Date of Award

5-2015

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Art

First Advisor

Dr. Christina D. Chin

Second Advisor

Dr. William Charland

Third Advisor

Vince Torano

Keywords

Choice-based, art, education, curriculum, TAB

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

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 fifth graders.

During this study, I worked with 45 fifth grade students to test the theories of choice-­‐based art through pre and post-­‐testing, surveys, and formal and informal observations.

I found that students responded well to the choice-­‐based art methodology using skills like problem solving, creative ingenuity and perseverance. The outcome was many different interesting works of art that expressed each individual differently.

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