Tamara Duran

Amber Ward

November 2, 2016

Art 133

Unit Paper 5

Since art education was introduced into the classroom setting it has been almost

constantly changing. The standards, ways of teaching, the focus on what to teach and so

on are not the same as it was in 1821 when it was introduced by William Bently Fowle.

Its primary focus when it was introduced was having disciplinary value in training the

eye, hand, and the perceptual faculties and the way it was taught was highly formal and

mechanical in all grades (Dorn, 1994, p. 2). Now art education has distinct goals, content

and methods in teaching, also known as the discipline-based art education that was

brought in by Manuel Barkan. Though not all art educators agree with his approach and

instead challenge it. Some think that art teachers should be treated like professionals and

given thee authority to design programs for their students and themselves (Dorn, 1994,

p.5) whereas others are concerned with teachers being given a perspective in art

education that preludes to any other contending view (Dorn, 1994, p.5-6) or that efforts

to help children know about the art of others could mute the childrens voices in the

process (Dorn, 1994, p.6). Overall in art education today people have various ideas and

views as to how to teach children about art.

As a future art educator and considering the different art education approaches I

think that I would not choose one specific approach to use but rather combine approaches

to teach my students. For instance, I would like to teach or show my student the works of
other artists; though I would hope not to mute the childrens voices by doing this. I

would be doing this as a way showing them different art styles and giving them ideas

about their own artistic style. I would still want to have distinct goals, content, and

methods in mind in how to teach the students but I would also like to decide what to teach,

when to teach, and how to teach it. My main focus though would just to teach the

students and hope that Im able to show them their potential in art and that I have some

sort of impact on them.

Reference

Dorn, Charles M. Thinking In Art: A Philosophical Approach to Art Education.

Philosophy, Art, and Education. Text.