This unique program allows students to earn teacher certification while emphasizing a content area within the B.F.A. curriculum. Typically, the student's schedule is reviewed each semester with a studio-emphasis coordinator and the art education faculty member. In order to graduate in four years, students need to plan carefully to complete coursework in three-and-a-half years and then student teach in the final semester.
Degree requirements are designed by the certifying agency of the state of West Virginia and WVU. Education requirements are maintained by the state. Undergraduate art students who desire certification should consult with the art education coordinator to be certain of compliance with certification criteria. Students wanting certification to teach PreK–21 must complete competency requirements established by the state (including passing PRAXIS I and II) in addition to School of Art and Design B.F.A. degree requirements. (PRAXIS CORE must be waived or attempted before taking ART 365. PRAXIS ART CONTENT must be completed no later than the semester before taking ART 491D.)
Art Education
The Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) is a professional degree with an intensive focus on an area of the Arts supported by a program in general studies. The intent of the B.F.A. is to prepare for professional practice in the area of the degree.
- The ability to think, speak, and write clearly and effectively, and to communicate with precision, cogency and rhetorical force.
- An informed acquaintance with the mathematical and experimental methods of the physical and biological sciences, and with the main forms of analysis of the historical and quantitative techniques needed for investigating the workings and developments of modern society.
- An ability to address culture and history from a variety of perspectives.
- Understanding of, and experience in thinking about, moral and ethical problems.
- The ability to respect, understand and evaluate work in a variety of disciplines.
- The capacity to explain and defend views effectively and rationally.
Additional specific goals related to the art education major:
- Studio Art-The prospective art teacher must be familiar with the basic expressive, technical, procedural and organizational skills, and conceptual insights which can be developed through studio art and design experiences.
- Art History and Analysis-The prospective art teacher must have an understanding of: (1) The major styles and periods of art history, analytical methods, and theories of criticism. (2) The development of past and contemporary art forms. (3) Contending philosophies of art. (4) The fundamental and integral relationships of all these to the making of art.
- Teaching Competencies-The artist-teacher must be able to connect an understanding of educational processes and structures with an understanding of relationships among the arts, sciences, and humanities, in order to apply art competencies in teaching situations and to integrate art/design instruction into the total process of education. Specific competencies include:
a. An understanding of child development and the identification and understanding of psychological principles of learning as they relate to art education.
b. An understanding of the philosophical and social foundation underlying art in education and the ability to express a rationale for personal attitudes and beliefs.
c. Ability to assess aptitudes, experiential backgrounds, and interests of individuals and groups of students, and to devise learning experiences to meet assessed needs.
d. Knowledge of current methods and materials available in all fields and levels of art education.
e. Basic understanding of the principles and methods of developing curricula and the short- and long-term instructional units that comprise them.
f. The ability to accept, amend, or reject methods and materials based on personal assessment of specific teaching situations.
g. An understanding of evaluative techniques and the ability to apply them in assessing both the progress of students and the objectives and procedures of the curriculum.
h. Ability to organize continuing study and to incorporate knowledge gained into self-evaluation and professional growth.
