Teaching visual art with the brain in mind

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20351641

Critical periods of perceptual development occur during the elementary and middle school years. Vision plays a major role in this development. The use of child development knowledge of Bruner, Skinner, Piaget and Inhelder coupled with the artistic thinking theories of Goldschmidt, Marshall, and Williams through and the lens of James J. Gibson and his ex-wife Eleanor J. framed the study. Sixteen 8-10-year-olds over eight one-hour weekly meetings focused on how they see and learn how to draw. The study demonstrated that the perception of the participants followed the development of the visual pathway as described in empirical neural studies. Salient features presented themselves first and then, over time, details such as space, texture, and finally, depth can be learned over many years of development. The eye muscles need to build stamina through guided lessons that provide practice as well as a finished product. It was more important to focus on the variety of qualities of line, shape, and space and strategy building through solution finding and goal setting. Perceptual development indicators of how 8-10-year-old elementary students see and understand images will be heard from their voices. The results indicated that practice exercises helped participants build stamina that directly related to their ability to persist in drawing. The findings have shown that the development of the 8-10-year-olds' visual pathway was found at the global lower-level visual field of V1 and V2 where the processes of orientation of direction sensitive retinal cells are still processing salient features.--Author's abstract