Guide to Arts Education

The purpose of this page is to provide access some of the more useful sources for teachers working with art programs.  

Books

CSUSM has purchased materials on education, pedagogy and tools, some of which is held in the Curriculum Collection. All are listed in the CSUSM catalog and can be found through keyword or subject searches. Note some books in the catalog are available through electronic format (click on the WWW link in the catalog record for 2-hour access.)

To find additional materials, you can look through these joint catalogs:

• Circuit is the joint catalog for CSUSM, SDSU, UCSD, and USD with delivery in 1-3 days.
• Melvyl searches the entire University of California catalog system and delivers in 5-10 days through Interlibrary Loan.
• WorldCat searches a 'universe' of library catalogs and delivers in 5-10 days through Interlibrary Loan.

Useful Subject Terms

Can't think of terms to accurately describe your topic?  Library catalogs use specific subject headings to group related books together. 'Art' and 'education' are such large topics, you will want to think of ways to narrow it down, by time period, artist, culture, etc. Ask a librarian to help, or here are some examples to think about:

• Art Study And Teaching United States
• Art Study And Teaching Preschool
• Arts -- Study and teaching (note there is a difference between art and 'the arts' as a whole)
• Childrens Art
• Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973 (note the last name, first name when looking for a person as subject, this also is the format to use when looking for a work by author)
• Art -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals
• Painting, Abstract -- Philosophy

 

Articles

ERIC
A national database of education literature, including reports and journal articles.
  Art Abstracts
Includes abstracts from periodicals, yearbooks, museum bulletins, competition and award notices, exhibition listings, interviews, film reviews, and more.
  MAS Ultra - School Edition
Provides full-text for over 460 general interest and current events magazines.
  Primary Search
Provides full text for 50 children's magazines and over 100 children's pamphlets, designed for the elementary school student.
 

Internet Sources

 

Many museums and arts organizations are providing teaching tools for educators online. Here is a selection in addition to the museum list:

Art Teaching Ideas
From Britain, this site offers a wide variety of art projects.

ArtsEdge
From the Kennedy Center for the Arts, a collection of tools for art teachers, arts advocacy and more. 

AskERIC Lesson Plans
These lesson plans were hosted as supplemental material by the appropriate Clearinghouse in the early version of ERIC that was closed in 2003. Now archived at the Educators Reference Desk.

California Art Education Association
The association for professionals in California with links to a variety of resources, conferences and association matters.

Columbia Education Center
While not only addressing art-related lesson plans, funding opportunities and teacher resources, there is enough on Arts education here to make a visit worthwhile.

Learning to Think Artistically
Site from Goshen College with teaching tips, safety cautions, art lessons, and various pedagogical tools.

National Association of Comic Art Educators
For something a bit different, here are study guides, syllabi and more for teaching comic book art.

Teacher Resources
Arts education tools from the J. Paul Getty Trust sorted by age and developmental stages.