1
Section 1: Introduction to the Study
Introduction
Arts education has been an essential component in the Surrey County School
District (SCSD; pseudonym) core curriculum taught by art specialists in a classroom
setting. Art educators and art instruction helps to define and improve a student’s sense of
cultural heritage, creativity, and communication at SCSD. Art also allows students to see
relationships with academics and other disciplines, as well as to investigate strategies to
reflect, analyze, and make critical assessments of information they read, see, and hear in
Surrey County schools. Curriculum guidelines are important for classroom teachers and
art educators in order to implement and integrate arts instruction. The art teachers in
SCSD seek opportunities to engage in adult-centered hands-on learning opportunities,
professional development workshops, grants, collaboration and networking, and best
practices. In SCSD, there is a plethora of quality: informative, substantive, academic art
inservices (see Appendix A). However, the present inservices lack emphasis on
pedagogy, teaching strategies, and national and state visual art standards.
The arts are a connection between each generation, providing individuals with
tools to learn about the past as the arts inform and change the future. They offer various
perspectives and interpretations of our lives, beliefs, and passions, and they impact our
economy. The arts disciplines give the artist, observer, and consumer opportunities to see
things in new and different ways, think critically, analyze the world, and self-discovery.
The arts are in everything that we do, given that art is in our life’s experiences through
music, dance, theatre, and the visual arts (Rollins, 1994). Visual art is the expression or
2
application of personal experiences to communicate knowledge, exercise creative skills,
and use one’s imagination through a variety of materials in the form of two-dimensional
(painting, drawing, and graphics) and three-dimensional (sculpture) media (Rex, 2010).
Arts education in South Carolina and the nation is organized around a common set of
curricular components: aesthetic perceptions, creative expression, process, aesthetic
valuing and reflection, responding, history and world cultures, careers, and design-
presenting and connecting works of visual art (Nielsen, 1993). The arts include dance,
drama (drama/theater), music, and visual art, but for the purposes of this case study, the
phrases art education, art educators, and art professional development workshop will
apply to teachers working in the visual arts.
In Section 1, I discuss the local problem that guided this case study, my rationale
for researching the problem, key terms, the research questions, related research, and
potential implications of the findings. I also provide definitions of the key terms and
present the research questions.
Problem Statement
This research study addressed art educators’ and evaluators’ perceptions about an
informative art professional development workshop to improve pedagogy, teaching
strategies, and content. In this study, I explored an adult-centered, research-based, hands-
on art professional development workshop to enhance teacher practice and student
success. Fink (2013) argued that the central purpose of educational institutions is to
provide high-quality teaching and learning. Faculty development programs take a
strategically central role in the process of continuous self- transformation. Art
3
professional development programs encourage art educators to use the reflection process
and critical thinking to explore and identify their own pedagogy with emphasis on
content knowledge, dispositions, and teaching skills (McDonald & Kahn, 2014). Art
professional development inservice programs support change in teacher practice, foster
an increased understanding of art content, and build partnerships. Likewise, art educators
and evaluators agree that adult-centered, research-based, hands-on art professional
development workshop opportunities are important to enhancing teacher skills and
content area competencies, thereby improving student achievement.
The problem is a lack of informative, substantive, academic art professional
development inservices that are standards-based with emphasis on the enhancement of
training, teaching strategies, and content. Teacher training inservices involves strategies
to develop standards-based planning of appropriate rigorous instruction and assessments
to measure student performance. Teaching strategy involves methods to incorporate
differentiated instruction and integrate technology and resources beyond curriculum.
Throughout the past 17 years, the SCSD art educators’ professional development
workshops have been conducted using the same agenda outline, with the lead art teachers
speaking for 45 minutes to 60 minutes about political changes and their effects on
professional development opportunities, art exhibitions and competitions, updates on
national and state legislative discussions about arts advocacy, art educators’
accomplishments in terms of grant writing, exemplary teaching, and future inservice
activities (see Appendix B). Currently, the guidelines in developing inservices reflect the
needs of SCSD art educators but do not involve either a tool to evaluate professional
4
development, or a process for administrators to support art education professional
development workshops within their schools. Schools across the district present
workshops that discuss specific grade level goals and concerns such as student
achievement, standardized test data, and ways to improve instruction. Rarely is
professional development training focused on arts integration and ways to improve
teacher practices unless the art educator is going through a Performance Assessment
System for Teachers (PAS-T) review or a modified Assisting Developing and Evaluating
Professional Teaching Performance Standards (ADEP-T) evaluation process that assists,
develops, and evaluates professional teaching based on state expectations that are aligned
with national educational standards.
SCSD is a large U.S. public school district with approximately 69,000 enrolled
students. According to the HES strategic plan (2009), there are over 4,930 educators and
specialists throughout SCSD in 83 schools (including 52 elementary schools) and 17
specialty schools. I purposefully selected participants from the district’s school profile
listing of elementary art educators. In this study, I explored the perceptions of 10 art
educators to determine the effectiveness of an art professional development workshop in
terms of influences on beliefs and teaching performance. The case study included a
survey of participants to explore perceptions of the effectiveness of adult-centered,
research-based, hands-on art professional development workshop in terms of teacher
training, teaching strategies, and content to improve student achievement.
5
Evidence of the Problem at Local Level
The SCSD elementary art educators are assigned to schools where they often
serve the students in isolation or individually and may have a visiting team at their site
for 1 or 2 days per week. The art educators provide 45 minutes of instruction to students
in Grades 1–5 and 30 minutes to students in kindergarten once a week, seeing students on
average 36 classes per year. The students typically work on individual assignments and
group projects, and the art teacher fulfills the responsibilities of advisor to an advanced
art club before or after school. The art teacher is also assigned additional duties such as
supervision for morning or afternoon arrivals and cafeteria duty.
Since 1998, I have asked several groups of elementary art educators at state,
district, and school art conferences and inservices their opinions about art professional
development workshops for SCSD art teachers. The art educators’ responses have
varied, as some of them have stated that they have to travel a great distance only to sit
and listen to others complain about their work conditions such as traveling between
schools, work schedules, class size, and permission to attend inservices. Art educators
have expressed a lack of on-going, informative, standards-based, hands-on art
professional development workshops that are scholarly, accessible, and relevant, and that
support teacher efficacy and student success. Some of the art teachers suggested
generating a list of art professional development topics that would be meaningful and
relevant to all participants including (a) educational and informative studio experiences
with guest artists from the community or state, (b) effective ways to teach kindergarten
and students with learning disabilities, accommodations, and individualized education
6
programs (IEPs), and (c) arts integration workshops on technology and iPads. Others
have recommended a need to engage in workshops on clay, glazes, and use of the kiln,
effective ways to write lesson plans for novice and veteran teachers, how to develop
assessments, how to introduce writing in art, best practices, and introduction of new
products from distributors. Several of the art teachers have stated that they would like to
participate in professional development workshops through the educational department at
the Surrey County Museum of Art (SCMA).
In October of 2014, the SCSD fine art coordinator forwarded an email link
requesting that art teachers submit a list of desired professional development topics for
2015-2018. The fine art coordinator (FAC) stated that he is committed to organizing
relevant professional development that provides experiences and tools that the art
educators can use in their classroom and continue to grow as a teacher. In this case study
a teacher facilitator (TF) at SCSD presented an art professional development workshop
that explored pedagogy and content designed to improve student success and teacher
practice. Participants in this study attended the art professional development workshop
on the New District Art Show Info Session at Heathgate Elementary School (HES;
pseudonym) sponsored by SCSD.
The SCSD guidelines require that all certified staff take part in 24 hours of
professional development inservice opportunities. According to the HES strategic plan
from 2009, the schools would fulfill 12 hours, while an additional 12 hours may be
earned through attending monthly art inservice on his/her own time. As a requirement,
art teachers should acquire a total of 14 professional development points or graduate level
7
course work per year, which can be directed to their recertification. Often times,
professional development programs at the district level and on-site for art teachers lack
job-embedded learning, exposure to multiple concepts and practices, and research-based
information that addresses improved student learning. Inservices are infrequent and do
not demonstrate a measurable effect on student learning and teacher practice. DuFour,
DuFour, and Eaker (2008) described effective professional development for educators as
collaborative, socially engaging, detailed, job-embedded opportunities that are relevant to
their course content, strategies, team, and students. The objective in designing
professional development programs should be structured as a continuing process to
improve the curriculum, instruction, teacher practice, and assessment. Teachers, who
participate in professional development activities communicate and collaborate on ideas
and methods, and increase their knowledge of what students should learn (DuFour et al.,
2008).
In this case study, I identified ways for art educators to plan professional
development programs for art teachers that place emphasis on national and state visual art
standards, adult-centered, hands-on learning opportunities, collaboration and networking,
and best practices. According to Carey, Sikes, Foy, and Carpenter (1995), administrators
at the school level can provide teachers access to inservice educational opportunities for
other professional development activities and curriculum improvement. Polly and
Hannafin (2011) reported that upon examining previous professional development
research papers on the influences of learner-centered inservices on teacher practices, they
found discrepancies between what teachers report (espoused practices) and demonstrate
8
(enacted practices). My case study’s implications for art educators included a greater
understanding of art concepts, pedagogy, adult-centered professional development
workshop, grants, collaborations and networking, and best practices. I found that art
professional development for art educators and administrators are essential in enhancing
their experiences, knowledge, skills, and attitude to achieve high levels of learning and
quality education for all students (see Goderya-Shaikh, 2012).
SCSD prides itself as a leader in providing a plethora of professional development
training and classes for its employees. The training sessions range from inservice
opportunities designed for the cafeteria staff, custodial team, and parents, to substitute
teachers, retired educators, teachers, and administrators. The art educators attend
technology workshops, departmental workshops, and grade level curriculum classes for
elementary, middle, and high school teachers. These sessions are offered after work, on
teacher workdays, during Summer Academy, and online. Teachers attending classes earn
credits to meet recertification requirements or exchange day points (see Appendix A).
Since 1996, the professional development inservices for art educators have
included monoprints, hand building clay projects, drawing, and mixed media activities
(see Appendix A). The art teachers’ lesson plan exchange workshops on best practices
involve a brief discussion from presenters about their lesson and display of an artifact;
lesson plans are forwarded by email to attendees. The SCSD art presenters are often art
educators, a local artist, and the educational director at the local museum. The 2013,
SCSD Summer Academy offered one art workshop, Eye of the Creator, on art educator
sketchbooks. The academy, which had an enrollment limit of 25 participants, was open
9
to elementary, middle, and high school art educators and interested teachers. The
workshop consisted of creating sketchbooks, sketch/design journals, and fun art making
studies connecting with recent publications on creativity and an opportunity to discuss
ways to create unique art projects. When art educators attend professional development
inservices at their schools, the sessions are centered on identifying students needing
services (including speech therapy, guidance, and skill strengthening in reading, spelling,
writing, math, and science. Rarely are the staff development workshops inclusive for art
teachers or structured for arts integration opportunities (see Appendix A).
Evidence of the Problem from the Professional Literature
The professional literature I reviewed for this study addressed the need for life-
long adult-centered research-based hands-on art professional development workshops to
improve pedagogy, teaching strategies, and content. The SCSD fine art coordinator or
curriculum specialist serves as an advocate who promotes achievement in the arts, access
to resources, and information. According to Carey et al. (1995), one-third of public and
secondary schools responding to the U.S. Department of Education (1994) Art Education
Survey reported being aware of the standards. Additionally, 49.68% of public schools’
visual arts educators indicated an awareness of the standards and incorporated a portion
of them into their curricula. Carey et al. (1995) reported in their study on arts education
in public elementary and secondary schools that 42% of public schools in the Southeast
are taught by art specialists, 32% are taught by art specialists and classroom teachers, and
26% are taught by classroom teachers. The administrator’s responsibilities are to provide
teachers access to professional development activities and inservice education. Gaining
10
knowledge of the teaching expectations placed on art educators and evaluators can
improve the quality of professional development sessions for art teachers.
Art educators are often asked by administrators and evaluators to explain art
concepts, and school principals often show a look of amazement during observational
evaluations, indicating a lack of understanding of the curriculum (see Appendix C).
Hammel and Gerrity (2012) argued that music teachers would rather participate in
neighboring, long-term experiences and professional developments led by a music
specialist. The analysis of professional development programs shows a range of diverse
goals that include the development and increased skills such as teacher self-reflection,
self-confidence, and student academic success (Light, Calkins, Luna, & Drane, 2008).
Administrators should provide professional development training that offers staff support
and adult-centered inservices that are job-embedded and focused on academics and daily
practices.
Rienties, Brouwer, and Lygo-Baker (2013) suggested that professional
development impacts teachers’ understanding of context and teaching beliefs, and that
effective training programs would help educators learn how to redesign learning
opportunities for their students. Furthermore, Godbold (2013) argued that administrators
should design professional development training programs after assessing the needs of
their teachers, should present opportunities for follow-up to evaluate educators’
integration of content, and should be accessible to comment and share opinions during
workshops.
11
In contrast, studies have also indicated that professional development training
does not change the attitudes of veteran teachers about student-centered learning,
integration of standards-based instruction, and modification of teaching practices
(Rienties et al., 2013). In developing a professional learning plan, Zimmerman (2011)
reported Coble’s suggestion that new skills are obtained when you put yourself in a
position that requires the use of that skill. For example, an administrator who wants to
learn about art and how to create an art project should think about participating in an art
activity to learn the skill. Rienties et al. (2013) found that experienced educators who
had reached the “ceiling-effect” demonstrated difficulty with changing their point of view
on teaching strategies and student-centered learning environments upon attending
workshops. Sandoval-Lucero et al. (2011) compared professional development schools
(PDS) and teacher in residence (TIR) programs and identified teacher success with
classroom management through coaching received in student teaching or internship
experiences.
Grissom and Harrington (2010) found that principals rated lower in work quality
and school performance than administrators who had been coached, participated in
professional development programs, and formal mentoring programs. These links have
been effective in the leadership know-how and abilities that administrators need to be
successful in facilitating teacher accomplishments, teacher efficacy, retention, and
student achievement. Goldring, Huff, Spillane, and Barnes (2009) argued that how
principals do what they do depends largely on what they know about curriculum and
instruction. Zimmerman (2011) declared that it is critical for administrators to become
12
reflective practitioners who are perceptive of their leadership role while developing a
willingness to modify their behavior and attitude toward change through professional
learning experiences.
Art education programs are devoted to giving students the opportunities to create
and communicate ideas through two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms.
Instruction in the arts enhances learning in other academic subjects through
interdisciplinary instruction, and schools can include the arts through integration with
other instructional subjects (Carey et al., 1995). Light et al. (2008) indicated that teacher
perceptions towards teaching and approaches vary, as some educators are concerned with
information transmission of knowledge, while others emphasize students’ personal
construction of knowledge, which is also referred to as conceptual change.
Administrators, art educators, instructional coaches, and school districts have thus created
art professional development activities addressing teacher-centered learning to reinforce
art educator’s knowledge of art standards and best practices for student-centered learning
and differentiated instructional strategies.
Art teachers who engage in teacher-centered professional development find that
they focus on student-centered activities aimed at a student’s interests, learning styles,
and differentiated learning approaches. Çubukcu (2012) stated that teachers should be
offered opportunities to attend in-service training so that they can develop their skills and
gain knowledge about student-centered learning with respect to their teaching areas. The
findings from this case study showed that art educators who work to create a student-
centered learning environment are motivated by a constructivist, naturalistic,
13
existentialist, and humanism philosophies (Çubukcu, 2012). The art educators’ and
evaluators’ assessments of the classroom environment showed the art educator’s need to
self-evaluate teaching practices in terms of designing a student-centered learning
environment. This environment helps students take ownership of his/her learning,
achieve personal goals, find meaningful activities and resources that will guide their
success, and increase an interest in the arts.
Polly and Hannafin (2011) suggested that to execute learner-centered pedagogies,
teachers need broad learning opportunities to acquire and internalize relevant information
and skills. Godbold (2013) argued, administrators use professional development training
in-service opportunities to support practice and absorb experiences, and follow-up
sessions to answer questions explaining new concepts. Administrators plan inservices for
art teachers, use art knowledge training when evaluating art educators, and engage in an
in-depth conversation on art concepts and standards during the hiring process.
According to Kraehe (2010), highly qualified art educators use whatever
knowledge and skills they have to make pedagogical decisions that influence a student’s
engagement with art forms, traditions, and meanings. The professional literature I
reviewed in this study addressed support for on-going quality professional development
inservices designed to affect teacher reflection, teaching practice, teaching strategies,
content, and commitment to student learning. This literature resonated with the
experiential theory, which holds that professional development for teachers enhances
their attitude to achieve high levels of learning and quality education for all students.
14
Nature of the Study
This qualitative case study revealed patterns and themes associated with planning
art professional development workshops. The data in this qualitative case study were
collected from 2 participants who responded to beta test questions, 8 participants who
responded to open-ended questionnaires, the same 2 beta test participants who answered
the focus group questions, and 20 elementary art educators and evaluators in the SCSD
who I observed as they attended an art professional development workshop. The
questions addressed art educators’ and evaluators’ perceptions of an art professional
development workshop and how the study of art professional development affects
pedagogy and practice. The questionnaires, observation, and interviews were used to
gain insight from art teachers’ and evaluators’ perceptions of an elementary art
professional development workshop in SCSD. I triangulated participants’ data and
interpreted them through Dewey’s experiential conceptual theory framework.
The nature of this case study was to explore perceptions of an art professional
development workshop as an approach to engaging in adult-centered, hands-on
opportunities, professional development, grant writing, collaboration and networking, and
best practices to improve student success and teacher practice. Dewey’s experiential
theory was the conceptual framework for this qualitative case study. I validated the data
using a beta test, open-ended questionnaire, observation, focus group interview, and
member checking. I used a comparative analysis to code and explain the findings and
patterns. The findings were grouped in five themes showing the importance of art
professional development workshops.
15
Guiding Research Questions
The following research questions (RQ) guided the case study:
RQ1: What are art educators’ perceptions of an art professional development
workshop?
RQ2: What are art educators’ views on the effectiveness of art professional
development workshops for art teachers?
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this case study was to explore participants’ perceptions of an art
professional development workshop in order to examine pedagogy, instructional
strategies, and content. In addition, my goal was to investigate participants’ views of an
art professional development workshop as an approach to explore art standards,
instructional strategies, and policy changes that improved student success and teacher
practice. The participants in this study were elementary art educators and evaluators
from a large public-school district in the United States who attended the professional
development workshop. The art teachers and evaluators in this study were from SCSD’s
65 elementary schools (Grades K-5). The goal of the art professional development
workshop was to improve art educators’ and evaluators’ content knowledge, engage in
adult-centered hands-on opportunities, professional development, grant writing,
collaboration and networking, and best practices for the purpose of improving teaching
practices to increase student learning outcomes in the arts. In this case study, I used
Dewey’s (1938) experiential theory to interpret data from a purposeful sample from a
beta test with 2 participants, an open-ended questionnaire with 8 participants, a focus
16
group with the same 2 participants who responded to beta test questions, and observation
of 20 participants who attended the professional development workshop to answer the
research questions.
Conceptual Framework
I used Dewey’s (1938) experiential framework to gain insight into art educators’
and evaluators’ perceptions about an art professional development workshop as an
approach to enhance teacher content knowledge, skills, and attitudes to achieve high
levels of learning and quality education for all students. This conceptual framework,
which emphasizes a learning by doing approach, holds that student-centered and adult-
centered hands-on project-based learning activity increase knowledge of art standards,
instructional strategies, and policy changes that improve student success and teacher
practices. Furthermore, Dewey (1938) also discussed the role of teachers as facilitators
in connecting knowledge and skills to prepare pupils for new learning experiences and
success in life. Dewey’s experiential theory identifies the influences in education in
terms of the unity of theory and practice. Dewey’s experiential theory distinguishes
between organic connections linking education and personal experiences.
I used Dewey’s experiential theory as a guide to examine art professional
development workshops to enhance knowledge, skills, and attitudes about pedagogy,
teaching strategies, student engagement and success, and teacher practice. In addition,
Dewey’s experiential theory was used as a guide to improve educator’s understanding of
art standards and concepts, instructional strategies, and policy changes. Dewey’s
experiential theory was also used to give teachers opportunities to network, design, and
17
participate in on-going adult-centered hands-on professional development workshop
experiences on grant writing and collaboration. Furthermore, Dewey’s theoretical
approach could give teachers classroom management methods, instructional and
assessment strategies, methods to promote student achievement and meet the needs of all
students.
Operational Definitions
Arts integration: Silverstein and Layne (2010) defined arts integration as an
approach to teaching where the arts influence learning in other disciplines such as
science, language arts, mathematics, and social studies. Students are engaged in a
creative process that makes connections with educational disciplines and develops the
objectives of each content area. Arts integration is grounded in the constructivist theory
as it engrosses students in active learning that is experiential, changing, collaborative,
problem solving, and reflection (Silverstein & Layne, 2010).
Common Core State Standards (CCSS): Educator’s use of national and state
curricula to engage student learning is currently integrated in the CCSS as an educational
plan designed to bring the state curriculum standards in alignment with each other. The
CCSS objectives are to provide a clear and concise understanding of what students are
required to learn. These high standards are reflective of students’ preparation of
knowledge and skills learned upon entering college of a career (Common Core, 2013).
Michalec (2013) defined CCSS as the process of teacher planning and professional
development that seeks to define successful teaching via standards, teacher competencies,
performance-based evaluation protocols, accountability, and standardized test results.
18
Instructional strategies: Instructional strategies include approaches that teachers
may take to actively engage students in learning as the teacher monitors student growth
and understanding of subject matter, skills, and attitudes. These strategies drive
instruction while meeting the learning styles and needs of all learners. According to the
Board of National Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS, 1989), educators who are
dedicated to students and their learning believe that all students can learn no matter their
learning styles—visual (sight), auditory (sound), or kinesthetic (touch). An accomplished
art educator may use instructional strategies such as direct instruction, graphic organizers,
hands on learning, KWL (know, want to know, learned), compare and contrast,
journaling, conferencing, scaffolding, modeling, and small and large group instruction to
recognize the different needs, interest, skills, knowledge, and cultural diversity of their
students.
Professional development: Professional development is an intensive and
collaborative process of improving and increasing a teacher’s abilities and knowledge
through educational opportunities and career advancement. There are several learning
opportunities for practicing teachers, administrators, and fine art coordinator to
participate in continuing education programs. Therefore, in planning professional
development opportunities for teachers, the training sessions must be purposeful and
specifically designed as job embedded, engrossed with collaborative inquiry, aligned with
reform initiatives to increase student success and achievement (DuFour et al., 2008). The
approaches to professional development include participants’ reflection on their own
teaching practices, formal and informal mentoring, communities of practice or
19
professional development inservice, continuing education or graduate programs,
consultation, coaching, lesson study, and technical assistance. Bransford, Brown, and
Cocking (2000) asserted that teachers teach teachers by sharing their knowledge through
formal inservice education in their schools, districts, and workshops and presentations at
professional associations and teachers’ unions.
Student-centered learning: Student-centered learning methods redirect the
instructional activities’ focus from the teacher to the student. Often times in conventional
classrooms, the instructor presents a lecture while the student observes demonstration and
listens to lectures given by the teacher. Student-centered learning gives the student an
opportunity to be an active participant in his or her learning by setting goals and finding
resources to reach successful outcomes. Dewey’s philosophy of education centers on the
concept that students learn through experiences (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 2012).
Paige (2010) stated that educators should be able to promote an entrepreneurial learning
environment that fosters a student’s abilities to effectively participate in new learning. In
student-centered learning environments, the student learns to work in teams, collaborate
with peers, develop inquiry-based questions, and expand communication skills.
Teacher-centered learning: Teacher-centered learning places emphasis on
knowledge communicated by the instructor to the students. In teacher-centered learning
environments, students learn independently with minimal opportunities for collaboration
with classmates. The students are actively involved in their learning while making their
own decisions about their work as classrooms are silent with the teacher maintaining
20
control of the activities. Light et al. (2008) identified teacher-centered learning concepts
as content oriented, focusing on teachers understanding of teaching strategies.
Teaching methodology: Teaching methodology or teaching method is the
approach that a teacher uses for instruction. The method or procedures may vary
depending on the information or skills being taught. A teacher might use a lecture to
explain content, demonstration or modeling, collaboration or group project, and peer
teaching where a student teaches an individual or a group. Knowles et al. (2012) argued
that Dewey’s constructivist learning theory is organized around teaching through inquiry
building on knowledge that the student already knows at the same time developing
critical thinking skills and stimulating independent learners.
Assumptions, Limitations, Scope, and Delimitations
Assumptions
Dewey’s (1938) experiential theory is the basis for art professional development
methods that could enhance teacher knowledge, skills, and attitude to achieve high levels
of learning and quality education for all students. The art professional development
workshop, based on Dewey’s model, would be responsible to enhance pedagogy,
teaching strategies, adult-centered hands-on learning activities, professional development,
collaboration and networking, and best practices. This study is based on the assumptions
that SCSD do not provide professional development workshop opportunities that meet
the needs of all art educators. Schumann, Peters and Olsen (2013) argued that the
effectiveness of long-lasting faculty professional development is focused on the
improvement of teaching skills and better understanding of student learning concepts.
21
Furthermore, Schumann et al. (2013) asserted that the teaching and learning centers
(TLCs) have traditionally focused on direct contact with faculty in an effort to improve
teaching skills and transfer knowledge about student learning. Among my assumptions
were that the art teachers and evaluators would tell the truth about teachers’ experiences
at the professional development workshop. Teachers participating in this study would
pass on knowledge and skills learned in research-based adult-centered professional
development activities into the student-centered project-based classroom experiences that
meet the needs of all students.
Limitations
In this study, I worked as a visual art teacher at an elementary K-5 elementary
school. Currently, I teach art in SCSD. There are 52 elementary schools, and serve 702
students. The bounds of this study were limited to the demographics of elementary art
teachers and evaluators, who worked within the SCSD. As such, the population might not
be generalized or transferrable into another population. The SCSD limited the study to
the 65 elementary art educators and evaluators employed at the 52 elementary schools. I
was limited to observe the district-level art professional development workshop for
elementary visual art teachers. This study was limited to my role as an art teacher,
mentor, and third team ADEPT/PAS-T evaluator.
In observation, this study was limited to educators’ reflections of teaching
practice as a method to incorporate systematic critique of teaching, dialogue from
community and colleagues to meet the needs of all students and learning styles. NBPTS
(1989) argued that accomplished teachers strive to strengthen their teaching and critically
22
examine their practice, seek to expand their repertoire, deepen their knowledge, sharpen
their judgment and adapt their teaching to new findings, ideas, and theories. Examples of
teachers’ reflection are SCSD ADEP-T student learning objective (SLO), SCSD PAS-T
notebook, student knowledge pre, mid, and post survey, administrative evaluation,
professional growth goal setting plan, and professional development. Walden University
required researcher-student to conduct periodic reflections through the process of weekly
discussion and semester plan journaling. This study was limited to a qualitative approach
to explore teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of an experiential professional
development workshop using pre- and post-open-ended questions, focus group questions,
observational field notes, and triangulation of data transcribed in narrative text gaining
insights from participants’ reflections of an inservice.
This study was limited to the perceptions of 10 art educators to determine the
effectiveness of an art professional development workshop in terms of influences on
beliefs and teaching performance. The beta test and focus group participants were
limited to the same 2 respondents to answer the pre-open-ended questionnaire in Google
Forms and audiotaped phone conference. In this case study, I documented using
observational field note checklist 20 participants, who attended the professional
development at HES. After the observation, a post open-ended questionnaire was
distributed in Google Forms. The post open-ended questions were answered by 8
participants, who replied in Google Forms. The limitation of participants’ responses and
participation in the pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires, observation, and conference
23
call impacted the data collection because of SCSD pending events such as spring break,
district wide testing, and end of the year functions mandated by the state and district.
This study was limited to asserting that teacher participation in professional
development workshops is essential in enhancing knowledge, skills, and attitude to
achieve high levels of learning and quality education for students. I used the participants’
rich descriptions from questionnaires, interviews, and observations to understand the
effectiveness of an art professional development workshop. In gathering the data and
generating themes about the study, the findings’ reporting could have been influenced by
personal biases. The timing of the study may have affected and limited participant
responses of the data collection came from open-ended questionnaire, observation, and
focus group interview from SCSD art teachers took place 2 weeks before spring break.
The investigation was limited in the purposeful sample of participants because it was
assumed that all elementary art educators would participate in the case study.
Scope and Delimitations
This qualitative study involved art educators’ and evaluators’, who teach
elementary art within the SCSD. SCSD Research and Sharing Committee did not grant
permission for me to facilitate the 1-hour art professional development workshop because
of my position as an observer and student-researcher. In this case study, an informed
consent form was not needed to conduct a general observation. Participants registered on
SCSD portal to attend the New Art Show Workshop at HES. The review of literature
was selected from review of studies on designing professional development programs
with elementary art educators. Terms considered in my search were elementary art, art,
24
art educators, integration, and professional development for art teachers and
administrators from the Walden University Thoreau, Google Scholar, EBSCO HOST
meta-search, and the internet, National Coalition for Core Art Standards (NCCAS),
National Art Education Association (NAEA), National Visual Art Standards (NVAS),
Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) websites. I
did not include literature on classroom management, teaching strategies, and policy
changes because the text would possibly change the research questions and results of the
data. The participants in this research study were informed about confidentiality, risk,
barriers, and voluntary contributions. In this study, precautions to safeguard vulnerable
groups such as minors and pregnant women were not included because of Institutional
Review Board (IRB) ethical guidelines.
The art educators and evaluators represented the SCSD 65 elementary schools.
The participants were randomly selected from schools within the district. Time
limitations, scheduling, work constraints, travel to the workshop site, and upcoming
spring break were some of the factors considered in terms of affecting participants’ input
in the study. The study was limited to the art teachers’ and evaluators’ perceptions about
the effectiveness of an art professional development workshop. I used participants’ rich
descriptions from open-ended questionnaire, focus group interview, and observation to
gain an understanding about art professional development workshop effectiveness.
Significance of the Study
Professional development is established to improve teacher performance through
adult-centered hands-on learning opportunities, inservices, grant writing, collaboration
25
and networking, and best practices to enhance student success through continuous
professional learning communities (PLCs). By having quality art professional
development workshop programs in SCSD, it was anticipated that art educators and
evaluators would develop skills, content knowledge, instructional strategies, and improve
student success and achievement. Art teachers and evaluators are frequently asked to
give opinions on the aspects of an art professional development workshop that impact
change in teacher performance and pedagogy. The awareness of art educators and
evaluators of the positive outcomes of being involved in meaningful art professional
development programs that have the potential to change teachers’ perceptions about
inservices. The findings can bring about social change for art professional development
programs and SCSD benefits pedagogy, instructional strategies, and student achievement
and success.
This case study consisted of pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires, focus group
questions, and my observational field notes of the art educators’, experiences who
attended the art professional development workshop. The results could help to design
professional development programs for evaluators and art educators with essential art tips
and important observational objectives to consider in a classroom observation of what an
art teacher should know and should be able to do (see Appendix C). The art professional
development workshop helped art educators and evaluators recognize art standards, art
integration, and best practices. Ebert-May et al. (2011) reported that the success of
professional development programs has been through participant self-evaluation from
personal satisfaction, learning opportunities, and application in practice to design useful
26
learner-centered environments after attending workshops. This study could help art
educators and evaluators put into practice self-reflection and critical analysis on
leadership, instructional strategies, skills, and content to promote student achievement.
As there are no direct benefits to participants, the implications of gains to the
larger community were that the data from this study could serve as an example to help art
educators and administrators develop new art programs for the students in SCSD, the
state, and the nation. The findings from this case study can benefit other school districts,
schools, administrators, evaluators, art programs, and art educators. The data would
provide a model for future arts studies on art educators’ perceptions about art training
sessions. In addition, this study could serve as a template for art teachers and evaluators
from other school districts in planning future art training session programs and
communities of adult-centered hands-on learning opportunities for art educators.
Educators and school administrators could use the findings to improve art educators’
pedagogy and teaching strategies, developing curriculum and content, and drive
instruction.
The findings can help art educators and evaluators plan professional development
training programs that concentrate on art teachers’ need to engage students in hands-on
learning activities, guide instruction, drive art curriculum, and promote student success.
This study could serve as an example for other school districts, art programs, state and
national professional development workshops through the personalization of learning
environments that meet the requirements for 21st century schools. Art educators and
seminars based on specific and common needs in art on-the-job training are needed
27
programs (see Appendix C). Zimmerman (2011) argued that administrators, who are
reflective of their leadership, can promote change by developing a school culture that is
supportive of teachers, engage educators in the decision-making process, increase
teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, and advocate professional development.
Summary
Art educators and evaluators are required to attend district-wide professional
development workshops, conferences, or enroll in graduate level courses for
recertification as a part of the professionalism performance standard component indicated
in the PAS-T/ADEP-T evaluation criteria earning a minimum of 24 points per year. In
evaluating art educators, evaluators, and the fine art coordinator, they demonstrate a
limited knowledge of national and state art standards, instructional strategies, history,
creating and making art, curriculum planning, and ideas to plan successful ongoing
professional development workshops for art teachers. Unfortunately, professional
development opportunities are limited to art teachers within their schools, and the district
as SCSD workshops rarely focused on art educators teaching practices, assessment, arts
integration, and instructional strategies for student success.
This case study results could help in developing approaches for art educators to
design art professional development workshop training opportunities with art educators in
mind. The focus would be to increase student growth and involvement in the arts at their
school. The research provides art educators and evaluators with reliable data to assist in
constructing professional development programs that increase knowledge of state and
national art standards, implementation of instructional strategies, and policy changes that
28
improve student success and teacher practice. The case study gives art educators and
evaluators findings as recommended by the National Education Association (2013) to
support art teacher evaluations, observations, classroom walk throughs, and needs
assessment surveys to plan professional development that are teacher-centered and
student-centered to improve instruction and teaching performance.
The potential effects of professional development on art educator’s and
evaluator’s knowledge of state and national art standards, teaching methodology,
instructional strategies, and curriculum design could increase self-reflection and
awareness. Furthermore, professional development could enhance the inquiry process in
targeting areas such as instruction, peer-on-peer interactions, reflections in developing
critical thinkers and the recognition of learning as a holistic practice in terms of teaching
the total child. In Section 2 of this research study, I will introduce the literature review. I
will discuss the conceptual framework, educational policy changes, and review of related
resources, professional development, pedagogy, arts integrations, and best practices.
29
Section 2: Literature Review
Introduction
In this literature review, I examine scholarly texts, dissertations, and peer-
reviewed articles to report the benefits of adult-centered professional development
activities about art inservices and their effectiveness for pedagogy, teaching strategies,
assessment, and curriculum planning. I considered the variety of professional
development theories and concepts and approaches that promote art and arts integration.
Dewey’s (1938) experiential theory includes adult-centered, project-based learning,
differentiated learning, networking, collaboration, and PLCs. I identified how the
Dewey’s ideas support adult-centered, project-based learning as an approach to
developing professional development opportunities for art educators and evaluators in
terms of methodology and differentiated instructional strategies and improve student
engagement.
In addition, I will discuss art educators’ and evaluators’ needs and examine
examples of art professional development workshops. In what follows, I will compare
and contrast findings about the effectiveness of art professional development workshops.
I will discuss the literature review studies that put into practice arts integration in adult-
centered, project-based learning in art professional development workshops.
To gather materials for the literature review, I searched academic databases for
the following keywords: art educator, arts integration, art education, administrator,
teaching strategies, technology, teacher centered learning, professional development, in-
service, integration, teacher evaluation, performance assessment, pedagogy, best
30
practices, performance-based evaluation, elementary classroom, and communities of
learning or practice. I searched Walden University’s Thoreau, Google Scholar, EBSCO
HOST meta-search, National Coalition for Core Art Standards, National Art Education
Association, National Visual Art Standards, Common Core State Standards, and No
Child Left Behind websites. I found research on elementary art, art, art educators, and
professional development for art teachers and administrators. Several resources included
in the review were articles that placed emphasis on technology in the classroom. I
eliminated articles focused on high school and secondary arts education. I reviewed a
total of 124 articles published between 1938 and 2017, of which 112 were peer reviewed.
Conceptual Framework
The art professional development workshop for art educators in this case study
was designed to give participants a hands-on, project-based learning activity to increase
knowledge on art standards, instructional strategies, and policy changes that improve
student success and teacher practices. Dewey (1938) argued that teachers are facilitators
who connect knowledge and skills to prepare pupils for new learning experiences and
success in life. Dodd-Nufrio (2011) reported that Dewey’s socio-constructivist model is
framed on the theory that both children and adults construct their knowledge through
interactions with people, the environment, and personal interest. The research facilitated
by Dewey in 1896 tested his belief that education was a process of developing the
cognitive and emotional mindset of the pupil (Abrahams, 2011). Abrahams (2011) stated
that teachers find effective ways of learning and teaching with opportunities to build
31
collaborative experiences through partnerships, observations, demonstration, and
participation in ongoing professional development focused on the study of teaching.
Dewey’s constructivist education theory advocates that learning is ongoing and
acquired through experiences. Additionally, Dewey’s theory is compatible with Kolb’s
experiential learning theory, which holds that understanding a subject or discipline is
created holistically through the metamorphosis of memory and behavior caused by
learning experiences (Dewey, 1938). Wang (2011) identified four experiential learning
styles: (a) assimilating, by which learners read, think, and employ wisdom; (b) diverging,
by which learners work in a group and use their imaginations; (c). converging, by which
learners investigate specific duties and emphasize practicality; and (d) accommodating,
by which learners problem solve by confronting challenges and work together to find
solutions. Knowles et al. (2012) claimed that adult education is a process through which
learners become aware and are motivated to learn through experiences, activities, and
interest. Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari (2007) described Dewey’s constructivist
approach as an active and ongoing process in which the students build knowledge based
upon what they already know by engaging in encounters with information and ideas to
form personal views of the world and their lives.
Educational Policy Changes
The educational system is constantly changing to make public education for all K-
12 students more focused and effective to change their lives and the world in which they
live. One objective of educational reform is to close the achievement gap between
different the economic and racial groups by helping students meet the standards and
32
achieve success through rigorous instruction. Adult-learning professional development
inservices are designed to help educators stay abreast of the modifications in federal and
state educational policies, instructional procedures, and technology. In addition,
professional development inservices are designed to help teachers learn and understand
concepts that affect student learning while engaging their students in higher level
thinking skills that will prepare them to compete in a global society. Sabol (2006) stated
that there is no large-scale data bank that tracks meaningful professional development for
art teachers. The lack of these opportunities has contributed to teacher attrition.
The most common forms of professional development are the pursuit of a
master’s degree, graduate courses, NBPTS certification, and participation in state or local
art education conferences. According to Sabol (2006), the lack of art professional
development opportunities is attributed to the shortage of funding, availability,
scheduling, and appropriateness of inservices as many are created for core curriculum
instruction, and administrative support. Sabol found that art teachers experienced an
improvement in instruction (87%), 86% learned new techniques to improve curriculum,
maintained information about their discipline (83%), and 23% engaged in inservices to
comply with administrative guidelines and expectations. Steele (2013) argued that
educational leaders nationally and internationally struggle to (a) define the characteristic
of quality professional development workshops, and (b) evaluate adult learning in-service
programs across content areas and pedagogies to help meet the needs of teachers and
learners in the 21st century.
33
The United States Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in
2015 to replace the No Child Left Behind Act (ASCD, 2015). ESSA reauthorized
educational programs by aligning academic achievement standards and states’
accountability for elementary and secondary public schools to adopt challenging
academic standards in reading, mathematics, and science (National Conference of State
Legislatures, 2016). The ESSA standards must align with course credits at higher
education institutions, career and technical education foundations, or organizations. The
ESSA standards and NCLB benchmarks involve the reporting to educational programs of
students with economical disadvantages including foster care, adaptations and
accommodations for students with disabilities, and parents’ military experiences.
Steele (2013) argued for the implementation of rigorous research-based
approaches to evaluate professional development challenges schools, districts, and
organizations confront as they work to meet the needs of teachers and students. These
challenges include evaluating workshop experiences and analyzing patterns and themes
to answer three investigative questions:
1. What are teachers’ perceptions about learning art forms from the student’s
point of view?
2. What professional development opportunities do teachers have to apply,
practice, and experience the facilitation of strategies?
3. What opportunities do teachers’ have to share best practices and their work?
In terms of continuous improvement, the national visual art inservice requirements state
that there should be the availability of scientifically-based, adult-centered, evidenced-
34
grounded professional development programs for teachers in core academic subjects
(ASCD, 2015).
The National Voluntary Art Standards (1994) recommend creating a glossary for
discipline standards, developing websites to view and print standards, providing
professional development opportunities, and continuing to develop model cornerstone
assessments for each discipline. Hoffman (2013) wrote that the South Carolina State
Department of Education supports the current changes in the National Core Arts
Standards, which state that there should be improvements of content standards, additional
research in arts education, technology in the arts and instruction, building of a web-based
set of standards, and assessment strategies that measure student learning. Additionally,
according to a HES professional development ideas document from 2014, the SCSD Fine
Art Framework for Excellence provides common language for art educators and
administrators to use as a model in identifying proficient and exemplary K-12 fine arts
programs. The document outlines initiatives that have been successful in a school’s arts
program in terms of teacher professionalism and behaviors that have a lasting effect on
student learning in music, art, theatre, and dance.
The revisions in the ADEPT evaluation guidelines are designed to give schools,
districts, and evaluators a format to use when observing teachers based on data-driven
improvements that will support continuous changes in instruction, training for educators,
and constructive feedback that will identify areas of improvement (Zais, 2012). The
South Carolina Legislature Council’s (2013) commitment to public education focuses on
improving teaching and learning through performance-based accountability standards,
35
school report cards, assistance for low performing schools, and support for on-going
professional development to increase teacher practice and assessment centered on student
needs. According to Adcox (2013), evaluating teachers based on performance was a
requirement in the provisions of the NCLB Act (ASCD, 2015), however many educator
groups argued that it is unreliable and degrading. The objective of performance-based
assessment is to measure all educators, including art educators, with the same scale as
classroom teachers whose accomplishments are measured using student achievement
scores from Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) and Measure of Academic
Progress (MAP) tests.
The state’s teacher performance-based evaluation plan is in its second year of
experimenting at select sites. Dr. David Blackmon, former chairman of the South
Carolina State Board of Education, reported that 50% of the evaluation is completed by
administrators and peers in the classroom, 30% is on growth, 10% can come from school-
wide data, and another 10% is based on student or parent input that would be derived
from survey response (Randhawa, 2013). Adcox (2013) described Representative.
Patrick’s proposal for evaluating teacher effectiveness, while providing districts
flexibility. He would not give teachers an A through F letter grade as it impacts
educators’ attitudes on how teachers are treated professionally, but rather judged them on
a scale of teachers as effective to ineffective. McPhie and Sapin (2006) stated that a
reliable and for pay for performance system require a successful performance evaluation
system and supervisors who are able and willing to use it properly. The goal in
developing and incorporating performance-based needs assessments and professional
36
development activities—after data are gathered from art educators and administrators’
questionnaires—is to form learning communities focused on improving instruction and
teacher practice (see Appendix C).
Review of Related Research
This literature review is comprised of previous studies relating to the benefits,
effects, and perceptions of professional development training programs. The use of
scholarly text, current dissertations, and peer-reviewed articles to investigate the concept
of Dewey’s experiential theory as a foundation for professional development workshop
training programs to improve pedagogy and practice, and student achievement were
researched. This literature review included research and expert commentary related to
the different aspects on the effectiveness of professional development programs.
Specifically, Dewey’s (1938) experiential conceptual theory is a fundamental learning
model focused on hands-on applications as participants’ gain knowledge and skills while
demonstrating growth in the process of learning by doing. Dewey’s (1938) theoretical
framework provides a basis for the creation of professional development inservices for art
educators and evaluators enhanced knowledge and skills through adult-centered hands-on
learning, grants, collaboration and networking, and best practices.
Dewey’s experiential framework and the following literature review serve as a
foundation to answer the research questions about art educators’ perceptions on the
effectiveness of art professional development workshops. In addition, the literature
review included diverse scholarly research that can be used to frame and support the
views of participants and findings in the study. The literature review can generate themes
37
and explore participants’ perceptions about the effectiveness of adult-centered hands-on
professional development programs.
Professional Development
Schumann et al. (2013) addressed the history of traditional Teaching and Learning
Centers (TLCs) of the 1960s approach to evolve faculty development with support over
time with the latest teaching trends to improve and move old pedagogical teaching skills
and transfer new knowledge of student learning. The SCSD art educators are faced with
the decision of planning yearlong professional development for art educators. The adult
learner-centered professional development was structured to improve practice while
drawing upon pedagogy, using National and State Visual Art Standards, and content.
When educators are motivated to enhance instruction and improve student achievement,
careful planning for change and implementation of the programs can be difficult to
promote and commit to for a period of time (Schumann et al., 2013). Many schools use
PLCs to drive professional development planning. PLCs are described as a collaborative
team of members, who participate in collective inquiry that engages in best teaching
practices and best practices in learning to develop new skills and experiences which work
together to clarify what students must learn through hands-on exercises that promote
experiential learning (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006). LaTurner and Lewis
(2013) described the use of data before, during, and after the implementation of
professional development programs for principals, art educators, and the fine art
coordinator to determine its effectiveness by setting realistic goals. Zepeda, Parylo, and
Bengtson (2013) stated that professional development practices is an approach to impart
38
knowledge and improve skills with methods highlighting and identifying specific teacher
needs through mentoring, training sessions, and demonstration. Administrators and art
educators used data in defining the needs of their art educators while supporting
professional development and allowing time to engage in practice and follow-up
(Godbold, 2013).
There was a commitment by SCSD to sustain yearlong professional development
programs for administrators and art educators that are engaging, informative, relevant,
job-embedded, and structured to improve art curriculum and student achievement.
According to Ebert-May et al. (2011), the objectives of inservices are to strengthen
participants’ understanding of content knowledge, instructional practices, develop
inquiry-based materials, and confidence implementing active-learning pedagogies during
and after the professional development workshop. Polly and Hannafin (2011), in their
case study, examined 24 elementary teachers in a yearlong professional development
project to expand student learning by supporting teachers’ performance of detailed
instructional practices and willingness to apply workshop pedagogy into their practice.
The findings showed that the implementation of ongoing adult learner-centered
professional development improved practice as it pertains to the classroom. In
committing to high quality professional development experiences, Jaruszewicz and White
(2009) examined links between teacher retention, and lack of support prior to investing
and sending administrators and educators to conferences and workshops. The results of
art educators’ feedback upon attending local and national meetings was a sense of feeling
valued, supported, and committed to the program.
39
The case study data collection determined why it is important for art educators to
participate in art professional development workshops as it was essential to ongoing
professional growth as an instructional leader and in support of student success. Babo
and Villaverde (2013) found that principal professional portfolios or e-portfolios are
methods for professional development and evaluations to set objectives/achievement
goals, self-reflection practice, promote professional growth, and inspire engaging
discussion with other district leaders such as the superintendent and principals.
According to Grissom and Harrington (2010), when school districts invested in principal
professional development programs their objective was to increase administrative
leadership effectiveness, school performance, and teacher satisfaction, retention and
professional responsibilities that ultimately affected student achievement. Jonusaite
(2009) cited several decision-making styles such as choice, accept-reject, evaluation, and
construction along with analysis as requirements in the process in planning PLCs and
professional development on school social pedagogy.
It is commendable when art educators, evaluators, and administrators are
knowledgeable of other content disciplines, especially the arts, when they are in positions
to supervise, evaluate, and communicate with their art teachers to enrich student learning
and growth. The influences of professional development in management education
showed the effective leadership of principals in the areas of planning; decision making,
organization, and prioritizing were effective in the supervision of teachers and
improvement of staff leadership (Agi´c, 2012). Principals attending art professional
development integrated art concepts and strategies in assessing art educators in mid-year
40
and end-of-the year evaluation formula. The case study allowed art educators
opportunities to reflect on evaluation processes, art facts, and art teacher competency. In
observing and analyzing art teaching practices, principals generated an improvement plan
for art educators and design professional development that changed art teachers’
approach to national and state art standards, curriculum design, instructional strategies,
and teaching practices. In a quantitative research study, Agi´c (2012) examined the
influences of professional development training on principals’, teachers’, and advisors’
management ability in education and employee development. The purposeful random
sample of 147 teachers, advisors, and principals from seven schools provided responses
to a research instrument containing structured, multiple choice, and open-ended
questions. A Likert scale with 3-4 levels of satisfaction was used to complete the survey
sheet as an F test and a t test were administered to establish significance and equal
variance in the opinions of the groups. Additionally, the survey results indicated that
administrators trained constantly in areas of statistical data analysis, human resource
management, legislative policy, introduction of school change, and motivating staff. Art
professional development training encouraged administrators and art educators to reflect
on school’s Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals and student achievement objectives as
an approach to encourage art educators to promote the school wide plan to improve
student success through the arts.
In creating and designing an art professional development workshop for art
educators the case study used the results from observational field notes, pre- and post-
open-ended questionnaires, and focus group questions to engage participants to use
41
reflective practices and art knowledge standards to establish inservices for art teachers.
Lopez-Pastor, Monjas, and Manrique (2011) identified reflective teaching and practice as
a continued process of what is lived, read, heard or spoken, and acting upon what is
reflected that leads to professional educational practice within the classroom. Connecting
teaching education and teaching practices can be a positive way to improve student
motivation and academic performance (Lopez-Pastor et al., 2011). In planning
professional development training program for art educators, inservices use CCSS and art
curriculum standards to help principals, art educators, and the fine arts coordinator make
art knowledge connections that could support student learning. The success of educators
and professional development specialists in improving the 21st century classroom and
ongoing professional development have been identified in content knowledge,
information on how and when to teach discipline content, teaching discipline through
differentiation, and developmental skills that represent age appropriate content (Roeser,
Skinner, Beers, and Jennings 2012). Administrators recognized the highly qualified art
educator’s pedagogy and practice in using the professional domains and skills
demonstrated by art teachers upon attending art professional development workshop.
In learning art concepts art educators and evaluators are able to think like an
artist, be able to use art knowledge, and critical thinking strategies in analyzing artworks
to find ways to improve the art education program within their schools and promote an
understanding of the arts. Art educators and evaluators can show improvement in their
understanding of art knowledge content concepts, National and State Visual Art
Standards, and CCSS by participating in an intensive inservice program. According to
42
Dogan, Cakiroglu, Bilican, and Cavus (2013), content activities, discussion, and
reflection on professional development experiences for participants strengthened
understanding of curriculum, offering ongoing support, feedback on teaching, and
reflective opportunities on self and practice. The professional development training for
art educators modeled with the guidelines suggested by NCLB (ASCD, 2015) and
National Art Education Association (2014) standards assisted administrators’ and
teachers’ use of art knowledge, skills, and training while developing artistic abilities
(Allison, 2013). Sotiropoulou-Zormpala’s (2012) teaching methods for arts education
and teaching practices are:
1. Teaching the arts, discipline specific or content
2. Teaching through the arts, skills and from the curriculum
3. Aesthetic teaching, integration of other subjects should assist in designing an
intensive professional development for administrators and art teachers.
Administrators are responsible for a school’s progress and the development of its
staff focused on the skills of his or her team and in doing so principals are able to change
the organization by offering professional advice, technical support, and opportunities for
self-reflection while using evaluation methods to gather information for improvement.
DuFour et al. (2008) described professional development for educators to engage as
detailed, job-embedded, opportunities that are relevant to the context of their content,
strategies, their team, and their students. The objective in designing professional
development programs structured to a continuing process to improve the curriculum,
instruction, teacher practice, and assessment. Teachers, who participated in professional
43
development activities communicated and collaborated on ideas, methods, and increased
their skills on what students should learn (DuFour et al., 2008). The analysis of data used
to help administrators commit to continuous improvement in constructing professional
development that made it possible for the staff to meet school wide goals, improve their
practice, and sustain accountability to teaching and learning (Khan, Khan, Shah, & Iqbal,
2009). Abbasi, Murtaza, and Riaz (2011) stated that administrators are facilitators for
promoting school growth, positive expert feedback, and promotion of school change
which impacts the institution, teacher improvement, and interest in professional
development. Thoonen, Sleegers, Oort, Peetsma, and Geijsel (2011) argued that the
application of adult learning theories such as transformational leadership, experimenting,
and reflection in professional development learning activities foster student growth, while
influencing teacher learning and practices. According to Spillane, Healey, and Parise
(2009), professional learning opportunities are often referred to as professional
development, which are methods for educators and administrators to participate in on-
the-job learning activities that are designed to improve instructional practice and student
learning. Mombourquette and Bedard (2014) claimed that school districts created annual
job-embedded professional development growth inservices based on the exercises that
support student learning, the needs of the school, focus on planning, budgeting, parental
communication, undertaking school policy, and current trends in education.
Ediger (2014) described the administrator’s leadership role as an approach to
improving teaching and providing the best learning experiences for students in schools
which identified the relevance of teacher’s instructional objectives, making available
44
opportunities to ensure that pupils’ learning is challenging and motivating, standardized
test measure what they are designed to measure, and that they use a variety of
observations to evaluate teacher knowledge and abilities. Principal leaders had high
expectations for student achievement engaging in self-efficacy and accountability to
improve the school’s curriculum by participating in educational in-service opportunities
with staff, attending professional educational conferences, completing training to enhance
curriculum, participating in programs to earn an advanced degree in administration, and
reading current educational journals (Ediger, 2014). Sugarman (2011) defined
professional development method as a comprehensive preparation and ongoing
development designed to increase teacher aptitude, content knowledge, and practice.
PLCs strengthen student achievement as identified by Helterbran (2010) where principals
or teacher leaders demand commitment to change and grow as a person or educator
expanding and building knowledge base professional development as the foundation of
improving teacher practice, know-how, advancement and ability while inspiring self-
confidence.
What a district spends on professional development differs as to what constitutes
investment in professional learning activities. Killion and Hirsh (2012) argued that
authentic professional learning is misinterpreted with informational meetings, such as
back-to-school assemblies, celebrations, and get togethers to update or share guidelines
and review procedures are not professional learning workshops and are not legitimate use
of district funds. Districts used video streaming or web conferencing to share policy
regulation information. Lane (2013) contended that professional development of online
45
classes departs from the typical hands-on campus-based technology in-service training
and is limited to faculty learning to teach online with little focus on the pedagogy of
teaching over the web. However, these experiences gave faculty learners and other
participants an opportunity to online learning, resources, open web, and communities. In
comparison to brick and mortar professional development workshops, Lane argued that
online learning or technology-based learning methodology encourages a broader
foundation in teaching online education through classes and professional development
that mirrors the web as the new “classroom” for learning.
Gill (2012) contended that investing in teacher and leader programs such as
quality training inservices, mentoring, and professional development could slow staff
turnover, impact student achievement gap, and district financial concerns. In hard-to-
staff schools, principals viewed hiring and professional development as methods to raise
teacher quality and increase the quality of instruction; however, this practice is
detrimental to the value of instruction for students (Donaldson, 2011). Professional
learning that increases educational success and results for all students integrates theories,
inquiry, supports teachers, administrators, instructional trainers, and coordinators interest,
coaching and mentoring programs and curriculum development (Joyce & Calhoun,
2011).
In developing a professional and personal professional development plan
administrators and educators are challenged to seek specialized educational opportunities
as an approach to map a career path and acquire continuous education on content
knowledge and develop skills (Mizell, 2012). Sugarman (2011) suggested that educators
46
should put together an individual professional development plan or a document that
outlines personal and professional goals which are guided by professional standards and
strategies which can be used as a process to actively reflect on what they know, skills
level, what they want to learn, and areas of improvement. Cherry and Wiles (2010)
contended that carefully planned continuing education professional development
activities should be ongoing offering diverse experiences adding valued learning to
educators, administrators, researchers, and students. Similarly, Wickersham and
McElhany (2010) recommended that educational professional development inservices
should provide hands-on workshops, one-on-one sessions to target specific issues, best
practices, assessment, evaluation, student engagement, and content sharing presented by
staff.
Burke (2013) argued that an experiential approach to professional development
(EPD) promotes a collaborative teaching community because it includes meetings that
are designed specifically for teachers, peer observations, and peer and students’ feedback.
Finn, Swezeny, and Warren (2010) explained that professional development is regarded
as a chance to learn new ideas and concepts that are useful to teaching practice as it helps
teachers maintain information on present-day trends in curriculum and instruction.
According to Fang and Hui (2012), educators rarely talk to each other and educators are
hesitant when making an assessment on educational activities of their colleagues however
feels that professional development environment help teachers push themselves and
cooperate with their colleagues. Light et al. (2008) stated that teacher’s involvement in
professional development training expressed change in teaching beliefs of teaching
47
practice. Godbold (2013) stated that professional development can be powerful and
positively affect students’ achievement if done correctly where teachers are involved in
the planning, a commitment of support by administrators, application and follow-up
professional development to explain concepts, ideas, and practices. Roeser et al. (2012)
asserted that enhancing the quality of teaching comprised of methods such as teacher
selection, education, mentorship, and ongoing professional development.
Art professional development workshops give participants an opportunity to work
independently, collaborate with peers, problem–solve learning activities and teaching
practices; build effective support for other art teachers as they engage in real-life
experiences within the classroom. Nell (2014) argued that adult learners need occasions
to actively network and participate in learning their discipline, take an active
responsibility in their learning, set goals, and monitor their progress upon learning new
skills through a self-assessment rubric. Additionally, Templeton and Tremont (2014)
compared teaching to a performance art as educators are being classically trained always
improving their craft, investing, refining, and honing in on their unique skills seeking
mastery as a practitioner through professional development.
Principals are essential in influencing and transforming the culture of a school,
student achievement, and teacher performance. As their responsibility are to make
decisions about school and community, acquire and share knowledge on school policy,
display transparent leadership and organizational skills, and maintain reflective
assessment on management abilities and school progress. Zachariou, Kadji-Beltran, and
Manoli (2013) claimed that principal professional development focus on the challenge of
48
restructuring and changing the school’s organizational and administrative structure, and
learning curriculum. On the other hand, the focus of professional development shifted
from district plans to school plans, off-site training to job-embedded training that is
centered on community concerns, issues, and challenges, rather than specific needs
demonstrated by individual teachers (Templeton & Tremont, 2014).
This case study’s art professional development workshop was designed to evoke
discussions on developing future workshops for art educators to communicate beliefs and
learn from each other, to improve teacher practice, plan training sessions that will focus
on teacher growth through standards-based activities and policy changes. Bouchamma
and Michaud (2013) noted that Wenger’s social theory of learning as characterized by
communities of practice for administrative participants to become active in collaborating,
building their identity with a particular context, learning by doing, learning in terms of
leadership and competency, and learning to implement, influence, and impact the
learning activities and knowledge of their teachers. Creswell (2009) argued that the
social constructivists seek to understand the views of research participants’ experiences
concerning objects and things through the use of pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires
allowing the respondents an opportunity to construct meaningful discussions and
interactions with others on historical and cultural percepts about their lives and work.
The SCSD professional learning community of practice created an art professional
development workshop that fostered decision-making and collaborative learning
environment that facilitate quality practice to overcome and meet the difficult
49
circumstances and complexities of teaching and learning (Bouchamma & Michaud,
2013).
Dewey’s (1938) theory on experiential learning is built around individuals
learning by doing through problem solving or seeking solutions to a problem. Educators,
who participate in professional development, recognize the application of engaging
inservices as an effective way to improve his or her practice. Evans (2014) asserted that
through performance management and the promise to promote ongoing professional
development for leadership and teachers in school districts are able to develop, help and
inspire individuals and teams, challenge, influence, and motivate others to attain high
teaching standards.
The 21st century educational system prepares student learners, who are
competitive in a global economy while restructuring professional development activities
for educators that adhere to policy changes; connects with adult learner needs and
intellectual views; develops content related based to contextual, cultural, and practical
relevance and adult learning perceptions and theories (Alexandrou, 2014). Educators,
who participated in research-based professional development benefit from learner-
centered activities that are designed to build on participants strengths, knowledge and
needs as they are tailored to teach a specific content area (Duran, Brunvand, Ellsworth, &
Sendag, 2012). According to Kanokorn, Pongtorn, and Ngang (2014), an effective
professional development for principals should be intensive and based on his or her
professional knowledge and mindset as it addresses an understanding of administration
and management, school-based research, and text that reinforces existing knowledge and
50
new leadership concepts, and best practices. Steele (2013) stated that an evaluation of the
professional development process should focus on giving teachers opportunities for
implementation of learned knowledge, practice, and hands on opportunities to facilitate
strategies that prepare students for active engagement and feedback on performance.
There are several examples of job-embedded professional development
workshops that are designed to build collaborative PLCs, improve teacher practice, and
increase student achievement. Nabhani, Nicolas, and Bahous (2013) described job-
embedded professional development as an approach to improve teacher instructional
strategies and practice as action research/inquiry, interacting, peer coaching, self-
mentoring, and analysis of teaching methods and beliefs. Action research-inquiry
professional development encourages teachers to identify issues, collect data, design and
implement strategies to evaluate student progress and teacher practice.
Networking could be an opportunity for adult learners to form helpful and
productive PLCs that share concerns on issues that transfer and enhance their interactions
with students. Peer coaching was an effective method to keep teachers informed of
professional demands and support. The one-on-one training is focused on specific
content to improve instructional practices, establish reflective dialogue on teaching
methods and student learning.
In addition, Mukhametshina, Solovyova, and Pomortseva (2017 asserted that the
success in designing and implementing inservice emersion for teachers in an arts-
integrated professional development program can be useful if influenced by collaborative
relationships that are successful in employing:
51
1. A strong partnership with district administrators actively disseminating
information to schools and teachers, and recruitment of schools;
2. Planning and preparation with teaching artists;
3. Continuous improvement-focused activities communicating feedback to
strengthen the needs of teachers and students;
4. Qualitative data about the effects of professional development on teacher
practice and student achievement.
Saraniero, Goldberg, and Hall (2014) stated the advantages and positive effects of
professional development on teaching practices and confidence. These positive effects
include the use and frequency of arts integration, student engagement, high-quality work
samples, implementation of visual art standards, evidence that student progress toward
those standards are demonstrated and sustained in an art professional development
workshop, and additional hours of instructional arts coaching for teachers during the
school year (Saraniero et al., 2014). In this case study, arts integrated professional
development workshop incorporate the immersion of visual arts standards and teacher
partnerships with collaborative teams, artists, specialist, institutions, museums,
universities, organizations, and best practices.
Doyle, Hofstetter, Kendig, and Strick (2014) argued that the Collaboration:
Teachers and Artists (CoTa) program is an art-infused professional development program
that encourages teachers to access the arts by way of collaborating with an artist by
working together to support student achievement, identify learning needs, align standards
to customize a project to meet those needs, refine project on a weekly basis, and formally
52
reflect on the experience in a cycle of continuous improvement. Kardokhy (2013)
contended that the professional competence of teachers and fine arts will be efficient if:
1. Universities educational process-oriented content of personality proficient of
self-identification and self-actualization.
2. Creative educational environment is focused and students are provided for
reflexive activity.
3. Interactive methods of teaching and professional training of the fine arts are
used
4. The context of professional training of the fine arts educators is improved
through the integration of fundamental psychological pedagogical and
practically focused on art discipline as a means of professional activity
formation and development.
Schofield (2017) argued that professional development engagement is key to
school-wide transformation furthermore teacher and student access to arts-infused active
learning project-based learning provides that preparation and practice deepens the
understanding of interactive creative process such as problem finding, being open to new
ideas, exploring, creating, presenting, responding, evaluating, and revising. Through
self-mentoring and self-reflection the practitioners accepted responsibility for self-
development through data collection of student work and progress, and reflecting on
practice of self and colleagues. The method to planning job-embedded professional
development is essential to collaborative learning (Allen & Toplka-Jorissen, 2013). This
process engaged collaboration among colleagues as teachers observed and shared
53
observation of peer’s instructional practices modifying and adapting effective best
practices into their own teaching method and learning. Collegial observations,
networking, collaborating and sharing strategies changed the professional culture of a
school, form successful support system, decrease teacher isolation, and encourage
teachers to become reflective of their practice. In this case study, the TF implemented a
job-embedded art professional development workshop sponsored by SCSD that
incorporated inquiry, networking, and coaching as an approach to collect data, discuss
issues and concerns about arts integration, policy, art content knowledge, teaching
practices, and success in student learning. As the observer, I conducted a general
observation of the art professional development workshop of art educators and
administrators. In addition, as the researcher, I distributed by way of email and online
through GoogleForm.com consent to participate letter, pre- and post-open-ended
questionnaires, focus group questions, and member check report to validate the case
study findings.
The findings in this case study offer evidence of cultural changes in SCSD PLCs
through the employment of professional development opportunities for educators.
DeFour, DeFour and Eaker (2008) asserted that a shift in professional development
workshops should model job-embedded learning, expectations that learning is ongoing
and takes place as standard work place practice, team-based action research, experiential
learning, collaborative, assessment impact driven to improve student learning, and
sustainable commitment to limited focused initiatives. The findings on professional
development suggest that art is a core discipline that offer connections through other
54
content areas, research, and careers; and should not be viewed as an extra-curricular or
enrichment activity (NAEA, 2014).
The NAEA (2014) asserted that ongoing professional development opportunities for
art educators and teaching practices are:
1. Rigorous meaningful lifelong learning engagements targeted towards the
visual arts and visual arts education.
2. Art professional developments workshops should enrich the relationships
between theory, practice, and professional goals.
3. Professional development workshops in PLCs should foster mentorship,
support peer to peer professional partnerships with colleagues as well as
organizational connections universities, museums, galleries
4. Professional development for art educators should make connections with
local, state, and government agencies, and philanthropic organizations and
NAEA in terms of conferences web-based learning, institutes, workshops, and
inservices.
Lindsey, Jungwirth, Pahl, and Lindsey (2009) described PLCs as inclusive to
educators, administrators, and school partners committed to continuous study to
determine what we learn to address student’s learning needs, arrange classrooms,
implement instructional strategies, construct data collection and analyze information to
shape curriculum, instruction, assessment, and reflect on practice. Vanassche and
Kelchtermans (2016) asserted that continuing professional development workshops have
been linked to self-study and practitioner research designed for teacher educators to
55
engage in inservices that fosters intentional and systematic investigative reflection to
improve pedagogy, development of methodology through an understanding of practice
and evolvement changing teacher’s thinking and acting. In addition, Vanassche and
Kelchtermans (2016) stated that for professional development findings to bring about
changes in teacher educator’s thinking and acting, teacher’s philosophies about teacher
education need to be made clear and analytically discussed throughout the group
engagement.
Ellis (2009) described an art learning community as a group of individuals sharing
mutual values and beliefs, participating in activities such as critical self-reflection and
refining educational practices that support instruction in the art, music, theater, and
dance. An arts learning community gives emphasis to ways that support and assist
students in learning arts integrated curriculum content, develop creative abilities, and
understand the creative process and arts discipline. In the same way, the SCSD art
professional development workshops have been designed to promote a community of art
educators, who share similar standards and views in professional practice in terms of
fostering students love for the visual arts, creative development, designing student-
centered hands-on project-based activities, and student academic success. In addition, the
SCSD profession development workshop in this study presented adult-centered learning
communities for art educators that target art sponsorship, advocacy, grants, professional
collaboration, networking, and best practices. Furthermore, the SCSD professional
development workshop linked theory and practice as an approach to make connections
and partnerships with museums, universities, Metropolitan Arts Council, SCAEA, and
56
NAEA in terms of conferences, workshops, institutes, and inservices for educators to
improve student learning outcomes, critically analyze teaching performance through self-
reflection about pedagogy and strategies.
Pedagogy, Arts Integration, and Best Practices
In developing rubric criteria in an art lesson plan the art teacher included
creativity and originality for evaluating students’ artworks, without always demonstrating
a clear concise understanding of how creativity or originality may show evidence or
evaluated. Manifold (2007) stated that originality demonstrates the uniqueness and
novelty in the artist’s ability to successfully solve a creative problem. Creativity is a
cognitive process as the artist solves specific problems within the limitations of the
objectives of the art lesson. Schumann et al. (2013) contended that Teaching and
Learning Centers (TLCs) focus on inquiry through formative feedback such as interviews
and long-term surveys of faculty, which is helpful and can include classroom assessment
techniques during workshop or institute. In addition, regular PLCs and TLCs provide
informal feedback, and the agenda can include a culture check on the effectiveness of
professional development programs (Schumann et al., 2013). Frey and Schmitt (2010)
suggested that teachers use performance-based assessments such as teacher-made tests
and curriculum examinations involving teacher observation and professional judgment.
According to the NBPTS (1989), a master teacher knows the subject that he or she
teaches and how to teach those subjects to students.
Arts education benefits society because students learn tools for understanding
human experiences and cultural heritage, self-expression, problem solving and
57
application of lesson plan objectives, analyzes nonverbal connections, and making
judgments on cultural issues (National Art Education Association [NAEA], 2014).
Stokrocki (2007) stated that the use of art standards and common core standards lead to
investigation and reflection which gives students an opportunity to analyze and critique
works of art learning the design process and art knowledge integration. Daily
assessments through pre-test and post-test help students to focus on personal growth and
teachers evaluate program development, design curriculum, and guide instruction. Art
educators’ art knowledge and assessment criteria should be equivalent to that of the state
and national standards as the art teachers strive to encourage students to become lifelong
learners in the arts.
Art teachers create lesson plans where students are able to make connections
identifying similarities and differences between the visual arts and other arts disciplines
as they communicate how other content areas and the world are connected through arts
integration and cross curriculum foundations in literacy, technology, language arts,
mathematics, multimedia, and visual arts (Rex, 2010). The aim in education is to teach
the total child through improved test scores in addition to providing every student with a
comprehensive 21st century educational plan and efficient programs to compete in a
global society (ASCD, 2015). Fret and Smith (2010) stated that an art educator’s
opportunities to support artistic development and enrich cross-curricular teaching through
research were (a) student learning, (b) teaching, and (c) curriculum with student learning
and teaching practices. Arts education can play an essential role in lives of students in
grades kindergarten through 12 as it gives them the opportunity to create visually through
58
the use of a variety of media. Gullatt (2008) argued that art teachers move beyond the
roles of dispensing knowledge into the position of facilitators of learning. Perkins
explained that the visual information motivated through engaging with art objects and
activities strengthen learner’s creativity, which, in turn, increases the application of
analytical and cognitive abilities (Lasky, 2009). Art teachers collaborate with
professional colleagues, parents, and administrators to seek resources, and staff
development opportunities to develop teaching practices that employ students in creative
self-expression and critical examination of their learning.
The arts embody a distinctive and diverse way for individuals to explore and
engage in self-expression, self-reflection, communicates emotion, and become a
storyteller on the personal and social encounters. Zakaras and Lowell (2010) described
art as an aesthetic understanding that have a positive effect on an individual senses,
emotion, intellect, and general well-being. Art educators demonstrate a proficient level
of art knowledge and understanding of the art discipline content to deliver, teach, and
communicate the significance of aesthetic perceptions, creativity, art history, and art
criticism. Carroll (2011) referred to Eisner’s (2002) claim that the arts offered
opportunities to make judgments, problem-solving, celebrate cultural diversity,
manipulate media, articulate stories through visual imagery and experiences. Art
educators’ experiences at an art professional development workshop can assist in
improving instructional strategies, curriculum development, interdisciplinary instruction,
collaboration among art teachers and general classroom teachers, networking with the
59
National Coalition for Core Art Standards, empowered and supported art teacher practice,
and understanding national and state art standards.
The revisions of National Coalition for Core Art Standards, implementation of
Common Core State Standards, National Education Association, and National Art
Education Association suggested the integration of technology, reading, language,
mathematics, writing, and assessments in a variety of content areas including arts
education curriculum. According to Hoffman (2013) the objective in the transformation
of the art curriculum addressed the rigidity of analyzing and making art. Hallmark
(2012) described arts integration as the building relationship between learning other
disciplinary subjects and skills while learning art as this requires that the educator have
an in-depth knowledge in a specific area and some cross-curricula training. Brouillette
(2010) stated that description of arts integration experiences of general education
teachers’ use of arts-based strategies in their classroom fosters prosocial
behaviors/interpersonal skills such as teamwork and respect among their students. Art
educators’ experiences in attending art inservices create an awareness of strategies in how
art educators use South Carolina Visual Art Standards and National Coalition for Core
Art Standards approaches to communicate, make cultural and historical connections,
investigate, create, construct, and reflect on the process of developing an aesthetic piece
of art. The integration of technology gives participating art educators and evaluators in
art evaluation professional development an understanding to develop multimedia
curriculum in art education program based on the revisions recommended by the
Voluntary National Arts Standards (VNAS) or Core Arts Standards (CAS; Tobias, 2014).
60
Arts Integration
The basis of this project study is to evaluate art educator’s perceptions of an art
professional development. Fink (2013) stated that faculty developers can and should go
beyond the obvious need of knowing about participant satisfaction to achieve a deeper
form of program assessment and an examination of several example programs to
overcome the barriers to integrate and develop better professional development programs
and program assessment. Hallmark (2012) defined arts integrations in terms of
collaborative curriculum planning as a successful merging across subject areas that
requires an educator to have in-depth knowledge in a specific content area and some
training in another discipline. SCSD planned year-long arts integrated professional
development workshops for art educators to improve practice, instructional strategies,
and cultural and technology integration immersion meetings to meet the needs of 21st
century learners. In addition, the professional development workshops introduced
approaches to increase art content concepts provide a depth of resources through
collaboration, peer networking, and best practices. On the other hand, Brouillette (2010)
argued that young artists, who engage in arts integrated activities, benefit in building
cognitive development, critical thinking skills, social-emotional development, concepts
and abilities to discover awareness of knowledge, understanding of life’s experience, how
to play and take risks.
In a case study of arts integration, collaboration, teacher, and school partnerships
Sterman (2017b) stated that the exploration of community and university partners
focused on student interest and tangible hands-on lessons to spark curiosity, inspire deep
61
inquiry, and provide a wealth of authentic opportunities. Sources have shown dating
back to Dewey’s Art as Experience from 1934, art-based constructivist learning identifies
that art integration across the curriculum addresses studies, theory, anecdotal writings and
reports on teaching, including teacher training, and professional development (Smilan,
2016). Arts integrated curricular encounters are essential for preservice teachers’
engagements and preparation in programs that provide opportunities for children to apply
their understanding of artistic elements to their personal compositions, build educators
confidence to effectively infuse aesthetic experiences into their teaching, and foster
partnerships with art teachers and programs (Whitin & Moench, 2015). According to
Sterman (2017a), Broadnax stated that not all professional development programs are
equal. Arts integrated professional development is a hands-on active application of new
ideas. Teachers who participate in professional development learning sessions that are
designed to try new approaches need to learn how to practice with other educators, and
schools’ ongoing support through creative leadership teams and colleagues helps
educators reflect on learning experiences (Sterman, 2017a).
Through intensive and extensive arts integrated professional development
programs, collaboration, and mentorship throughout the academic year teachers are able
to multi-teach subjects and provide a framework with which educators are apprised of the
importance of connecting the arts with other content and learning areas (Vitulli, Pitts
Santoli, & Fresne, 2013). Nixon May and Robinson (2016) seemed to think that arts
integration is a collaborative effort where teachers from various content disciplines work
together to create strong curricular links, and opportunities to work in partnership,
62
develop, and implement integrated lessons to make meaningful connections between
subjects.
The implementation of arts integrated professional development workshops for
teacher practice and project-based student-centered activities is comparatively reviewed
with the introduction technology integration professional development as results showed
a decrease in visual art teacher’s and novice teacher’s practices due to inexperience, lack
of content knowledge, non-teaching duties, classroom management, and diverse student
needs (Choy, Wong, & Gao, 2009). Chen (2011) argued that the implementation of
online professional programs helps teachers gain technology skills to support best
practices, helped educators develop their own technology-based instruction, and
improved teacher practice.
The SCSD professional development workshops are linked to continuous
improvement to improve teacher practice through collaboration, networking, peer to peer
engagements, integration and sharing of multiple content disciplines. The SCSD
professional development workshops are guided by research-based standards and inquiry.
An art specialist experiments with materials, develops skills, and improves teaching
practice after attending monthly district inservices such as vertical meetings, and grade
level sessions. In addition, to district learning communities such as All Arts Day,
Summer Academy; teachers have an opportunity to participate in state inservices like the
Upstate Technology conference, NAEA and SCAEA spring and fall professional
development workshops.
63
Arts integration as defined by Clift (2009) acknowledged that administrators,
teachers, school designers, art specialist, and researchers as innovators to transform
schools and art programs by blending investigation methods, collaboration of two or
more teachers’ inquiry to art content knowledge or content sharing, curriculum and
teacher education. Fret and Smith (2010) argued that art educators and literacy teacher’s
collaborations and incorporations of curriculum through arts integrations should be taught
to develop critical reflection, aesthetic, and emotional reflections learning about art
advocacy, classroom experiences, and promote the inclusion of strategies that improves
child development. Furthermore, teacher’s perceptions about the integration of science,
technology, and society (STS) in the curriculum should demonstrate opportunities for
students to learn different approaches to disseminate information related to the decision-
making process of instructional strategies and ideas, promote creative experiences, and
evaluation skills that help students to think critically (Abualrob, 2012).
SCSD art educator’s participation responsibilities in professional development
workshops through facilitation, collaboration, networking, and participation serve as
approaches to promote student learning styles and support emerging teachers and
students in project-based sessions that places the importance on aesthetics, creativity,
problem solving, self-expression, and inquiry-based learning. Lee and Breitenberg
(2010) declared that project-based or designed-based inquiry should provide a framework
for teaching students to actively plan and shape the world, explore the environment’s
impact in forming human behavior, decode relationships between word and imaginary,
and integrated lessons that enhance the study of other disciplines that positively support
64
and increase academic performances. Rutland and Barlex (2008) implied that successful
professional development embedded in creative problem solving, design-based approach
requires teachers to reflect and adapt current practice and require collaboration between
professional associations, institutions of higher education, and agencies involved in
teacher education. McDonald and Kahn (2014) posited that significant to the praxis of
reflective pedagogy and inherent to self-study methodology is critical rational thinkers
determined through queries to explore one’s teaching and research. An effective art
education program necessitates that teachers have knowledge and skills about education,
making pedagogical decisions that influence the quality of student’s engagement with art
forms, traditions, and meaning (Kraehe, 2010). This study on art teachers’ perceptions
about the effectiveness of an art professional development workshop revealed themes on
adult-centered hands-on activities, professional development, grants, collaboration and
networking, and best practices.
Increasing the awareness of National and State Visual Art Standards, National
Coalition for Core Art Standards, National Art Education Association, National Art
Education Association, state and federal policy supports and develops highly effective
arts education programs with the collaboration and development of arts integration within
disciplinary subject content, including art. A cross-curriculum collaborative inquiry and
training with two or more educators, knowledge construction, and emphasis on content-
sharing presents different ways to implement integration (Hallmark, 2012). Evaluators’
and art educators’ participation in art professional development workshop develop
successful collaborative PLCs among educators through the use of technology integration
65
because of its positive approach and focus on peer feedback (Webb, 2010). Art
educators’ experiences in art professional development workshop helps in establishing
guidelines for future professional development for art educators focused on shifts and
trends in the National and State Visual Art Standards, Common Core State Standards,
National Coalition for Core Art Standards, state and federal policy on teacher merit-based
performance pay, teacher evaluation, arts integration, teacher reflective practice, and
pedagogy.
Conclusion
The review of the literature for this case study provides readers information about
Dewey’s experiential learning theory, national and state policy changes in art education,
arts integration, pedagogy, and best practices. The research provided a foundation for
answering the research questions on the perceptions of art professional development
workshop effectiveness by art educators. In Section 3 of this research study, I will
discuss the methodology approach for this case study, design, sampling process,
Institutional Review Board (IRB) guidelines, research questions, participants, researcher,
data collection-workshop procedures, beta test, post open-ended questionnaire, focus
group, observational checklist, data analysis, and NVivo 11. I discuss how participants
were chosen and the number of participants, pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires,
observation, and focus group audiotaped discovery, and the effects of art professional
development on teaching and student learning.
66
Section 3: Methodology
Introduction
The purpose of the case study was to explore participants’ perceptions of an art
professional development workshop on art standards, instructional strategies, and policy
changes. I collected data from observational field notes, pre- and post-open-ended
questionnaires, and a focus group held with participants who attended an art professional
development session to comprehend the meaning of their experiences. In Section 3, I
discuss the case study design and approach, data collection, the workshop, pre- and post-
open-ended questionnaires, focus group questions, observation, and data analysis.
Design
I selected a qualitative case study as the best method and design for this study.
Quantitative studies have a narrow focus using derivative data, such as test results. Case
studies include thoughts, knowledge, understandings, and interpretations of individuals
with detailed descriptions of the phenomenon (Merriam, 2009). In a quantitative study,
the researcher relies on statistical analysis of responses from closed-ended questionnaires.
Creswell (2012) explained that in reporting a qualitative case study, the researcher’s
format is much like a story unfolding personal reflections from the participants. In
contrast, a quantitative study involves a deductive approach to seeking specific data that
support or reject the hypothesis. Yin (2009) described the role of theory development as
an essential phase in the design of a case study prior to data collection with the
implementation of literature review to overcome barriers. Hancock and Algozzine (2006)
asserted that the differences in quantitative and qualitative research are largely associated
67
with time and resources. Quantitative research involves the use of instruments such as
surveys and tests to measure specific variable to produce statistics the researcher uses to
explain the phenomena. In contrast, a qualitative approach may require interviews, focus
groups, observations, and a review of existing documents to describe trends or patterns in
research settings. In addition, Miles and Huberman (1994) declared that qualitative
researchers attempt to collect data on the essence of a phenomena (the perceptions of the
people, objects, and situations) through an in-depth understanding of the context under
study by converting into words themes and trends based on observations, interviews, and
documents that transcribe the experiences.
In this case study, I focused on art teachers’ and evaluators’ skills, and on the art
educators’ and evaluators’ beliefs about the effectiveness of the art professional
development workshop. The consent letter that I provided participants advised them of
possible risks and barriers in conducting the study such as ethical and confidentiality
issues, time restraints, online survey protocols, data collection, and results reporting.
The pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires and focus group questions permitted
the participants to give rich, detailed, and colorful descriptions of their experiences in the
art professional development workshop. I used the observational checklist to examine
behaviors such as participants’ engagement in 60-minute art professional development
activities, networking, exchange of ideas, ability to understand and demonstrate art
concepts in work, integration with other disciplines, and demonstration of competency in
meeting project rubric guidelines (see Appendix F). As the researcher and observer, I
68
gathered and collected firsthand information by observing a range of 10 art educators’
professional development activities and site.
Research Questions
The following research questions (RQ) guided the case study:
RQ1: What are art educators’ perceptions of an art professional development
workshop?
RQ2: What are art educators’ views on the effectiveness of art professional
development workshops for art teachers?
Context
Participants
The case study participants were 10 art educators and evaluators, who attended
the New Art Show Information Session professional development workshop. There were
20 participants that attended the workshop and of that 10 agreed to participate in this
study, with a subgroup of 8 participants answering the open-ended questions and 2
participants answering the beta test questions and focus group questions. In addition, the
10 workshop participants were part of a general observation.
The participants were art educators and evaluators employed in the SCSD with a
graduate, masters, specialist, or doctorate degrees who served students in Grades K-5.
The range of ages of the participants in this study was 25-70. Participants for this study
were certified annual or continuing contract employees of the SCSD teaching elementary
art education.
69
Sampling
I used purposeful sampling to select the participants from the 65 elementary art
educators and evaluators employed at the 52 elementary schools in SCSD. The purpose
of using educators and evaluators who teach at elementary schools was largely due to the
size of the district and scheduling of group meetings, and because professional
development activities are divided in elementary, middle, and high school. Lodico,
Spaulding, and Voegtle (2010) described purposeful sampling as an approach a
researcher uses to identify persons in an ideal group or population such as art educators,
evaluators, or educational employees of SCSD. According to Creswell (2012), a
quantitative sampling strategy focuses on a sampling formula that is constructed from a
target population of individuals who share common characteristics.
Procedure for Gaining Access to Participants
The SCSD elementary lead art TF administered the district-sponsored
professional development workshop. I was approved by the SCSD Research and
Information Sharing Committee to observe the district-level professional development
inservice for elementary visual art teachers, employ pre- and post-open-ended
questionnaires, conduct a focus group interview, and collect data for the study.
I conducted an initial inquiry to solicit interest and participation in my study from
the 52 elementary schools to art educators and evaluators found on the SCSD website.
The SCSD portal informed 65 elementary art educators about the art professional
development workshop at HES. I contacted the participants by email and Google Forms,
which I used to secure teachers’ consent to participate in the New District Art Show
70
Information Session via the SCSD professional development portal. I emailed 65 art
teachers and evaluators through Google Forms to answer the same four specific open-
ended questions and four general questions in the focus group interview. The beta test
questions were distributed to a range of nine art teachers and evaluators; two art
educators replied. The post-open-ended questions were given to all 65 teachers and
evaluators, resulting in 8 art educators’ responses.
Additionally, elementary art teachers and evaluators received a consent to
participate letter by email and Google Forms informing them about the purpose of the
investigation, Dewey’s theoretical framework that I used to guide the study, and ethical
protections and rights. The consent to participate letter informed participants about the
procedures to protect and safeguard participants’ confidentiality, general observation,
pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires, and focus group questions. The consent to
participate letter informed participants that there were minimal risks associated with
participating in this case study and that there were no long or short-term benefits in
contributing in this study. I used the consent letter to gather data relating to
demographics such as SCSD job position, area of certification, and gender. The
participants who took part in this study were the first to forward the consent form to me
by email, which consisted of an electronic reply with the words “I Consent.”
Measures Taken for the Protection of Participants’ Rights
The need to protect human subjects required that I follow ethical practices and
conduct the study with special care and compassion for participants. Yin (2009) stated
that, in designing a study, the researcher gains informed consent by stating ethical
71
practices and protecting participants from any harm, including avoiding deception,
shielding the privacy and confidentiality of participants in present and future studies, and
taking precautions to protect vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant women. In
this case study I used adult educators. Upon obtaining Walden University’s IRB
approval (IRB Approval #0-11-16-0313615), I locked all consent to participate letters,
data collection instruments such as focus group questions, pre- and post-open-ended
questionnaire responses, and observational field notes in a secure container to ensure
participants’ ethical rights were protected and confidential. I completed the SCSD
Research and Information Sharing Accountability and Quality Assurance Research and
Information agreement form. I gained approval from the SCSD Research and
Information Sharing Committee to conduct a research study as a student-researcher at
Heathgate Elementary School (HES; pseudonym). The pre- and post-open-ended
questionnaires, focus group questions, and member check verification were distributed
electronically by email and Google Forms.
The consent to participate process included a letter describing the purpose of the
study while soliciting voluntary participation, notifying art educators of procedures and
risks. In an effort to protect the art educators’ and teacher facilitators’ privacy, I did not
identify participants’ personal information in this study. Additionally, the consent letter
informed participants that the safety and privacy risks to participation were minimal.
I did not know the English fluency of the participants. I wrote the consent to
participate letter, open-end questionnaires, and focus group questions in English. The
72
participants were under no pressure to contribute nor were the participants treated
differently because of language fluency or if they decided to not be in the study.
To further safeguard confidentially, the research school district is referred to as
Surrey County School District (SCSD), the local art museum as Surrey County Museum
of Art (SCMA), the local colleges as Albus Drake University (ADU), Surrey University
(SU), and Surrey Middle College (SMC), the local children’s museum as the Children’s
Museum of the Surrey County (CMSC), the local theater as Pembroke Center for the Arts
(PCA), and the local elementary school is referred to as Heathgate Elementary School
(HES) throughout the case study. The participants’ identities remained private and
identified by a pseudonym in the narratives such as art teacher or T1 and T2 and teacher
facilitator or TF1 and TF2.
Role of the Researcher
I did not facilitate the art professional development workshop. I was the observer
of the SCSD inservice for art teachers and facilitators. In the course of 19 years, my
connections with the 20 workshop participants have been an average of four encounters
and collaborative interactions at state and district inservices, workshops, and conferences
per year. Another concern is that three of the 65 art educators worked at my school as a
part of the second team because our student population was over 1,200. In 2008 and
2009, I served as the SCAEA Western Region Coordinator for the Jump Out Conference.
The SCAEA offers a statewide minimum of three regional professional development
workshops during the year. The SCAEA Western Region Jump Out Conference is a one-
day conference typically held in annually in February for art educators seeking
73
professional development opportunities that will refresh and rejuvenate personal and
professional growth as a practicing teacher. The SCAEA Jump Out Conference
showcases four to five mini workshop presentations that are intensive emersions into arts
integrated activities, networking opportunities with other highly qualified professional
artist and art educators. During that time, I collaborated with two of the art educators,
who presented a workshop, participated in the activities, and contributed in the research
study. In 2014 and 2015, I completed ADEPT evaluations on three of the art teachers
because they were new hires or novice teachers to SCSD; additionally, one of the
potential participants in the alternate certification PACE Program. As an art educator, I
taught art at three of the 52 SCSD elementary schools and worked with two of the
administrators, whose art teachers may come from the purposeful sample group.
Although my role and relationship with the participants had been professional and shared
adult-learning experiences, I followed the Walden University Institutional Review Board
(IRB) guidelines to ensure participants’ confidentiality, protection of comments, access to
results, and personal bias.
Data Collection
Multiple data collection methods or “triangulation” was attained to complete the
study I used several approaches which include, pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires,
a focus group questions, and observational field notes used to study art educators’ views
and opinions on the effectiveness of an art professional development workshop. A
specific list of four open-ended questions and four general questions for the focus group
was used to collect data from multiple participants to share ideas, views, and learn about
74
their interactions. In addition, the open-ended questions and focus group questions were
used to gather information about participants’ experiences at an art professional
development in relation to art content knowledge, national and state visual art standards,
instructional strategies, as well as policy changes. The participants agreed to answer the
35-minute beta test and open-ended questions on Google Forms to explain their
perceptions about an art professional development inservice. The pre- and post-open-
ended questionnaires and semi-structured focus group questions were worded in English
to invite participants the ability to express themselves freely about their perceptions about
an art professional development workshop. The same open-ended questionnaires were
emailed before and after the art professional development workshop to see if the views of
the participants had changed (see Appendix E). Hancock and Algozzine (2006) stated
that in a case study an interview (individual or group) allows information, knowledge and
insight to answer research questions.
There was a total target group of 10 participants for this research study. The
targeted number of participants for this case study was a range of 10 art educators and
evaluators from SCSD. I made a general observation of the 60-minute art professional
development workshop using an observational checklist (see Appendix F). The
observational checklist form was used to record chronologically a description of the
event, painting a portrait of the participants and the setting. I used the form to document
reflections about my personal experiences, stating feelings, ideas, perceptions, and
developing themes on art professional development workshops. I looked for evidence
that identified art educators’ abilities to implement art standards and instructional
75
strategies in their art projects. Additionally, I looked for verification that of participants’
ability to access student skills, design an educational plan for students using the art
curriculum content to create and develop students’ strengths and cite areas of
improvement. The data gathered was used to document evidence of art professional
development activity, participants, site, researcher’s reflection, and themes that emerged
during the observation. I used an observational checklist to evaluate items of importance
and concerns that was relevant to complete the study and answer the research questions.
The observational field notes and reflections gathered from the field notes were written in
narrative text integrating quotes on roles and changes as researcher observer. The
consent to participate letter was used to gather data relating to demographics such as a
job position, area of certification, and gender.
The participants responded to four semi-structured focus group questions. I used
a 30-minute audiotaped conference call with focus group questions to collect and share
understandings about the art professional development workshop. The focus group
questions were documented to obtain the insight and opinions and beliefs on the
experiences from a purposeful sampling range of two art educators who participated in a
focus group questions to determine the effectiveness of the SCSD art professional
development workshop for art educators. Participants consenting to participate in
answering the 30-minute focus group questions were identified from the larger
purposeful sample size and contacted after the art professional development workshop
using the code T1 and T2 for art educators to protect the contributors’ confidentiality. I
used a demographic questionnaire on the open-ended questionnaires and focus group
76
question to establish participant’s job position areas of certification, and gender (see
Appendix G).
The Workshop
The SCSD of which I am employed as an art educator since August 1996 had
been chosen as the partner school district for this study on the effectiveness of art
professional development workshop programs for art educators and evaluators. The
choice of the partnership as it was to use a sister school as the site for the study that HES
was centrally located. The art teachers and evaluators, who attended a 60-minute art
professional development workshop sponsored by SCSD facilitated by the TF, who
engaged participants in a hands-on activity focused on examining national and state art
standards, teaching methodology, instructional strategies, and curriculum design. The art
professional development workshop presentation covered art standards as outlined by the
National and State Visual Art Standards, and National Coalition for Core Art Standards
which include integrating other interdisciplinary subjects with art, making cultural and
historical connections, creating and constructing art, arts assessments, reflecting on the
aesthetic process of developing art, instructional strategies, curriculum design, and
teaching methodology. The 60-minute workshop highlighted the policy changes and
revisions in the National and State Visual Art Standards, and CMSC guidelines for
student art exhibition. It revealed an increased the awareness and understanding of
evaluators and art educators and evaluators teaching practices and pedagogy based on
experiences upon attending art professional development workshop.
77
Prior to engaging the New District Art Show information professional
development workshop about the CMSC student art exhibition participating schools,
evaluators, and art teachers were contacted via email, inservice, lectures, and the SCSD
professional development portal. Participating art educators and evaluators in the SCSD
art show professional development for elementary art teachers are certified educators,
employee registration, select course (s), indicate application for recertification credits or
exchange hours, agree to privacy policy, and review of course details.
At the beginning of the art professional development workshop participants were
encouraged to sign-in, collect student participation certificates, and inservice handouts.
The TF discussed SCSD’s collaborative relationship with the CMSC, gallery
expectations, reception guidelines, hanging rules, exploration of the museum and the
announcement of juried art competition winners, and award recognitions for student and
school frontrunners. After a 30-minute dialogue on the guidelines and procedures for the
SCSD student juried art exhibition at the CMSC, art educators were given an opportunity
to ask probing questions to clarify understanding about the art show. Art teachers and
evaluators engaged in dialogue about best practices, celebrations, and exchanged ideas on
future student-centered projects.
The TFs expressed thanks to the SCSD art teachers and evaluators for
participation in the exhibition as well as an appreciation of the CMSC generous support
and effort to network and work collaboratively with the SCSD in building a partnership
with students, educators, community, and stakeholders. Art teachers and evaluators
revealed an understanding of the SCSD art show guidelines as artwork demonstrated
78
quality and integrity of visual arts program, age appropriate, copyright policy, matting
and size restrictions, and artist statement. In addition, at the conclusion of the workshop,
an overview about the upcoming inservice on April 18, 2017, at HES was presented by
elementary TF’s, who delivered information about best practices, the SCSD K12
Initiative Entrance and Exit Plan in terms of vertical planning on entrance and exit for art
students, and All Arts Day.
The art workshop used visual art standards to submit student art work in the
exhibition, collaboration, networking, discussion logistics of guidelines in terms of juried
criteria, awards, participation recognition, and reception procedures at the New District
Art Show Information workshop activity for art educators and evaluators. It was
designed to develop strategies such as art influences (How and why create art?), cultural
and historical significances that art places in society, media and theme choices, and
critical reflection. The art professional development workshop encouraged evaluators
and art educators to seek ways that promote arts advocacies within their school site in
collaboration with art specialist, teachers, parents, and community.
The participants engaged in the New District Art Show Information workshop
with emphasis on student art exhibition procedures and guidelines at the CMSC. Art
educators and evaluators were able to recognize various art styles, visual art creativity,
competency in the use of materials, techniques, incorporation of the elements and
principles of design, and an understanding of historical and cultural influences in creating
a work of art with technology, textures, and colors to embellish design, and the
application of various shading techniques to enhance images. The TFs introduced the
79
National and State Visual Art Standard on Visual Arts Heritage-Historical and Cultural
appreciation as an instructional strategy for participants to gain knowledge through study
on a variety of artworks, art style, cultures, understanding how art shapes history while
clarifying their aesthetic views, and an appreciation for the diversity of other artists and
their peers. The participants in the art professional development workshop viewed
teacher-made handout and dry erase board notes for inservice introduction and discussion
on New District Art Show inservice.
At the New District Art Show information session workshop at HES, the art
educators and evaluators demonstrated art knowledge about art and planed for an art
exhibition at the CMSC that included South Carolina Visual Art Standards and student
artwork. The elementary visual art coordinators and 20 art educators engaged in dialogue
that detailed and informed about the venue, exhibition objectives, mounting artwork
procedures, reception, certificates, and student and school participant winners. The
participants were encouraged to select student artwork that demonstrates creativity and
development in their personal style and teacher modeling of art knowledge content by
engaging in a discussion about juried art exhibition at the CMSC.
The participants collaborated with art colleagues, evaluators, and visual art TF in
transporting the drop off and pick up of student artwork, certificates, labels, and overview
of art exhibition. The art teachers and evaluators modeled professionalism as they
discussed the museums space, expectations of the museum and art exhibitions
coordinator. The 20 elementary art educator participants linked prior knowledge about
district exhibitions to the curriculum, art lessons, making and creating art. The
80
participants aligned curriculum objectives to develop age appropriate and challenging
activities used in the classroom to demonstrate evidence that students completed an
intricate piece of artwork. The elementary art educator and evaluator participants used a
variety of strategies and media to engage students to produce artworks for the CMSC
student art exhibition.
The elementary art educators and evaluators planned lessons, developed hands-on
art activities, assessment strategies to build on students’ current and prior knowledge and
skills in employing a variety of instructional strategies to develop two-dimensional
artwork for the exhibition. The 20 elementary art teachers developed a rubric as a method
to assess and select artwork for the art exhibition. Art educators and evaluators used their
artistic skills to help students express and communicate their experiences by creating an
original artwork. In this art professional development workshop, art teachers and
evaluators increased aesthetic awareness of the elements and principles of design by
developing an original work of art with visual and tactile characteristics. The participants
were encouraged to use their artistic views to analyze the process of using materials,
objects, and concepts for making knowledgeable decisions about artwork, student
success, and teaching pedagogy.
The art educators and evaluators designed a theme for art projects for the CMSC
juried exhibition and develop an assessment model and art project rubric. Art teachers
and evaluators were to make connections with student creative process in creating works
of art by introducing historical and cultural diversity in terms of artist, art styles, medium,
and technology. In terms of arts integration, the art educators and evaluators
81
incorporated visual art with the other disciplines in math, science, social studies,
technology, and language arts.
Art educators and evaluators engaged art students in math concepts, such as
geometry, shape, space, and patterns. Several of the art projects displayed images of
living things in the environment as students constructed artworks using scientific inquiry
such as discussion, exploration, and observations to develop images of landscapes,
people, animals, seasons, and everyday life detailing foreground, middleground, and
background. Through the help of the art teachers and evaluators, the SCSD art students
critically analyzed art projects and engaged in a writing activity in terms of writing their
artist statement, reflection, and formal and informal assessment. The art educators and
evaluators; strategies aligned with South Carolina Visual Art Standards in terms of
making connections between art and other disciplines, monitoring student progress in the
creative process, learning outcomes to promote student success, and arts advocacy.
Art educators and evaluators introduced the use five of the shading techniques
(smooth shading, hatching, cross hatching, stipple, and scribble) to apply color to their
artwork. Participants used a handout with visual descriptions of shading techniques. The
incorporation of the various tints and shades as a value technique added visual texture
and saturation of color to the participant’s student designs. As the participants
encouraged the application of color to artwork, they are urged to demonstrate value and
contrast in showing the lightness and darkness of a color while placing different shades of
the hues in the composition. The student participants’ images used colors in the
82
background which is represented by the distorted angles, overlapping diagonal lines, and
patterns with oil pastels or color pencils.
In looking and seeing art, the participants used art knowledge abilities to
participate, compare, and contrast two artworks from similar art styles and different
artists. The employment of a graphic organizer, such as a T-graph with images in the
New District Art Show professional development, was to complete an interpretation of
design elements and process, analysis comparison, and make judgments about the
paintings. Art educators discussed the qualities of what makes a great work of art,
identify its similarities and differences, and the visual story presentation in each work of
art. The participants discussed in writing how the elements and principles of design and
materials influenced the intense qualities of the artwork.
In terms of the project assessments and rubrics were teacher-made to ensure that
students meet assignment goals. In response to meeting the South Carolina Visual Art
Standards, SCSD Elementary art grading rubric, SCSD art show guidelines, teacher-made
assessment rubric criteria, and teacher observational evaluation on the hands-on project-
based lessons varied by projects and participating schools. The art teachers and
evaluators assessed students’ final projects with the use of a summative assessment on
creativity performance aligned with project rubric guidelines. The SCSD assessment
tools, artist statement, reflective writings, and observational strategies became important
methods for art teachers to evaluate student progress and competency in meeting visual
arts standards. SCSD embedded assessment rubric outlined general and specific
guidelines, terms and conditions on eligibility, specification, tagging, liability, artist
83
statement, size restrictions, and matting. The art show professional development
workshop and CMSC juried art exhibition offered teachers and student guidelines to
create art demonstrating an understanding of rubric criteria designed to improve students’
art knowledge and success. Additionally, the various art projects can be presented as
lessons in art design concepts to teach graphic arts, painting, basic drawing composition
with pencils and markers, collage, cardboard collage, and 3Dimensional (3D) sculpture.
Beta Test
A beta test of open-ended questions was conducted to help me decide which
inquiries to use in the study. Creswell (2012) argued that like pre-established
instruments, reliability and validity must be established for self-developed instruments
conducted a beta test or pilot test by administering the survey to the pilot group at 2
different times to establish stability or test-retest reliability for the survey. The
implementation of pre- and post- open-ended questionnaires allowed participants to give
rich, colorful text about their experiences in the art professional development workshop.
I collected data from 2 participants, who gave firsthand accounts in the beta test. In
addition, I gathered information from 8 participants, who gave vivid text about their
experiences in answering post open-ended questions. On the other hand, in a quantitative
study, the closed-ended questions responses may be impersonal and detached from the
site, participants, and the art professional development workshop activities. Creswell
(2012) described the drawbacks in using pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires in that
the comments and responses may vary as some may be short or long-to analyze, detached
from the context or setting, or represent a fully developed database that is rich and
84
detailed forming overlapping themes. The pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires had
specific wording and was given as a sequence of four questions that required the
participants to respond by stating their experiences about art professional development
workshop activities. The strength in using pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires is
that interview biases are minimized as participants are able to elaborate about the
workshop. The beta test resulted in no changes in the questionnaires.
The Questionnaire
Art educators and evaluators completed questionnaires as the same open-ended
inquiries were distributed by email through Google Forms after the art professional
development workshop to see if the views of the participants have changed (see
Appendix D). An online survey of the pre- and post- open-ended questionnaires was
employed to ask a specific list of four open-ended questions. In this study, 35 minutes
was an approximate time for eight art teachers and evaluators to complete the
questionnaires. The pre- and post-open-ended questionnaire was constructed to ask
participants to voice unconstrained about their experiences about the art professional
development workshop (Creswell, 2012). Example included: What are art teachers’
perceptions of art professional development workshop? What are art teachers’ views on
the effectiveness of art professional development workshop for art teachers?
Focus Group
A 30-minute audiotaped conference call with two focus group participants was
employed using conference call through Zoommeeting.com to collect and share
understandings about the art professional development workshop. Unfortunately, on
85
April 6, 2017, SCSD was preparing for spring break and participants did not participate
in the Zoom meeting focus group interview. I contacted the SCSD elementary art
educators and evaluators by email and Google Forms to solicit participation in the focus
group phone conference call on April 7, 2017. The focus group questions were
documented to obtain insights, opinions, and beliefs on the experiences from a purposeful
sampling of two art educators, who participated in a focus group dialogue to determine
the effectiveness of the SCSD art professional development workshop for art educators.
Creswell (2012) stated that the advantages in conducting a focus group are the
interactions among interviewees as it yielded the best information when participants are
similar to and cooperate with each other.
A list of four general questions was used to gain the views of the participants (see
Appendix G). The focus group questions were recorded to gain the insight and opinions
on the experiences of art educators who attended the art professional development
workshop. The focus group questions were constructed to ask general questions and
gather a collective understanding of all participants’ views and beliefs about the SCSD
art professional development workshop. The method of asking one or more participants
general pre- and post-open-ended questions, recording, and analyzing responses on the
art professional development workshop gave participants an opportunity to interact
among the group in producing the best information on the event. In developing the
online focus group question, I asked probing questions to encourage participants to
clarify and give detailed opinions on the art professional development workshop.
86
Observational Checklist
The observational checklist was used to document vivid information about the
event and personal reflection identifying thoughts about the site, participants, and art
professional development workshop (see Appendix F). In conducting the general
observation as the observer-researcher for the SCSD sponsored art professional
development workshop, I collected firsthand information in observing 20 art educators’
behaviors, professional development activities, and site. The observational field notes
included data from the observation of participants engaged in hands-on activities at the
art professional development workshop, understanding that it was difficult to
simultaneously take field notes and study actual behaviors of the art educators.
An observational checklist was used to chronologically record a description of the
event, painting a portrait of the participants and the setting. In addition, the form
documented my reflections about his or her personal experiences stating feelings, ideas,
perceptions, and developing themes on art professional development workshop. I looked
for evidence that identifies art educators’ abilities to implement art standards and
instructional strategies in their art project. Additionally, I looked for verification that
discovered participants’ ability to access student skills, design an educational plan for
students using the art curriculum content to create and develop students’ strengths and
cite areas of improvement. The data gathered and documentation of evidence of an art
professional development showed workshop effectiveness and opportunities, participants,
site, researcher’s reflection, and themes that emerged during the observation. I used the
observational checklist to evaluate items of importance and concerns that might be
87
relevant to complete the study and answer the research question. The observational
checklist rubric looked for general patterns of behaviors among the art educators in terms
of engagement in the art professional development activities, networking change of ideas,
understanding of art concepts, integration of other disciplines, and demonstration of
competency in meeting rubric guidelines. The observational field notes and reflections
gathered from the field notes were written in narrative text integrating quotes on role and
changes as researcher and participant observer.
Data Analysis
The pre- and post-open-ended questions and consent to participate letter was used
to gather data relating to demographics such as job position, area of certification, and
gender. The participants’ opinions linked topics, questions, concerns and interest to be
explored, observational field notes, focus group questions, and pre- and post-open-ended
questionnaire answers describing experiences in art professional development workshop.
The pre- and post-open-ended questionnaire responses was grouped into categories for
interpretation looking for overlapping patterns and themes on the views and opinions of
art educators on the effectiveness of art professional development workshop. The focus
group questions provided perceptions of art educator’s views or feelings after art
professional development workshop. The observational field notes disclosed participants
engaged in art professional development workshop training, implementation and
interpretation of art professional development activities, participants’ abilities to use their
knowledge to plan future art workshop with emphasis on art standards, teaching
88
methodology, instructional strategies, and curriculum design. The case study
demonstrated limitations as not every art educator would be included in the study.
NVivo 11: Qualitative Analysis
I employed the use of the NVivo11 to manage, form, and analyze the qualitative
data for the 10 participants in this case study. In this study, 2 art teachers responded to
the beta test questions, 8 art teachers answered open-ended questions, and the same 2
teachers who answered the beta test questions completed focus group questions to give
accounts about the professional development workshop. The two art educators responded
by phone conference, which was audiotaped, to focus group questions stating their
perceptions about art professional development in SCSD. The data from the
demographics questionnaire, list the participants’ gender, content area, and area of
certification earned (see Appendix F).
NVivo 11 is a qualitative computer tool designed to facilitate the organization,
analysis, and sharing of data that evaluates, interprets and explains a social phenomenal
research question. The NVivo 11 program for this case study was used to analyze data
gathered from educators’ open-ended questionnaires and focus group transcripts. In
guide data analysis I created codes, case nodes, nodes, and a word text search.
Nodes are essential in understanding and working with NVivo (NVivo, 2018).
Nodes are used to gather the latest material in one space looking for emerging patterns
and ideas. I used nodes to create and organize themes. The case nodes had more detailed
information to describe the units in terms of people, places, and events about the
phenomena in a comparative analysis. In NVivo 11, the code folders collected materials
89
by topics and themes. Similarly, the node folders gather materials on topics and themes
and other related resources to look for emerging ideas and patterns. NVivo 11 described
nodes as themes, topics, perceptions, ideas, opinions, or experiences (NVivo, 2018).
I conducted a word text query of frequently used words and idioms articulated in
text or audiotaped by art teachers in the study. The most regularly used words were
experience, professional development, and best practices. I then analyzed the content to
give meaning to the text about art educator’s and evaluator’s experiences at an art
professional development workshop.
I used word text search, review of literature references to identify results, and
develop charts. The data result from NVivo 11 labeled 2 nodes and 7 subcategories. As
the researcher, the node coding root word in terms of frequency was professional; context
shared 1 in 5 words in the focus group responses Figure 1. The participants were
audiotaped and the conversation submissions in NVivo 11 were 2 items, 2 sources with
60 references obtained from the review of literature.
In terms of review of literature comparisons of art educators’ word text
discovered parallels to 19 references coded and 60 references coded in this study. Five
themes emerged in the coding process as the topics were coded in Tables 1 and 2. The
art teachers’ audiotaped responses were transcribed by the four general questions about
art educators’ perception of art professional development workshop.
The NVivo11 summary of coding references resulted in the comparison of the
review of literature, word list, and art teachers transcribed comments into the program.
The summary revealed 127 items and sources, 13, 3367 references, and 133 review of
90
literature. The results from the NVivo11 data provided rich text and coding information
to answer the research questions.
Table 1
NVivo11 Teacher 1 Transcript Theme Word List Code
References
Coded
% of 60
Experience
4
0.07%
Professional
5
0.08%
Development
5
0.07%
Learning
4
0.05%
Collaboration
1
0.09%
Best
0
0.00%
Practice
0
0.00%
Table 2
NVivo11 Teacher 2 Transcript Theme Word List Code
References
Coded
% of 60
Experience
8
0.06%
Professional
11
0.06%
Development
11
0.06%
Learning
7
0.04%
Collaboration
0
0.00%
Best
3
0.02%
Practice
1
0.05%
91
Figure 1. Evidence of NVivo11 text search query. Beta test query from participants’
open-ended responses.
Figure 2. Evidence of NVivo11 Focus Group Interview Coding Node. Focus group
questions 13.9% similarity comparative analysis.
Summary
In this case study, I used Dewey’s (1938) experiential theory as the conceptual
framework which asserts that professional development for teachers is essential in
92
enhancing knowledge, skills, and attitude to achieve high levels of learning and quality
educations for all students. I used a case study methodology to explore participants’
perceptions of an art professional development workshop as an approach to increase
knowledge of art standards, instructional strategies, and policy changes that improve
student success and teacher practice. I used a demographic questionnaire to gain
knowledge about participant’s gender, area of certification, and work position.
In Section 4, I describe the findings, answers to research questions, identify
themes, observational field notes, focus group question results, evidence of study’s
quality, and summary of the findings. In the results section, I reveal the findings from art
educators’ responses in the research study to explain through the triangulation data by
means of conducting a comparative analysis to identify the 5 themes: adult-centered
hands-on learning, professional development experiences, grants, collaboration and
networking, and best practices.
93
Section 4: Results
Introduction
The purpose of this case study was to explore art educators’ perceptions of an art
professional development workshop as an approach to improving pedagogy, teaching
strategies, content, and student success. I collected data from observational field notes,
pre- and post-open-ended questions, and focus group questions from participants who
attended a SCSD art professional development workshop. In this section, I present the
data and results of the study. I provide a description of the data collection process,
including the nodes, codes, and themes. Additionally, I present the findings, patterns,
and results that I used to address the research questions. I also explain the methodology I
used to verify and validate the data.
In March 2017, 20 elementary art teachers who teach Grades K-5 attended an art
professional development workshop facilitated by SCSD. Additionally, 10 art educators
from the 20 participants answered the questions. I contacted the teachers by email and
Google Forms and told participants that this study was voluntary and that they could drop
out at any time. At the art inservice, I gave an overview of the study and provided
teachers an opportunity to voice concerns and ask questions. I kept a hand-written
journal, notations on sticky notes, semester log updates, and an observational checklist
about participant’s behaviors. The journal and semester log gave accounts about my
progress, personal reflections, and email and phone call information.
In this study, two beta test participants and eight art teacher participants
responded to four specific open-ended questions, resulting in a total of 10 participants in
94
the study. Participants T1 and T2 are female art educators with master degrees who
responded to the beta test and focus group interview.
Of the other eight participants, six were female and two were male. Art educators
T3, T5, T6, T7, T9, and T10 are female teachers with master’s degrees. T4 and T8 are
male art teachers with graduate degrees.
The analysis of data from pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires, audiotaped
focus group questions, and observational field notes revealed participants opinions about
their experiences and the effectiveness of art professional development programs. I
audiotaped and transferred original files onto a flash drive. The audiotaped files were
transcribed by me and tape recordings were deleted.
The art educators and evaluators were invited to answer the same four specific
open-ended questions about the art professional development workshop. I constructed
the open-ended questions to ask participants to voice their views about their experiences
at an art professional development workshop (see Appendix K). The online survey code
gave participants access and ability to reply by answering the four open-ended questions.
The Google Forms survey link remained open for 7 days. At the close of the week, I
collected the evidence and assigned teachers sequential confidentiality codes T1 through
T10. Google Forms data collection process gathered responses and produced a summary
report viewed individually and as a group. I gathered the demographics of the
participants who replied to the open-ended questions. In addition, I collected data about
the art educators’ and evaluators’ content area and certification (see Appendix F).
95
I used the four open-ended questions to gather participants’ views about the
SCSD art professional development workshop. The open-ended questions and focus
group questions were:
1. What activities during the art professional development did you find to be
helpful for art teachers?
2. What is your perception about the adult-learning experiences in the art
professional development workshop to improve teacher practice and efficacy?
3. Describe the activities that were helpful in learning how to integrate art
standards, instructional strategies, and policy changes to improve student
success and teacher practice.
4. What barriers or supports do art teachers experience with integrating art and
the visual art standards into the classroom?
The Findings
Research Question 1: Educators’ Perceptions of the Workshop
RQ 1 asked: What are art educators’ perceptions of an art professional
development workshop? T1 stated that “my observation and concerns as a participant in
attending a professional development workshop would be that educators failed to stay on
task and sessions often ended up being a ‘gripe’ fest about administrators, students and
other staff.” T1 only enjoyed one meeting, which was a half-day event called All Arts
Day. According to T1, what was valuable about this meeting “was observing an artist in
residence create her craft” as well as learning what the artist does during school visits.
96
T2 shared what she saw as the value of being both a participant and presenter at
professional development workshops. According to T2, “The information gained can be
of an immediate use in the classroom such as hands-on immersions in new media
processes and educational resources.” T2 stated, “Art teachers have many professional
developments at their own school that do not relate to what TFs do in planning
districtwide art professional development workshops.” Additionally, T2 suggested that
“professional development and the effect on information learned as it pertains to student
learning is broad and expands too many areas of instruction, making connections, arts
advocacy, and impact on curriculum development.” Furthermore, art educators are
always looking for methods to fund special projects and arts programs. T2 identified “the
effectiveness and sustainability of SCSD art professional development workshops in
relation to the recent award of the new Arts in Basic Curriculum Grant (ABC Grant)” in
designing professional development opportunities on grant writing.
Art educators often teach in isolation because public and private schools typically
hire just one specialist per 650 students. By attending art professional development
inservices, art educators had many opportunities to collaborate and network with their
peers. At the workshops, art educators exchange lesson plan ideas, discuss best practices,
co-teach, and interact with colleagues within the same discipline. T2 elaborated that
“SCSD has some of the best art teachers in the nation right here at our fingertips” and
that “SCSD should use their talents and abilities to inspire, motivate, and create new
experiences for each art educators.” The trend for SCSD professional development
97
inservices for art educators and educators has expanded to year-round arts integrated
training sessions that support teacher training and curriculum improvement.
T3 stated, “SCSD strives to provide useful, relevant, timely information to
teachers in all of districtwide art professional development workshops. The goal of art
inservices is to provide topics and resources for elementary art teachers to take to their
classrooms. Ideas, time with other art colleagues, and hands-on experiences can all be
valuable to teachers.” In addition, T4 asserted that “valuable hands-on and classroom
ready inservice experiences should be applicable wherein the teacher experience has an
immediate impact on the classroom.” Similarly, T4 found that “being engaged in
activities that are tangible and that [he] can experience for [himself] rather than getting
lesson plans or ideas is most valuable for [him].” T4 stated that this engagement allowed
him to better determine the number of students needed on a project and assess the
difficulties they might have.
T5 believed that students in SCSD are “technology driven” and found art
technology workshops to be more useful than the workshops at the assigned school that
did not apply to art educators. T9 stated, “The aspect of professional development that
affects change is teacher practice is the ability to test out either a new material or
method.” T9 also believed that professional development workshops on student learning
are useful in providing educators with the tools to teach new information.
Improving student learning was an important feature in many of the workshops.
T7 noted that “workshops focused on a particular curriculum or on a particular set of
students in terms of learning styles and disabilities.” T7’s teaching benefited from “the
98
workshop on working with students with autism.” The workshop helped T7 better
understand the capabilities of the students. T5 acknowledged the need for the
“submission of new workshop suggestions from colleagues on age-appropriate art skills”
to improve student learning.
Art educators emphasized adult-centered, hands-on professional development
activities as helpful in terms of arts immersion, networking, collaboration, and ease of
implementation into student-center learning experiences. T2 found “hands-on projects
beneficial and informative with useful information to apply during instruction.” T1
asserted, “Art professional development with professional artists or artist in residence,
who engage participants in arts integration activities framed to place emphasis on
different cultures and art styles such as bamboo calligraphy like the Japanese artist from
All Arts Day was helpful.” Similarly, immersion for art educators in adult-centered,
hands-on professional development activities develops teachers’ ability to network,
collaborate, and improve student learning and achievement.
SCSD Art Kick-off meeting, All Arts Day, and monthly district meetings, grant
writing, and grants were all topics of discussion in terms of best practices and funding.
Participant T2 wrote a mini grant as a break off of the SCSD’s ABC Grant. The grant is
dedicated to developing a vision in planning and implementing professional development
opportunities for art educators. Upon being awarded the ABC mini grant, T2 attended
and presented at the 2016 National Art Educators Association Convention. According to
T2, “this experience gave [the educator] a plethora of lesson plans, knowledge on art
policy changes and sustainability in the classroom, networking with educators on the
99
national level, and best practices.” In retrospect, T2 said the ABC grant gave the teacher
“an opportunity to immerse in learning new art content and teaching practices using the
National Visual Art Standards in comparison to South Carolina Visual Art State
Standards.” This opportunity provided T2 with “arts advocacy”, contributed to
“curriculum advancement and implementation, arts integration in the classroom,” and
allowed T2 to make connections with other art educators.
SCSD’s All Arts Day, which lasted approximately 4 hours, was another
opportunity where teachers make connections and collaborate. T2 elaborated on the All
Arts Day experiences by stating that teachers “collaborate with each other, touch base,
initiate plans, and [have] discussions in terms of the decision-making process about art
projects and how the school year will start and end.” All Arts Day is a favorite
professional development opportunity that T2 does not like to miss.
Research Question 2: Educators’ Views on Workshop Effectiveness
RQ2 asked: What are art educators’ views on the effectiveness of art professional
development workshops for art teachers? Art educators tend to look for methods to fund
special projects and arts programs. In designing professional development opportunities
on grant and grant writing participant, T2 identified the effectiveness and sustainability of
SCSD art professional development workshops in relation to the recent award of the new
Arts in Basic Curriculum Grant (ABC Grant). T2 stated that “art teachers are now going
in a planned and deliberate direction” and SCSD now also has the funds for workshops as
well as grants to attend quality professional development workshops.
100
As previously stated, T3 found that SCSD provided useful, relevant, and timely
information in the art professional development workshops. Similarly, T6 and T7
believed that the workshops were effective. T7 stated that she is “satisfied with the
directions in which SCSD professional development activities are going and that teachers
should work together as a group to come up with the topics and ideas that art teachers
want to work on.” On the other hand, “Some professional development inservices are not
effective, not relevant,” according to T4.
While T9 stated that she thought that the art professional development workshops
were effective and sustainable she also believed “there is room for improvement
specifically majority attendance in participation at an inservice.” Similarities, T5 enjoyed
meeting other art educators on a regular basis but did not find it to be an effective use of
her time “to drive 45 -50 minutes to the other side of the county to attend an inservice.”
Two of the eight participants (no beta test participants included) expressed concerns
about monthly meetings in relations to the 45- 50 minutes travel time to attend an art
inservice. T10 expressed that “SCSD should consider giving teachers more professional
time and funding to attend state and national art conferences as funding has been
primarily out of pocket.” SCSD art meetings are typically scheduled at a central location
to accommodate teachers having to travel more than 50 minutes to participate in a
workshop. Teachers, who work at schools located on the outlining areas of the district,
travel the farthest.
In discussing the effectiveness of the art professional development workshop,
many of the participants mentioned the usefulness of the content they were provided. T1
101
stated that she attended a local university, where she learned about a “fourth grade SLO
landscape activity and rubric development.” After attending the professional
development workshop, T2 decided to use the ABC mini-grant that she had been awarded
“to subsidize a field trip for students to visit an art program at a local junior college,
establish an art career lab in the classroom, pay for materials, and further promote arts
integration projects in T2’s art program.” T1 stated that “The most intensive impact and
scholarly influence on their teaching occurred in professional development training
sessions and course through programs sponsored by a college or university.” Likewise
T2 agreed that “The academic influences that impacted [her] teaching occurred in
professional development training sessions and graduate level courses sponsored by
Greater Area Technology Conference, MAC SmartARTs Teacher Institute, PCA’s
Educators and Schools, Kennedy Center Partners in Education, South Carolina Art
Educators Association, South Carolina Arts Alliance, and South Carolina State
Department of Education as opposed to teacher facilitated inservices recognizing that the
engagements are research based arts integrated adult-centered professional learning
opportunities.” Art educators’ participation in adult-centered hands-on professional
development workshop activities, coursework, and district sponsored inservices are
helpful methods to enhance art knowledge, develop skills, and attitude to achieve high
levels of learning and improve student success.
102
Themes
Overall, in addressing the research questions the following themes emerged:
adult-centered hands-on learning, professional development experiences, grants,
collaboration and networking, and best practices (see Table 3).
Table 3
Participants Research Question Themes
Research Study Themes
(1) Adult-centered hands-on learning
(2) Professional development experiences
(3) Grants
(4) Collaboration and Networking
(5) Best Practices
The first theme was adult-centered hands-on learning professional development
opportunities. These included a collection of professional development experiences at
SCSD, SCSD Summer Institute, SCSD All Arts Day, online programs, colleges and
universities, MAC SmartARTs Summer Institute, South Carolina State Department of
Education, and the South Carolina Art Educators Association. The second theme was
teachers’ experiences after attending an art professional development inservice. The third
theme was grants, in terms of grant writing, recipients, and grant objectives. The fourth
theme was collaboration and networking. The fundamental purpose of collaboration and
networking is to bring awareness and planning to vertical and horizontal curriculum
organization as educators. Finally, the fifth theme was best practices as art teachers,
described in detail effective instructional strategies and lesson plans that improved
instruction with emphasis on art integration.
103
Observational Field Notes
In this section, I summarize the observational field notes from the New Art Show
professional development workshop at HES. In this study, I used an observational
checklist form that I developed to record chronologically a description of the event,
painting a portrait of the participants and the setting (see Appendix F). I journaled my
observations and art educators’ experiences and took observational field notes on the
form. I transcribed the observational text of the professional development activities in a
composition notebook. Participants, who registered on the SCSD employee portal
consented to participate and attend the workshop. Attendees to the art professional
development workshop signed in with their names and email addresses. I used the
workshop sign-in form to email the art educator. In this case study, 20 participants
attended the new art show art professional development workshop and were observed. Of
the 20 participants, 8 answered the open-ended and 2 answered focus group questions
after the workshop. The two focus group participants also completed beta test questions
before the workshop.
I introduced myself to the art educators informing and reminding them about the
investigation, that their participation was voluntary, minimal risks, with no long or short-
term benefits from contributing in this case study. I used an observational checklist form,
note taking, and iPad to journal participants’ behaviors. In the observational checklist, I
recorded evidence or no evidence of art educators’ behaviors in terms of engagement in
the art professional development workshop, networking and idea exchanges,
104
demonstration of art knowledge concepts, connections between visual art and other
disciplines, creative art development, and meeting project goals.
The handwritten observational notes of the inservice were transcribed to give an
account of curriculum and content knowledge, instructional strategies, evidence of
learning styles and cultural differences, analysis and assessment of student artwork,
professionalism, networking and collaboration. After the art professional development
workshop, I transcribed observational field notes and handwritten notes in 2 weeks. I
provided a chronological description of the event, to create a portrait of the participants
and the setting. In terms of my experiences, the observational checklist created an
opportunity to document my feelings, ideas, perceptions, and theme development. The
observational field notes evaluation of items in this case study placed emphasis on the
importance and concerns on evidence that might be relevant to complete the study and
answer the research questions. The observational field notes and reflections transcribed
provided a narrative text integrating quotes on the role and changes as researcher and
participant observer.
Observational field notes: Overview of workshop activities. On March 23,
2017, at the New District Art Show information session workshop at HES, the art
educators and evaluators demonstrated knowledge about art and planning for an art
exhibition at the CMSC that included South Carolina Visual Art Standards and student
artwork. The elementary visual art coordinators and the 20 art educators engaged in
dialogue that was detailed and informative about the venue, exhibition objectives,
mounting artwork procedures, reception, certificates, student and school participant
105
winners. In addition, the elementary art lead teacher coordinators gave an overview of the
April 18, 2017, meeting in addressing information about best practices, the SCSD K12
Initiative Entrance and Exit Plan, and All Arts Day. The participants collaborated with
colleagues, evaluators, and elementary visual art coordinators in transporting the drop off
and pick up of student artwork, certificates, labels, and overview of art exhibition. The
art teachers modeled professionalism as they discussed the museum’s space and the
expectations of the museum and art exhibition’s coordinator. The 20 elementary art
educator participants linked prior knowledge about district exhibitions to the curriculum,
art lessons, making and creating art. The participants aligned curriculum objectives to
age appropriate and challenging activities used in the classroom as evidence with their
students, who completed an intricate piece of artwork. The elementary art educator
participants used a variety of strategies and media to engage students in producing an
artwork for the CMSC.
The elementary art educators and evaluators planning process anticipated
student’s current and prior knowledge and skills in employing a variety of instructional
strategies to develop two-dimensional artwork for the exhibition. The 20 elementary art
teachers developed a rubric for their students as a method to assess and select artwork for
the art exhibition. Participating schools and art teachers were contacted via email and
professional development inservices about the CMSC exhibition.
Behavior checklist results. The observational checklist of behaviors was used to
observe the 20 art educators during the art professional development workshop. The
checklist included five items created based on observation of art educator’s behaviors.
106
This observational behavior checklist measured multiple behaviors: evidence of teachers’
engagement in workshop activities, networking and exchange of ideas, evidence of art
concept knowledge, arts integration connections, and competency in pedagogy in
developing student-centered, project-based hands-on activities that meet standards and
rubric guidelines. The behaviors varied based on teachers’ interactions at the workshop.
Art educators’ behaviors were considered to be associated with engagements with
evidence of collaboration among peers.
Throughout the hour that I spent at HES, I observed 20 art educators engaged in
conversations about New District Art Show exhibition, art show guidelines, lesson plan
exchanges, and the new visual art standards. The art teachers discussed a plethora of
methods to foster meaningful connections in developing student-centered, hands-on
project-based learning projects and methods to promote student success. The art teachers
were professional in dress and demeanor and offered insightful evidence and problem-
solving strategies about the art exhibition, participation certificates, framing, and
mounting while engaging in discussion about the exhibition’s reception. The artwork
submitted for the New District Art Show exhibition showed evidence of higher-order
thinking, content knowledge, and high expectations. The student artwork and
professional development workshop offered arts integrated content and technology. The
professional development environment represented a climate of trust, respect,
collaboration, and teamwork.
The results of this behavior checklist were used to describe the behaviors and
activities of art educators at an art professional development workshop at HES. Art
107
educators addressed ideas and approaches to introduce and teach lessons on painting,
drawing, technology, ceramics, and best practices. In addition, art teachers discussed
methods to accommodate and meet the needs of students with autism, IEPs, and 504s.
Art teachers expressed ideas about art concepts and art themes by engaging in
conversations that extended scholarly approaches in how to incorporate art skills and
knowledge to enhance student learning and promote student success. The evidence
supported art teachers’ abilities to make connections through the integration of other
content disciplines such as math, science, social studies, and language arts. I observed art
educators’ candid dialogue about resources that aid in integrating and incorporating
hands-on projects for English as a Second Language students and their families. In
addition, the behavior checklist offered answers to support teacher practice in terms of
skills and know how to develop analytical student-centered project-based hands-on
activities. In this research study, the behavior checklist results about art educators’
perceptions of an art professional development workshop contributed to the enhancement
of pedagogy, teaching strategies, and content.
Observational checklist notes organized by themes. In this section, I report the
observational notes using the five themes. The themes are adult-centered hands-on
learning, professional development experiences, collaboration and networking, grants,
and best practices.
Adult-centered hands-on learning. The behavior observed as evidence of
collaboration among peers in terms of engagement in an activity at the New Art Show
professional development workshop where art teachers had an opportunity to work in
108
partnership with the CMSC and share information about student art show procedures and
guidelines. The art teachers and evaluators demonstrated evidence of collaboration
among colleagues in relation to participation in the art professional development, SCSD
student art exhibition, submission of student artwork to the CMSC, agreement to the
guidelines and procedures for matting and creating a work of art, collection of student
participation certificates, and drop off and pick up of art projects. The New Art show
professional development workshop demonstrated an informative session for art teachers.
However, there was limited time to participate in a hands-on adult-centered learning
activity.
Professional development experiences. Art teachers demonstrated a connection
between visual art and other disciplines, and the world. Art teachers and evaluators made
connections with student creative process in creating works of art by introducing
historical and cultural diversity in terms of artist, art styles, medium, and technology. In
terms of arts integration, the art educators incorporated visual art with other disciplines of
math, science, social studies, technology, language arts, and visual arts.
Students engaged in math concepts such as geometry, shape, space, and patterns.
Several of the art projects displayed images of living things in the environment.
Students constructed artworks using scientific inquiry such as discussion, exploration,
and observations to develop images of landscapes, people, animals, seasons, and
everyday life detailing background, foreground, and background. Through the help of
the art teachers the SCSD art students critically analyzed art projects and engaged in
writing activity in terms of writing an artist statement, reflection, and formal and informal
109
assessment. The art educators and evaluators strategies are aligned with South Carolina
Visual Art Standards in terms of making connections between art and other disciplines,
monitoring student progress in the creative process, learning outcomes to promote student
success, and arts advocacy.
Collaboration and networking. Art teachers at the SCSD Art Show professional
development optimized the opportunity to observe student artwork, discuss the purpose
of the art exhibition, art show guidelines, converse about approaches used to foster
meaningful connections in developing student-centered learning art projects, and promote
student success. Prior to the art professional development workshop, the lead elementary
art teachers contacted and had several conversations with the SCSD Fine Art
Coordinator. In addition, lead art teachers contacted the CMSC Coordinator about
serving as a guest judge for the SCSD’s student art exhibition. The art teachers and
evaluators attending the workshop discussions varied on curriculum, connections, art
standards introduced in art projects, and arts integration. South Carolina Visual Arts
State Standards presented in hands-on project-based art lessons gave students the tools to
critically analyze artworks, draw conclusions, produce images, reflect on assignment,
meet goals of design rubric, demonstrate an understanding of the creative process, and
teacher feedback on student success. The participating art teachers and evaluators at the
SCSD art professional development workshop engaged in whole and small group
discussions about the New District Art Show procedures and expectations at the CMSC.
Grants. Art teachers demonstrated an understanding of art knowledge concepts,
writing grant applications and proposals, and how to use the funds once awarded a grant.
110
The art educators and evaluators, who arrived early engaged in a number of conversations
about student artwork, best practices, end of the year projects, and grant proposals. Art
teachers and evaluators, who submitted student artwork varied in themes, techniques,
materials, and textures funded by local, district, state, and grant endowments. Several
teachers’ shared conversations about their experiences in grant funding such as the ABC
Grant, PTA mini grant, MAC SmartARTs, and Donors Choose. The proceeds from these
grants helped to purchase resources, materials, and/or an artist in resident to support units
of instruction and student-centered, hands-on project-based learning activities.
Best practices. Art teachers demonstrated competency in developing a work of art
that met project rubric guidelines. SCSD art show professional development for
elementary art teacher required certified educators’ registration, employee login,
selection of course(s), application for recertification credits or exchange hours, agreement
to privacy policy, and review of course details. The art educators and evaluators
designed a theme for art projects for the CMSC juried exhibition in addition developed an
assessment model and art project rubric. Project assessments and rubric were teacher-
made to ensure that student met assignment goals. In response to meeting the South
Carolina Visual Art Standards, SCSD Elementary art grading rubric, SCSD art show
guidelines, teacher-made assessment rubric criteria, and teacher observational evaluation
on the hands-on project-based lessons varied by projects and participating schools. The
students’ final projects would represent a summative assessment on creativity
performance aligned with project rubric guidelines.
111
The SCSD assessment tools, artist statement, reflective writings, and
observational strategies became important methods for art teachers to evaluate student
progress and competency in meeting visual arts standards. SCSD embedded assessment
rubric outline general and specific guidelines, terms and conditions on eligibility,
specification, tagging, liability, artist statement, size restrictions, and matting. The art
show professional development workshop and CMSC juried art exhibition offered
teachers, evaluators, and student guidelines to create art demonstrating an understanding
of rubric criteria designed to improve student art knowledge and success.
Focus Group Questions Results
A 30-minute audiotaped conference call was pre-arranged a week after the open-
ended questions were collected using Zoommeeting.com. On April, 2017, I set up the
focus group conference call using Zoommeeting.com. The program is designed to
distribute an invitation and reminders to participate in an audiotaped conference to art
educators, who attended the New District Art Show Information Session workshop at
HES. However, on April 2017 teachers did not attend the phone conference. I contacted
art teachers by SCSD email and Zoommeeting.com reminding them about the audiotaped
meeting.
As the facilitator of the phone conference for the first 15 minutes I had a difficult
time logging into the meeting. I contacted the art teachers again upon observing that no
one had logged into the conference call. After waiting 45 minutes in Zoommeeting.com
for art educators to join the conference call, reluctantly I was able to ascertain that no
participants had logged in the meeting. One hour and fifteen minutes had passed after
112
closing the conference call when I received an email from an art teacher stating that she
had to take her child to sports practice and tried to join the session but it was closed.
I contacted the 20 art educators, who attended the new art show session at HES
but only 2 responded agreeing to engage in a new conference call the next day at 7:30 –
8:00. It was a successful connection as I was able to audiotape their opinions and beliefs
on their experiences about an art professional development workshop. I asked probing
questions and prompted the 2 participants to clarify and give detailed opinions on the art
inservice. In retrospect, the focus group conference call was scheduled the week prior to
spring break and on a Thursday. Typically, SCSD professional development activities
are held on Wednesdays with art meetings are scheduled on Tuesday’s. Because the
focus group conference call was not a regularly scheduled meeting, the art educators
continued with their lives and personal plans.
Data from the four general focus group questions provided the perceptions of art
educators’ views or feelings after the art professional development workshop. I used the
Sony T-Mark recorder to record the focus group questions. It took 3 weeks for me to
transcribe the focus group responses questions. The participants were able to clarify and
give detailed text about their opinions on the art professional development workshop. In
addition, the art teachers shared similar philosophies and experiences about the art
inservice. The transcribed the audiotaped focus group interview results were also used to
answer the research questions (see Appendix I). The transcript coding results of this
study revealed T1 and T2 viewpoints aligned with the themes of art teachers’ perceptions
113
about the effectiveness of an art professional development workshop. Some of the
information provided below appears in previous sections above.
RQ1: What are art educators’ perceptions of an art professional
development workshop? In this study, I investigated art educators’ perceptions of the
effectiveness of an art professional development workshop. T1 and T2’s focus group
responses are organized by the five themes: (a) adult-centered hands-on activities, (b)
professional development, (c) grant writing opportunities, (d) collaborate and network,
and (e) best practices. They concluded that teachers’ participation in professional
development workshops, training programs, inservices, graduate courses, and institutes
will improve teaching practices and increase student learning outcomes in the arts.
Adult-centered hands-on activities. NBPTS (2002) stated that teachers seek the
advice of others and draw on educational research and scholarly knowledge to improve
practice. In addition, able teachers are also students of education scholarship and are
cognizant of the settled and unsettled territory in their discipline. Educators stay abreast
of current research and, when appropriate, incorporate new findings into their practice to
improve student success. In answering RQ1, T2 stated that she found that “hands-on
projects have been most helpful because she is able to immediately take content back to
her classroom to further expand students’ learning experiences and immerse them into the
process of creating and making art.” T2 stated that “she believes that a generated list of
professional development opportunities and presenters would be helpful for others to gain
an understanding of who is facilitating workshops and where.” Adult-centered, hands-on
professional development workshops, inservices, graduate courses, and summer institutes
114
are designed to cause positive change, develop teacher methodology, and enhance student
success.
Professional development. In responding to focus group question 2, T1 and T2
agreed that “art teachers’ views about SCSD art professional development workshop in
terms of All Arts Day have been instrumental in providing teachers opportunities to
work with professional artist, collaborate, network, engage in demonstrations, learn
about new materials, and share best practices.” T2 discussed her experiences and “the
importance of an art professional development inservice because it promotes art
advocacy, arts integration, curriculum connections, and collaboration with teachers and
administrators.” This research study about educator’s experiences described similar
encounters at teacher training program, staff development, professional development,
inservice, and workshop as beneficial and informative.
Grants. SCSD and the state of South Carolina encourage teachers to attend grant
writing workshops, write grants for special class projects, and engage in course work for
recertification. Often teachers must complete an application to participate in graduate
level course sponsored by a grant or fellowship.
T1 stated that “she recently completed course work at the ADU as the experience
helped to advance her understanding of developing assessments and rubrics. The
graduate level course was funded by a grant.” T2 asserted that she “wrote the ABC
Grant to attend the National Art Educators Association Conference in March 2017. In
addition, the grant provided funds to introduce careers to her students. The grant lent
itself for T2 to her take students to a pre-arranged mini college fair workshop at a local
115
junior college.” T2 participated in the “MAC SmartARTs teacher institute, sponsored
by a local organization which engages teachers in a week of arts integration for the
purposes of immersing students and teachers in multicultural experiences with emphasis
on S.T.E.A.M./S.T.E.M”. Teachers’ experiences at professional development
workshops were viewed from different perspectives connecting educators with
opportunities to network, collaborate, and develop lesson plans.
Adding to art teacher perceptions about workshops on grants, grant writing, and
funding, T2 explained that “the most intense art inservice that she has attended on
integration and curriculum writing was at Lansford University (LU). The participants
immersed themselves in intense research-based adult-centered hands-on art projects”.
SCSD Summer Academy as described by T2, “I think that art teachers have a lot of
opportunities to present and take part in district sponsored inservices. In the past, I have
presented an arts integrated adult-centered hands-on project at the SCSD Summer
Academy for classroom and art teachers at the elementary, middle, and high school
level”. T2 stated that she “attended the Greater Area Technology Conference which was
funded in partnership with the State of South Carolina Department of Education, and co-
operating districts. [Her] perceptions in having attended the workshop have been
insightful about the various methods which [she] can incorporate technology into [her]
lessons, and the continued engagement of students in developing technological skills”.
In addition, the partnerships with various institutions, colleges, community, district,
state, and national organizations also help to improve teacher practices and increase
student learning outcomes in the arts
116
Collaborate and network. NBPTS (1989) contended that proficient teachers
collaborated in planning instructional programs of the school to assure connections of
learning experiences for students, teachers, and the interest of school community with
strong emphasize on continuous improvement. T2 argued that “Professional
development workshops are changing classroom teachers’ and administrators’
reluctance to network and collaborate with art teachers to link the integration of
S.T.E.A.M. /S.T.E.M.” concepts. T2 stated that “they are witnessing that the integration
has enriched and enhanced critical and analytical approaches to communicate learning
and teach.” Additionally, T2 made a case that “these connections have contributed to
the overall success at her school”. In addition, T2 also shared that “collaboration and
networking has increased student success and growth in test scores.” T2 revealed that
“her principal communicated in a public forum and with other administrators at the
SCSD meetings student accomplishments and test score results.” Professional
development workshops are designed to foster opportunities for educators and
administrators to promote collaborative experiences with art educators and professional
artist, and network concepts that expound on positive change within a school
community, student successes, and teacher development.
T2 discussed, “teachers’ input in terms of vertical teaming and the K12 Initiative
conversations as it relates to visual arts standards, SLOs, and workshops that support
content areas, adult-centered and student-centered art projects.” T2 discussed
interactions with “4th grade teachers in developing art activities focused on landscapes
and the Westward Expansion.” T2 discussed collaborating and networking to fund a
117
clay project about Dave the Potter, introduce third grade standards on the Civil War, and
teach hand-building ceramic techniques. The workshop also “gave value to people with
artistic skills and their history as artisans.” Teachers, who collaborate, network, and
meet regularly as a team to review data and gain a deeper understanding of content from
PLCs that support ongoing professional development and improve teacher practice.
Best practices. As a result of attending professional development workshops and
graduate level courses T1 and T2 saw a “change in their teaching strategies, art
knowledge skills, implementation of arts integration, networking, efficacy, philosophy
about education, and pedagogy.” Professional development should be continuing and
supported in the school, district, state, and national level as a method to foster and
strengthen teacher practice as well as student learning in a global society and
competitiveness in the 21st century. It is imperative that art educators become advocates
and exemplars for their profession as an educator, program, craft, students, and the arts.
In building strong art programs, art educators should be able to argue their purpose for
teaching as a methodology the goes beyond pedagogy of content knowledge but their
commitment to learning new materials, keeping abreast of technological developments,
embodiment of curricular knowledge and resources including literature, self-evaluator,
and scholar of practice (NBPTS, 1989).
RQ2: What are art educators’ views on the effectiveness of art professional
development workshops for art teachers? In this study, I examined art educators’
perceptions of the effectiveness of an art professional development workshop. T1 and
118
T2s’ opinions about the helpfulness of an art professional development workshop
describe their experiences through discovered themes to answer Research Question 2.
Adult-centered hands-on activities. T2 found “research-based adult-centered
hands-on projects have been most helpful in immersing and transforming student
learning.” T1 agreed that “having attended a bamboo calligraphy workshop with local
artist at All Arts Day demonstrated diversity in terms of culture and project ideas” was
beneficial because “it introduced a new art process, professional artist approach to
creating, and multiple approaches teaching methodologies.” T2 stated that “her
experiences in attending national, state, and district research-based adult-centered hands-
on enrichment workshops were beneficial for her and other art teachers as the enrichment
involvements exposes students to new learning.” T2 experiences from attendance at the
NAEA Conference allowed her “to absorb new knowledge, gather lesson plans from
workshop sessions, participate in research-based hands-on activities, engage in advocacy
discussions, and network.” These statements show the framework and content of adult-
centered hands-on professional development workshops are important at the school,
district, state, and national level.
Professional development. The participants’ statements regarding
professionalism at an art professional development workshop demonstrated and called
upon accomplished teachers to contribute to the practice of teaching and become
members of learning communities through collaboration and planning instructional
programs to assure ongoing learning experiences for students and colleagues (NBPTS,
2002). T1 expressed that attending the SCSD All Arts Day professional development
119
was useful because “it addressed the new state standard and teachers’ long-range
professional goal in terms of student learning objectives (SLOs)”. T1 expounded about
that the experiences at All Arts Day were “educational and meaningful because art
educators introduced different approaches to incorporate foreground, middle ground, and
background into a landscape drawing, painting, or sculpture.” In addition, T1 stated that
“at All Arts Day that she enjoyed working with different materials especially at the mini
bamboo calligraphy workshop presented by the guest artist.” She stated that she and her
colleagues “were able to brainstorm on ways to introduce Asian art as a unit, purchase of
materials, and possibly writing a grant to introduce this project.” T2 advocated that
“teachers, who engage in professional development workshops such as district inservice,
S.T.E.A.M. /S.T.E.M., MAC SmartARTs, All Arts Day, the Greater Area Technology
conference are compelled to learn new information that can be brought back into the
classroom.” Additionally, T2 stated that research-based inservices provides art educators
“with knowledge to share through communications and demonstrations with other
educational professionals, artist, universities, and colleges. Furthermore, collaborating
and networking with educators expands the depth of a teacher’s pedagogy, reflecting on
how [they] teach and what [they] teach.” Art educators have a plethora of experiences
and ideas to share and collaborate with other adult learners.
Grants. T2 found her experience with grant writing this year to be rewarding.
The grant allowed T2 to attend and present at national conferences. What T2 was most
proud of that she could use the funding to introduce career and college opportunities to
her fifth grade students. These opportunities are important because many of T2’s
120
students at the Title 1 School may not be able to attend college. According to T2, “In
using the endowment of the ABC Grant, [she] wanted to expose students to a local junior
college, discuss careers, and commitment that they personally will have to make in order
to achieve their goals.” With the ABC Grant, T2 could “immerse [her] students with
information to make a difference in their lives 21st century learners and contributors in
society”. T2 used the grant to purchase “materials to create learning centers for students
to make hands-on connections, improve learning, and academic success”.
Additionally, “contributions through the Metropolitan Arts Council, [T2] had
many opportunities to engage in arts integrated workshops and network provided for
general education teachers, and art teachers.” These experiences helped T2 “to grow as
an advocate, scholar, educator, and researcher, investing in inquiry about strategies on
teaching our students to become global learners to compete in a new world with ideas to
change the future.” Educators’ professional development focused on grant writing is
linked with the planning and funding of ongoing workshops reserved for students with
disabilities, curriculum writing, assessment, team building, scholarship, and advocacy.
Collaborate and network. T2 went on to say that “her experiences in attending
professional development workshops and encounters in graduate level courses have
improved her ability to share and present research-based art content and activities with
peers and general education teachers.” T2 stated that “collaborating to general education
teachers has opened a dialogue to support the concepts taught in the classroom, integrate
themes, introduce standards, and develop student-centered hands-on activities for 21st
century learners. Example included: Integrating second grade mathematics, symmetry,
121
and painting a butterfly. The introduction of United States and South Carolina history
through the social studies curriculum about the Civil War and slavery could inspire the
third grade students to use the hand-building technique to make a ceramic sculpture.”
These accounts show that networking and collaborating with general education teachers
are valuable experiences and opportunities in graduate courses, school, district, and
national level adult-centered hands-on professional development workshops.
Best practices. Dewey’s (1938) experiential framework mirrors Bloom’s
Taxonomy that requires the adult-learner and student-learner engage in understanding
and explain learning experience and hands-on activities, share through feedback and
observations, process by means of analyzing the effect of activity, generalize information
to create, invent, plan, and deconstruct knowledge and experiences into real world
practices, and application or execution of knowledge and skills through the
implementation of information in another familiar situation. An effective practitioner
uses and values his or her daily encounters and experiences to form and develop teaching
practice. Likewise, the adult-learner engagements and experiences in ongoing
sustainable adult-centered learning workshops are significant and applicable to teachers’
practice. T2 stated that “teachers learn best through arts immersions in the creative
process, research-based adult-centered, hands-on activities.” Likewise, T2 believed that
“students are successful and excel in their learning when teachers are exposed to a
plethora of professional learning development opportunities.” SCSD wrap up
professional development inservices by giving art educators opportunities to share best
122
practices as an approach to change teacher practice, infuse advocacy, learning, and
reflection.
Evidence of Quality
The findings can be used to help art educators plan professional development
training programs that concentrate on art educators’ need to engage in student-centered
learning activities which guide instruction, drive art curriculum, and promote student
success. This case study is an example for other school districts and art programs
personalizing professional development based on specific and common needs in art on-
the-job training programs. In this case study, I used convergence, which is the process of
pulling together evidence through triangulation and corroboration of data using sources
such as pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires, audiotaped focus group questions, and
observational field notes to answer the same research questions.
The data collected from pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires, audiotaped
focus group answers, and observations were grouped into themes and categories for
interpretation. They were examined for overlapping patterns and trends in participants’
responses. In gathering data and analyzing pre- and post-open-ended question responses,
I identified patterns and looked for shared themes; however, some responses were too
extensive or short in context for analysis. The application of codes and themes
implemented described art educators’ experiences in art professional development
workshop. The findings provided evidence about the effectiveness of art professional
development opportunities for art teachers in SCSD. The results were displayed in tables
indicating demographics in terms of job position, area of certification, gender, and pre-
123
and post-open-ended questionnaire responses. The pre-and post-open-ended question
responses were written in rich text describing the art educators’ opinions and experiences
in attending art professional development workshop.
I organized information collected into five themes and categories. I employed a
comparative analysis outlined by Lincoln and Guba (1985) to explain the effectiveness of
an art training session. The data responses were stored on a flash drive, color coded files
and folders containing hard copy documentation of online pre- and post-open-ended
questionnaires, focus group question responses, and observational checklist. In June
2017, a member check of the recorded transcript gained from pre- and post-open-ended
questionnaires and focus group questions were conducted to help me validate the
accuracy of participants’ responses in the study. The implementation of pre- and post-
open-ended questionnaires and focus group questions allowed the participants to give
rich, colorful text about their experiences in the case study.
I verified and confirmed the reliability and validity in the triangulation of the
instruments in this case study by conducting a comparative analysis on pre- and post-
open-ended questions, focus group questions, and observational field notes to identify
themes and codes in the text. A report of the findings was shared through “member
checking” with the participants to gain feedback about their perceptions for accuracy and
palatability (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006). The participants’ responses in pre- and post-
open-ended questionnaires, focus group questions, and observational field notes
enhanced the accuracy and disclose personal biases. The review of literature in this case
124
study built and verified the data through multiple sources from other studies to confirm
and support the findings.
The pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires responses was written in rich text
describing art educators’ opinions and experiences in attending art professional
development workshop. The narrative text from pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires
and focus group questions was transcribed with direct quotes from the participants, who
identified as art educators as T1 and T2, and teacher facilitators as TF1 and TF2 shielding
participants from physical and emotional harm, and ensuring confidentiality of names and
worksite. A display of open-ended questions and focus group questions were placed in
the appendix as well as a summary of participant responses. They were written in the
text and tables defining art teacher’s experiences in art professional development
workshop.
The observational field notes were gathered and sorted into themes and codes to
interpret and understand participant’s perceptions of art professional development
effectiveness in this case study. In searching for relationships and meaning in the case
study, I organized information collected into 5 themes or categories such as adult-
centered hands-on learning, professional development, grant, collaboration and
networking, and best practices. The literature review content research comparisons and
views on professional development, arts integration, integration, assessment, teaching
pedagogy, instructional strategies, and curriculum planning. A comparative analysis
outlined by Lincoln and Guba (1985) was used to explain open-ended questions, focus
group interview, and observational field notes findings in themes and codes using text to
125
describe administrators’ and art educators’ opinions about the effectiveness of art
professional development workshop.
Through member checking, art educators indicated that the descriptions in the
researcher’s interpretations of the art professional development workshop are
comprehensive and accurate; as well as the themes included in this case study truthfully
depicted the views and opinions of each participant. Yin (2009) argued that data
triangulation should be collected using multiple sources of evidence such as documents,
observations, closed-ended and open-ended questions, focus group interviews, and
archival records. Triangulation of the potential range of 20 participants’ in observational
field notes, 8 participants responded in post open-ended questionnaires, and 2
participants answered to beta test and focus group questions. The 10 participants
improved the accuracy of the case study, verifying the data through multiple
interpretations and sources that support the themes (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).
The review of literature was employed to guide and clarify the case study’s
problem and answer the research questions. A brief narrative report was written in
narrative text from pre- and post-open-ended questionnaires, focus group questions, and
observational field notes defining the feelings and opinions of the case study participants’
insights on the effectiveness of quality art professional development workshop in SCSD.
The findings were presented to administrators, art educators, and superintendent of SCSD
as the findings of the proposed case study should imply that art professional development
workshops are successful in enhancing teaching methodology, instructional strategies,
curriculum content, knowledge of national and state art visual standards, self-reflection
126
on teaching, and student achievement through the arts. The findings indicated art
teachers’ interests of art professional development workshop themes, such as adult-
centered hands-on learning, professional development experiences, grants, collaboration
and networking, and best practices. In addition, the findings’ suggestions implied that art
educators’ critical reflection on practice can improve teaching and enhance student
success. The results suggested a continued examination and assessment of art
professional development programs for art educators in SCSD.
Summary
In this case study, I collected data from observational field notes, pre- and post-
open-ended questionnaires, and focus group questions to explore participants’
perceptions of an art professional development program. I gathered experiential findings,
observational evidence, and rich text from focus group questions to answer the research
questions. I gained insights from participants about the effectiveness of art professional
development workshop for art educators.
The case study’s data provide art educators the necessary information to
understand national and state art standards, teaching methodology, instructional
strategies, and curriculum design in professional development training for art educators.
The results answered the research question on the perceptions of art professional
development programs effectiveness by art educators. In the Section 5, I discuss research
questions, draw conclusions, and make recommendations for action and a further study
on art professional development workshop. I interpret the findings and discuss the
implications for social change, and the research study’s summary.
127
Section 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations
Introduction
Art educators, art programs, and professional development inservices have been
faced with challenges due to policy changes, implementation of evaluation models,
funding, class size, and teacher retention issues. There are art professional development
programs that focus on project-based instruction instead of standards-based or process-
based instruction. There are effective art professional development programs that
integrate multiple disciplines and are essential in enhancing teacher knowledge, skills,
and attitudes to achieve high levels of learning and quality education for all students. Art
professional development programs require a curriculum that gives students what they
need to become life-long learners with a love for the arts. In addition, it requires
research-based, adult-centered, hands-on inservice opportunities to enhance pedagogy,
teaching strategy, and content to facilitate and collaborate with colleagues and students.
The purpose of this case study was to explore art teachers’ perceptions of an art
professional development workshop as a means of examining art standards, instructional
strategies, and policy changes. My interest in this subject resulted from my experiences
serving as an ADEPT/PAS-T evaluator and seeing the decline in art professional
development inservices at the district level. I conducted the study to investigate the
extent to which an art professional development workshop would meet the needs of art
educators in terms of ongoing research-based practicum training experiences for graduate
and recertification credit. By making art educators and evaluators aware of the concerns
and barriers, this study could help them develop a better understanding of how art
128
workshops could enhance teacher knowledge, skills, and attitudes to achieve increased
levels of learning and quality education for all students.
The qualitative approach in this study made it possible for art educators and
evaluators to give their perspectives about the professional development workshop. The
literature review gave me insight into the effectiveness of adult-centered, hands-on
professional development workshops. The literature I reviewed indicated that art
professional development experiences support teachers’ methodologies, differentiate
instructional strategies, and improve student engagement. The research questions
focused on educators’ perceptions of inservices that are standards-based with emphasis
on pedagogy, teaching strategies, and content. I interviewed art educators and evaluators
to understand the importance of adult-centered, hands-on inservice training sessions. The
conversations were audio-recorded and transcribed, and I sent copies of the transcripts to
the participants to examine and offer suggestions for change. The participants agreed on
the importance of professional developments experiences designed to improve student
learning. Upon analyzing the transcript data, I found five main themes: (a) adult-centered
hands-on activities, (b) grants, (c) collaboration and networking, and (d) best practices.
Research Questions
This investigation was guided by two research questions:
RQ1: What are art educators’ perceptions of an art professional development
workshop?
RQ2: What are art educators’ views on the effectiveness of art professional
development workshops for art teachers?
129
In this case study, I used analytical text to answer the research questions, identify
the themes, and present the findings. I identified five art professional development
workshop themes from the findings. The five themes were:
1. Research-based, adult-centered hands-on activities.
2. Ongoing research-based professional development workshops.
3. Grants: (a) grant writing, (b) grant awards, (c) grant endowments that change
teaching strategies and resources, and (d) grants that support professional
development and teacher training, graduate courses, and student achievement.
4. Collaboration and networking.
5. Best practices.
Interpretation of Findings
In this section, I will interpret and summarize the study’s findings using the art
teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of an art professional development
workshop. I will relate the findings generated from teachers’ responses to the prior
research discussed in Section 2, including the conceptual framework. I will also use the
findings from teachers’ opinions to draw conclusions about the art professional
development workshop.
Conceptual Framework
Dewey’s (1938) experiential theory was the conceptual framework for this study.
Dewey’s framework situates teachers as facilitators making connections with information
and skills to prepare pupils for new learning and success in life. Butler et al. (2015)
argued that educators require support through collaboration, analysis, and self-reflection
130
to develop pedagogical identities. Overall, participants stated that the art professional
development workshop helps educators network, collaborate, exchange best practices,
and gain useful lesson plan ideas. As Dodd-Nufrio (2011) reported, Dewey’s socio-
constructivist model is framed on the theory that both children and adults construct their
knowledge through interactions with people, the environment, and personal interest.
Correspondingly, five participants (including beta test participants) in this case study
expressed that tangible hands-on activities were helpful in terms of being able to
experiment with various mediums, and to discuss visual art standards, teaching strategies,
and pros and cons of the unit before introduction to students.
Four of the eight participants (no beta test participants included) indicated that the
workshop presentations should be hands-on and adult-centered, and should align with
contemporary trends relevant to technology usage and strategies useful in improving
teaching styles related to students with special needs, and English as a second language
students. All eight participants agreed about the potential usefulness of an email
distribution list announcing adult-centered learning professional development workshops
in the district and across the state. T5 stated that “as a collective group of educators, art
teachers should recommend topics and ideas for professional development workshops
that represent art educators’ preferences and interests.” Currently, SCSD has two TFs
who receive compensation to serve as a liaison between the art educators and fine art
coordinator. The TF responsibilities are to disseminate information from the district
office and fine arts coordinator to art educators about art workshops, student and teacher
131
exhibitions, and district and policy changes, and to plan professional development
workshops for teachers.
Research Question 1
RQ1 asked: What are art educators’ perceptions of an art professional
development workshop? In this study, I wanted to explore art educators’ and evaluators’
experiences in terms of the effectiveness of an art professional development workshop
emphasis on the enhancement of pedagogy, teaching strategies, and content. I searched
for information that would guide the study regarding art professional development
workshop programs for elementary art teachers and evaluators. Secondly, I wanted to
understand how teachers’ and evaluators’ perceived professional development
experiences as useful in improving knowledge of art standards, instructional strategies,
and policy changes.
In answering RQ 1, I found that teachers consistently listed that they benefited
from inservices on pedagogy, teaching strategies, and content. The art teachers’
responses were consistent with Dewey’s (1938) experiential theory on learning by doing
and research-based adult-centered hands-on activities integrated in professional
development workshops. Art educators and evaluators agreed that experiences in art
professional development workshops contributed to learning new and different arts-
integrated approaches to teach the total child. Project-based or designed-based inquiry
should provide a framework for teaching students to actively plan and shape the world,
explore the environment’s influence in forming human behavior, decode relationships
between word imaginary, and integrate lessons that enhance the study of other disciplines
132
that positively support academic performances (Lee & Breitenberg, 2010). Rutland and
Barlex (2008) framed professional development workshops as an approach that
encourages educators to reflect on best practices, modify pedagogy, and collaborate and
network with colleagues and institutions. On the other hand, Kraehe (2010) noted that
teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of professional development workshops are
related to content, data that drives instruction, and teacher training activities to improve
student success and achievement. In this study, I found that teachers’ perceptions about
the effectiveness of an adult-centered, hands-on professional development workshop
incorporated research-based job embedded experiences to improve pedagogy,
instructional strategies, and content.
In analyzing the audio-recorded focus group transcripts, I discovered that art
teachers viewed grants, grant writing, and grant endowments as directly affecting their
philosophy about art education, teaching abilities, and student experiences. T1 was able
to list how grant funding gave her the opportunity to attend the ADU where she was able
to engage in an intense summer program on SLOs, assessment, and rubric development.
Art professional development workshops teach educators how to encourage students to
take an active role in their learning and improve critical thinking skills.
The theme of collaboration and networking supported teachers’ opportunities to
plan, participate, present, and engage in dialogue on art content, pedagogy, strengths and
area of improvement, assessments, and student achievement. T2 used her collaboration
experiences with art teachers to discuss plans for the start of the year and to reconnect. In
addition, art teachers’ collaborations and networking relationships with art colleagues,
133
general education teachers, and administrators have contributed to the overall success of
the school and improved test scores.
Art teachers and evaluators made references to highlighting best practices
demonstrated in the classroom. The art teachers agreed that there was a need to have
time to share best practices on topics relevant to the art community as gathered via the
district survey at an art professional development workshop. Examples include: How to
teach students with autism, clay projects, introducing technology, behavior, and strategies
for novice teachers. Chen (2011) argued that the implementation of online professional
development programs helped to gain technology skill, supported best practices, helped
educators develop their own technology-based instruction, and improved teacher practice.
Upon reflection of this case study and the conceptual framework, I expected art
teachers’ and evaluators’ perceptions about an art professional development workshop to
be valuable and would be affected by program’s ability to fulfill individual expectations.
Art teachers and evaluators expressed their expectations to having participated in
professional development programs. They became informed art specialists in terms of
contacts in their classroom, school, district, and professional art organizations. I have
concluded that art professional development workshops need to offer research-based
adult-centered hands-on activities that are aligned with national and state visual art
standards.
Research Question 2
RQ2 asked: What are art educators’ views on the effectiveness of art professional
development workshops for art teachers? In reviewing the teachers’ perceptions on an art
134
professional development workshop’s effectiveness, I found consistency in the
conceptual framework and the method in teaching adult learners in curriculum plans
resulted in applying what they learned contributed to change in teaching pedagogy.
There was no doubt teachers were enthusiastic about the effectiveness of adult-centered,
hands-on learning activities and student learning. T2 presented art professional
development workshops at her school, SCSD, SCSD Summer Academy, All Arts Day,
SCAEA Conference, NAEA Conference, and MAC SmartARTs. T2 currently serves as
an art curriculum writer for the intermediated Grades 3, 4, and 5 for the SCSD.
The goal of SCSD professional development programs are to provide art
educators and evaluators with meaning, knowledge, skills, competence, and hands-on
practice to develop or change their pedagogy. DeFour et al. (2008) asserted that a shift in
professional development workshops should model job-embedded learning, expectations
that learning is ongoing and takes place as standard work place practice, team-based
action research, experiential learning, collaborative, assessment impact driven to improve
student learning, and sustainable commitment to limited focused initiatives. Vanassche
and Kelchtermans (2016) asserted that continuing professional development workshops
link self-reflection and practitioner’s engagements in training sessions to improve
pedagogy and practice. The findings on professional development suggest that art is a
core discipline that offers connections through other content areas, research, and careers;
and should not be viewed as an extra-curricular or enrichment activity (NAEA, 2014).
When discussing adult-centered, hands-on professional development activities, art
teachers focused on their need to share best practices and participate in ongoing learning
135
programs. Art teachers expressed a need for sharing best practice ideas on working with
students with autism, clay, behavior, and SLO’s. Art educators wanted professional
development programs that gave opportunities to introduce fresh subject matter, build on
new techniques, and interact with other arts teachers. Art teachers agreed that arts
integrated on-going adult-centered learning opportunities, professional development, self-
reflection, scholarly analysis of practice, collaboration, and networking are significant
approaches to improve student achievement and teacher practice.
T1 and T2 implied that professional development workshops connected with
graduate course work met educators’ needs to work independently, examine art
standards, inspect policy changes, study instructional strategies, and earn recertification
credits. In making connections with cross-curricula disciplines broadens teaching
strategies, improves the learning environment, and impacts student learning. I have
concluded that art educators and evaluators agreed that the incorporation of themes in
planning professional development workshops will have an equally positive effect on
students and teachers. As a result of the professional development workshop, teachers in
this study were able to change their teaching practices in terms of instructional strategies,
assessment, and curriculum planning. Teachers’ continuous improvement opportunities in
adult-centered hands-on learning, professional development, grants, collaboration and
networking, and best practices should have a positive effect and influence pedagogy,
instructional strategies, content, and success on student learning.
136
Implications for Social Change
The implications for social change are grounded in the importance of sustainable
ongoing professional development workshops for art teachers. The potential impact on
social change at the local level and beyond is a need for rigorous adult-centered,
research-based hands-on arts immersion professional development opportunities for art
educators. Art professional development workshops for educators should change
perceptions in schools, facilitate hands-on student-centered visual art experiences, and
serve as an enrichment resource on history and cultural diversity. In attending art
professional development inservices, art teachers should benefit in gathering information
addressing national and state visual art standards, teaching methodology, instructional
strategies, and policy changes.
McDonald and Kahn (2014) discussed the effectiveness of professional
development designed to promote individual pedagogical shift (professional
growth/development and teacher identity strengthening/formation) as a result of
reflective thinking (evidenced through observed or self-reported actions and behaviors.
The art educators’ experiences upon attending the art professional development workshop
should enhance the inquiry process in targeting areas of instruction, social interaction
with others, analytical reflection to develop critical thinkers about work and creative
process, and the recognition that learning is a holistic practice that impacts the total child
which includes reading, writing, listening, observing, speaking, performing, and
producing (Kuhlthau et al., 2007). The art professional development workshop showed
art educators’ additional considerations in the planning and decision making of future
137
inservices for art teachers. The art professional development workshop had a positive
effect on teacher practice, collaboration, curriculum development, and integration of
disciplines. This case study shows that educators’ participation in continued adult
learning training programs should demonstrate changes in teachers’ attitudes about
professional (self) development and influence student learning.
Baiduc, Linsenmeir, and Ruggeri (2015) asserted that Mentored Discussions of
Teaching (MDT) is an effective approach to engage faculty in pedagogical teaching
issues and S.T.E.A.M. /S.T.E.M. such as group meetings, classroom observations, and
discussions. The MDT introductory programs encourage interest in teaching and provide
insights for improvement of one’s own teaching connecting graduate and post-doctoral
fellows with learning communities of peers and instructors with similar interest.
I believe that this case study on art professional development workshop should
present data to develop a graduate level courses or programs of study to design art
professional development workshops that focuses on pedagogy, arts integration, policy
changes, and adult-centered, hands-on activities for art teachers. Participants suggested
that adult-centered, hands-on learning art professional development inservices align with
graduate courses and partnership programs for recertification and earned credits, research
based, scholarly facilitation, and relevant to current trends such as technology and visual
art standards. The findings showed that the South Carolina Department of Education,
legislation, school districts, colleges, and professional organizations such as the SCAEA
and NAEA should invest in art professional development workshops because teacher
training affects student social development and achievement.
