Overview of Discipline-Based Art Education:
DBAE seeks to impart a well-rounded view of art by studying any given work or type
of work using four different disciplines, tailored to specific ages and grade levels:
1. Art Production – Students learn skills and techniques in order to produce
personal, original artwork.
2. Art History – Students study the artistic accomplishments of the past and
present as motivation, examples of style or technique, and as discussion
topics, especially in relation to cultural, political, social, and
economic events and movements.
3. Art Criticism – Students describe, interpret, evaluate, theorize and judge
the properties and qualities of the visual form, for the purpose of
understanding and appreciating works of art and understanding the roles
of art in society.
4. Aesthetics – Students consider the nature, meaning, impact and value of
art, are encouraged to formulate reflective, “educated” opinions and
judgments about specific works of art, and examine criteria for evaluating
works of art.
Visual Thinking Strategies is a form of inquiry-based training the ideas are found at the website vtshome.org
Over time, students grow from casual, random, idiosyncratic viewers to thorough, probing, reflective interpreters. They go from finding only personal connections — appropriate when they begin — to searching out the intentions of artists and dealing with elements of styles. They are first encouraged to find meaning based on past experiences (legitimizing what they know), and to become grounded storytellers. After a certain amount of experience — when they begin to become dissatisfied with their own limitations — they are asked to develop their own voices through writing about art, either using images provided with the curriculum or via the Internet. The process first depends on group interaction and works toward individual problem solving motivated by personal interests. As students develop their connection to art, they exercise a wide variety of cognitive skills that are useful in many contexts. Indeed, in all locations where VTS has been tested, both classroom and test performance has been seen to improve, and the effect in all cases has been attributable to VTS.
Art documents
| Painting |
Photoshop |
Screenprinting |
Ceramics |
| Lesson I |
Lesson I |
Lesson I |
Lesson I |
| Lesson II |
Lesson II |
Lesson II |
Lesson II |
| Lesson III |
Lesson III |
Lesson III |
Lesson III |
| Lesson IV |
Lesson IV |
Lesson IV |
Lesson IV |
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Visual Thinking Strategies
VTS is designed to promote growth in thinking and communication skills, as well as aesthetic development. Standard measures of achievement have limited use in assessing these different but related streams of growth. VTS assessment measures are built into the technique itself: listening to students, paraphrasing, and linking what is said. Paraphrasing is the main tool for keeping track of individuals in terms of oral language abilities, kinds of thoughts and concerns, information retained, and methods of processing information and ideas. Linking connected thoughts helps teachers understand how thinking progresses during any given discussion, how individuals relate to the group, and how a given student changes over time. Written assignments collected throughout VTS lessons concretely augment what teachers hear and recall.
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Governor's Show
The beginning of adolescence marks the end of artistic development among most children, due to frustration at "getting things right." Those who do manage to weather the crisis and learn the "secret" of drawing will become absorbed in it. Edwards believes that proper teaching methods will help children learn to see and draw and prevent this crisis.
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Evaluation of Artworks
An easy four-step method for evaluating a work of art.
Descriptive words about an artwork are like pointers; they draw attention to something worth seeing - so remember that the words that you use must be NEUTRAL. Do not use terms that denote value judgments, such as beautiful, disorderly, funny looking, harmonious, etc. Instead, focus on the factual information, such as smooth, bright, round, a lake, shape, etc. This is important so that you don't jump to conclusions before going though all the steps.
Analysis of relationships such as sizes, shapes, colors, textures, space and volumes, etc., encourages a complete examination of the artwork. It also reveals the decision making process of the artist, who wants the viewer to make certain connections within the artwork.
Interpretation is the meaning of the work based on the information in steps 1 and 2. Interpretation is about ideas (not description) or sensation or feelings. Don’t be afraid of revising your interpretation when new facts are discovered (such as the date of the artwork, or the personal history of the artist, etc.) Conversely, don’t be reluctant to make an interpretation from your analysis of only the visual information.
Judgment, the final step, is often the first statement that is expressed about an artwork before it has really been examined. Judgment in that case is neither informed nor critical but simply an opinion.
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• A long-range plan and written lessons ensure that curricular activities are specific, well understood, and coordinated with branding identity.
• Sequential organization allows skills and concepts to build on one another through regular, systematic, ongoing instruction.
• Engagement with works of design by graphic artists from many cultures is central to the organization of curricula.
• Content is balanced among the four art disciplines (production, history, criticism and aesthetics) to promote engagement from multiple perspectives.
• Developmentally suitable and age-appropriate learning activities maximize student learning.
VTS encourages...
• a personal connection to art from diverse cultures, times and places
• confidence in one’s ability to construct meaning from art
• active class discussions and group problem solving
• development of thinking and communication skills
• development of writing skills
• transfer of these skills to other subject areas
Aesthetic development is not a primary goal, but rather, a secondary byproduct, acquired while seeking to increase higher order critical thinking skills, reasoning and creativity. The benefit to DBAE’s instrumental approach is that the arts are more readily incorporated into all areas of classroom learning. Many types of art may be applied to the study of a variety of academic subjects. The intention is for students to understand the interrelationships of all subjects and disciplines, artistic and academic.