Professor Judith Burton, Chair of the Department of Arts and Humanities, is heading one of eight task forces established by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Research Commission, which researches distinct issues of the arts education profession.

The Task Force on Student Learning, which Burton is chairing, is a joint collaboration of the NAEA and the Center for Arts Education Research at Teachers College.

The TC Center for Arts Education is an interdisciplinary group investigating issues of learning and the transfer of learning in the arts. The Center is involved in a number of national assessment and evaluation projects in arts education throughout the United States. It was founded in 1993 by Professor Burton and Professor of Music Education Harold Abeles.

The charge of the Task Force is to work from the NAEA's 1996 "Report on Student Learning" and to focus on how art teachers recognize or "read" children's artistic endeavors and how they interpret or respond to that recognition.

Specifically, the researchers are concerned with what features or aspects of a student work in progress--or on completion--becomes salient to teachers and why, and correspondingly, how teachers respond to nurture artistic learning.

The researchers are working with videotapes from students and teachers augmented by interview data.

Published Wednesday, Apr. 10, 2002