For emerging artists and designers who envision engaging various publics as an integral part of their artistic practice, this course will explore the role of the artist as an educator, both within traditional classroom settings and in broader community contexts. By utilizing both case studies and hands-on learning through community engagement, students will develop a deeper understanding of how teaching can enrich their artistic practice and gain the skills and insights to incorporate educational elements into their future work as artists and designers.

Elective

This course will provide a comprehensive study of specific disabilities and inclusive curriculum scenarios and strategies for learners in K-12 environments. The course will focus throughout the Wintersession on an extensive foundation in response to intervention (RTI), special education law and regulations as it relates to students with disabilities and at-risk students in the art classroom. Students will investigate classroom-tested instructional strategies that will address the characteristics and challenges faced by students with special needs. Through the session, assignments will allow students to investigate and learn through the process of reinforcing, motivating, scaffolding and planning for instruction that targets learners of all ability levels. Discussion-based teaching, group and individual presentations, assigned readings, field observations, and reflective journal entries will provide students with the knowledge of possible causes, the impact of poverty on learning, characteristics and strengths, classroom implications and specific inclusion strategies. These strategies will include behavior management techniques that will allow teachers to improve classroom behavior and social skills, engage students though motivating and relevant lessons, improve attention and memory, and provide essential modifications and accommodations of lessons appropriate to the developmental and learning level of each learner. Students will explore the various stages of building equity in their classroom by addressing issues of physical integration, social-emotional engagement, opportunities to learn, instructional excellence and engaged and inspired learners. A final demonstration of this knowledge and its implications to their teaching practice will be through a mixed-media project by each student.

Enrollment in this course is limited to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MA, MAT Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

A field-based student teaching (clinical teaching) experience at the elementary level in a public school in Rhode Island or Massachusetts, supervised by school-based clinical educators and faculty from RISD's Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design. A student teacher's performance during this six-week teaching assignment is assessed using the performance benchmarks of the Rhode Island Professional Teaching Standards (RIPTS).

This course is a requirement for Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MA, MAT Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

A field-based student teaching (clinical teaching) experience at the secondary level in a public school in Rhode Island or Massachusetts supervised by school-based clinical educators and faculty from RISD's Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design. A student teacher's performance during this six-week teaching assignment is assessed using the performance benchmarks of the Rhode Island Beginning Professional Teaching Standards (RIPTS).

Enrollment is limited to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MAT Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

This course with its focus on curriculum development and pedagogical practices for students in elementary school has been designed as a the companion to TLAD-612G where the focus is students in secondary school. In this way, this pair of courses provides graduate students with an essential foundation to teaching the visual arts (art and design) from pre-K to 12th grade. This course provides students with insights and experiences in studio-based teaching and learning through the lens of an elementary setting. Students will be introduced to curricular and pedagogical practices that are grounded in meaning making and artistic inquiry, as well as authentic forms of assessment. There is a special emphasis within this course on approaching each of these frameworks (curriculum, instruction, and assessment) through an understanding of the developmental needs - cognitive, social, and personal - of young children. Within this course, students will engage in curriculum design and lesson planning through the development of a series of units that are grounded in enduring ideas in art and design education. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to engage in micro teaching experiences in partnership with a local elementary school classroom. They will have the opportunity to teach a carefully designed art/design lesson to a group of elementary-aged children and have the chance to thoughtfully reflect on their own teaching practices and encounters in the classroom.

Enrollment in this course is limited to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MA, MAT Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

This course with its focus on curriculum development and pedagogical practices for students in grades 7-12 has been designed as the companion to TLAD-611G, where the focus is students in grades PK-6. In this manner, this pair of courses provides graduate students with an essential foundation to teaching the Visual Arts (art and design) from pre-K to 12th grade. This course explores the development of a conceptual framework for studio-based teaching and learning for students in grades 7-12 that aligns with the National Visual Arts Standards (NVAS). The course is guided by the belief all middle and high school students have creative capacity and that visual arts education plays an extraordinarily important role in its development. Further, the course places emphasis on instructional design that encourages curiosity, discovery, creativity and importantly personal point of view. Throughout the course, there is a focus on curriculum development and pedagogical strategies crafted to meet the cognitive and social development of learners as well as the personal interests of students while simultaneously introducing the work of a diverse range artists from historic to contemporary as models of practice. The course introduces an approach to pedagogy for art and design education that is informed by the graduate student's personal artistic practice combined with their understanding of the rich diversity of human visual expression. The course places special emphasis on the development of studio-based learning that centers on the intersecting domains of making and responding. In this way, curriculum and instruction is designed to deepen secondary students' (7-12) understanding of art and design as expression of enduring ideas. Graduate students examine these concepts through their own studio practice, critical readings, the development curriculum maps and lesson plans and through an integrated practicum experience that provides an authentic opportunity to implement instruction with high school students in the TLAD-Studio Lab.

Enrollment in this course is limited to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MA, MAT Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

This course explores theories and practices of community-engaged pedagogy in art and design education, and the development of a conceptual framework for studio-based teaching and learning in community settings. The course introduces an approach to pedagogy that explores the complexities of community engagement to include social and political considerations of community-engaged practice; historical considerations for community partnerships; and pedagogies specifically designed for heterogeneous groups in a variety of community settings. Students examine these complexities through observations in community learning spaces, academic and public scholarship, reflection, and developing a community-engaged teaching philosophy. 

Enrollment in this course is limited to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MA Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

This seminar provides an opportunity to critically examine topics and issues within various arts learning contexts. The course is designed to provide students with a primer to practices and scholarship of the intersections between the arts and education. The course is grounded in types of learning that occur in a range of institutional and organizational settings that include schools, colleges and universities, museums as well as non-profit sector community-based organizations. The seminar explores the role of art and design in individuals' lives from the perspective of the past and present as well as contemporary shifts that suggest a re-examination of focus and pedagogical approach. The course draws extensively from key documents from the arts learning literature as well as the expertise of scholars and practitioners who will join the course throughout the semester to share with students perspectives that illustrate both common ground and a diversity of thinking surrounding some of the more pressing topics and problems within the guests' respective professional fields. Throughout the course, students are required to provide annotations of journal articles, present reaction papers, make presentations on designated topics, and at completion of the course present a proposal for a potential thesis monograph essay or thesis book.

Enrollment in this course is limited to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MA Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

This course examines the historical developments of visual arts education in its connection to general education; contemporary theory and practices of art education; and implications for the future of the field related to equity and justice. At  each stage of the investigation, issues are examined in terms of the relationship between context, content, and pedagogical practice. There is a particular emphasis in this course on exploring the manner in which social and political constructions shape curriculum and pedagogy in art + design education. Major topics of investigation include: social theories impacting  curricular practices in visual arts and design education, and histories of advocacy, justice, and equity in art + design education.

Enrollment in this course is limited to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MAT Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

The most compelling arguments in support of the value of the arts in education and the case for arts as an agent of transformation in the lives of children and youth become most evident through the analysis of high-quality contemporary practices in arts pedagogy situated in a range of settings both in and out of schools. This seminar, in addition to students' personal case study investigations, utilizes conversations with visiting arts administrators, artists, curators, educators, and scholars as lenses to inform the analysis and discussion of models of practice that result in meaningful experience that inspire in children and youth creative thinking, making, and innovation. Key products from the course include response papers, a case study report and final presentation.

Please contact the instructor for permission to register. Preference is given to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MA Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

In this course, we will explore public art as a catalyst for community engagement, critical dialogue, and social change. Public spaces will serve as a site of inquiry in the development of art and design practice, considering issues of: centering the communities you work in; opportunities for interdisciplinary connections, considerations for intergenerational engagement; and promoting collaboration, critical reflection, and creative expression as tools for social justice.

Exploring the ways in which the arts is a consistent arena for community healing, growing and liberation efforts is the focus of this course. Rooted in a hands-on approach to learning, students will be oscillating between seminars and onsite workshops to create a robust learning opportunity. For onsite work students will visit local arts organizations as well as participate in specific youth programs running at Aunty's House, a local arts community studio, which will allow students to learn and develop their own workshops. Students will have the chance to curate two art workshops that they will conduct at Martin Luther King Elementary School and Aunty's House for elementary to high schoolers. Through immersive learning, students will better understand how community art systems work within a holistic framework, as well as cultivate arts programming skills for elementary to high school students. The materials students will be engaging will braid western educational pedagogies and global indigenous educational pedagogies. We will be exploring a range of organizations, practitioners and community arts practices from the Black Panther Movement’s educational programs to Avenue Concept’s mural projects. Students will leave this course with a more robust and embodied understanding of how the arts and community intersect and create opportunities for wellness, justice and liberation interventions. This course is meeting two imminent needs: RISD students' need to engage and participate with the local Providence community, and the needs the Providence youth have in regards to accessing arts resources, learning and collaboration opportunities. This course provides real world experience and involvement of how art and design is utilized in efforts for liberation, social justice, healing and working towards a healthy future.

Elective

The Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design requires MA candidates submit a capstone thesis in partial fulfillment of degree requirements. Candidates are given a degree of flexibility in determining the format for this work, but typically it takes the form of either a thesis monograph essay or a thesis book. The thesis monograph essay provides candidates with the opportunity to focus on a deep investigation of a single subject framed within the context of learning and through art and design. An essential characteristic of this approach to the thesis is in how it provides evidence of the candidate's ability to move beyond description to analysis and how they are able to place the subject of investigation within the realm of scholarship. The thesis book provides a candidate with the opportunity to make sense of their journey through their program in a more autobiographical and documentary manner. The thesis book format affords candidates the opportunity to explore how form can be exploited to visualize research. Whether presented as a thesis monograph essay or thesis book, this capstone requirement provides MA candidates with a formal opportunity to make public their understanding about a specific aspect of the nature of arts learning gained through their coursework, excursions into the scholarly literature and fieldwork experiences. The purpose here, therefore, is to conceive of the thesis not merely as an academic exercise but also contributing to program development as well as providing a reservoir of understandings that will inform the candidate's future professional practice as an educator.

Enrollment is limited to Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Students.

Major Requirement | MA Teaching + Learning in Art + Design