In this article, I portray the status of visual art education in United States public elementary schools between 1997 and 2004. I report on trends in state policies and interpret data from a national survey of elementary principals, visual art specialists, and classroom teachers. I also provide information on public opinion about arts education,…

Explores a set of principles as a guide to art interpretation in "Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary." States that responding to works of art is a means to interpretation, focuses on personal and communal interpretations, and addresses the issues of multiple interpretations of artworks. Includes references. (CMK)

Outlines a community-level approach to art education history by examining the art education community. Reviews complexity science concepts and organizational and educational change theory. Discusses the application of community to historical inquiry in the form of community-level studies. Includes references. (CMK)

Describes a case study in which third-grade children (n=19) examined a series of images of Ndop statues and visual information from the Kuba people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo using art history constructivist inquiry methods. Presents the results in detail. Includes references. (CMK)

Investigates the effects of an arts infusion program (SPECTRA+) on the creative thinking, academic achievement, self-esteem, locus of control, and appreciation of the arts by school children (n=615). Reports that SPECTRA+ program children scored higher than the control group in creativity, self-esteem, and arts appreciation, while data for…

Investigates the cognitive skills developed through arts, such as higher order thinking, that have an effect on learning, thinking, and in subject matter domains. Focuses on the artistic experiences of students (n=2046) who attended the target elementary and middle schools (n=12). Includes references. (CMK)

Comments on the article, "The Unexplored: Art Education Historians' Failure to Consider the Southwest" (Peter Smith). Discusses art education sources on historical research that were omitted from the article. Addresses the difficulties in the value placed on historical research in the southwestern United States. (CMK)

Examines how painters and other artists who lived in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries learned to draw as children. Results supported the conventionalist view of how children learn to draw, i.e., most of the children learned to draw by copying directly from pictures. (RM)

Three- to ten-year-olds responded to a three-dimensional object by drawing it and/or verbally describing it. Two days later, they reconstructed the object in drawn or verbal form. Descriptive abilities increased with age. The children displayed differences in verbal and graphic description only when recalling the object from memory. (Author/RM)

Focuses on the utility of well-formulated theory in conducting research, and demonstrates that the problem of transfer of learning is still a tough and subtle one. (Editor/RK)

In this study of four hyperactive elementary children, the effects of painting and physical activities on attention-to-task were observed. Both techniques brought improvement, the pleasure of the activities seeming to provide an intrinsic reward which the children internalized, bringing increased attention-to-task to other classroom activities.…

This study of 30 fourth-grade mathematics classes sought to determine if the use of art-making activities to reinforce math concepts influenced students' attitudes toward mathematics and/or art; their mathematics achievement; or their creative thinking. Results indicated improved attitudes toward mathematics and increased elaboration ability. (SJL)

To identify an easy and effective method by which the classroom teacher can expand student art preferences, this study examined three suggested approaches: habituation; art criticism (Feldman-Mittler Methodology); and art production (studio activities). Combinations of these approaches were studied in interaction with students' grade level. (SJL)

In a theoretical and philosophical discussion, the author examines the results of two drawing exercises he used with elementary students. Exercise One, "blind contour" drawing from life, was based on child-centered art learning theory. Exercise Two, copying an artwork, emphasized the learning of graphic conventions and cultural forms. (SJL)

Forty students, grades 4 and 8, were given match-to-sample tests on Western art, to gauge their ability to recognize paintings by the same artist. Eighth-graders performed reliably better than fourth-graders, and their matching justifications were more advanced. Prior artistic experiences improved style sensitivity. (SJL)