Title: Connecting Mathematics and the Arts through the Magic of Escher for Elementary School Students
Abstract: According to Discipline Based Art Education, the teaching of Art as an academic subject should focus on the content of Art Production, Art History, Art Criticism and Art Aesthetics. Likewise, according to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the teaching of Mathematics should integrate both content and process standards. Escher’s art can be a motivating catalyst for blending the study of visual arts with mathematics in the elementary classroom, especially in relation to tessellating patterns through the use of transformational geometry. Introduction In the early 1980’s, the J. Paul Getty Trust, a private foundation located in Los Angeles, California dedicated to the visual arts, developed Discipline-Based Art Education (DBAE) as a conceptual framework for the study of the visual arts in K-12 education [1]. The DBAE framework communicates an encompassing view of art through the study of an artist’s work(s) or types of work using four distinct disciplines adapted to specific grade levels: •ART PRODUCTION: Students learn skills and techniques in order to produce personal, original artwork. •ART HISTORY: Students study the artistic accomplishments of the past and present as motivation, examples of style or technique, and as discussion topics, especially in relation to cultural, political, social, religious, and economic events and movements. •ART CRITICISM: Students describe, interpret, evaluate, theorize, and judge the properties and qualities of the visual form, for the purpose of understanding and appreciating works of art and understanding the roles of art in society. •ART AESTHETICS: Students consider the nature, meaning, impact, and value of art, to formulate reflective, “educated” opinions and judgments about specific works of art, and examine criteria for evaluating works of art [1, pp 3-4]. Therefore, the goal of discipline-based art education is to develop and enhance students’ abilities to understand and appreciate art. Instruction in the four disciplines should deal with a) production-processes and techniques for creating art, b) history-contexts in which art is created, c) criticism-a basis for valuing and judging art and d) aesthetics-conceptions of the nature of art [2, p 135]. For the elementary teacher, this means facing the challenge of implementing art education classroom objectives for elementary school children so as to incorporate: 1) The making of art and the components of making art through the use of tools, media, form and expression; 2) Past and present history through works of art and artists’ lives;
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot