Introduction

 

The standards in this document are based on Every Child's Teacher in North Carolina: Core Standards for the Teaching Profession by the North Carolina Professional Standards Commission.

 

The standards for visual arts teachers describe the knowledge and skills needed to provide quality instruction in visual arts in North Carolina.  According to the benefits of arts education listed in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, beginning teachers must be able to facilitate student learning in grades K-12 in order to foster:

 

v     Understanding human experiences both past and present;

 

v     Teamwork and collaboration;

 

v     Making decisions creatively where no prescribed solutions exist;

 

v     Learning to adapt to and respect others' (diverse) ways of thinking, working, and expressing  themselves;

 

v     Learning problem recognition and problem solving, involving expressive, analytical, and development tools to every human situation (this is why we speak, for example of the "art " of teaching or the "art" of politics);

 

v     Understanding the influence of the arts and their power to create and reflect cultures, the impact of design on our daily life, and in the interdependence of work in the arts with the broader worlds of ideas and action;

 

v     Developing the essential senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and kinesthetic as intellectual, emotional, physical, creative, and expressive acts;

 

v     Analyzing nonverbal communication and making informed judgments about cultural products and issues; and

 

v     Communicating effectively.

 

Visual arts teachers should have a knowledge of the content of visual arts that extends to the perception, production, study, interpretation, and judgment of works of art and design from various cultures, historical periods, and locations.  They should know that the creation and study of art are intertwined.  They should understand descriptive language and the way visual images and forms communicate meaning.   They should have a thorough knowledge of the eight goals and objectives of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study in Visual Arts.

 

Standards and Indicators

 

Standard 1: Visual arts teachers know the content they teach.

 

Visual arts teachers are knowledgeable about:

 

Critical and Creative Thinking

 

Indicator 1: Conceptualizing and developing ideas for creating artwork

 

Indicator 2: Creative problem solving in the process of art making

 

Indicator 3: Perceptual awareness in organizing and implementing images

 

Indicator 4: Evaluating and refining concepts in the creation of original artwork

 

Art Making

 

Indicator 5: A variety of art forms such as painting, drawing, sculpture, crafts, performance, video, photography, conceptual art, technology, design, printmaking, and environmental art

 

Indicator 6: The importance of studio skills, including traditional and new technologies (media, tools, techniques)

 

Indicator 7: Expression through feelings, qualities, values, and styles

 

Safety

 

Indicator 8: Safe and responsible use of media, tools, and equipment in the art classroom

 

Indicator 9: Providing a safe appropriate working environment in the art classroom

 

Aesthetics

 

Indicator 10: The nature of art, inclusive of ideas, subject matter, symbols, metaphors, themes, and concepts

 

Indicator 11: Affects and effects (aesthetic experience, preferences, enjoyment, and appreciation)

 

Indicator 12: Descriptive language and the way visual images and forms communicate meaning

 

Art Criticism

 

Indicator 13: The study of art work for interpretation and evaluation

 

Indicator 14: Various purposes for creating art

 

Indicator 15: Comparing and contrasting works of art through description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment

 

Indicator 16: Critiquing artwork using verbal and written expression, incorporating appropriate art vocabulary and terminology

 

 

Art History/Heritage

 

Indicator 17: Examining art through the context of history, culture, society, artists, time, place, function, purpose, influence, style, and genre

 

Indicator 18: Recognizing and differentiating art works through historical, cultural, and societal context

 

Avocation/Profession

 

Indicator 19: Encouraging art as an avocation

 

Indicator 20: Career avenues within the visual arts

 

Indicator 21: Art appreciation endeavors as an attribute of life-long learning

 

Indicator 22: Mentoring students' development, interests, and personal goals in art

 

Standard 2: Visual arts teachers make informed selection of instructional content.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Recognize that their knowledge of art is essential to providing meaningful learning opportunities for all students

 

Indicator 2: Understand and incorporate a range of comprehensive learning opportunities in arts education for all students (various cultures, ages, abilities, developmental levels)

 

Indicator 3: Make informed decisions about topics and issues in their teaching, based upon creation and selection of appropriate assignments from a variety of resources such as works of art, texts,  periodicals, prints, slides, films/videos, electronic media, art criticism, and assessment tools

 

Indicator 4: Understand the importance of developing instruction to make historical and contemporary art of diverse cultures accessible to students

 

Standard 3: Visual arts teachers are able to effectively instruct students in visual arts.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Implement a comprehensive approach to visual arts education that integrates studio, art history, aesthetics and art criticism.

 

Indicator 2: Translate visual arts content via appropriate instructional methods and strategies compatible with students' diversity such as backgrounds, understandings, ages, and levels of development.

 

Indicator 3: Encourage students to experiment with and expand their repertoires of media and techniques in their art making, and see connections between their own approaches and those used by other artists.

 

Indicator 4: Help students recognize multiple ways that art elements and principles are used to create visual compositions which express ideas, themes, and subjects.

 

Indicator 5: Help students engage in the meaningful exploration, analysis, interpretation, and judgment of art.

 

Indicator 6: Encourage students to make and understand connections between meanings in the world of art and in their own lives.

 

Indicator 7: Help students become familiar with the history of art, specific artists and their works, and art forms of various cultures.

 

Indicator 8: Introduce students to a variety of theoretical and philosophical approaches to art and engage them in thoughtful oral and written inquiry into the nature of art.

 

Indicator 9: Facilitate the development of critical thinking and higher order thinking skills through active engagement with visual arts.

 

Standard 4: Visual arts teachers are well-versed in pedagogy.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Have effective planning skills and are able to make informed and flexible instructional decisions, recognizing that careful long- and short-term planning is essential for successful art instruction.

 

Indicator 2: Use meaningful art instruction to translate art content and other related curricular concepts into sound pedagogical practices that reflect the needs of students.

 

Indicator 3: Recognize that a range of methods and the appropriate translation of specific art content is necessary for increased learning opportunities for all students.

 

Indicator 4: Have students share, discuss, examine, and write about their art work.

 

Indicator 5: Assist students in exploring and interpreting multiple ways of understanding works of art.

 

Indicator 6: Have well-developed communication skills and utilize appropriate ways of asking questions, facilitating discussions, and promoting critical thinking.

 

Indicator 7: Develop a repertoire of teaching strategies appropriate to the needs of all students.

 

Indicator 8: Use appropriate technologies as instructional, research, and artistic tools.

 

Indicator 9: Use an array of instructional school-based and community resources to enhance teaching.

 

Indicator 10: Provide opportunities for students to share their accomplishments in visual arts with peers, family, and community.

 

Standard 5: Visual arts teachers have a comprehensive knowledge of student characteristics, abilities and learning styles.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Demonstrate an understanding of artistic development as a complex multidimensional process affected by physiological, experiential, and social factors.

 

Indicator 2: Recognize established stages of artistic development as general rather than specific and each student progresses on an individual basis.

 

Indicator 3: Understand that students have different learning styles.

 

Standard 6: Visual arts teachers create effective instructional environments conducive to student learning.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Provide art classrooms where students can create with physical, emotional, and intellectual safety.

 

Indicator 2: Provide supportive, shared, collaborative, instructional environments that promote the learning of all students.

 

Indicator 3: Promote principles of fairness and equity.

 

Indicator 4: Provide environments that are well-managed and organized.

 

Indicator 5: Recognize that teachers are responsible for managing the simultaneous activities that take place daily in today's diverse and changing classrooms.

 

Indicator 6: Provide opportunities for students to take responsibility for their own learning, to inquire, learn, and think in independent and productive ways.

 

Indicator 7: Integrate a variety of instructional resources to enhance learning for all students.

 

Standard 7: Visual arts teachers effectively manage student behavior.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Consistently provide and apply clearly understood expectations, rules, and consequences for student behavior.

 

Indicator 2: Use a variety of appropriate strategies and procedures to manage student behavior.

 

Indicator 3: Provide clearly understood procedures for administrative matters.

 

Indicator 4: Provide parameters for verbal participation, and movement within the art classroom.

 

Indicator 5: Monitor students to foster constructive behavior and stop inappropriate or disruptive actions.

 

Standard 8: Visual arts teachers conduct meaningful, appropriate assessments of student learning.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Develop assessment strategies consistent with instructional goals, teaching methods, and individual student abilities to assess skills and understandings central to art.

 

Indicator 2: Use formal and informal, diagnostic, monitoring, and summative assessment strategies such as portfolios, rubrics, journals, oral and written critiques, and discussions.

 

Indicator 3: Regard assessment as a cooperative venture between student and teacher.

 

Indicator 4: Create and use equitable assessments for higher-order thinking, problem solving, individual skills, knowledge, and understanding.

 

Indicator 5: Recognize the individuality of students and their responses.

 

Indicator 6: Provide equal opportunity for all students to display and share what they know and learn in art.

 

Indicator 7: Provide insightful feedback to students concerning the development of their work in progress as well as the finished product.

 

Indicator 8: Model formative and summative processes that assist students in self and peer assessment of art.

 

Indicator 9: Acknowledge a variety of student accomplishments and positive behaviors.

 

Standard 9: Visual arts teachers develop a curriculum that embraces a respect for multiculturalism.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Reflect the breadth and depth of art history within diverse cultures.

 

Indicator 2: Emphasize art as an essential component of multicultural and interdisciplinary curriculum development and review.

 

Indicator 3: Promote awareness of beliefs, understandings, theories and philosophical approaches of art making, from a variety of cultural perspectives, accessible to students.

 

Indicator 4: Make reasoned and insightful selections of artists and works of art to support teaching goals.

 

Indicator 5: Consider the content of art in the context of fundamental individual and societal issues.

 

Indicator 6: Provide students with a knowledge base of historical, critical, and aesthetic concepts to enhance their experiences of art in a global context.

 

Standard 10: Visual arts teachers develop a curriculum inclusive of the goals, values, and purposes of education within a diverse community and society.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Understand the importance of making appropriate curriculum content decisions while taking into consideration student, school, and community contexts.

 

Indicator 2: Articulate how the art curriculum addresses diversity within school, district, and state curriculum guidelines.

 

Indicator 3: Adapt, change, modify, and select curricular options reflective of a diverse student population.

 

Indicator 4: Provide opportunities for all students to learn to work both individually and collaboratively.

 

Indicator 5: Explore the value of students' career options in visual arts in relation to civic, social, and economic issues in a global society.

 

Standard 11: Visual arts teachers are sensitive and insightful observers of students' individual differences.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Know the importance of acquiring information through formal conferences and informal conversations with students, their families, other teachers, counselors, school psychologists, and administrators in order to gain greater understanding of students needs.

 

Indicator 2: Understand that students learn in different ways and at different paces.

 

Indicator 3: Respect and value the unique backgrounds, abilities, and interests of all students.

 

Indicator 4: Are sensitive to differences in artistic and aesthetic responses of students.

 

Standard 12: Visual arts teachers recognize their responsibilities to the school and to the community.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Serve as role models for students as professionals through appropriate speech, actions, dress, and appearance.

 

Indicator 2: Participate as contributing members of the school community; act as providers of information; facilitators of student inquiry; and as members of problem-solving teams.

 

Indicator 3: Work with colleagues to improve and evaluate professional development plans and practices.

 

Indicator 4: Provide leadership in educational and professional roles.

 

Indicator 5: Know the importance of actively participating as members of policy committees and educational councils, and collaborating with other educators and colleagues at all levels.

 

Indicator 6: Recognize the value of working with educators from other schools, districts, colleges and universities; and also individual artists, arts organizations, and museums.

 

Indicator 7: Develop as artists and appreciators of art, engaging in their own studio work and seeking opportunities to learn more about art.

 

Indicator 8: Analyze the effectiveness of their art program in the context of personal, school and district goals, and model programs.

 

Indicator 9: Communicate effectively with a variety of audiences.

 

Indicator 10: Know the importance of exhibiting and promoting student art as an advocacy tool which reflects the visual arts program.

 

Indicator 11: Work to break down stereotypes about art and art learning that may exist among administrators and faculty in other subject areas.

 

Standard 13: Visual arts teachers contribute to the growth of the profession as art educators.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Are active members of professional associations, museums, and organizations.

 

Indicator 2: Know the history of the profession and the foundations of arts education.

 

Indicator 3: Participate in professional development seminars, workshops, and conferences.

 

Indicator 4: Know the importance of making presentations at events such as school, parent, and community meetings and at professional conferences and workshops.

 

Indicator 5: Know the professional research and literature and understand its impact on practices in the classroom.

 

Indicator 6: Know the importance of contributing to the literature and practice of the profession.

 

Indicator 7: Communicate the vital roles that visual arts play in education to the larger community, including school administrators, parents, and colleagues in other disciplines.

 

Indicator 8: Know the importance of learning from mentors who exhibit the highest standards of educational practice.

 

Standard 14: Visual arts teachers continually reflect on their own practice.

 

Visual arts teachers:

 

Indicator 1: Continue to investigate the nature of teaching art.

 

Indicator 2: Develop a capacity for ongoing, objective self-assessment, innovation, and willingness to change in order to strengthen their teaching.

 

Indicator 3: Reflect on their teaching practices to extend their knowledge, improve their teaching, and refine their evolving philosophy of education.

 

Indicator 4: Articulate their teaching philosophy and the unique way in which visual arts contributes to cognitive, emotional, and social growth.

 

Indicator 5: Seek and accept qualified advice and constructive feedback of their teaching practice from cooperating teachers, university supervisors, mentors, arts supervisors, administrators, colleagues, and other professionals.

 

Indicator 6: Evaluate the effectiveness of their instruction and its influence on students.