Assessment in the Art & Art Ed Department
The Department of Art and Art Education offers you an opportunity to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Studio Art, Visual Studies, or Digital Media, a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Art Education, a minor in art, as well as a Master of Education with a Major in Art degree.
More than half of the enrollment in studio art courses each semester are students majoring in areas other than art. The Department responds to this opportunity to contribute to a wide range of educational goals by basing course content and pedagogical approach on a view of studio experience as part of education in a broad sense rather than primarily as training for the profession. Those students who want additional emphasis on professional aspects of study in the arts will find enthusiastic instruction and encouragement.
Art and Art Education
Tyler School of Art
Temple University
2001 N. 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
215.204.7181
BA in Art Key Learning Outcomes
Assessment is an important aspect for the BA in Art program. It is imperative that there is continuous thought and effort invested in assessment projects, including the articulation of learning objectives, the cooperative development of instructional strategies between specific areas of study, ongoing programs of assessments, and plans on how assessment results will be used for improvements to the programs of study.
Learning Objectives articulate the collection of knowledge and skills that students should acquire so they can be visually literate and technically competent by the end of a course of study. This list starts with the basic principles of imagemaking and works its way up to the highest levels of aesthetic development.
Visual Thinking
Students are expected to understand the basic principles of design that underlies all visual media and develop the basic tools of ‘seeing’. This including collapsing the 3-dimensional world to a 2-dimensional flat space, i.e. rendering to paper or canvas, and building structures to comprehend 3-dimensional space.
Then they lean how to articulate their new vision using the tools at hand in various mediums. It is important to stop using icons to identify and classify the world and see the actual appearance of objects and events. They then make images as a response to this vision and get a response to the artwork to share their emotions between artist and audience.
Craftsmanship
The mastery of the tools of traditional arts proceeds in tandem with the use of the tools of the arts in the digital domain. Then we teach how to integrate the traditional and digital tools into hybrid techniques and strategies while understanding the legacy of each medium to give the complex tools relevance.
Research & Development
Students are taught to research traditional and contemporary artists who are pursuing topics of investigation similar to those of the student. They must also develop a vocabulary of spoken and written word to clearly articulate the motivation behind each piece of artwork.
Creative Problem Solving
The collection of aesthetic tools is an essential endeavor to address specific visual and aesthetic problems. Students must have an understanding of the historical legacy of their medium in order to merge multiple techniques into ‘creative strategies’. Students are taught to understand that form must support content.
Students also have to have an eye on the future, which involves using their imagination with a sense of experimentation to expand their medium beyond the current norm.
Personal Aesthetics & Communication
Artmaking must reach a personal level at some point. Students develop a series of concerns that are relevant to the individual life experiences. Then they and organize a vocabulary of personal vision by building a individualized library or lexicon of creative tools. These are used to address the concerns of any particular project in which they may engage. The ability to participate actively in discussions and critiques also helps develop personal uses of various techniques and strategies that are unique for each artist.
The analysis of how images are ‘read’ by a viewer helps develop a sensitivity to cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary understanding. Students learn to establish a dialog with the viewer to evoke a meaningful response from an audience. This embraces the element of communication. It has been said “it is not art until someone else is inspired by the work, completing the cycle of communication where the artwork is the linkage between artist and audience”
Instructional Strategies are designed to foster students towards meeting the general learning objectives that are common across all mediums and also the more specific pedagogical goals for individual disciplines.
Basic Pedagogical Means
The environment in which art is taught in the Department of Art & Art Education takes various formats.
lectures/ demonstrations
The processes of making art are clearly explained and demonstrated in studio classes. These classes also include showing and discussing the artwork of traditional and contemporary artists working in the field almost as a specialized Art History lessons.
workshop classes
The processes detailed in the Demonstrations are taught in hands-on studio classes with one-on-one instruction. Additional work is done outside of class time in response to topics of discussion and to fulfill assignments.
critiques
Most of the evaluation of student’s progress and understanding happens in critiques where instructors mediate the expression and response of students as a peer group exchange of thoughts, feelings and vision.
exhibitions
Student work is displayed publically in all-school as well as senior capstone shows. The preparation for exhibition is taught through smaller class exhibitions.
Departmental Curricular Directives
All undergraduate classes were recently renamed and renumbered so there is a common and parallel course sequence in all mediums. Below is a description of the Studio class levels for the BA program and their instructional strategies.
1000 Level Classes
are the Introduction to the artistic experience where the underpinnings of Visual Language are taught through Design, Drawing, Painting and 3D
2000 Level Classes
are the Basic level classes of additional media specific to particular mediums such as Printmaking, Photography, and Computer Imaging. These provide the next level of tutelage and prepare students for the Intermediate courses in all mediums, including Painting, Drawing, 3D, Printmaking, Photography, and Computer Imaging.
3000 Level Classes
are the Advanced courses teaching specialized techniques, and aesthetics in all media in the Department.
4000 Level Classes
include Workshop, Portfolio and Independent Study classes in all mediums to take students to the highest level of craftsmanship and aesthetics to prepare students for the Capstone classes.
Capstone classes are where students from numerous media all work and critique together to broaden their aesthetics and share vocabulary to become more interdisciplinary in their understanding.
Assessments for Meeting These Goals
Basic Assessments of all of the aforementioned Learning Objectives are collected through the examination of the various means listed here. Some are more clearly defined, while others require the quantification of the emotional elements of art making.
Improvements to the Program of Study
Some of the possibilities for improvement of the curriculum and it methods involve a series of meetings with all faculty to review the assessments and recommend a proper course of action. Some possibilities for improvement are as follows:
Common Syllabi
Specific learning objectives can be shared across mediums to define parallel guidelines. We would identify course objectives across all mediums and also define objectives within specific media areas. We engage in discussions on these topics every few years in an ongoing effort to keep the curriculum current and meet the educational needs in an ever-changing artistic environment.
Intro to Visual Language Courses
We feel that it may be helpful to perform a more focused effort to generate common syllabi for all of the Introduction to Visual Language courses. This would create a commonality in our community of foundation courses. A common grading rubric could be devised with input from all faculty members.
Capstone Seminar Courses
A standardized set of tools for evaluation such as grading rubrics for junior and senior seminar class could be utilized to establish a concise set of guidelines for our students’ success. We could then discover if the students who came in under the new guidelines actually improve.
Exhibitions
We could have smaller Area Exhibitions where all Drawing/ Printing/ Printmaking/ Photography/ or Computer Imaging classes would show together.
BS in Art Education Key Learning Outcomes
MED Key Learning Outcomes