Learning From Art Museums: Three Course Assignments for Pre-Service Elementary Teachers

Abstract

This paper presents a course assignment that required pre-service teacher education students to reflect on a museum in the Fort Worth and Dallas Metroplex in Texas. As part of their art education course at the College of Visual Arts and Design of the University of North Texas students experimented with a variety of media and concepts to develop the skills necessary to bring art to life for children. These art-making and related experiences correlated with and reinforced the concepts introduced in the lecture portion of the class. Both lecture and studio explored the universal themes of personal identity the natural and man-made environment and storytelling as they appear throughout the history of art and are relevant to children's art today. This paper presents how a museum assignment is designed to further help them to appreciate a variety of art forms while analyzing the content and form followed by their own interpretation and finally exploring ways to utilize the museum sources in their teaching. © Common Ground Nur Balkir-Kuru All Rights Reserved.