Research presentation for masters thesis.

1. The Effect of Writing in a
Visual Art Classroom
using Web 2.0 Tools
Melinda Arrigo
Spring 2017

2. Research Question:
Will using Web 2.0 tools for research and digital technology for writing
tools affect student creativity and motivation in visual art?

3. Problem Statement:
Creating a visual artwork in a fine arts class for a grade might check a requirement in school
but there is a lack of conversation and reflection by students. Students have experience and practice
writing in other disciplines but have little experience writing art critiques, art reflection, art research and
self-assessments.
This problem became even more noticeable when I had students write a description of one of
their own works. Despite the fact that it was only one reflective paragraph, I found that students were
using “text speak” and had poor typing skills.

4. Inspiration:
My Art Foundations class has a personal identity project each year. I vary the materials, styles and
requirements. This year I had students also write what I called a “justification”. They were only required
to complete one paragraph. The artworks far excelled the designs in previous years. When they turned
in their projects that included the justification, I noticed that a large percentage of students wrote
significantly more than the required length and had more thoughtful and interesting reflections than in
the past. Tis started me on a quest to inspire students not only by creating projects that are more
personal to students but also by having students consider why they are making art and what they are
trying to communicate visually. I wanted to research this but also wanted to include an element of
technology research as well. That is where the idea for researching the effect of art criticism research
writing has on student creativity and motivation.

5. Research Questions:
Research Question 1: Does writing art reflections affect student
achievement in visual art?
Research Question 2: Does using Web 2.0 tools for researching and
writing art critiques increase student achievement in visual art?

6. Research Design:
As an art teacher, my pedagogy is naturally a very informal, unofficial action
research style of teaching. Grounded theory design will be used to collect data
with pre and post treatment surveys to both research groups.

7. Sampling:
My subjects will be selected through the qualitative convenience sampling
method. All students in my Art Foundations classes will participate in this study.
The size of the study will depend on the class sizes, however, at Southview High
School, class sizes are typically 24-27 students. Southview High School is a mid-
size suburban high school that is moderately diverse with 21% minority
populations and 22% of students on free and reduced lunch.

8. Instrumentation:
I will using quantitative scoring rubrics to assess creativity for each visual art
project. One class will receive the writing treatment and one class will not. On
the following slide is a generic sample of the rubric used for art projects. Each
rubric is altered specifically for each different project depending on theme and
media.

9. Instrumentation:
13 or less 14-15 16-17 18-20 Student
projection
Teacher
grade
ELEMENTS
&
PRINCIPLES
Project incomplete or
complete but shows no
evidence of
understanding of
elements/principles, no
planning
Project complete but shows
little evidence of planning or
understanding
elements/principles
Project shows
adequate
understanding of
elements/principles,
evidence of some
planning
Planned carefully, several
preliminary sketches, used
e/p effectively to create
strong composition
CREATIVITY
&
ORIGINALITY
Project incomplete or
finished with no evidence
of originality/creativity
Project finished but with
trite imagery. solutions, no
evidence of experimentation
or originality.
Artist copied work or used
repetitive imagery.
Project finished but not
completely original,
problem solved logically,
but with little creativity.
Influences outweigh
creativity.
Project finished with total
originality after thorough
experimentations and
creativity.
Project has conceptual
creativity
and no copy work but may
have
visible influences.
EFFORT
&
PERSEVERANCE
Project unfinished or
completed only after
many prompts/ideas/
physical help & solutions
from others
Project finished with
minimum effort/met
minimum requirements with
no extra help
Project finished with hard
work but some details
lacking or forgotten
Project finished with
maximum effort, went well
beyond requirements and
chose advanced level of
difficulty
CRAFTSMANSHIP
&
SKILL
Project finished with no
attention to details,
quickly thrown together
Project finished but
somewhat messy and
uncared for
Project finished with
most details cared for
but minor flaws
present
Project beautifully/
carefully made… ‘gallery-
ready’ quality
ATTITUDE
&
RESPONSIBILITY
Student off task most of
the time, didn’t care for
materials, sought ways to
avoid work…slow to start
Student did bare minimum
of work and nothing more…
had to be reminded to
work/clean up
Student worked
enthusiastically and
helped with
preparation and clean
up willingly
Students worked above
and beyond requirements
and demonstrated
consistently mature
behavior

10. Instrumentation:
Surveys are given to students before the project to determine level of motivation
and thoughts or ideas about the benefit of research and writing. Likert Scale
answers are used for students to answer such questions as:
Do you think that writing about your ideas or proposals prior to an art making project will help you stay
motivated throughout the project?
How important do you think it is to have a clear written plan before beginning an art project.
Would researching and writing about an artist prior to an art project increase your creativity?

11. Instrumentation:
Surveys are also given to students at the conclusion of the project to determine
level of motivation and creativity throughout the project and if or how students
connect the pre-project writing assignment to their success/failure. Likert Scale
answers are used for students to answer such questions as:
Do you think that writing a self-reflection at the end of a project increased your creativity for the next
project?
Was your artwork more creative conceptually because you wrote about it?
Which writing process (pre or post project) increased your creativity and motivation?

12. Instrumentation:
Open Ended Questions will also be included in both surveys. Examples of these
questions are:
Would you rather write about art before or after a project? Why?
Do self-reflections help you when you begin the next project? Why or why not?
Does writing a proposal for each project help you become more motivated? Why or why not?

13. Procedure/Data Collection:
Surveys will be administered by myself to my art foundations classes. Surveys will not be labeled with
names, they will randomly be assigned a number to identify the surveys and questionnaires for the
purposes of analysis . I will then leave the room to allow for an additional layer of anonymity. Students
will complete some identifiers such as gender, age and course title but otherwise, they will not be
identified. Surveys will be analyzed and correlated to the qualitative data. Observational data and
interviews will be written in long form and coded into a manageable number of categories to be able to
be correlated with the survey results. Scoring student work at the conclusion of the artmaking portion of
the lesson will use a prescribed rubric that includes 5 sections. Those are: elements/principles,
creativity/originality, craftsmanship, effort/attitude and complete work.

14. Operational Definitions of Variables:
Variable Name Operational Definition Research Question
Written Art Critique Assignment Independent Variable: (categorical)
Students using Web 2.0 tools to write about
art including research and images.
RQ2
Written Self-Reflection
Assignments
Independent Variable: (categorical)
Students only write a post-project self-
reflection
RQ1
Student Achievement Dependent Variable: (quantitative)
Grades of students using a prescribed rubric
RQ1 and RQ2

15. Possible Threats to Validity:
Data Collector Bias: These subjects are my own students. Interpretations may
be interpreted unevenly.
Maturity: The students in my Art Foundations classes range from 9th-12th
grade. There is a significant difference in maturity levels between the ages of
14-18. Both in behavior, study habits, goals and self-awareness.
Subject Characteristics: The differences in age and attitude of students.

16. Results:
To Be determined...