The 2015 passing of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to replace No Child Left Behind was celebrated within the arts community (Arts Education Partnership, 2017; National Art Education Association, 2017; Walker, 2016) for embracing a "well-rounded education" that explicitly includes the arts in its definition (ESSA, 2015, p. 298). In…

Art's capacity to foster metacognition puts art education in sync with general education where understanding and monitoring one's thinking are acknowledged to be essential to an individual's success in school and life (Kolencik & Hillwig, 2011; McGuire & McGuire, 2015; Silver, 2013). The mindfulness inherent in metacognition also connects…

Few would disagree that a primary aim of art and design education is to cultivate student creativity. While there are diverse approaches to teaching for creativity in art and design education, developing creativity generally focuses on discovery, materials exploration, and idea expression (process) as well as making and presenting final works of…

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept that embracing failure is an important pedagogy for visual arts classrooms in order to instill more creative thinking in students. The authors cover personal examples from work with graduate students in education and describe their learning through failure. The article also highlights…

To be awake means to have active attention, particularly the attention to carry a project into effect and execute a plan (Greene, 1977). Additionally, to be wide-awake requires a level of consciousness that provokes reflection and awareness in the quest for meaning, which can in turn contribute to the formation of self and ability to make sense of…

As we consider art education for future generations, we envision a change in focus from the "product," or artwork, to the artistic "process"--the thinking behind the artwork. How can we be so sure this shift of priorities is afoot? Indicators in general education point to thinking dispositions as the goal of learning (Costa…

The art classroom is abundant with opportunities to develop meaningful questions, including one that constantly drives the author's own teaching practice: How might she best engage middle school students in a generative process of inquiry when interpreting and producing creative visual culture? In 2009, Chris Grodowski began translating research…

When do we know that we are part of a swarm? What might a swarm look and feel like in an art classroom? These were a couple of the questions that began two art educators' inquiry into ways swarm intelligence operates in a learning environment that might "reinforce and strengthen your most creative thinking with a positive feedback loop"…

Discussing various perspectives of artists' influences and experiences can develop students' divergent thinking skills. Fostering students' divergent thinking skills is integral to developing creativity, and the Arts are a ripe forum for this. In contrast to convergent thinking, which focuses in on one "correct"…

Art educators are concerned with exposing their students to contemporary art making practices. They aim to create fresh lessons that expand their understandings of art in today's world while highlighting the importance of imagination. With a personal interest in performance and street art (art forms that have gained popularity in recent years),…

Just as students should leave their Foundational year of art with a beginning sense of composition, color, value, and materials, so should they be cultivating their creative capacities. With the equipment exercised and the waters tested, students will be prepared to continue their journey; for it is the interplay of personal experience, social…

Educators are concerned about what their students are learning in their interaction and participation in the digital culture. For art educators specifically, the digital and new media practices youth engage in raise other important questions: When contributing to the digital culture, what are they creating? What are the aesthetic qualities of the…

According to Vande Zande (2007), understanding the Design Process can help students become stronger critical thinkers. With this in mind, Andrew Watson decided to undertake an observational case study in which he focused directly on Design Thinking and addressed it more intentionally in his teaching. The hope was to understand how students saw…

What is the relationship between student teachers' studio art practice and pedagogy during the student teaching experience? What are the benefits of reflecting on connections between art teaching and artmaking after the student teaching experience? In developing one's art practice, art educators build conceptual frameworks for curriculum with…

This article discusses the Choice, Voice, and Challenge (CVC) Instruction, an instructional model that encourages creativity or "wild things". CVC Instruction defines ways in which classroom teachers may provide vehicles for their students' mental journeys that can lead to creative and imaginative actions and outcomes. The CVC model provides a…