| Descriptive research and data concerning art education at the elementary level in Kansas is very limited. This type of information is necessary if current and future needs of elementary students are to be addressed. National and State Standards, which should effect elementary art education In Kansas, are presented in this study. Also included are historical developments, philosophical tenets, and research findings which have defined the role of visual art education in general.;The design of this study focused on two areas of concern. The first concentrated on the beliefs of elementary classroom teachers towards visual art education and how these beliefs were affected by visual art workshops that I conducted. The research data was collected from participants who volunteered for this study and were randomly assigned to pretest-posttest groups. Data was obtained by using an art inventory in a pretest-posttest design and was analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance.;The second area considered in this study was the classroom teacher's present knowledge base in visual art education and how they use that knowledge base when instructing art projects in their classrooms. Data was collected from a survey that reported factual information and was reported using marginal tabulations. This information was also gathered during workshops that I conducted but, was not expected to be affected by participation.;Some of the most important findings of this study supported the following conclusions. The statistical analysis of the Bond Art Beliefs Inventory pretest scores and posttest scores reflected that the workshops were very successful in changing teacher's beliefs towards visual art at a 0.0001 level of significance. The hands-on nature of the workshop design provided opportunities for the participants to have successful visual art experiences.;The results of the Bond Knowledge and Use of Visual Art Survey indicated that fifty-four percent of the participants do not discuss art vocabulary, eighty percent do not discuss and incorporate the elements of art in their instruction, seventy-eight percent do not discuss in incorporate the principles of design, and ninety-nine percent do not assess finished projects. The workshops stressed the important differences between art activities and art education projects.;Recommendations from this study included: (1) the need for more workshops of this nature to establish a significant sample population, (2) studies need to be conducted using random selection as opposed to the random assignment used in this study, and (3) a study needs to be conducted statewide to determine the status of elementary art education in Kansas. |
