| The purpose of this study was to examine the Arkansas K-4 grade elementary art teachers' attitudes toward the four foundational disciplines of discipline-based art education (DBAE), art making/studio art, art history, aesthetics, and art criticism, to determine their acceptance of the approach. Another purpose of this study was to examine the Arkansas K-4 grade elementary art teachers' level of implementation of the state's three visual arts standards in the instruction. In content standard One, (K-4), the students are expected to develop concepts and ideas through the processes of inquiring, exploring, and discovering a variety of references such as, historical, cultural, social, environmental, and personal references. Content Standard Two (K-4) aims to develop students' creativity skills by manipulating a wide variety of media, techniques, processes, and tools to develop original works of art and design. Finally, content Standard Three (K-4) sets learning expectations through a process of rediscovering and responding to artworks and concepts of self, of others, of environment, and cultures. The study also sought the factors that may influence the art teachers' attitude and implementation means.;To answer the study's questions, a 56-item survey questionnaire was developed. Independent-sample t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Tukey (HSD) post-hoc analysis tests were conducted to analyze the collected data. The participants of the study were 288 K-4 grade elementary art teachers.;Results of the study revealed that the participants highly perceived the importance of art making/studio art and art history. Aesthetics and art criticism had the lowest means of attitudes. Statistical tests determined that having a degree in teaching art, confidence level regarding the knowledge of each discipline, and job satisfaction to have significant effect on the participants' attitudes toward the four foundational disciplines.;The study's results also indicated a high level of implementation of three visual arts standards. Visual art standard two had the highest level of implementation, then visual art standard one came second, finally, visual art standard three had the lowest level of implementation. Factors such as, having a degree in teaching art, confident level of professional knowledge, and job satisfaction were found to be statistically significant factors. |
