Art Education STEP Task Force

 

Committee Members

 

Dr. Jane Rhoades Hudak

Ms. Dabney Edenfield

Mr. Larry Smith

Ms. Debby Smith

Dr. Bruce Little

 

Introduction

 

Professor of Art Education/Director of Graduate Art Education Swainsboro High School Art Teacher Demonstration Teacher Screven Middle Grade Art Teacher/Clinical Associate Demonstration Teacher

Todd -Grant Elementary Art Teacher

Professor of Art Education/Director of Graduate MFA Program! Director of Undergraduate Art Education Program

 

The Standards-Based Teacher Education Project (STEP), a collaborative project of the Council for Basic Education (CBC) and the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), aims to support institutions in the redesign of their teacher preparation programs to ensure that teacher candidates have the content knowledge and pedagogical skills to support K-12 academic standards.

 

STEP supports teams of university and K-l2 faculty to use the framework provided by K-l2 standards and new teacher assessment requirements to examine and redefine the following teacher preparation elements:

 

Entry and exit requirements for teacher education programs;

 

Content knowledge preparation of teacher candidates through disciplined-based majors;

 

Pedagogical preparation of teacher candidates and its relation to subject area content; and

 

Entry, interim, and exit assessments of teacher candidates that ensure adequate content knowledge and pedagogical skills appropriate to delivering the content.

 

Currently, STEP has been implemented on at least 15 campuses in Maryland, Indiana, Kentucky, and Georgia.

 

Georgia Southern University's (GSU) STEP involvement began during the 1999-2000 academic year. A Secondary Social Science certification committee and report was the focus of the initial year. During the 2000-2001 academic year, Secondary Mathematics certification and Secondary Language Arts certification committees and reports were developed. This purpose of this report is to document the Art Education STEP Task Force certification committee's process and recommendations.

 

Art Education STEP Committee Process

 

The Art Education STEP committee consisted of two art educators from GSU, and three public school art teachers from three different school systems representing each level (i.e. elementary, middle, and secondary). All committee members are outstanding teachers, have supervised student teachers, and have won Teacher of the Year Awards. Dr. Jennie Rakestraw, College of Education Associate Dean met with the committee on February 12, 2002. The committee was charged with making recommendations on how to enhance the process of certifying art education teachers at GSU.

 

To accomplish this task the committee members familiarized themselves with the professional standards and expectations in the field. The standards the committee used are the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Standards of Art Teacher Preparation, NCATE Accreditation Standards for Art P-12, Praxis II objectives and current student scores, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBTBS). We also analyzed the content of all course syllabi in the Art Department. We did this in order to recommend ways of assuring that selected courses are in compliance with the performance-based outcomes expected by NCA TE and NAEA, and that students are prepared for the content of the Praxis II exams. Lastly, the committee reviewed Art Department Faculty Curriculum Vita's to see that standards for the faculty were met.

 

The Task Force decided to evaluated five broad areas:

I.                    STANDARDS FOR THE UNDERGRADUATE ART EDUCATION PROGRAM

II.                 STANDARDS FOR THE ART EDUCATION FACULTY

III.               STANDARDS AND SKILLS FOR ART TEACHER CANDIDATES

IV.              SPACE, FACILITIES, LIBRARY HOLDINGS, OTHER RESOURCES, ETC.

V.                 GRADUATE ART EDUCATION PROGRAMS

 

Findings/Recommendations

 

I. STANDARDS FOR THE UNDERGRADUATE ART EDUCATION PROGRAM

  1. The art education preparation program at GSU does focus on the content of the visual arts.

1.  Presently art education majors are required to take EDUF 3232-Educational Psychology: General. The committee questioned the necessity of this required course since the same material is also covered in Art 3135 and Art 3136.

2. In art studio courses, include more performance-based objectives/assessments.

3. In art studio courses, include more integration of computer technology into instruction and assessment.

4. The Art Department should devise strategies and plans for helping Art Education majors prepare             or the content of the Praxis II exams in art.

 

     B.   The art teacher preparation program at GSU provides teacher candidates with a thorough knowledge of theory and practice in art education.

1. It is recommended that Art 3135-ArtMethods for the Art Classroom Teacher P-5 and Art-3136 Art Methods for the Art Classroom Teacher 6-12, be required to be taken before Art 4790- Practicum in Art Education.

2. ESED 4799-Student Teaching in P-12 Education should be converted to an Art number so that it is reflected in the Art Department load. For years, the art education faculty have "volunteered" to have student teachers. In order to meet NAEA Standards only qualified art educators should be supervising art education student teachers. Art education faculty should not always have to have student teachers as an unpaid overload.

3. The committee found that the way Art 4790-Practicum in Art Education is presently administered is problematic. It takes a huge amount of time to coordinate all of the field placements for this course. Art is a speciality field and there are few art teachers in our area that can be utilized as demonstration teachers. The daunting time-consuming administrative tasks involved in delivering this course are unreasonable. This issue and other work load needs have also been presented to the newly formed CLASS Secondary Education Task Force.

4. The committee feels that because of the commitment the art faculty have in delivering a quality art education program, we would like to see the undergraduate program housed in the Art Department. The committee feels a B.F.A. with Certification would better serve art education students.(This is how UGA administers their art education program and the GSU Art Department would like to follow suit). Also, the committee would like the resources (e.g. funds for advising) that are presently allocated to the College of Education, for art education, be reallocated to the Art department.

5. Presently in the state of Georgia art positions are being cut. It is common sense that people who live in Georgia do not want to get a degree in art education if they cannot teach art in Georgia. The committee feels that the College of Education should help in terms of time and money to help recruit art education students from other states.

6. The committee feels that greater emphasis needs to placed in all education methods classes (not just art education courses) for more in depth information concerning special needs students.

 

II. STANDARDS FOR THE ART EDUCAUON FACULTY

A. The art education faculty are competent in the practice of art education and do a good job in preparing future teachers of art.

 

B. Art Education faculty create a supportive and collaborative leaning environment that effectively prepares successful teacher candidates.

 

C. Art educators at GSU are actively engaged in scholarly inquiry and demonstrate that they are part of a community of professionals.

 

III. STANDARDS AND SKILLS FOR ART TEACHER CANDIDATES

The committee looked in depth at the following areas and found art teacher candidates to be proficient in: Content of Art, Knowledge of Students, Curriculum Development, Instruction, Assessment, and Professional Responsibility.

 

IV. SPACE, FACILITIES, LIBRARY HOLDINGS, OTHER RESOURCES, ETC. A. Space and Facilities

A. Art Education students utilize the College of Education's Learning Resource Center. This facility is excellent. Special attention is given in the curriculum to understanding multimedia technologies in art making and in teaching, learning, and assessment in art in order to ensure our graduates are current and competent in today's educational environment. The Art Department is presently slated to move to the old laboratory school in November of2002. Many of the department's current space issues will be resolved upon that move. The committee recommends that there be a model art education classroom in that new facility. College of Education Creative Arts classes could also be taught in that space.

 

B.  There needs to be more funds allocated towards art education books, fine art prints, software, etc. The holdings in the LRC are good, but limited.

 

V. GRADUATE ART EDUCATION PROGRAMS

 

A. Courses

1.After reviewing the changes that have been made over the last few years in the MED Art Education requirements, the committee was pleased with the present program.

2. The service delivery of graduate courses needs to be more varied (e.g. Saturday/weekend courses, courses offered at the Georgia Coastal Center, etc.)

3. The committee was pleased with the availability of new on-line art education courses.

4. Presently Dr. Hudak teaches foundation courses for the Art Department. Although she enjoys teaching those courses, it takes away from the graduate program.

5. Presently, art education faculty get no in-load credit for Ed.S. or Doctoral research advising they conduct. This should be changed.

6. Committee members feel that presently in the College of Education, there is a stronger emphasis on quantitative research. Researches in our field (see Elliot Eisner's, Enlightened Eye) most often use qualitative research methods. This issue needs serious discussion.

 

B. Recruitment

1. The committee applauds recruitment efforts by the art education faculty, specifically with the Bahamian Minister of Education to develop a Master's Degree program for the art teachers in that country. Also, for the development of an Art Education Graduate brochure. More needs to be done by the College of Education to help recruit more graduate art education students. A Newsletter or on-line information should be developed to recruit and to notify people of course availability.

 

C. Graduate Assistants

1. Although, the Art department runs College of Education Graduate Programs, they have never provided any graduate assistants to the Art Department. There are many interesting and educational projects that graduate art education students could be engaged in if the Art Department were allocated a student. They would even be interested in sharing a student half-time with another department.

 

D. SDU's

1. The committee recommends that more art SDU's be offered around the state, especially south of Statesboro. Also, that these SDU's be offered during the evenings and weekends.

 

VI. OTHER

 

A. When GSU went through semester conversion, the Department of Early Childhood eliminated the required basic Art and Music Methods courses that almost all other universities in the US require. Although, thankfully, Early Childhood majors still are required to take a Creative Arts course (i.e. one course that includes four subject areas-art, music, dance/movement, and dramas. We are pleased that this course in now taught by a content specialist, but feel that the. arts are neglected in the Early Childhood curriculum.

 

B. Generally, the Art Education faculty do an excellent job in helping students understand the visual arts in a global, multi-cultural, and technological society. They do this by emphasizing cognitive approaches to art learning and student assessment, critical inquiry of traditional and contemporary artwork, the analysis of public and educational policy in the arts, and inquiry in the philosophical, historical, and policy foundations of art education and arts administration.