MA in Visual Arts Education (VAE) Degree Program Mission Statement: The Master of Arts in Visual Arts Education (MA-VAE) program is designed for persons currently teaching art or who have earned a teaching certificate in visual arts and emphasizes a comprehensive approach to teaching the visual arts bringing critical, diverse, and meaningful art learning experiences to K-12 classrooms. It enables certified visual arts teachers to update and fine-tune their understanding of contemporary visual arts education theories and practices, to design visual arts education research, and to integrate technology. Students work closely with the visual arts education faculty and may seek guidance from other members of the art faculty. The MA-VAE program supports the department wide focus on student-centered learning on excellence in teaching, creative work and research, and on meeting the visual arts education state and national teacher preparation standards. Model: Eastern Michigan University's advanced professional education programs develop leaders who demonstrate reflective thought and scholarship within the context of a culturally diverse society. In addition, the Master of MA-VAE degree program produces educators who are committed to their ongoing professional growth and are aware of the challenges of democracy in our culturally diverse society. These educators will assert leadership and the ability to cultivate abstract thinking skills and analyze visual statements for personal meaning. Admission Requirements: Entry requirements are a minimum of 34 credit hours of art education and studio art with a minimum 2.8 grade point average in these classes. In addition, each applicant is expected to hold a teaching certificate for the teaching of art. Criteria considered in the admissions process in order of importance: transcript, quality of art work as evidenced in slides, and letter of purpose. 1. Submit an application for graduate admission, supported by official transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate credit at each institution attended, to: Eastern Michigan University Graduate Admissions P.O. Box 970 Ypsilanti, MI 48197 NOTE: Applicants must also submit a copy of a teaching certificate. 2. Submit a; (a) MA-VAE department application, (b) letter of intent, (c) teaching philosophy statement, (d) statement of research interests, (e) portfolio of 10-15 full screen size digital images of the applicant s studio work organized in a multiple page PDF or PowerPoint file, or a folder of jpegs, on a CD with captions or a separate list stating title, medium, size, and date of completion for each image submitted, and (f) three letters of reference to: Eastern Michigan University Graduate Coordinator Master of Arts VAE Degree Program Art Department 114 Ford Hall Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197
International students must have a score of 80 or above on the MELAB (Michigan English Language Assessment Battery), 550 or above on the PBT (paper Based Test) or 79 on the IBT (Internet Based Test) TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), or a minimum score of 6.5 on the IELTS. Degree Requirements: The Graduate Coordinator will meet with each student to construct a program of study. Students should follow closely the Graduate School requirements for "Application for Diploma." Students whose degree program includes a final exhibition of work must apply for gallery space one semester prior to the proposed exhibition. Graduate credit in art education (theory and practice) earned more than six years prior to the date on which the degree was granted my not be applied on the student's program of study to meet graduate requirements. Credit / Course Requirements for the MA-VAE Degree Program: ART EDUCATION Nine credits; Research Methods ARTE 555 Research in Visual Arts Education Three credits History of Visual Arts Education ARTE 556 Traditions & Innovations/Visual Arts Education Three credits Curriculum, Teaching Studio, Technology Applications Three credits ARTE 557 Technology, Research, and Teaching Visual Arts ARTE 558 New Ideas in Visual Arts Education ARTE 694 Seminar in Art Education ART HISTORY, ART CRITICISM, AND AESTHETICS Six credits; Students take one course in each of the following categories; Art History Three credits Art History approved 400 level and above Non-western art history courses approved 400 level and above* *Required of all students working toward VAE Specialist (LZ) Endorsement. Art Criticism &Aesthetics Three credits ARTE 559 Teaching Art from Multiple Perspectives ARTE 560 Visual Culture and Postmodernism STUDIO ART COURSES APPROVED 400 LEVEL AND ABOVE Twelve Credits** Students select four courses from the following; Two-Dimensional Watercolor Painting Drawing Graphic Design Photography Printmaking Three-Dimensional Sculpture Jewelry Ceramics Textiles **Students working toward VAE Specialist (LZ) endorsement are required to take THREE advanced studio courses in their undergraduate concentration and ONE course in the 3-D/2-D area that is different from that of the concentration. THESIS OR EXAM + ONE ADDITIONAL COURSE TRACKS Four credits
Students select one of the two options below; Thesis Track ARTS 691 Thesis Writing ARTS 691 Thesis Writing Exam Track One additional course in any area of VAED Program ARTS 5/697 Comprehensive Exam Two credits Two Credits Three credits One credit NOTE: At the discretion of the candidate s major professor, the exam may be substituted with a project. Non-degree or Self-improvement Status: A student may apply for the graduate non-degree category with the Office of Admissions if coursework is needed to prepare a portfolio for submission to the Art Department's graduate admissions committee. It is then possible, but not guaranteed, that credit hours taken by the student during non-degree, or self improvement standing could be applied towards his/her degree program of study if and when the student is admitted at a later date. Concentration Courses ART 558 New Ideas in Visual Arts Education Course Description & Goals Teaching is a life long learning process. There are many emerging and re-emerging new ideas in art education that can be used to enhance the curriculum design, day-to-day art teaching, and learning in the classroom. New is a relative term. What is new to some may not be new to others, vice versa. The new ideas explored in this class may include, but not limited to, art inquiry based, performance based, brain based, community based, visual culture, postmodern, comprehensive art education, arts integration, and various approaches for responding to art. At the end of this class, you will turn in the culminating assignment a new or a revised art/art education curriculum that incorporates new ideas in art education for the coming school year. Objectives 1. Rethink the theoretical contexts, conceptual foundations, content, instructional strategies, and assessment methods underlying their art curriculum. 2. Explore education and art education theories and translate them into meaningful instructional and assessment strategies. 3. Apply significant and imaginative applications of simple technology in the teaching of art and its assessment. 4. Collaborate and cooperate with other colleagues to develop a coherent K-12 art program. 5. Provide critical feedback to other colleagues art curricula. 6. Develop a new or redesign an existing art curriculum that incorporates new ideas learned in this class. ARTE 555 Research in Visual Arts Education Course Description & Goals This course introduces Visual Arts Education graduate students to concepts, methods, and processes of educational research (with an emphasis in visual arts education research) as well as the connections between teaching and research in art classrooms. Through writing research proposals, students will explore areas of personal interest in visual arts education. Objectives 1. Recognize the connections between teaching and research in art classrooms. 2. Learn the basic steps of conducting an educational research. 3. Understand the basic components of an educational research proposal.
4. Study various designs of educational and visual arts education research. 5. Through the process of collaboratively developing a group research proposal, learn the basics of writing a research proposal. 6. Explore a personal area of research interest and narrow it to a manageable topic, clearly defined research problem, purposes, and questions. 7. Write a research proposal that will be used for the comprehensive exam or thesis project. ARTE 560 Visual Culture and Postmodernism Course Description & Goals: This course is designed to introduce students to contemporary issues in art education, focusing on visual culture and postmodernism. In recent years, the emphasis on visual culture has expanded significantly in published research in the field of art education. It is reflective of the move in postmodern thought to involve a wider range of visual images and objects of study in art educational theory and practice. Through the lens of visual culture, we will investigate different types of artwork across time and place. The goal of this course is to enable students to see the contemporary shifts in art education, including visual culture, related issues in the comprehensive art education approach, and the new significant role played by postmodernist inquiry in art educational theory and practice. Through this exploration, students will see the reflections between the postmodern shift in art and the related changes in art education. Objectives: 1. To review contemporary issues, approaches, and methods in art education. 2. To introduce students to visual culture. 3. To understand how studying visual culture can relate to school art curriculum. 4. To create a lesson plan that will allow you to implement a visual culture lesson within your classroom setting or to write a research paper that investigates an aspect of visual culture and its potential applications for classroom learning. ARTE 557 Technology, Research, and Teaching Visual Arts Course Rationale and Goals Technology, especially computer technology, has become an imperative tool for art educators. If used effectively, technology can enhance curriculum goals and objectives, bring about enriched, differing learning experiences and interaction with art. The goal of this class is to provide inservice art teachers with a situated, constructivist learning experience in understanding the interrelationship between technology, teaching, and research in visual arts. During the first half of the semester, students will participate in the entire process of an instructor lead teaching and research project that makes a techno-constructivist use of a technology as an art learning and teaching tool. Students will contribute to the design or re-design of the project and its implementation, data analysis, and write a short paper to reflect on their experience and evaluate the design and process of this project. In the second half, as part of the assessment of their learning from the instructor led project, students will form teams and apply the learning from the first half of the semester to design and implement a teaching and research project. In this project, students will make good use of technology (of their choice) that is techno-constructivist in its approach to create active art learning, collect and analyze their data, and write a paper to report their findings. Course Objectives 1. Investigate the pedagogical and research applications of podcast technology in visual arts education. 2. Study the implications of different contemporary art education approaches on technology integration for visual arts curriculum and assessment. 3. Collaboratively design and implement a teaching and research project making a good use of technology (of their choice) that is techno-constructivist in its approach to create active
learning in visual arts. 4. Collect and analyze their data, and write a paper to report their findings and its significance for visual arts education. ARTE 556 Tradition and Innovation in Visual Arts Course Rationale and Goals: In the histories of art education, there were innovative ideas, recurring trends, highly debated issues, and influential art educators in light of their social contexts that helped shape the directions, philosophies, functions, teaching methods, and curricula of visual arts education in schools and museums in the U.S. and around the world. This class will study these ideas, trends, issues, and influential art educators from American and international perspectives to understand contemporary art education practices and envision the future directions of this field. Course Objectives: 1. Reconstruct a multimedia chronological timeline of the histories of American art education that includes important teaching methods, trends, influential art educators, and their socio-historical contexts. 2. Explore the relationships between the histories of art education, art, and the histories of the United States. 3. Compare and contrast the roots of art education practice with the current practice of art education. 4. Critically analyze the histories of art education and prepare and present a research paper on a topic of personal interest dealing with an aspect of the histories of art education. ARTE 559 Teaching Art from Multiple Perspectives Course Rationale and Goals: Since the turn of the 20 th century, art educational practice under the powerful influence of modernism has favored the teaching of formalist aesthetics. Despite strong currents to change theory and practice in art education to be more respectful of our pluralistic society in the United States, most of the visual images and objects shown and discussed in contemporary art classrooms are still selected from the western canon. This exclusive focus on art from the western world has meant that formalism has remained the leading organizational scheme in the majority of school art curricula and art textbooks. Much art learning amounts to de-contextualized studies of art techniques, formal arrangement, manipulation of materials, and art information and theories. As a result, practicing and future art teachers are inadvertently encouraged to use a narrow aesthetic prism to interpret and judge the world, rather than consider diverse artistic traditions and their associated cultures. This course advocates the use of curriculum models and the related art education approaches such as multicultural, feminist, and community-based approaches that enable students to develop an indepth understanding of artistic traditions and aesthetics produced by people of different classes, ethnic groups, genders, and local communities in the United States and around the world. Although these approaches share similar goals in their advancement of meaningful and empathetic learning of diverse arts and aesthetics, each has a unique pedagogy, emphasis, and philosophy. This class will first explore the issues concerning understanding a wider range of artistic traditions beyond personal cultural boundaries. Then students will study each of the approaches and compare and contrast their similarities and differences. Finally, to prepare students for our pluralistic world, each student will either develop his or her own curriculum as a personal translation of these theories into instructional practices, or write a research paper related to the teaching of diverse arts and aesthetics. As the new scholarship of art education in regard to the teaching of artistic traditions and aesthetics emerges, the art education approaches covered in this course will reflect those changes. Course Objectives: 1. Explore the relationships between diverse artistic traditions and aesthetics and trans-
understanding. 2. Explain the beliefs, rationales, principles, and socio-historical contexts of multicultural art education and give several lesson examples based on this approach. 3. Explain the beliefs, rationales, principles, and socio-historical contexts of community-based art education and give several lesson examples based on this approach. 4. Explain the beliefs, rationales, principles, and socio-historical contexts of feminist approach to art education and give several lesson examples based on this approach. 5. Compare and contrast the similarities and differences of various approaches that advocate the teaching of artistic traditions and aesthetics. 6. Develop an art curriculum or research paper that encompasses or explores the issues of the teaching of diverse arts and aesthetics. ARTE 694 Seminar in Visual Arts Education Topics will vary for this course based on the instructor s selection of emerging topics in Visual Arts Education that are deemed worthy of in-depth study. Some final thoughts... Art is a universal language. Art is intellectual and intuitive. It is the communication of thoughts and feelings by an artist to a sensitive and informed observer. This communication through the visual can be both personal and social in meaning. This makes involvement with art and/or in the art process fundamental to personal development and to one's understanding of history, culture and society. The study of art sensitizes the observer through exposure to works of art, both past and contemporary, and educates by requiring the observer to engage in an active process of analyzing and hypothesizing about the work. The study of art is an investigation of the artistic process. Art is an active and interactive endeavor. Art influences and affects not by mere production, but through a process of developing an idea, refining and elaborating that idea and visually executing it in a medium or combination of media. The study of art requires the ability to think, reason, question and imagine. It has outcomes and benefits for the maker. These include: originality, fluency, flexibility, capacity to redefine and reorganize, ability to abstract, synthesize and evaluate. It is a process that depends on critical thinking and problem solving. Art reflects records, and influences history and cultural development. The study of art can provide a sense of continuity and connection to common heritage. This leads to an understanding and recognition of the commonalities that are shared, as well as the diverse contributions which are made, by all cultures in a global society. Eastern Michigan University's graduate visual arts education program expects students to take ownership of and responsibility for their own education. The study of art builds on prior knowledge and expands verbal and visual language. The skills developed through the study of art are life skills which help to create independent thinkers who have informed opinions, who can make objective judgments, and who will choose wisely for themselves. (Revised 2011 CJB)