Best Practices in Visual Art Education by Cheri Isgreen

[Think 360 Arts Staff]

The following are exerpts from the report Best Practices in Visual Art Education by Cheri Green, In Collaboration with Connie Stewart


This paper reports a synthesis of the discussion held on 09 May 2009 among twenty-one visual
art educators who convened at the Denver Art Museum and continued discussions via email
about promising practices for visual art teachers.1 The goal of the discussion and this paper is to
demonstrate the alignment of best practices in visual art education with current research in
pedagogical theory and practice. This paper articulates specific recommendations to support
teachers, schools, school districts, and state boards as they make decisions affecting visual art
programs. The panel represented a broad range of teaching experience from early career teachers
to retired teachers, practicing in both public schools and charter schools. The participants teach
at all levels, including elementary, middle, and high school; higher education; and museums. A
list of participants appears at the end of this brief.

The discussion of best practices was guided by questions in the following categories: learning
and thinking; media and processes; and administrative decisions. Arts programs teach
vocabulary, conventions, skills and techniques that are specific to the discipline of visual art.
Art making also teaches a specific set of thinking skills (dispositions) rarely addressed elsewhere
in the curriculum, including persistence, expression, the ability to notice relationships and make
connections, observation, envisioning, innovation, and reflective self-evaluation, (Eisner, 2002;
Hetland, et all, 2007.) These dispositions produce “innovative leaders who improve the world
they inherit,” (Winner and Hetland, 2007.) Colorado can pay special attention to supporting arts
education as new research reveals that Colorado ranks 5th among all states for concentration of
creative talent, generating approximately $5 billion in payroll and benefits. The creative
economy includes occupations in either a creative industry, “where products or services are
rooted in emotional and aesthetic appeal” or non-creative industry in which “the work itself is
inherently creative or artistic.” At present, 40% of these creative workers are imported from
other states, (Colorado Council for the Arts, 2009.)

Part One: Expression, Creativity, and Contexts

Part Two: Cognition and Connections

Part Three: Media and Processes

Part Four: Decisions that Support Learning in Art Programs


Developing students with creativity, persistence, expression, vision, and innovation necessitates
the need for best practices and supportive decision-making in visual art education. Fostering
students fluent in these visual art-based 21st Century skills ensures success when competing in a
global economy. The following recommendations, developed through conversations with
Colorado art educators and corroborated by educational research, support and guide K-12 visual
arts programs in which robust student learning occurs.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROMISING PRACTICES IN VISUAL ART
EDUCATION

Expression, Creativity, and Contexts:
Art making provides a form for concepts, ideas, and lived experiences. This process is often
termed “Creative Expression” or “Art as Communication.” Participants identified the following
characteristics of arts instruction that support personal expression and creativity, where students
solve problems from self-imposed questions with individual solutions.
• provide opportunities for students to find their own voices to craft compelling visual narratives,
(each student's work is unique and looks different from others’ artwork)
• recognize and support diversity
• provide opportunities for critique and artistic discourse before, during, and after art production
• design age and culturally appropriate art experiences
• combine structured lessons with choice-based open-ended activities, (opportunities for students
to learn the rules and then to break them)
• foster discovery learning by presenting problems in open-ended ways
• develop and expand students ability to pose questions
• provide a safe atmosphere, (foster freedom for students to create with clear expectations,
rituals, and routines)

Cognition and Connections
Students make connections that enable learning in multiple ways. Participants identified these
aspects of interdisciplinary learning important in an art classroom.
• present learning through linguistic and nonlinguistic representations
• connect to previous learning, both in and through the arts, and between disciplines, cultures,
and students’ personal lives
• develop the multi-disciplinary role of metaphor and visual narrative
• present all types of art: master works from around the world and throughout history, ethnic
artwork, and contemporary art; include accurate contextual information
• present traditional media including drawing, painting, sculpture, small metals , ceramics,
printmaking, and photography
• expose students to contemporary media including projection, performance, protest, and social
justice
• support students in building transformative evidence through portfolios, sketchbooks, and
digital media

Media and Processes:
The quality of an art program depends on the quality of the experience a student has with art
media. Repeated experiences with a variety of media give students the background to make
media choices enabling greater creative expression. The following “best practices” for teaching
the skills and expressive potential of a variety of art media were identified.
• align learning with state and national visual art standards
• develop rubrics to define and assess quality work; when appropriate, involve students in
creating rubrics
• design learning in the arts to spiral upward, building on sensory experiences, skills, techniques,
and concepts
• provide sketchbooks for opportunities to do research, exploration, and show students’ thought
processes
• provide a variety of age appropriate experiences in both 2D,3D, and 4D media
• provide young children access to a variety of 3D media
• consider 3D media when designing differentiation strategies
• provide opportunities for students to transition between 3D and 2D media
• provide opportunities for students to integrate art and technology
• articulate project schedules; make deadlines flexible
• provide opportunities for elaboration
• explicitly teach safe and appropriate use of tools and media
• actively involve students in clean up; explicitly teach clean up procedures
• provide opportunities for student reflection, (use a variety of reflection pathways: critiques, art
walks, presentations, conferences, etc.)
• ensure kiln area is adequately vented, safely installed and partitioned

Decisions that Support Learning in Art Programs:
Administrative decisions determine schedules, budgets, class sizes, teacher qualifications, and
facilities. These decisions are critical to supporting quality art education programs, which in turn
develop superior learners. The panel addressed recommendations in the following areas.

Schedules:
• schedule adequate custodial time
• establish a policy of no student pull-out during art classes
• embed collaborative planning in the school schedule between art specialists and classroom
teachers for strong integration at the elementary and middle school level
• build elementary schedules to accommodate learning in the arts, with an equal rotation of
visual art, music, and movement
• provide a minimum of 80 minutes/week of visual art with a 5 minute passing period at the
elementary level
• provide 50 - 60 minutes of visual art every day at the middle school level
• require all sixth grade students to take at least one semester of introductory art, (don't mix 6th
graders with older middle school students)
• after introductory art, offer middle school students integrated courses in 2D, 3D, and
electronic media arts to deepen skills, techniques, and concepts
• provide flexibility for high school art blocks, especially Art I classes
• articulate school goals before developing high school art schedules

Budgets:
• fund art budgets to reflect the consumable nature of art making
• fund art budgets to reflect the development of creative learners
• develop cultural sensitivity when funding art budgets, eliminate fund raisers
• supplement art budgets (at the secondary level) to compensate for low income families' ability
to pay student fees
• develop student, school, and community resourcefulness

Class Size:
• ensure safe and creative working environments when determining art class sizes
• reflect equivalent art class sizes to other classes in the school
• assign art teacher/student loads to enhance teacher/student connections
• assign art teacher/student loads to foster effective instruction, assessment, integration, and
collaboration

Teachers:
• recruit and retain highly qualified, licensed art specialists
• supplement art curriculum with Artists-in-Residence
• enhance learning in and through the arts with community partnerships

Facilities:
• provide a dedicated art classroom with a minimum 50 square feet per elementary student and
65 square feet per secondary student
• outfit art rooms with sturdy rectangular tables, student stools, counter space, and double sinks
with hot water and water sprayer
• design and provide adequate storage for art programs rich in media experiences, visual
resources, project storage, and portfolio storage
• provide adequate technology in art class rooms to reflect the visual nature of art and the state of
visual communication today, (basic equipment: computer, digital projector, digital camera)
• provide access to increased technology as student artwork becomes more sophisticated
• ensure that kiln area is adequately vented, safely installed, and partitioned
• provide separate 2D and 3D classrooms at the high school level, well designed to support that
level of student artwork

To download the full report, follow this link: Best Preactices Col Report (2).pdf