Because of education reform policy and misconceptions about artistry and artistic assessment, visual art education remains in the margins of high school education. One response to the lack of supportive arts education policy is the Advanced Placement (AP) Studio Art Program, a visual arts assessment at the high school level that engages large numbers of students in rigorous art experiences. This article reviews the structure and characteristics of the AP portfolio assessment as a basis for critique and policy analysis. At issue are the reliability of this assessment's measurements and its level of credibility with key constituencies. These concerns are especially relevant in a testing culture in which objective evaluations are highly regarded and art education programs are often threatened. The authors suggest possibilities for future research and policy recommendations for secondary art education.     

The arts in Brazilian public schools: Analysis of an art education experience in Mato Grosso State,Brazil

This article examines the relation between official policy on art education in Brazilian basic education and what is actually taught and done in public school teaching in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Making use of interpretative analysis, I directly observed art classes in schools selected in the state of Mato Grosso. I also analyzed the laws, guidelines, parameters, and other official documents related to art education in Brazilian primary and secondary schools and compared them to the observed practices in the selected schools. Specifically in Mato Grosso, there is a gap between the theoretical guidelines of these documents and what is taught and done in public schools. Conceptions of the discipline of art education in official documents are not in line with the practices of this discipline in the researched elementary schools, a discord that may contribute to art being misunderstood as a lesser discipline. Using the results of this research, I intend to seek effective ways to discuss the arts in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools and highlight their importance in school curricula. My objective is not only that these results benefit public schools by encouraging the expansion of concrete and effective public policies for the quality and improvement of primary and secondary school education and the training of arts teachers, but also that these results will assist researchers studying arts education by showing how to extend that study beyond the academic walls.     

Merging movements: Diverse dance practices in postsecondary education

This article examines students' choices in a postsecondary dance major curriculum where students selected to study one or more of five dance practices (African and Diaspora Movement Practices, Contemporary Ballet, Movement Language Sources, Postmodern Contemporary Dance, and Urban Movement Practices) each semester along with required coursework centered on inquiry, the ability to pose and pursue informed questions, and creativity, the process of making something new. Using a qualitative research approach, the study investigated three main questions: What factors drive students' course selections?; How do students fuse information from diverse dance practices?; and What do students learn through taking courses with peers who study diverse dance practices? The study's findings suggest that the selection and study of diverse dance practices in combination with a curricular emphasis on creativity and inquiry led students to feel empowered in their dance education, develop and articulate individualized movement approaches, and increased awareness of dance and creative problem-solving ability. Postsecondary dance programs prepare future citizens, artists, educators, and administrators who may find themselves in leadership or other positions that require a re-thinking and implementation of arts policies in public schools and other settings. As such, the study's findings also speak to the potential for arts policies and their implementation to evolve in a way that situates dance as a critical component of a comprehensive education.     

Impact of Adolescent Childbearing on Families and Younger Sibling: Effects that Increase Younger Siblings' Risk for Early Pregnancy

To better inform educational policies for Latino students, this study explores the relations between Latino students' conceptions of their futures and their risk status for school dropout. Using the theory of possible selves, the study examines students' hoped-for, expected, and feared selves, the power of those selves to predict risk status for school dropout, and the content of their specificity and ideological beliefs. Four hundred fifteen ninth grade Latino students were surveyed, 30 who also participated in interviews. Results indicated that Latino students' possible selves differed significantly, with hoped-for selves representing the highest levels of educational and occupational attainment. Although hoped-for and expected selves did not predict students' academic performance, feared selves did. The interviews indicated that the specificity and ideological beliefs housed within possible selves might be integral to the mechanisms through which those selves influence academic performance. The implications of the study's findings for school reform policies, specifically those advocating standardized assessments, are discussed.     

Don’t Throw it Away!

This historical narrative tracks the evolution and devolution of visual arts education from Dewey's progressive era pedagogy and the theory of the arts as experience through the modern accountability movement. Archival material, state curricular documents, and conversations with policymakers show an increasing focus on core subject areas of reading, writing, and mathematics at the expense of arts education. Texas House Bill 3, the third generation of accountability legislation in the Lone Star State, provides a case study of the status of arts education after more than fifteen years of high-stakes testing and accountability. Policy considerations are offered for arts education and its future standing within the public educational curriculum.     

On Art Education and Testing in a Period of Educational Reform

This interview deals with arts education in Iran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a drastic change occurred in arts education. In terms of aim, arts education in Iran assumed a teleological orientation according to which art should be a process aimed at appreciating the manifestation of God's beauty in the world. As for curricular subjects, some branches of art such as dance are prohibited or used in modified and restricted forms. Arts education has a marginalized position in Iran for two reasons: one, which is more or less global, is that science and mathematics are widely granted a superior position in education, and the other is based on a religious understanding of some arts being inherently associated with sinful activities prohibited in Islam. However, a development in this religious understanding has led to a critical approach according to which the alleged association with sinful activity is denied and thus the prohibited forms of art can be allowed under some conditions. This new approach may have different educational consequences in the realm of arts education.     

Learner involvement in art and design education assessment: The missing matrix in Botswana's primary schools

Art in Botswana primary schools is taught under the umbrella term Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), a subject that encompasses various arts disciplines. The arts disciplines are Physical Education, Music, Design and Technology, Home Economics, and Drama and Dance. The subject introduces learners to various disciplinary knowledge, media, and techniques in the arts. This study focused on the visual arts as a component of CAPA. It investigated the extent to which primary school teachers involved learners in the assessment processes. The qualitative study involved 12 randomly selected primary school teachers from four purposively selected schools and four administrators purposively selected by virtue of their senior positions in practical subjects. The methodology was premised on Parlett and Hamilton's (1972) concept of illuminative evaluation, Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, and William's (2004) and Lindstrom's (2007) learner participation models, as well as Feldman's (1994) art criticism model. Data revealed that pupils did not meaningfully participate in the assessment of their own work due to teachers' limited knowledge of appropriate assessment procedures. Teachers did not share the assessment criteria, which were limited to numerical grades and comments such as good, fair, and excellent. Pupils were not involved in critical analysis and evaluation of their art and craft works while in progress. Teachers emphasized the end product and marking was done without any prior negotiation of grading criteria with learners. The study recommends a shared approach to assessment, which values both the process and product of artistic engagement by the learner. Teacher education programs are encouraged to seriously consider assessment of the arts, particularly self assessment as it is this critical dimension that measures children's artistic growth and development.     

“环境工程微生物学”课程思政实践举措

课程思政在高校实现“三全育人”体系中发挥着重要的作用,是当前高校教学改革研究的热点之一。本文以环境工程专业“环境工程微生物学”课程为例,首先从课程思政元素发掘、提升教师课程思政能力、培养学生学习兴趣和重要保障等四方面对该课程思政开展具体实践;其次从提升学生课程思政理念、提高学生课程成绩及对全校课程思政的引领等方面展现课程思政的实践成效;最后结合教学实践对课程思政进行了讨论和展望。通过上述研究,以期为环境工程专业课程思政改革提供实践路径,为发挥专业课的育人机制提供参考。     

Understanding molecular genetics through a drawing-based activity

The activity uses drawings typically found in textbooks, engaging students in physical and mental activities such as drawing, painting and figure completion — as well as finding missing words and answering guiding questions. The activity deals with three topics: the structure of DNA, DNA replication and protein synthesis. In this study we investigated students' understanding of genetics in two different groups: one used the drawingbased activity integrated in the traditional learning (experimental group) and the other, the control group, received only traditional learning. Achievements of the experimental group were compared to the achievements of the control group, using a written questionnaire. Analysis of the post-test showed that the mean score of the experimental group was significantly higher than the mean score of the control group, suggesting that engaging students in physical and mental activities promote students' learning. This positive trend was also reflected in students' responses in personal interviews. Most of the students reported they felt that the activity helped them to organise and better understand the subject matter, especially the translation process.     

The Psychology Underlying the Art Activity Program

The author investigates the condition of a public school's arts education program under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and obtains teachers' perspectives on their experiences under the federal policy. The author used qualitative and quantitative approaches to conduct a case study of an Ohio public school district. The data collected revealed changes in the arts education curriculum, particularly in music. Teacher interviews provided the context in which the changes occurred and a more accurate representation of the decrease in arts learning opportunities and the challenges that exist for arts education funding under NCLB. The information illustrated how administrative decisions made to improve test scores and accommodate policies mandated by NCLB threatened arts education.     

STEAM教育理念下“线上+线下”混合教学模式初探：以微生物学实验为例

随着信息化手段的不断丰富,新型教育理念结合线上学习平台的新信息化教学模式成为高校课堂的改革新趋势。本次教学改革利用科学(Science)、技术(Technology)、工程(Engineering)、艺术(Art)和数学(Mathematics)多学科融合的超学科教育理念(简称STEAM教育)对教师教学过程进行了整体设计,同时借助“线上+线下”教学平台对学生学习过程进行了全面优化。将原本分散的验证型、操作型实验重新整合串联成以多角度“项目式”任务为主线、以Blackboard线上平台为辅线的自主研究型实验项目。新型教学模式以学生为主体,给学生提供更多自我展示和讨论互动的平台。从学生的课堂表现、知识测验、课后反馈、实验操作及实验报告4个方面对新型模式下的教学效果进行了分析和评价。结果表明,此模式不仅提高了学生在微生物学实验中的学习质量,增强了其学习主观能动性,而且有利于培养和提升学生的问题探究及实践创新能力。这一新型教学模式对其他生物学科实验课程的教学具有一定的借鉴意义。     

Neurological Soft Signs and Their Relationships to Neurocognitive Functions: A Re-Visit with the Structural Equation Modeling Design

Background

Neurological soft signs and neurocognitive impairments have long been considered important features of schizophrenia. Previous correlational studies have suggested that there is a significant relationship between neurological soft signs and neurocognitive functions. The purpose of the current study was to examine the underlying relationships between these two distinct constructs with structural equation modeling (SEM).

Methods

118 patients with schizophrenia and 160 healthy controls were recruited for the current study. The abridged version of the Cambridge Neurological Inventory (CNI) and a set of neurocognitive function tests were administered to all participants. SEM was then conducted independently in these two samples to examine the relationships between neurological soft signs and neurocognitive functions.

Results

Both the measurement and structural models showed that the models fit well to the data in both patients and healthy controls. The structural equations also showed that there were modest to moderate associations among neurological soft signs, executive attention, verbal memory, and visual memory, while the healthy controls showed more limited associations.

Conclusions

The current findings indicate that motor coordination, sensory integration, and disinhibition contribute to the latent construct of neurological soft signs, whereas the subset of neurocognitive function tests contribute to the latent constructs of executive attention, verbal memory, and visual memory in the present sample. Greater evidence of neurological soft signs is associated with more severe impairment of executive attention and memory functions. Clinical and theoretical implications of the model findings are discussed.