A motivational inventory for art education

Problem. The purpose of the thesis was to develop and administer an instrument which when used by the junior-senior high school art teacher would evaluate his art students' motivation. The word motivation is used to describe what makes a student want to do art in class. Motivation is a term used in the behavioral sciences to describe attitudes which affect human behavior. It became the intent of the thesis to develop an inventory of curricular variables. These conditions would be categorized based on the various types of motives identified in the literature of the behavioral sciences. With a basis in modern psychology and sociology, the inventory would have a broader base and new outlook from what had previously been offered on the subject of motivation in the art education literature. The school of thought in art education set forth by Lowenfeld, deFrancesco, and Sawyer was used as a springboard for developing this new and more inclusive approach.;Once this theoretical framework was developed, the various curricular variables which applied to one or another motive type were listed in the Motivational Inventory for Art Education (M.I.A.).;The author had the M.I.A. administered to two art elective classes. Once the data from their responses was collected, the information was recorded on a Rating Scale. Following the recording of data, the information was totaled and graphed on the Visual Data Analysis Chart (V.D.A.C.). The V.D.A.C. was developed to facilitate the evaluation of data that the art teacher would collect. The method of evaluation provides the art teacher with a visual, subjective evaluation procedure which allows individual interpretations of the data. The author feels that this subjective, visual technique is the most honest way of evaluating attitudinal responses.;Results. The author recorded results of his research with the data collected from a ninth grade study sample. This was done to illustrate the use of the M.I.A. and the function of the V.D.A.C. The results were first handled categorically then each motive type was analyzed. The author found that the physiological motives were rated most important more often by the study sample than any other motive category. Of the physiological motives, the acquired type had the highest responses. Acquired physiological motives are most important to most ninth graders in so far as their doing art in class. The acquired motives are those which are the result of the sublimation of physiological needs expressed through art forms. Sublimation is when a particular primary physiological motive, such as aggression, is expressed through the use of another outlet, such as the use of hot colors and violent brush strokes, rather than physically acting out the aggressive feeling.;Procedure. First, there was the problem of identifying the function of motivation in art education. Second, there had to be research into the related literature of the behavioral sciences to discover identifiable motive types. Third, the author had to develop categories of motives into which the various motive types identified in the behavioral sciences could be classified. These categories were derived from previous classification systems used in the earlier school of art education mentioned above.;It was found that psychological motives were almost equally divided on a five point Rating Scale. This is believed to be due to the variable nature of individual psychology.;The final category of motives, the sociological motives, received ratings which clustered on the scale. This was believed to be due to the homogeneous nature of the study sample.;A second sample of tenth graders was used to illustrate how the Rating Scale would be used to evaluate differences in class responses based on simple visual scanning procedures. It was found that there were no categorical differences between the two samples' responses.;Finally, an individual M.I.A. from an anonymous student was diagnosed in order to illustrate how the M.I.A. provides the teacher with an individual diagnostic tool. This aids the teacher in evaluating an individual student's motivational profile. From this diagnosis the teacher prescribes individual curricular adjustments.;It is the intent of this thesis to provide and illustrate student-centered research which assists the art teacher in evaluating and working with the "turned off" student as well as enhancing the entire curriculum to be as inclusive of the students' attitudes as possible. The result of administering the M.I.A. is that the art teacher can readily see what conditions are important to his students' doing art in his class. The burden of responsibility is on the teacher. The emphasis is on the student.