SECTION 1 - via - School of Visual Arts

teaching and learning standards in art education (national and state), current art education
issues, information about and strategies for teaching students (K-12) with special needs, writing
and implementing curriculum, teaching strategies and techniques, including multiculturalism
within the curriculum, student learning styles, classroom environment and management,
developing teaching aids, art materials and ordering supplies, safety issues, evaluating art
outcomes, displaying artworks, careers in art, applying for art education positions, and field
experience observations. Individual institutions will of course have some other topics added to
the list, but a quality art education program will at least include these components.
There is a great deal of information that needs to be covered in teaching future art teachers. In
the past, most institutions have done a fairly good job in teaching the above information
including child development in art, safety issues, and ordering art materials; but now
institutions must try to include teaching the four disciplines of art as well. Thankfully art
education programs can rely on the studio and art history faculty to teach the content in two of
the four disciplines. The art educator must, however, teach future teachers strategies for
teaching the content covered in these courses to the appropriate grade levels. Teaching the
content and strategies for teaching the content in the areas of aesthetics and art criticism are
usually left up to the art education faculty. Large enough art education programs sometimes are
fortunate enough to support an entire course to teaching these two disciplines, smaller
programs are often not so fortunate.
For a better understanding of what is actually involved in including Disciplined Based Art
Education in an art education program the following is offered. DBAE is a theoretical approach
rather than a curriculum. It can be configured in a variety of ways to meet the instructors goals
and resources. In 1992 The Getty Center for Education in the Arts published The DBAE
Handbook: An Overview of Disciplined-Based Art Education by Stephen Mark Dobbs. This text
includes chapters on definitions, features of DBAE, curriculum, teaching, evaluation,
implementation, and resources. The definition given in this text states that “Disciplined-based
art education is an approach to instruction and learning in art that derives content from four
foundational disciplines that contribute to the creation, understanding, and appreciation of
art.” (p. 9) Because DBAE is an approach and not a specific curriculum, it exists in a variety of
forms. However, all versions of DBAE have the following features in common:
Art is taught as a subject within general education with a written and sequentially organized
curriculum consisting of lessons containing content drawn from four foundational art
disciplines. The lessons build a body of cumulative knowledge, understanding, and skills in art
that can be appropriately evaluated.
Students’ abilities are developed to make art (art production); analyze, interpret, and evaluate
qualities of visual form (art criticism); know and understand art’s role in society (art history);
and understand the unique nature and qualities of art and how people make judgments about it
and justify those judgments (aesthetics). (p.10)
Using a DBAE approach to curriculum, students must learn how to write lesson plans
appropriate for each grade level and coordinated with other grades. The curriculum needs to be
sequentially organized and reflect learning simple concepts before complex ones so that
students may build their knowledge, skills, and understanding in a logical fashion. Works of art
by adult artists from many cultures are central to the organization of the curriculum. Mature
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