Describes and illustrates "Christina's World" by Andrew Wyeth. Provides background information on Wyeth's life and compares "Christina's World" to Wyeth's "Siri." Suggests activities to help all levels of art students understand use of color, mood, and composition. Introduces related activities designed specifically…

Great women artists may go unrecognized because the institutional frameworks and cultural histories by which they are judged are missing. Harriet Beecher Stowe, often disparaged as a trivial writer, is a case in point. Her work, identified as parlor literature, is pivotal in the development of a national literature. (SLD)

Describes an secondary art education course using the principles of discipline-based art education (DBAE). Argues that art production techniques and studio art must be included with the DBAE approach for a successful program. Provides an overview of the course content and teaching methods used in the program. (CFR)

Outlines a collaborative processing model of art education what draws upon the language and learning notions of Lev S. Vygotsky. Emphasizes the role of the learner in collaboration with her/his social environment rather than traditional disciplinary boundaries. Synthesizes the principles of transactional learning theory and the processes of making…

Raises questions about an aspect of rhetoric called the commonplace. Suggests how commonplaces may be applied to educational topics in innovative ways. Shows historical analysis can highlight assumed concepts and values in discourse, policy, and practices. Argues educators must increase awareness of the interrelated arts of rhetoric in teaching by…

Critiques nine major curriculum texts. Argues the field has failed to produce important research. Looks at citation ratios in curriculum research journals versus other scholarly journals. Explores the impact and influence between curriculum texts and their intended audience. Includes suggestions for a curriculum program from the…

Describes how a North Carolina school system's integrated English/Social Studies pilot program helped ninth grade students develop more awareness of their local, state, and national community. Notes that the program features research, writing, and literary analysis, as well as a planned program for the "common good." (PRA)

Describes the creation of a traveling art museum to expose elementary and middle school children to contemporary art. Maintains that this is a sound way to build school and community support for art education in general. (KM)

Discusses national standardized testing versus testing reform and provides an overview of the alternative assessment movement and its relationship to the school library media specialist. Highlights include criticisms of standardized testing; theoretical assumptions for alternative assessment; research and practice related to specific alternative…

Presents an instructional unit containing five activities centered around paintings by Leon Golub. Helps students understand the processes of art criticism and the social context in which art works are analyzed and criticized. Provides guidelines and questions for a comparative analysis of three contemporary art critics. (CFR)

Criticizes the notion that the empiricism of economics is more valid (and therefore more valuable) to the field of political science than the more subjective efforts of area studies. Specifically responds to Robert Bates's categorization of area studies as "unscientific" and unduly "humanist." Briefly discusses significant works within area…

Discusses Kenneth Burke's notion of "symbolic action" as applied to texts and how it mediates perceptions. Discusses some ways to teach students to get outside their own perspectives and notice what they are overlooking (thus teaching Burke's "perspective by incongruity"). (SR)

Reviews research on how gender affects adolescent development. Discusses various conceptualizations of adolescence, the crisis of self-esteem for adolescent girls, the ways in which schools reinforce traditional gender roles, differences between boys' and girls' achievement patterns, and the intersections of gender with ethnicity and social class.…

Presents media literacy research of eighth-grade students to determine the level of recognizing and understanding visual and nonvisual codes that make up motion-picture stories. Study focused on rhetoric of the film medium: trust, confidence and belief in films among children is very high; if this trust coincides with ignorance of media codes,…

Efforts to ban the "Little House on the Prairie" series because of racist depictions of American Indians seem a knee-jerk reaction to a complex text. Teachers can use the books to develop an appreciation of American Indians and their history and to promote understanding of the disparate and conflicting attitudes of the nation when the…