This paper explores the possibility of a method of art education that enables students to take initiative to engage in the world of daily life, by implementing and verifying an experimental classroom practice for university students in which they produced short films using digital cameras. In the study, it was observed that the students found new meaning in places and other objects according to their own interest. Through expressive activity in real-life settings the students were able to obtain a high level of realization and this seemed to contribute to the redefining of their worlds of daily life.

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Dr. Egon von Ruden, an art pedagogue, taught art didactics at an art college in Berlin from 1974. This research presents Ruden's understanding of Bauhaus pedagogy and his views about modern art pedagogy on the basis of his study "The concept of artistic lessons by Itten, Kandinsky, Albers and Klee." Bauhaus professors constructed art lessons with the aim of promoting a spirit of inquiry and of developing critical viewpoints towards artistic traditions. Dr. Ruden thought that these points were central to Bauhaus pedagogy, and were important not only in the training of an artist but also in art education in general.

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This paper proves the effectiveness of "The Synthetic Painting Method," developed by the author. In this method, three elements of an art work-the content, the form and the theme of expression-are verbally analyzed. Using this method, students can gain new concepts of a work by choosing and compiling a set of three elements from the elements of the three works of art that they choose. The method was seen to have five effects. 1. Students can understand their theme of expression clearly. 2. Students' courses of expression become clear and stable. 3. Teachers' guidance becomes clearer because teachers can understand students' themes of expression more accurately. 4. Students can get images easily and be more creative. 5. Mastering the method, students can use it in other works. In this paper, the author describes the lessons designed for high school classes and how they were put into practice, and proved the effectiveness of the method.

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This study uses the naturalistic observation method to investigate the building block play of a child (Child A) from the age of 1 year six months to two years old. The child's play was analyzed and the developmental characteristics leading to three-dimensional molding were investigated. The child was observed to experience the basic actions of building block play, that is, "building," "breaking down," "hitting and making sound," and "lining up." After acquiring the "building" action, the child repeated "challenging" play and "confirming" play, and was observed to experience concepts like "interval," "width, depth, and height," "center of gravity," and "balance." We can point out that the child was acquiring the concepts of "plane," and "dimension" through building block play.

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This paper is a part of a series of basic research that aims at the generalization of 3D animation production teaching material for art education. This series of basic research has shown the importance of 3DCG expression for its educational content, difficulties in guidance, and methods to overcome difficulties in guidance. The present study builds on this and aims at the generalization of the guidance method. Today the word "3D" is used frequently in descriptions of image environments such as in the screening of movies and television. The "3D" referred in these situations, so-called "binocular stereoscopy," is different from 3DCG. This paper deepens the understanding of 3D binocular vision, and discusses the generalization of 3DCG expression teaching material by examining 3DCG teaching materials and their relation to 3D.

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This study analyzes teacher utterances in art classes, clarifying their structure and characteristics. In the first study lesson, I confirmed that "second education language" utterances" serve to promote the expressive activity of children. I was also able to clarify the existence of "utterances based on a position of equality with the child and on reversibility." In this paper, these utterances are described as the "third education language."

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In this paper the author analyzes the dynamics of stress management and creativity inherent in creative art, based on his experience as a professional educator. The author looks at this in detail from the following three perspectives: the art of creation, the science of relaxation, and the expression of one's internal view of the world. In today's society, children must overcome a wide variety of stress in their everyday life, making stress management an essential life skill. This paper, therefore, also focuses on the role which creative art can play in molding the hearts and minds of children to better deal with stress.

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In this study, I investigated a post-postmodern practice theory for art education as a method to enhance the lives of people living in today's social environment. This study reviews postmodernism as a criticism of modernism and how it is itself a product of modernism, and investigates a practice theory for art education for a post-postmodern social environment and the roles of this theory. Through this study, the need for a practice theory of art education in which a new standard of values based on mutual communication founded in critical reason can be created along with local cooperation, was revealed. Moreover, art education was seen to need to: -incorporate method which goes beyond expression genres -be able to connect with practice in social areas through communicative acts -incorporate the differences and diversity inherent in human sensitivity -incorporates a reciprocity which connects people with conviviality and joy -be a practice which is an alternative to capitalistic economic rationality

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The expression in a child's growth is done as a private activity of "self" as one person, and within relationships with familiar others as "ourselves". It is the activity that publicly shows "self" and is invented in the daily life of people who live together. This article examines this theme in two case studies, one in Japan and one in another country. And through the considerations, it describes how these two cases are known to general society by using the frame of "Art" and how this happens in an environment in which stability is guaranteed.

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This article compared two elementary school art classes. The two classes did graphic work on the same theme, however the procedure was different. One class used computers while another did not. From the results, it seems that the method influenced differences between the two groups. The children who used computer-aided graphics could make numerous changes while they were creating their pictures and therefore their final pictures were often quite different from their original idea sketches. However, the children who did not use computers, could create their pictures while considering where to place the individual shapes of colored paper they cut. Their pictures tended to be based on their original idea sketch. In this study we could see differences in the process of creating pictures and the types of pictures created by children depending on the method used. In the light of this, we suggest that teachers consider both traditional methods and computer-based methods depending on the situation.

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This paper investigates the construction and implementation of an educational program that aims to promote social participation within an educational environment, based on the ideas of Roger Hart. The program builds on Hart's "Action/Research Process" and uses a style in which high school students instruct elementary school students. The implementation of this program over five years showed that the social participation awareness of both high school students and elementary school students increased. Moreover, in the final year of the program, the high school students themselves reached a level where they were able to create lessons which function to encourage community participation.

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This study examined the method, content, and characteristics of evaluation in the art course of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (MYP), mainly through the analysis of materials such as curriculum guidelines and field surveys. As for MYP, which is an international qualification standard, the aims of the subjects and the evaluation criteria are directly related, and the aims and content described in the evaluation criteria are specific and easy to understand. The evaluation method based on four criteria is systematized, and both the results and the study process are emphasized. A comparison with Japan's four evaluation viewpoints revealed many common features, but original viewpoints, such as "reflection and evaluation," were also noted. MYP's evaluation, which is specific and easy to understand, and aims to uncover the essence of arts, will serve as a useful reference for Japan's art education. Also, MYP, which emphasizes an inquiring mind and creative thinking, has a lot to offer as reference to Japan's art education, which aims towards assured academic ability, in terms of fostering students for life in the 21st century.

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The purpose of this study was to review guidelines for media education, based upon the idea of image media education in art education. A second aim was to clarify the direction of image media within art education textbooks on a practical level. Through revising the guidelines of image media education in art education, three levels of goals were defined. An analysis of textbooks published by Nihonbunkyo, Mitsumuratosho, and Kairyudo based on the three levels of goals, showed clear differences in focal point for image media education in each of the textbooks.

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This research investigated preschool children's development in expression in drawing and differences according to sex. In this study, sheets of paper with diagrams printed on them were distributed to children. The children were then asked to recognize the diagram and draw on from the diagram. There were a total of 18 sheets-six sheets of each diagram which included a triangle, a circle, and a square. The research was conducted of 28 girls and 27 boys from 2008 to 2009. The results showed that some diagrams seemed more difficult recognize, and that girls tended to be better at recognition and drawing. Incomplete samples included samples with no drawing and samples in which children had drawn on top of the diagram or filled it in. Completed samples included drawings with copying, repeating, recognition of diagrams, combining more than one diagram, and story building. Combining our results with past studies of diagram recognition and drawing, we could see that children develop their skill from a blank sheet to story building.

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This paper presents a new possibility for design education in elementary curricula. In conventional education, design education in elementary curricula has been based on the philosophy of art education, with representation as the central concept. However, recently meaning of the term "design" seems to have become unclear and the term is not used in the new curriculum guidelines. Moreover, the direction of design education itself seems to have been lost. To gain a better understanding of design education I conducted interviews with two professional designers. From the interviews, I learned three essential points for design education in elementary education: using daily life as a target, knowing about the function of design, and incorporating cooperative learning. In this paper I suggest a new direction for design education from the point of view of design literacy based on the results of this study.

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In this paper, it was intended to research into one inner exiled German modern professor named Willi Baumeister who had challenged to reform Art-Academy of Stuttgart after 1945 and taught new generation the concept for new art and art education there after the World War II.

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This article collects and classifies the 'arts and crafts' questions in the national elementary school teacher recruitment examinations administered between 2006 and 2009, with the aim to derive issues regarding 'subject-specific knowledge' required by the local education administrative bodies in teaching the subject of 'arts and crafts'. The resulting classification exhibits a number of problematic questions concerning this requirement, and hence the following four criteria are proposed to improve the quality of examination questions: 1) The questions should reflect the objectives delivered in the Japanese national curriculum guidelines. 2) The questions should test applicants' knowledge that would be required when they teach. 3) The questions should measure applicants' teaching abilities that need to be employed in their day-to-day practice. 4) The questions should assess applicants' abilities to properly evaluate them. Finally, some of the actual questions which were deemed to appropriately satisfy the proposed criteria above are discussed.

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This paper investigates the reasons for introducing the drawing of casted plaster objects into modern Japanese innovative art education and its impact on education. Based on existing documents and previous research, this study analyzed changes in educational purpose, teaching method, and style of drawing, focusing on the education that took place at the College of Engineering Art School and Tokyo School of Art in the Meiji era. It was found that plaster drawing was introduced into Japanese art education in order to understand western culture. It was also found that the teaching curriculum changed from copying casting sketches to sketching actual plaster objects when the main art education institute changed from the College of Engineering Art School to Tokyo School of Art. In addition, although the style of drawing in both schools clearly emphasized contour lines and contrast of tone, a change toward less consciousness of composition was seen.

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Recently, many studies are reported about lifelong learning for people with intellectual disabilities. However, there are still few studies about art of lifelong learning for people with intellectual disabilities. In this article, I consider the possibility of art education in lifelong learning for people with intellectual disabilities through an extension course of Shizuoka University. From this study I found that lifelong learning for people with intellectual disabilities should be designed to allow the participants to gain knowledge and skills, and to feel pleasure in the activities. I also found that it is important for participants in art activities to be able to feel that they can acknowledge their own personality.

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This paper describes the teaching method we developed to help students understand the complimentary color contrast of light and shadow of impressionists, using Monet's painting, "The Cave at Paul=Domoa," part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Ibaraki. In this method, firstly we analysed the composition of this painting from the viewpoint of color and confirmed that light and shadow are expressed as complementary color contrast. Based on this, students undertook two activities. The first was an activity in which students made a collage by selecting colors in complementary relation from 93 shades of colored paper of the Japanese color laboratory. In the next activity, students drew pictures using colored pencils while considering the difference between the highlighted parts and shadowed parts. This teaching method seemed to help students understand the thinking and methods of impressionist painters. An evaluation of the data of the students indicated that this method was effective.

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This paper investigates the reality of scenes where 'meaning' is generated, focusing on 'difference' involved in the process of meaning generation in children's creative activities, and attempts to elucidate related practical issues. Using the viewpoint of 'generative network model' of Yoko Yamada, who expands Mikhail Baldwin's concept of dialogism into modern philosophies such as Gilles Deleuz's, the author investigated the awareness of 'difference' of children of different ages and analyzed conversations of children during creative activities. The result of the study identified several characteristics and practical issues. One was that children's awareness regarding 'difference' is deeply linked to the 'creation of meaning,' although differences were seen between age groups. The polyphonic character of the meaning generation process in dialogue, physical aspects and the working of 'difference,' and the accidental relationship with 'expression' were observed.

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This study attempted to comprehensively survey and collect art appreciation teaching plans from websites, and make critical observations of these plans. For analytical purposes, four essential elements of art appreciation were defined. These four elements offer insight into the essence of art appreciation, based on the unique perspectives of art appreciation as outlined in the school art curriculum guidelines. This perspective cannot be found in adjacent disciplines, and is the base upon which art appreciation ability is developed. By investigating the presence or absence of each element and how each is applied in a typical teaching plan of a certain category, the grounds for classification of teaching plans into categories were able to be elucidated. As well as commenting on the educational validity of each example, problems relating to the absence of elements and points for improvement were revealed.

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By analyzing mainly VTS materials for Grades 3-5 and various VTS related articles, this paper clarifies three important methods of VTS educational support which haven't been well known in Japan in relation to "facilitation". These are: 1) the introduction of carefully sequenced image selection catering for learners' developmental aesthetic stages and cognitive abilities, 2) the use of additional questions for learners in addition to the basic ones introduced in Grade 3 in order to promote learners' growth, and 3) meta-cognitive activities. It emphasizes well-structured VTS educational support as an important reference point to design constructivist learning, but on the other hand, it also proposes the necessity of setting another educational framework aiming for learners' discussion to be more connected to both learners' real life issues and contemporary culture.

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The purpose of this research is to investigate not only the educational effects, but also the therapeutic effects of art on the recovery of holistic development of the human psyche. Art therapy can be applied for patients aged five to 30. Sandplay therapy, in particular, has been shown to develop and strengthen the self of the patient through the creative process. The process of expressing one's internal world through sandplay is thought to manifest autoimmunity while linking the patient's sense of vision and touch, body and mind, and conscious and unconscious. In the end, people undergoing therapy recover by recapturing their holism from their problems. Art is thought to play an important role in the psychological health of children in modern society.

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This paper describes research about the study meeting for drawing ("jiyuga") education in Akita Prefecture in 1923, by analyzing the details reported in the local newspapers, Akita Sakigake Shinpou, Akita Shinbun, and Nikkan Akita Shinbun. This research showed that the foundations of drawing education in Akita Prefecture were established through the discussions and lectures in the meeting, and that this laid the way for theoretical research and practice which could go beyond the free drawing movement.

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In this paper, the mechanism of learning as signifiance in art education was considered, based on language, sense, and time. As a result, the mechanism of learning as signifiance was able to be divided into three phases. The first is learning in which the child invents new meaning for himself/herself based on symbolic order. The second is learning to get the schema of a motion through sensing, where the schema of motion is related to a useful action. The third is learning signifiance by purely enjoying the sense, where learning is not related to a useful action.

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This paper describes the background to the concept of "Japan-Brand" and ways of introducing the concept into media design education. The notion of national branding is a much discussed issue in the field of Japanese design policy as well as in art and culture movements. Through some university level education case studies, the author found that students could understand how corporations, designers and artists have learned from traditional cultural resources, and reconstructed or transformed them with new technologies, social issues and contemporary styles of expression. The keywords of this approach are: relating oneself to the traditional resources, interpreting them, and looking at one's works from an outsider's perspective.

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This is an attempt to define the relationships between basic sensibility, sensation and susceptibility in art education. First, the definitions of Immanuel Kant's "sensibility" and "sensation" are confirmed. Then, "intuition" and "sensitivity", "internal sense" and "outside sense," which are related to "sensation" and "common sense," are discussed. The term, "susceptibility," which Kant himself did not directly refer to, is also discussed. Based on this, I explore the meaning and direction of these concepts in art education today and go on to review education in general from the perspective of creative and mental growth.

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This paper investigates the curriculum of handicraft education in elementary school at the beginning of the Showa era. It focuses on Shimekichi Abe, a member of the committee of the Ministry of Education that made the curriculum for handicraft at the time. The teaching material based on Abe's theory was analyzed. From this study, we could see that although handicraft education at the time was often based on single disciplines, Abe's theory was not confined to one single discipline. In other words, Abe compiled a curriculum for handicraft education which incorporated content of various fields.

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This paper clarifies some issues of arts and craft education in elementary school by looking at a teacher license renewal seminar. The results indicated that many teachers are in charge of art and craft classes even though they do not feel confident teaching arts and craft. It also revealed that although many teachers have abundant teaching experience, few have undertaken research classes or observed such classes. We also discuss the importance of focusing on the invisible quality of the learning space which forms the backdrop for an image of art and crafts. We suggest that for education which allows each child to find his/her true expression, reviewing this "hidden curriculum" and making improvements in this area is essential.

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This study looks at the appreciation of the artwork of reproduction pictures. It is based on the concept of "media tetrads" of Marshal McLuhan and focuses on the ideas of Walter Benjamin and Andre Malraux. A reproduction picture extinguishes the meaning and the value that the original artwork has and the reproduction picture itself transforms into a picture of different value. Being a media of higher definition, it retains the truth of the expression of the artist. However, only a superficial understanding can be obtained through appreciating only the reproduction picture. In this study, I suggest a method in which the meaning and value lost in the reproduction picture can be supplemented in the appreciation. Through this method children can experience the same expression technique of the original artwork.

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In this study I investigated lower grade elementary school children's understanding and learning in appreciation classes of arts and craft, and the activities used in classes. After taking into consideration the developmental aspects of the process of appreciation, I carried out language-based appreciation classes and investigated the content and effects of the learning that occurred in the classes. Two language-based appreciation activities were used: one involved elements of play and allowed children to look intuitively; the other involved using imagination and guessing. The results of the study classes demonstrated the educational possibilities of language-based activities in relation to understanding and learning.

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"Cineliteracy" is an area of education in which motivation for learning is fostered through understating and making movies. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the pedagogical importance of "cineliteracy". Firstly, the changes in students and teachers were studied through a collaborative project with movie theaters in Niigata city in 2009. Next, using the media theory of McLuhan and the pragmatism of Dewey as clues, theoretical consideration was made. This study revealed that movie production has a quality in itself to bring about a sense of self-affirmation in children. It also confirmed the educational value of schools, families and societies working together to support children's expression.

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This paper intends to improve and enrich the contents of the basic theory of appreciation-ology by means of reexamining the article, "The Act of Appreciation," written eighteen years ago by the same author. The introduction of this paper describes the context and motive in which appreciation-ology was conceived. After reconfirming the validity of the three aspects of an appreciative act, detailed analysis is made concerning these aspects, that is, "seeing", "knowing" and "thinking". After this reexamination, the distinctive features of appreciation-ology and the possibilities of appreciation-ology are described. In conclusion, some considerations about appreciation are made in a context broader than that of art education.

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This study describes how I implemented the steps and theory described in "3 Steps to Develop Teachers' Skills in Facilitating Students' Learning of Art Appreciation" (Yoshida, T. 2003) in a teacher training course at Yamaguchi University. The three steps are: Step 1: Explanation Style Teaching; Step 2: Q & A Style Teaching; and Step 3: Interactive Gallery Talk Style Teaching. I proposed two further steps: Step 4: Free Arrangement Type Teaching; and Step 5: Combined with Expression Type Teaching. Although some problems remain, the development of the theory into five steps proved effective and useful.

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The purpose of this study was to examine children's acquisition processes of multiple perspectives of natural objects in the "as if" drawing activity. Four-year-old and five-year-old children performed "as if" drawing in a group. The major findings were that the four-year-old children found contour similarities between the natural object and visual image they have, and they shared their findings with friends. On the other hand, the five-year-old children found partial similarity between the natural object and visual image they have, and they elaborated their visual images in a cooperative relationship with their friends.

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This paper investigates the background of the appearance of the subject of craft in Japanese national education during the Second World War. Craft did not appear in the plan of the council for education in 1939. Instead, the area of craft was included as part of the subject of manual training as "handicraft." At the time, art educators protested against the plan of the council of education to include handicraft in manual training because the qualities of handicraft were different from those of manual training. Later, the Association of Handicraft Education of Japan presented a petition to the Ministry of Education to make the new subject of handicraft. This paper clarifies the details surrounding this petition.

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Philip Yenawine, the former director of the New York Museum of Modern Art's Department of Education, is one of the designers of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). VTS is a visual arts program founded on the premise that finding meaning in works of visual art involves a rich range of thinking skills. In Japan, little attention has been paid to Yenawine's educational activities, such as his educational background or how he designed VTS. To clarify these, I will examine Yenawine's previous educational activities, research, and teaching materials. I will also compare several teaching materials created by Yenawine and published between 2000 and 2002, including Visual Thinking Strategies. These teaching materials are characterized by three concerns: (1) a reflection of Abigail Housen's model for aesthetic development, (2) the teacher's role changing to facilitator, and (3) linking schools and museums by providing lesson plans for museum visits. These three characteristics suggest that Visual Thinking Strategies supports fundamental instructional improvements to encourage and help novices have richer experiences in museums, through discussions.

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Today, the ability to deal with information for problem solving and decision making in daily life is becoming increasingly important. The acquisition of this ability is only possible through abandoning education methods centering on the acquisition of knowledge and adopting new educational approaches. Accordingly, in design education, a focus towards promoting professional ability while enhancing problem-solving ability and creativity, in order to train professionals who can take the lead in the future, can be seen. This study suggests a teaching-learning design model based on web-based education and Problem-based learning (PBL) theory as one type of practical classroom lesson, adopting "context" in the design curriculum of high school. Using an educational model based on constructivist learning theory, Problem-based learning and Web-based instruction (WBI) were investigated, and an alternative design model for Web-based PBL design teaching-learning which combines PBL and WBI, was discussed.

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