I feel a little more confident in my research skills since I wrote this literature review. I hope my grade reflects my confidence. I think the assignments leading up to our literature review helped organize my ideas and thought which made the writing process easier. Which I would like to thank the instructor for the way it was all set up for us to suceed. Instead of researching the sources for the review all at once it was easier to have the assignments explain different kinds of sources and follow up with the ones you need to keep. The understanding of the importance of the arts in education was expanded due to the analysis of my literature review by teaching me the other aspects I had not seen. For example the perspective of high school students regarding art. I don’t feel that there are any questions unanswered about my research but instead I feel it further strengthens my beliefs on the importance of the arts in education and I want to learn more on teacher’s views.

 

This week I learned a little more about my research topic because I included another very important journal. The search path to locate them was through Leatherby Libraries and refined my search so that it would be closer to the topic I needed which is on art education and the importance of it in our school systems. There aren’t very many aspects of my research question that are unanswered and so far I am enjoying the new information I look up each week because it further confirms the fact that we need to keep the art in education and raise the level of priority in teaching it as well. I feel like the aspects of my research topic are important to a wide audience because we all care about education and if we keep stressing the value it has to our children then it will not become extinct.

Why is it important to include the arts in education?

Thomas, M. K., Singh, P., Klopfenstein, K., & Henry, T. (2013). Access to High School

Arts Education: Why Student Participation Matters as Much as Course Availability. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 21 (83) Retrieved June 12, 2016, from http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1224

 

This article touches on the importance of the role of arts education for achievement and developing creativity. It also gives a few tables on the level of participation from students based on its availability. One of tables shows that the participation rate in a Texas high school is less than .63% from 9th to 12th. This table also shows that the involvement in the arts engages students in their overall learning experience. This article is relevant to my research because it gives observations from schools that have art course resources and its participation rates. The findings in this article can show how important it is to include the arts in education. The information from the article is from 2013 and up to date for my topic. I looked at a variety of sources and this one was the most relevant because it answered my research question. The authors of this article are qualified because they are from Education Research Center at The University of Texas at Dallas and Education Innovation Institute of the University of Northern Colorado. The information is supported by the tests they made on students to access how detrimental arts education is to lower dropout rates. The purpose of the information from this article is to inform readers of the advantages of arts in education.

 

Manifold, M., & Zimmerman, E. (2011). Everyone Needs an Art Education: Developing Leadership through Positive Attitudes Toward Art Methods Courses. Art Education, 64, 33-39. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed June 4, 2016).

 

In this article the authors do a study using focus-group student discussions and focused interviews with instructors of art method courses. This article is relevant to my research because it specifically answers my research topic with important data taken from students that share their experiences from art method courses. The studies where made to explore how group activities impacted students in a positive way with the right art experiences and right attitude. The study goes into detail to explain what characteristics instructors need to focus on in order to teach art. The article also shows pictures on how groups interact with each other and collaborate to develop affirmative views of art which are relevant to my research. The timeliness of the information of this article is recent since it’s published in 2011. The intended audience is for teachers and parents because it does into depth about the teaching methods. The authors of this study are professors of art education at Indiana University.  This a reviewed article and the tone of this article is not biased. The purpose of the information is based on facts because of the teachers who used art lessons in order to support the idea that art is important in education.

 

Art In Psychoanalysis: A Contemporary Approach To Creativity And Analytic Practice

Goldstein G. (2013). Available from: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)

http://search.ebscohost.com

 

This book talks about how art affects creativity and the way children develop a way to show emotions. The author of this book is a psychoanalyst that partners with others to write each chapter on different views. She uses views from a medical doctor, clinical professor of psychiatry and medical psychiatrist. This journal would be relevant to my research topic because it touches on some important points that discuss the effect modern art has on children. The organizational affiliations are with IPA “Psychoanalytic Ideas and Application” series. The author’s qualifications on the topic of creativities importance to education are relevant for this topic since it is based on the mind of children and their understanding of art. There is no contact information on this eBook.

 

Bjokman, A.E, Bjorkman, C. (2016). Patterns of awareness-preschool teachers’ integration of art and mathematics: International Journal of Education through Art, 12, 167-180.

Doi: 10.1386/eta.12.2.167_1

 

This journal investigates how preschool teachers use art and mathematics together. They also have a specific research question similar to mine. They want to know how much does art contribute to a child’s learning development. The topic of this journal is relevant to my subject of research since it discusses how important the arts are in education from firsthand experience of the teachers. The timeliness of this journal is very recent and some of the studies are from 2013 as well. The intended audience would be teachers and parents since it is informational. The authors of this article are from Sweden and they both are from a University.  This study comes from Sweden and there are no errors in the grammar. The purpose of this information is to compare the guidelines that we have here in the United States so that we can learn from the examples we are given by other educators.

 

Wilson, J. M. (1998). Art-making behavior: why and how arts education is central to learning. Arts Education Policy Review, (6), 26.

 

This journal was relevant to my research question because it was supporting the thesis that the arts are central to learning. It talks about art educators and how the arts are important to human survival.  It is not too recent but from 1998 so it should be updated. This journal did not have much information on.  The author but goes straight into the topic using other references. The information comes from various research from other Universities.

 

Ashworth, Elizabeth Laura Auger. "Elementary art education : an expendable curriculum?." (2010): British Library EThOS, EBSCOhost (accessed June 20, 2016).

 

This journal is relevant to my research question because it explains how art education can be considered an endangered subject. The information form here is up to date since it is from 2010. There are a number of observations made from this article to inform parents and teachers. There is a need to add the arts into our core education since right now it is considered non-core subject. The teachers also need to have more of a background in visual arts in order to implement the right ideas from art instruction. Since teachers lack the comfort teachers have to teach art can be otherwise seen as non-effective implementation. The author is from a University from Glasgow.

  

In this week’s readings I learned a little more about plagiarism. I think that when you use terms like “copying” it definitely takes away the real meaning of it because it is literary theft. I think that getting a refresher in this topic was important because as I do research I need to have this in mind. The concepts addressed and the research skills developed so far influence my approach as I do my research by keeping me focused on the citation methods I’ve learned. I need to practice annotation more and what I usually do to stay away from using the summary that they give in the beginning of each book is that I try to skim through the journal or book I’m using fro my research project, that way I use only my own words. There aren’t any aspects of academic integrity and plagiarism that are unclear.

 

The new ideas that I discovered with the empirical research articles was that the arts in education is valuable in many ways and what teaching characteristics are necessary. From what I discovered from the research articles I have not reconsidered the focus of my research question but instead it has affirmed my beliefs in the importance of the arts in education. I know that my interest for teaching and the arts is what has kept my attention on this research question.  There were other studies mentioned in the literature reviews mentioned that I want to look into because they further support my research topic. I did not find the same author in the articles I researched. I feel like my research skills are getting better. It still takes me awhile to find what I need but I think that everyone has to take time to find research articles you need and that will be useful. I had a hard time understanding chapter 4 in Badke book because I’m still learning research terminology. I think that I just need more practice with researching and read over some of the chapters we have already gone through to see if they can help me better understand Badke.