The papers gathered in this volume were presented at the 1996 meeting of the American Educational Research Association, mostly at programs of the Arts and Learning Special Interest Group. Papers in the volume focus on research in the arts in the areas of profiles of learning and assessment (section 1), community-based art education (section 2),…

A narrative study was conducted of the visual models in two movies preferred by Chinese adolescents in two schools (n=152). The two movies studied were "Three Decisive Campaigns" (A Chinese Trilogy) and the American science fiction movie, "Jurassic Park." The modified approach from Bandura's modeling theory and film semiotics…

Examines the effects of literacy on cultural traditions, linguistic behavior, socioeconomic organization, cognitive processes, and child development. Considers the implications for anthropological, psychological, and linguistic theories from the increased attention given to the study of literacy. Includes suggestions for socially and culturally…

Frames a developmental psychology of art by contrasting the structural orientation of the study of drawing and the functional orientation of the study of artistry. This model maintains that graphic symbolization emerges with early mark-making, children's representative art is guided by perceptions of affordances, and children continue to engage in…

Presents accounts of theories locating the sources of the signifying capacities of words in their imbrication with nondiscursive structures and practices. Points out that a tradition of philosophical, linguistic, and semiotic theorizing has attempted to clarify what it is for words to have the meanings they do in terms of the relation of…

Discusses the relationship between communicative function and grammar, and the relationship between initiation and discourse. Using a systemic functional framework, a model is set up with with three planes (semiotic, discourse, and language/paralanguage) and two linguistic levels (grammar and phonology) to demonstrate how situation, communicative…

Describes the theoretical underpinnings and methodology of research investigating the production and reproduction of gender in physical education lessons in three Australian schools, demonstrating how to explore questions raised within a feminist examination of the construction of gender in physical education using Foucault's poststructuralist…

Discussion of how the nature and use of visual and verbal meaning-making systems vary across formats. Focuses on a comparative study of CD-ROMs and printed books dealing with scientific concepts in upper primary grades. Topics include linguistic and visual semiosis; the use of images; and meanings in images. (Author/LRW)

A study of the ways science students transformed their teacher's description of cells suggests that learning is multimodal, arising from the interaction of visual, verbal, and linguistic communication. It demonstrates that learning is a process of selection, adaptation, and transformation of information across communication systems. (Author/SK)

Examines arguments that language comes from innate, abstract knowledge of universal grammar that signers use to create new grammatical features. (12 references) (CK)

Discusses the use of analog drawing in an undergraduate interdisciplinary arts course. States that analog drawing uses lines as representation of portraits, problems, or emotions. Explains how analog drawing was used to depict social issues and reports on the interpretations of student drawings. (CMK)

Investigates students' writing based on theories of learning. Considers thinking as something that is built in the process of interactions and confrontations with the thoughts of others. Investigation is based on qualitative analysis of 24 student dissertations written by social workers training to become managers of community services in two…

Examines the process involved in doing a literature search and in writing a master's dissertation, as well as the progress made with regard to a new research field undertaken during doctoral research. The first undertaking was initiated with interests but no fixed subject while the second started with a subject but little or no knowledge of the…

Reports on graduate students' perspectives of their learning experience using NUD.IST--computer-aided qualitative data analysis software--to make use of narrative data. Students' comments gathered from inside classes, class assignments, and course evaluations are highlighted (Author/VWL)

Discusses using visual representations of children to help pre- and in-service teachers reconsider the ways they, as adults, relate to children. Focuses on historical depictions of children, images of children from today, and the photographs Anne Geddes. (CMK)