An Evaluation of
"Teaching the Whole Student:
Perceived Academic Control in College Art Instruction"
By Lavender, Nguyen-Rodriguez and Spruijt-Metz
(COPYRIGHT © 2011 MIKAEL POWELL. All Rights Reserved)-DRAFT
Introduction:
The facts are sobering that less that half of all colleges students finish their degree and only about two thirds of undergraduates continue to their second year. While some professors attribute that to student generational characteristics, a group of psychologists look to psychosocial research for answers. This article promotes attribution theory as a guideline to develop pedagogical practices to support student well-being and increase matriculation to the second year.
This paper review the article, Teaching the Whole Student: Perceived Academic Control in College Art Instruction, and then analyzes the type of research, purpose, key findings and usefulness of the research. Afterwards, I offer concluding remarks.
Summary of research:
Lavender, Nguyen-Rodriguez & Spruijt-Metz (2010) contends that faculty often expresses concern about the attitude of freshmen students. They find many students unenthusiastic, unmotivated and not ready for the rigors of college art instruction. Although it may be said that cutbacks in elementary and secondary art programs may have rendered underclassmen less experienced in art-making, these authors look to improve the psychosocial makeup of students as a solution. Specifically, through tenets of attribution, self-efficacy and motivation theories, they research student’s feelings of control over their environment and events. Lavender, et al (2010) explain that
“Motivation theory is critical in influencing learning behavior and is especially important in breaking a self-perpetuating cycle of low performance exhibited by many under-prepared students…Self-efficacy refers to students' beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives…Attribution theory focuses on the reasons students give for their successes and failures” (p. 200).
The latter theory, which is concerned with justifications for events, is based upon research on locus of control (LC), which differentiates between students’ expectations that occurrences happen under their control (internal), or beyond their control (external).
There are many different techniques to measure LC, which are widely employed in psychosocial research. Specific categorizations, such as perceived academic control (PAC), rates students’ belief in their ability to affect scholastic outcomes. Several studies link students with high PAC, those exhibiting a strong belief in their ability to control their academic outcomes (internal), as more motivated to succeed and students with low PAC, those thinking that their academic success is managed by fate or other people in power, as far less inclined to perform. This finding is especially prescient for college art students because Lavender, et. al (2010) states “creativity has been positively correlated to internal LC; internals tend to score higher on specific factors of creativity, and may be more likely to find happiness in the process of creative ideation”(p. 201). Lavendar et.al. conducted this research to study attributional retraining (AR) to support students with high external LC. “For those students who agree more often with external control statements, it allows the instructor to suggest the value of "behaving like an internal" if they wish to succeed in college” (Dollinger, 2000, p. 539).
Lavender, Nguyen-Rodriguez and Spruijt-Metz conducted research with 244 college art and design students and 22 faculty members. The instructors were trained in the following methods: “(1) Openly discussing the LC/PAC concepts in classes. (2) Reinforcing student behaviors consistent with internal/high LC/PAC. (3) Assisting students who demonstrated behaviors consistent with externality.(4) Modeling for students how to "behave like internals" (Dollinger, 2000, p. 539). Students were accessed for LC/PAC before, during and after the experimentation. In addition, students participated in structured focus groups on the topic. Research findings indicate “a significant number of foundation students revealed external/low control attributions at baseline, and the percentage of those indicating externality did rise by the end of the first term. Yet instructional intervention appears successfully to have stabilized this shift, and then reversed it, in the second term. Correspondingly, student academic performance improved, mid-year attrition fell to less than half its prior trending rate, and yearend attrition also dropped significantly” Lavender, et. al, 2000, pp.209-11).
Type of research
This is a research study that is published in the journal, Studies in Art Education. It is a professionally refereed publication that is issued quarterly by the National Art Education Association. This journal includes research and articles of interest in the fields of education, psychology, anthropology, philosophy and sociology. The article begins with a literature review of relevant material concerning freshman college art students, and then provides experimentation to support its posit on programs to support positive psychosocial development in students. Their research includes analysis of questionnaires and focus group findings.
Purpose of Article:
This article was written to promote and encourage methods that support the psychosocial well being of students as a means to keep them in school. It enlightens readers about matriculation studies and offers a solution, supported by their experimental results. This research is probably written for professor’s because it advocates for teaching methods that supplement existing pedagogical practices, as opposed to being written for administrators to create new policies.
Key Findings and Presentation of Data:
The research finds that adopting these teaching methods supports student cognitive health and is a factor in matriculating to the next year. The article points out that oftentimes there is a generational divide between the “millennial” student and the “baby-boomer” professor. Lavender, Nguyen-Rodriguez and Spruijt-Metz say “such faculty impressions might be dismissed as simply a form of generational whining about "kids today; but they are based on observation, they arise from genuine concern, and they should not be ignored” (2010, p. 199). This article extends the discussion beyond conventional acceptance. The information is laid out in a straightforward way, with supporting data in the appendix and the figures are particularly clear and compelling. Figure 1 below graphically illustrates the basis of their argument, showing result with and without intervention.
Usefulness and Effectiveness:
This article is very relevant to our coursework because it studies the condition of college students in arts and design programs in a way that acknowledges contemporary assumptions, and offers theory and supportive research. It acknowledges that individual professors can adopt the pedagogical practices it proposes as a supplement to their existing manner of instruction. Thus, it is likely to increase action research for this issue.
Conclusions:
This research article is timely, straightforward and written to its intended population. The lead author is the interim co-Provost at Otis College of Art and Design and his expertise as an administrator and eduator in the Arts and design field, brings credibilty to the report. The other authors are doctors at the University of Southern California. This article explores and enlightens while offerng the tools for other professor to try the methodologies in their classroom. I am sure that students will be the benficiary of this research and it may support their advancement to sophomore year.
References:
Dollinger, S.(2000). Locus of control and incidental learning: An application to college student success. College Student Journal, Dec, 34, 4, pp. 537─ 540.
Lavender, R., Nguyen-Rodriguez, S. and Spruijt-Metz, D. (2010) Teaching the whole student: Perceived academic control in college art instruction. Studies in Art Education, Spring, 51, 3 pp. 198─218.
