In this commentary, educator and author Katherine Boydell reflects on her journey to incorporate art genres in the research process as a knowledge translation strategy for producing and disseminating research-informed knowledge. She highlights the need to move beyond descriptions of form and content to grapple with the unique methodological,…

This paper explores the contextual value of solitude in learning; in so doing, it attempts to suggest an alternative method of instruction that is based on aesthetics as the reciprocal relationship between emotions and intellect, and between action and contemplation. Such an aesthetic education or method seeks to guide the student towards the…

Discusses how art can be used to help teach students about the social factors that accompany the getting and spending of energy. Reviews the social issues that have been reflected in American painting during various historical periods. Reveals a portrait of ever-increasing energy use and its shaping of social institutions. (DMM)

The push for academic electives has grown over the years for many reasons. The pressure for high test scores has forced schools to focus on literacy and core content areas. The competition for entrance to four-year universities has grown, too. However, in the race to improve academic offerings and raise test scores, some schools have neglected to…

Identifies eight resources that help educators extend and enrich the literacy experiences of students through the weaving of drama, music, and the visual arts into responses to literature, writing, and other areas of the curriculum. (RS)

Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott" and Holman Hunt's painting of the same subject are excellent examples of the value of exploring poetry through painting. One of the biggest questions raised in relation to the poem's theme is the problem of its ambiguity. By looking at the painting in class, one can sense the lack of definite…

Considers the importance of teachers learning about an artistic discipline in much the same way that language arts teachers are encouraged to write. Discusses knowing what materials can do, making materials mean something, and children's artistic intentions. Visits two second-grade classrooms in which working with clay invites students to think…

Art plays an integral role in civilizing society and its members. Through the visual arts we can directly comment on the human condition and begin to comprehend the complexity of our species and our multicultural and mutlilayered society. This article discusses how the arts' civilizing power can inform the education of all children. (15…

Illustrates the value of interdisciplinary approaches to patient care by exploring visual articulations of suffering as rendered by one artist. Makes general observations about the nature of humanities courses offered to medical students and depicts a visual portrayal of an illness story representing personal perspectives about patient suffering…

Discusses the life and paintings of Vincent van Gogh, focusing on "The Road Meanders," and describes how to teach students through the painting (e.g., analyzing colors, discussing feelings it evokes, and writing poems that speak to the people in the painting). A copy of the painting is included. (SM)

The elementary secondary curriculum in the United States could benefit from redefining the arts as a discipline to be interwoven into the school's curriculum. Four essays in this issue explore the question of the arts in education. John Holdren comments in "Will the Band Play On?" that music educators must stress the serious study of music as its…

A perspective on artistic creativity developed by an artist and a psychologist is presented. The artist approaches art as a semiotic system built upon relations between visual isomorphisms. The psychologist is concerned with the origins of analogical thought in children's symbolic play and its possible maturation into a component of adult…

This paper examines the art of Rene Magritte to illustrate how artworks provide a number of dimensions for realizing experience, for creating knowledge, and for a changed role of interpretation in educational research. The paper argues that works of art provide new gestalts and new grounds for confidence. (JB)

Establishes a link between the themes of Golding's fiction and the paintings of the Brueghel. Traces their use of the grotesque to impress a message on the mind of the reader or viewer. (CRH)

This article explores the factors which account for the weaknesses of the visual arts in the social studies curriculum. Of necessity, it therefore examines social studies teachers and their training. Finally, it suggests what can be done to make aesthetic expression an integral part of instruction in social studies. (Author/SJL)