| The purpose of this research study was to investigate the attitudes and usages of assessment methods by elementary visual art teachers in two southeastern school districts. Data consisted of responses to a mailed survey instrument that included relevant demographic information pertaining to respondent's educational preparation experiences, tabulation of classroom activities, assessment usage, and a construct set of questions which addressed an attitudinal scale about the effectiveness of evaluation and measurement within their visual art classrooms. The primary focus of attitudinal orientation toward assessment centered upon the types of role models respondents encountered regarding assessment during initial teacher preparation and the resulting paradigm of belief concerning measurement art teachers experienced in varied educational settings.;Results indicate that study respondents had a strong positive response to the construct attitudinal statements about accepting evaluation as a normative practice in their classrooms. The survey item "multiple choice tests are appropriate to use in visual art classrooms" had a strong relationship to the total reliability and had the greatest impact on the factor analysis. Further relationships were identified in the use of newly adopted textbook curricula to the acceptance of the statement "learning could be measured in visual art," suggesting that if art teachers embraced a textbook curriculum (developed through an outside, expert entity) they were more likely to accept the possibility that learning in elementary visual art classrooms was possible to be measured. The relationship between the statements regarding the acceptance of multiple choice tests as a valid method of assessment and the recentness of either graduation from teacher preparation coursework or specific in-service professional development about assessment also suggests that pedagogy at the university and district level after The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was more likely to include instruction or role models in the practical use of assessment techniques for respondents. |
