How can we add to the future enrichment of our disciplines? How do we make future collegiate teaching a more meaningful practice? This semester-long professional practice course is designed for artists, designers, architects, and educators who are considering teaching in higher education after graduation and/or those who will be teaching during Wintersession as they complete their course of study at RISD. The goal is to introduce graduate students to a reflective teaching foundation and to provide an orientation to the collegiate teaching and learning experience. The first half of the course is composed of readings and discussions related to seven teaching portfolio assignments. The second half of the course entails Individual Teaching Practice Sessions in which students prepare a class that is observed, videotaped, and receives detailed feedback from faculty and peer observers. Major outcomes of the course are: a partial teaching portfolio including a teaching and inclusivity philosophy, course proposals and an extensive course syllabus. This is the first course in the required sequence for the Certificate of Collegiate Teaching in Art + Design.

Elective

How can we add to the future enrichment of our disciplines? How do we make future collegiate teaching a more meaningful practice? This semester-long professional practice course is designed for artists, designers, architects, and educators who are considering teaching in higher education after graduation and/or those who will be teaching during Wintersession as they complete their course of study at RISD. The goal is to introduce graduate students to a reflective teaching foundation and to provide an orientation to the collegiate teaching and learning experience. The first half of the course is composed of readings and discussions related to seven teaching portfolio assignments. The second half of the course entails Individual Teaching Practice Sessions in which students prepare a class that is observed, videotaped, and receives detailed feedback from faculty and peer observers. Major outcomes of the course are: a partial teaching portfolio including a teaching and inclusivity philosophy, course proposals and an extensive course syllabus. This is the first course in the required sequence for the Certificate of Collegiate Teaching in Art + Design.

Elective

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

Elective

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Major Requirement | MA Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

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

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

Major Requirement | MA Teaching + Learning in Art + Design

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

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

Major Requirement | MAT Teaching + Learning in Art + Design