An Art Educators\u27 Perception of an Art Professional Development Workshop

Abstract

There are no guidelines in South Carolina for developing workshops that reflect the needs of art educators, and there are no tools to evaluate and support their professional development. The problem is a lack of informative, substantive, and academically oriented art inservices that are standards-based and focused on the enhancement of pedagogy, teaching strategies, and content. The purpose of this case study was to explore participants\u27 perceptions of an art professional development workshop as an approach to examining art standards, instructional strategies, and policy changes. Dewey\u27s experiential theory served as the conceptual framework. A purposeful sample of 10 art educators who attended a district-sponsored professional development workshop participated in this study. After the workshop, data about educators\u27 perceptions of the inservice were collected through a beta test and a focus group with 2 participants, 1 open-ended questionnaire with 8 participants, and a workshop observation with 20 participants. Data were analyzed using comparative analysis to identify patterns in the data. Member checking and triangulation were used to verify the data and control bias. Five themes emerged from the data: adult-centered hands-on learning, professional development experiences, grants, collaboration and networking, and best practices. This study contributes to social change by showing the importance of on-going adult-centered, research-based, hands-on professional development for educators addressing visual art standards, practice, instructional strategies, policy changes, and the facilitation of student-centered activities