DOCSLIB.ORG

Teaching Visual Art with the Brain in Mind

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Teaching Visual Art with the Brain in Mind 1 Teaching Visual Art with the Brain in Mind A thesis presented by Karen G. Pearson to the Graduate School of Education In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education In the field of Education College of Professional Studies Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts August 20, 2019 2 ABSTRACT Critical periods of perceptual development occur during the elementary and middle school years. Vision plays a major role in this development. The use of child development knowledge of Bruner, Skinner, Piaget and Inhelder coupled with the artistic thinking theories of Goldschmidt, Marshall, and Williams through and the lens of James J. Gibson and his ex-wife Eleanor J. framed the study. Sixteen 8-10-year-olds over eight one-hour weekly meetings focused on how they see and learn how to draw. The study demonstrated that the perception of the participants followed the development of the visual pathway as described in empirical neural studies. Salient features presented themselves first and then, over time, details such as space, texture, and finally depth can be learned over many years of development. The eye muscles need to build stamina through guided lessons that provide practice as well as a finished product. It was more important to focus on the variety of qualities of line, shape, and space and strategy building through solution finding and goal setting. Perceptual development indicators of how 8-10-year-old elementary students see and understand images will be heard from their voices. The results indicated that practice exercises helped participants build stamina that directly related to their ability to persist in drawing. The findings have shown that the development of the 8-10-year- olds’ visual pathway was found at the global lower level visual field of V1 and V2 where the processes of orientation of direction sensitive retinal cells are still processing salient features. Key Words Affordance, ambiguous, art, art education, art history, binocular, chiaroscuro, disambiguate, disparity, drawing, eye movement, haptic, image, learning, neuroeducation, perception, scaffold, schema, seeing, senses, sketching, strategies, teaching, uncertainty, vergence, vision, visual art, visual brain, visual thinking. 3 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................2 Chapter One: Introduction to the Study and Theoretical Framework ..............................................5 Background and context ......................................................................................................6 Research Problem and Research Questions .......................................................................16 Definition of Key Terms ....................................................................................................24 Applying Theory to Study .................................................................................................50 Chapter Two: Literature Review ...................................................................................................53 Binocular Development and Ambiguities ..........................................................................57 The Science of Art .............................................................................................................72 Drawing Pedagogy in the United States ............................................................................82 Chapter Summary ..............................................................................................................95 Chapter Three: Research Design and Methodology ......................................................................98 Qualitative Research Approach .......................................................................................104 Participants .......................................................................................................................110 Procedures ........................................................................................................................110 Data Analysis ...................................................................................................................114 Ethical Considerations .....................................................................................................118 Trustworthiness ................................................................................................................119 Bias ..................................................................................................................................120 Limitations .......................................................................................................................120 Chapter Four: Findings & Analysis .............................................................................................120 Theme 1 ...........................................................................................................................125 4 Theme 2 ...........................................................................................................................136 Theme 3 ...........................................................................................................................145 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................154 Chapter Five: Discussion and Implications for Practice ..............................................................157 References ....................................................................................................................................179 Appendix A: Interview Protocol Template ..................................................................................203 Appendix B: Participant Images ..................................................................................................204 5 Chapter One Standardized education is extinguishing visual arts in public school systems (Rabkin & Hedberg, 2011, p. 21; Robinson, 2006). Large-scale assessments of eighth grade students’ ability to respond and create an original work of art have shown no improvement, in art, when comparing scores between 1997 and 2016 (U.S. Government NAEP, 2017; Sabol, 2013, pp. 37- 38; Gallagher, Campbell, Esch, Malin, Mayes, & Woodworth, 2008; Stites, & Malin, 2008, pp. vii-viii; White & Vanneman, 1997, pp. 80-117; Persky, H. R., Sandene, B. A., & Askew, J. M. 1999, pp. 83-117). However, the variety of media and processes available to be assessed resulted in inconsistency, because standard language and repertoire has not yet been established (Sickler- Voigt, 2018, n.p.; Tucker, 2003, pp. 3-20). According to an article by Seymour Simmons drawing instruction in school has declined (Simmons, 2019, p. 14). The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) conducted a 2008 survey that showed a deficit of art education in adults, who were educated during the time of deep budget cuts during the 1970s, have passed on their lack of interest and exposure of art to their children, thus, perpetuating their dis-interest in museums resulting in the development of a generation of people who lack exposure, understanding, and interest in the arts (Silber, & Triplett, 2015, p. 17). The erosion of the art curriculum is reinforced in schools whose focus is on test-prep subjects replacing the arts with remedial programs geared to pump up large-scale assessment test scores (Hardiman, 2016, pp. 1914-1915). This erosion is particularly evident in the severe narrowing of the curriculum in low-income schools creating a divide between the wealthy schools that are able to afford “licensed teachers and expensive tools and supplies” (Hardiman, 2016, p. 1916) while the low-income schools use funding for remedial classes to boost test scores to meet the annual yearly progress (AYP) requirements. Policymakers continue to 6 overlook the importance of visual art education and its effects on over-all learning as access to art education erodes (Sabol, 2013, pp. 41-42). Instead policy continues to emphasize information pertaining to test-prep subjects as is seen in many school mission statements creating a built-in tension that narrows the arts creating a small niche labeled “talented” or “gifted” that stigmatizes art giving the sense that art is not meant for all students (Gaztambide-Fernandez, Nicholls, & Arriz-Matute, 2016, p. 33). “No doubt standards will come and go as time moves forward, but they need to be underpinned by a clear vision of art education as a discipline of mind and of teachers as promoting learning that is both personally and socially meaningful rather than narrowed to predetermined lists of skills and routines amenable to single-criteria assessment” (Judith M. Burton, 2019, p. 1649). Assessment in visual art has not yet included specific scaffold of language, process, and criteria for the developing child to be able to reach the attainment of national assessment mentally or physically. Background and Context Throughout time visual art has demonstrated its flexibility. It might even be considered the first written language of humans as a means of communication and has developed over 70,000 years. Drawings, for example, have been considered a universal language that has the ability to transcend language and culture in communication (Sharon A. Brusic & Joseph G. Steinmacher, 2015, p. 10). Research has shown that geoglyphs,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Paths from the Philosophy of Art to Everyday Aesthetics
    Paths from the Philosophy of Art to Everyday Aesthetics Edited by Oiva Kuisma, Sanna Lehtinen and Harri Mäcklin Paths from the Philosophy of Art to Everyday Aesthetics © 2019 Authors Cover and graphic design Kimmo Nurminen ISBN 978-952-94-1878-7 PATHS FROM THE PHILOSOPHY OF ART TO EVERYDAY AESTHETICS Eds. Oiva Kuisma, Sanna Lehtinen and Harri Mäcklin Published in Helsinki, Finland by the Finnish Society for Aesthetics, 2019 6 Contents 9 Oiva Kuisma, Sanna Lehtinen and Harri Mäcklin Introduction: From Baumgarten to Contemporary Aesthetics 19 Morten Kyndrup Were We Ever Modern? Art, Aesthetics, and the Everyday: Distinctions and Interdependences 41 Lars-Olof Åhlberg Everyday and Otherworldly Objects: Dantoesque Transfiguration 63 Markus Lammenranta How Art Teaches: A Lesson from Goodman 78 María José Alcaraz León Aesthetic Intimacy 101 Knut Ove Eliassen Quality Issues 112 Martta Heikkilä Work and Play – The Built Environments in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil 132 Kalle Puolakka Does Valery Gergiev Have an Everyday? 148 Francisca Pérez-Carreño The Aesthetic Value of the Unnoticed 167 Mateusz Salwa Everyday Green Aesthetics 180 Ossi Naukkarinen Feeling (With) Machines 201 Richard Shusterman Pleasure, Pain, and the Somaesthetics of Illness: A Question for Everyday Aesthetics 215 Epiloque: Jos de Mul These Boots Are Made for Talkin’. Some Reflections on Finnish Mobile Immobility 224 Index of Names 229 List of Contributors 7 OIVA KUISMA, SANNA LEHTINEN & HARRI MÄCKLIN INTRODUCTION: FROM BAUMGARTEN TO CONTEMPORARY AESTHETICS ontemporary philosopher-aestheticians
    [Show full text]
  • Eye Fields in the Frontal Lobes of Primates
    Brain Research Reviews 32Ž. 2000 413±448 www.elsevier.comrlocaterbres Full-length review Eye fields in the frontal lobes of primates Edward J. Tehovnik ), Marc A. Sommer, I-Han Chou, Warren M. Slocum, Peter H. Schiller Department of Brain and CognitiÕe Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, E25-634, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Accepted 19 October 1999 Abstract Two eye fields have been identified in the frontal lobes of primates: one is situated dorsomedially within the frontal cortex and will be referred to as the eye field within the dorsomedial frontal cortexŽ. DMFC ; the other resides dorsolaterally within the frontal cortex and is commonly referred to as the frontal eye fieldŽ. FEF . This review documents the similarities and differences between these eye fields. Although the DMFC and FEF are both active during the execution of saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements, the FEF is more dedicated to these functions. Lesions of DMFC minimally affect the production of most types of saccadic eye movements and have no effect on the execution of smooth pursuit eye movements. In contrast, lesions of the FEF produce deficits in generating saccades to briefly presented targets, in the production of saccades to two or more sequentially presented targets, in the selection of simultaneously presented targets, and in the execution of smooth pursuit eye movements. For the most part, these deficits are prevalent in both monkeys and humans. Single-unit recording experiments have shown that the DMFC contains neurons that mediate both limb and eye movements, whereas the FEF seems to be involved in the execution of eye movements only.
    [Show full text]
  • Preschool Teaching Staff 'S Opinions on the Importance Of
    c e p s Journal | Vol.5 | No4 | Year 2015 9 Preschool Teaching Staff’s Opinions on the Importance of Preschool Curricular Fields of Activities, Art Genres and Visual Arts Fields Tomaž Zupančič*1, Branka Čagran2, and Matjaž Mulej3 • This article presents preschool teachers’ and assistant teachers’ opinions on the importance of selected fields of educational work in kindergar- tens. The article first highlights the importance of activities expressing artistic creativity within modern curriculums. Then, it presents an em- pirical study that examines the preschool teachers’ and assistant teach- ers’ opinions on the importance of the educational fields, art genres, and visual arts fields. In research hypotheses, we presumed that preschool teachers find individual educational fields, individual art genres, and in- dividual visual arts activities to be of different importance; consequently, education in kindergarten does not achieve the requisite holism. The study is based on the descriptive and causal-non-experimental method. We have determined that the greatest importance is attributed to move- ment and language, followed by nature, society, art and mathematics. Within art genres, the greatest importance is attributed to visual arts and music and the least to audio-visual activities. Within visual arts, drawing and painting are considered to be the most important and sculpting the least. These findings can support future studies and deliberation on the possible effects on practice in terms of requisitely holistically planned preschool education. Keywords: curriculum, preschool education, preschool teachers, requisite holism, visual arts activities 1 *Corresponding Author. Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Slovenia; [email protected] 2 Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Slovenia 3 Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Maribor, Slovenia 10 preschool teaching staff’s opinions on the importance of preschool curricular ..
    [Show full text]
  • Improvement in Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements After Cigarette Smoking in Schizophrenic Patients Ann Olincy, M.D., M.P.H., Randal G
    ELSEVIER Improvement in Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements after Cigarette Smoking in Schizophrenic Patients Ann Olincy, M.D., M.P.H., Randal G. Ross, M.D., David A. Young, Ph.D., Margaret Roath, M.S. W., and Robert Freedman, M.D. -------·-------- ---------------·----- ____ .. __________________. ___ - This study examined whether schizophrenics' cigarette computerized pattern recognition software. After smoking, smoking normalized smooth pursuit eye movement smooth pursuit gain increased and the percentage of total abnormalities. Fifteen schizophrenic and 15 rwnschizophrenic eye movements due to leading saccades decreased subjects abstained from their usual cigarette smoking for an significantly in the schizophrenic patients. There were no average of 10 h. Their baseline performance during a changes in the gain or leading saccades of nonschizophrenic constant velocity smooth pursuit task was then assessed. subjects after smoking. Nicotinic receptor dysfunction may The subjects smoked as much as they desired in a 10-min be a candidate mechanism for smooth pursuit eye movement period and then were retested immediately rostsmoking, abnormalities in schizophrenia. and 10 and 20 min later. Smooth pursuit gain and the [Neuropsychopharmacology 18:175-185, 1998] percentage of total eye movement due to various saccadic © 1998 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. subtypes were computed using infrared oculography and Published by Elsevier Science Inc. ----- - -- --------------------·------------···--- ----- -------- KEY WORDS: Cigarette smoking; Nicotine; Smooth pursuit creased frequency in relatives of schizophrenic probands eye movements; Schizophrenia; Saccades (Levy et al. 1983; Holzman et al. 1984; Clementz et al. 1992; Ross et al. 1996). Family studies have suggested Physiological deficits found in schizophrenic patients that a single autosomally transmitted gene may largely and their relatives have been proposed to elucidate ge­ account for SPEM deficits in schizophrenic patients and netic and pathophysiological mechanisms in schizo­ their relatives (Holzman et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Yapp Dissertation Minor China
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Minor China: Affect, Performance, & Contemporary China in the Global Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7205c8fk Author Yapp, Hentyle Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Minor China: Affect, Performance, & Contemporary China in the Global by Hentyle Taiwan Yapp A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies and the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Shannon Jackson, Chair Professor Mel Chen Professor Andrew Jones Professor Susan Kwan Spring 2014 1 Abstract Minor China: Affect, Performance, & Contemporary China in the Global by Hentyle Taiwan Yapp Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies and the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality University of California, Berkeley Professor Shannon Jackson, Chair In our globalized moment, cultural production emerging from China and other non-Western locations has become of central concern for critical theory, art history, and cultural studies. In order to counteract previous decontextualized and over-universalizing discussions of contemporary Chinese art, most art history, theatre, and performance studies scholars have emphasized how art and culture emerged within specific historical and political contexts. However, by repeatedly relying on contextualization, the Chinese are reproduced as lacking imagination, contradictions, and complexity. By examining the historical emergence of this discourse, I demonstrate the limits of past approaches in order to explore other methodological possibilities. In contrast to other scholars who have situated contemporary Chinese performance and art within over-determined modes of contextualization, this dissertation locates alternative methodological possibilities in affect and feelings.
    [Show full text]
  • Benefits of Implementing Visual Arts for Elementary School Students
    California State University, Monterey Bay Digital Commons @ CSUMB Capstone Projects and Master's Theses Capstone Projects and Master's Theses 12-2019 Benefits of Implementing Visual Arts for Elementary School Students Desiree Conway California State University, Monterey Bay Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes_all Part of the Art Education Commons Recommended Citation Conway, Desiree, "Benefits of Implementing Visual Arts for Elementary School Students" (2019). Capstone Projects and Master's Theses. 666. https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/caps_thes_all/666 This Capstone Project (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Capstone Projects and Master's Theses at Digital Commons @ CSUMB. It has been accepted for inclusion in Capstone Projects and Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ CSUMB. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Running head: The Benefits of Implementing Visual Arts 1 Benefits of Implementing Visual Arts for Elementary School Students Desiree C. Conway California State University, Monterey Bay The Benefits of Implementing Visual Arts for Elementary School Students 2 Abstract Walking into an elementary classroom you might have observed that visual arts have been consistently disappearing from elementary school classrooms. Visual arts curriculum is especially important in elementary schools because it helps students to fully understand concepts in other areas of their academics. This senior capstone will focus and discuss the many benefits of implementing visual arts into an elementary school classroom. Through the use of literature review and interviews with teachers. The findings reveal that when visual arts are implemented into elementary schools, they do indeed serve students well and have positive effects in all academic areas of elementary school students.
    [Show full text]
  • Theuse of Cuteness in Japanese Advertising
    SWEET SPOTS: THEUSE OF CUTENESS IN JAPANESE ADVERTISING Andreas RIESSLAND This article looks at Japanese society through its advertisements. To be more precise, it examines the utilization of a certain social value-.. cute­ ness - within advertising contexts. The focus is not so much on the per­ ception of 11 cuteIl advertising, i. e., on how an audience in Japan discerns and interprets signifiers of cuteness in ads, but on how advertisers in Ja­ pan utilize 11 cute" images for advertising purposes and to what ends. Advertisements, if properly analyzed, can provide useful hints as to what a sodety's values are. Through the idealized IIrealities" they display, they are suggestive of what is defined as desirable and positive. Converse­ ly, they also give clues about sodal restrictions and taboos through matters they avoid showing (such as the colour red in ads for sanitary pads). Look­ ing beyond the advertised commodity and investigating the IIsodal reali­ ties" displayed in the ad, we can get a pretty clear idea of what values and ideas are of relevance within a given sodety. What makes this possible is the fact, that contrary to the image of avant-garde and cutting-edge trend­ iness which ad makers try to promote for themselves, in their ads they tend to promote the conservative end of sodety's value spectrum (WERNICK 1991: 24). The reason for this is obvious: Evenwhenit targets a limited audience, an ad canachieve maximum acceptance withinits target group onlybynotgo­ ing against the sodal value system prevalent in this group. A certain dra­ matic toying with some of the sodal standards may be permissible and use­ ful for raising attention, but, on the whole, a consdous violation of audience expectations in advertising (such as Benetton's controversial poster cam­ paign) is extremely rare.
    [Show full text]
  • Softening Power: Cuteness As Organizational Communication Strategy in Japan and the West
    © 2018 Journal of International and Advanced Japanese Studies Vol. 10, February 2018, pp. 39-55 Master’s and Doctoral Programs in International and Advanced Japanese Studies Iain MACPHERSON & Teri Jane BRYANT Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba Article Softening Power: Cuteness as Organizational Communication Strategy in Japan and the West Iain MACPHERSON MacEwan University, Faculty of Fine Arts and Communication, Assistant Professor Teri Jane BRYANT Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Associate Professor Emerita This paper describes the use of cute communications (visual or verbal, and in various media) as an organizational communication strategy prevalent in Japan and emerging in western countries. Insights are offered for the use of such communications and for the understanding/critique thereof. It is first established that cuteness in Japan–kawaii–is chiefly studied as a sociocultural or psychological phenomenon, with too little analysis of its near-omnipresent institutionalization and conveyance as mass media. The following discussion clarifies one reason for this gap in research–the widespread conflation of ʻorganizational communication’ with advertising/branding, notwithstanding the variety of other messaging–public relations, employee communications, public service announcements, political campaigns–conveyed through cuteness by Japanese institutions. It is then argued that what few theorizations exist of organizational kawaii communications overemphasize their negative aspects or potentials, attributing to them both too much iniquity and too much influence. Outside of Japan studies, there is even less up-to-date scholarship on organizational cuteness, critical or otherwise. And there are no such studies at all, whether focused on Japan or elsewhere, that integrate intercultural insights.
    [Show full text]
  • What Can I Do with a Major In...VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION
    What can I do with a major in...VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION The Visual Arts major is designed to prepare students to teach visual art in grades K-12 in private and public schools. As an education major, you’ll be mentored by professors who will guide and encourage you during your journey toward a degree and teacher licensure, and a classroom of your own! We have a wide range of P–12 school partnerships that will give you extensive interaction with current teachers in real classrooms as early as your sophomore year. You’ll observe and assist in classrooms before you become a student teacher your senior year. What types of work are related to this degree? Who employs people with this degree? Teaching in your area of specialty Schools of all kinds-public, private, charter, international, Private tutoring government, residential Creating/directing educational programs Day care and nursery school Curriculum development or textbook editing Parks and Recreation departments Instructional design (technology training may be required) Educational testing companies Online education Curriculum/educational publishers Student life/student affairs School district offices Corporate or business training and development Educational research firms Private or community education instructor Industries related to your subject area Administration/management in the fine arts Non-profit organizations Art gallery or museum research or exhibits Universities and colleges More information online at ONETonline.org Employee training programs Strategies for Success: Requirements for certification/licensure vary by state; multiple certifications will increase employability. A master’s degree will increase earning potential. Be willing to work hard at finding a job and to go where the jobs are.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effect of Eye Movements and Blinks on Afterimage Appearance and Duration
    Journal of Vision (2015) 15(3):20, 1–15 http://www.journalofvision.org/content/15/3/20 1 The effect of eye movements and blinks on afterimage appearance and duration School of Psychology, Cardiff University, # Georgina Powell Cardiff, Wales, UK $ School of Psychology, Cardiff University, # Petroc Sumner Cardiff, Wales, UK $ Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, # Aline Bompas Centre Hospitalier Vinatier, Bron, Cedex, France $ The question of whether eye movements influence argued that afterimage signals are inherently ambigu- afterimage perception has been asked since the 18th ous, and this could explain why their visibility is century, and yet there is surprisingly little consensus on influenced by cues, such as surrounding luminance how robust these effects are and why they occur. The edges, more than are real stimuli (Powell, Bompas, & number of historical theories aiming to explain the Sumner, 2012). Helmholtz (1962) identified another cue effects are more numerous than clear experimental that is important to take into account when conducting demonstrations of such effects. We provide a clearer afterimage experiments: characterization of when eye movements and blinks do or do not affect afterimages with the aim to distinguish For obtaining really beautiful positive after- between historical theories and integrate them with a images, the following additional rules should be modern understanding of perception. We found neither saccades nor pursuit reduced strong afterimage observed. Both before and after they are devel- duration, and blinks actually increased afterimage oped, any movement of the eye or any sudden duration when tested in the light. However, for weak movement of the body must be carefully avoided, afterimages, we found saccades reduced duration, and because under such circumstances they invariably blinks and pursuit eye movements did not.
    [Show full text]
  • Cuteness": the Aesthetics of Social Relations in a New Postwar Japanese Order
    CAPITALIZING ON "CUTENESS": THE AESTHETICS OF SOCIAL RELATIONS IN A NEW POSTWAR JAPANESE ORDER Leila MADGE In the fall of 1988, Yoshida Kenji, the president of the San'yo Sago Bank in Okayama, made headline news in the economics section of leading Japa­ nese newspapers. Unlike most bank presidents appearing in the news at that time, Yoshida was not defending himself or his bank from accusations of wrongdoings. He had made the national news because of the new name he had chosen for his bank: Tomato Bank. The occasion for the new name was the bank's planned change in status from a savings and loan associa­ tion to a commercial bank following a recent reform in Japanese banking law. The hoopla that arose around the name "Tomato," along with the bank's bright red logo, was related to the associations that it conjured up in many Japanese minds, associations that somehow seemed incongruent with the image that banking institutions have traditionally held in Japan. Although there was some initial opposition among bank employees, who felt that the name Tomato sounded more appropriate for an agricul­ tural cooperative than for a bank, the public response seemed only posi­ tive. Although the conversion was not to take place for six months, Sanyo Sago was inundated with inquiries from people all over the country wish­ ing to open accounts at the new Tomato Bank. In interviews about the un­ expected popularity of the previously little-known prefectural bank, Yoshida explained that he thought it important to send the message that he was "breaking the status quo." A crucial element in the delivery of this message was the use of a name that would be perceived by the public as kawaii (cute, as translated in the Japan Times, 21 October 1988: 11).
    [Show full text]
  • Bridging the Art Museum and the Middle School Math Classroom
    June 2, 2013 15:41 Journal of Mathematics and the Arts jmabasedfp Journal of Mathematics and the Arts Vol. 00, No. 00, January 2013, 1–16 The Fusion Project: Bridging the Art Museum and the Middle School Math Classroom a b Benjamin Wells ⇤ and Philip Wagner aDepartment of Mathematics, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco CA 94117, USA; bThe Fusion Project, Davis CA, USA (Version: v4.1, for the USF Fusion Project 2013 Summer Institute. c 2013 Benjamin Wells) The Fusion Project is a distinct program of the University of San Francisco’s College of Arts and Sciences with the support of the School of Education. It was created by Philip Wagner and is directed at USF by Benjamin Wells. With the support of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, its goal is to bring art to the math classroom and math students to the art museum, enhancing existing curricula in order to improve basic and advanced skills, standard-oriented test scores, and students’ interest in mathematics. Keywords: mathematics education, math in art museums; art in math classrooms; museum-school mathematics collaboration AMS Subject Classification: 97D40, 97B50, 97U99 1. History and background In the new century, the United States government recognized the need to improve knowledge and skills in language and mathematics, and so the US authorized the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program in 2002. Under this program the performance of public schools has been judged on standardized test scores in language and mathematics. Review of the well-publicized testing results over the years indicates that that California students rank below their peers in other states and US students rank below their fellows in other countries based on similar testing.
    [Show full text]