The online MA in Art Education curriculum is characterized by:
- Hands-on artistic exploration and technology-rich media arts resources to build your creative teaching voice
- Comprehensive fieldwork placement and student teaching support
- Personalized advisement and career planning
- A wide range of unique electives to suit your career goals
- Coursework geared to prepare you for New York State Visual Arts Pre-K–12 teaching certification
Learning Outcomes
The goal of the online MA in Art Education program is to develop art educators who can:
- Understand artistic development across the lifespan and the relationship of the sensory and kinesthetic domains to art making
- Awaken and support the exploration of ideas, feelings, experiences and materials
- Appreciate the role the arts can play in opening cross-cultural understandings
- Maintain a lively commitment to their own artistic practice
Program Structure
The online MA in Art Education is a two-year program. Students may take two core courses each fall and spring semester, and add additional chosen electives over the fall, spring, summer and/or intercession as needed to provide flexibility and create a personalized program experience.
Online Learning Environment
All MA in Art Education courses are delivered on the Moodle learning management system.
Courses are largely asynchronous, meaning students can view lectures and complete related assignments and fieldwork on their own time. Coursework may include reading, viewing video lectures, participating in forums and multimedia VoiceThread discussions and collaborating with other students on group projects. In some cases, students may be required to attend live video chats during standard course times.
Students typically devote 8 to 10 hours a week to coursework. Though the online format provides flexibility, most assignments must be completed on schedule. For more information about how Adelphi University brings its coursework to life online, visit About Adelphi Online.
Fieldwork and Student Teaching
Fieldwork is an important aspect of the online MA in Art Education as it enables students to observe certified educators in art classrooms, museums, galleries and community settings to gain insights into subjects including artistic development, creating lesson plans and managing inclusive environments. Students must complete 100 hours of fieldwork, across three courses, before beginning student teaching. Refer to the Course Schedule below to learn which courses require fieldwork.
During the final semester of the program, the Office of Community Partnerships places students in an elementary and secondary school for student teaching, taking into account requested locations. During this time, students are mentored by their cooperating teachers and university supervisor. Students spend the full day in their school placements, taking on curriculum planning and teaching, while supported by experienced educators. This experience is enhanced by weekly discussion seminars with experienced faculty around relevant topics such as curriculum planning, technology training, classroom management, career development and other aspects of contemporary art instruction. Students with preferential sites or teachers have the option to request a particular placement, and placements are available for students who live outside of Long Island and New York City. Special student teaching abroad opportunities are also available.
Online MA in Art Education Courses
Core Courses (All required):
This course serves as an orientation to historical and contemporary practices in visual arts education. It considers issues related to educational policy, research and practice. Students will examine their assumptions about artistic experience in early childhood and adolescent education and articulate a rationale for the role of arts in education.
How do multimedia, texting, chat, status updates and hypertext change the way we read and interpret texts? Students study various theories of literacy and how it changes with the introduction of digital technologies. Readings will include selections on new media, new literacy, multiliteracies, multimedia, cognition and visual semantics.
This training course is designed to fulfill the harassment, bullying and discrimination prevention and intervention training required for certification/licensure under the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA). The training is for six instructional hours and can be taken at Adelphi or elsewhere.
This course examines artistic development with an emphasis on how sound art education can support, enrich and nurture cognitive, emotional and social development, and enhance general educational practice. Students are required to complete 25 hours of fieldwork in Pre-K–12 settings.
This course provides educators with awareness of special education, exceptional learners, special educational law, historic and philosophical bases of special education. Focus is placed on the nature of pupils with a range of disabilities, healthcare and instructional needs. Students are required to complete 25 hours of fieldwork. This course satisfies the New York State requirement for 3 hours of seminar in “Needs of Children with Autism.”
This course prepares students to include visual art in the education of children with special needs, disabilities, giftedness and other unique learning styles/differences. Students will explore interdisciplinary, expressive art activities for young people that build oral, tactile, visual, sensory and motor skills that complement learning across the curriculum.
In this course, students explore health issues such as chronic and communicable diseases, puberty, HIV/AIDS, tobacco, drugs, alcohol, nutrition, physical fitness, child abuse and abduction, mental health and violence. This course satisfies the New York State mandate in violence prevention, child abuse and substance abuse.
Candidates conduct an inquiry project, which may include traditional research, new media curriculum development, action research, service learning or field based inquiry. Special topics will be offered. Candidates also complete the cosynthesis phase of their portfolio.
Students work with a cooperating art teacher and supervising university art educator who teaches a reflective practice seminar one evening each week during the student teaching semester. Students spend eight weeks in a Pre-K–6 setting and eight weeks in a 7–12 setting.
Note: Candidates not required to student teach add 3-credit studio art or exploring the arts elective.
See below for elective course information.
Electives (Select four):
Students are introduced to ways in which to integrate the arts in learning, using the Waldorf educational practices as a case study. Students will study the impact of hands-on activities for integrated learning. Readings will support discussion.
Students will learn the foundations of instructional design and understand how to integrate technology in meaningful ways in K-12, higher education or other educational settings. Students will also learn how to develop and assess learning plans that are aligned to technology standards and/or other learning outcomes.
Students are introduced to major critical views on technology, culture, society and education. Students are also exposed to perspectives and ideologies such as Marxist, feminist and posthumanism. These positions will help students analyze and contextualize the role of technology along sociotechnical, historical, political, pedagogical and ethical lines.
Students study online learning in distance and blended classes, and in virtual schools in both higher education and K-12 settings. Looking at pedagogy, best practices, interactivity and student-centered design, this class considers the positive and negative potential of online learning in terms of universal accessibility, teacher development and economic sustainability.
Students will apply educational theatre strategies to enliven learning about Shakespeare. They will explore the psycho-physical and creative imagination techniques of the Michael Chekhov system to develop original characters and monologues inspired by Shakespeare’s language and historical period.
No background in Shakespeare or performance required.
Explore the immigrant experience in the United States. A cultural studies framework will structure the study of literature, and students will explore classroom implications for reading such literature with students, especially second language learners.
Develop confidence and abilities in the written and spoken word. Survey a range of autobiographical texts including prose, poetry, film and new media while developing skills across a range of modes and genres.
Students will explore the social, cultural and professional situations of women as seen through art and literature. Students will undertake a search involving studio experimentation and critical thinking to clarify their own position in our culture and generate initiatives for the innovative teaching of art and literature in the classroom.
Students will explore integrated learning in the light of the philosophy and methods of Waldorf education within the context of the public school classroom. Students will focus on children’s needs and explore ways to generate curricula, through classroom activities and the creation of a portfolio of cooperative and individual work.
During this course we will explore the roles of art museums in elementary curriculum (language arts, mathematics, science and social studies). Students will be introduced to a range of public artworks, related theories of artistic development at the elementary school level and interdisciplinary activities involving art history and aesthetics.
Students will explore the musicality and sensory richness of language through oral and written explorations of poetry and storytelling. They will discover the expressive capacities of their voices, gain a newfound feeling of confidence and ease while speaking and discover imaginative ways to enrich their classroom experiences.
Practice introducing artist books, graphic novels and performances into curricula to inspire curiosity and creativity. Explore literacy skills and creative teaching activities across the arts. Engage with interdisciplinary, meaningful methods of teaching theatre literacy, visual/media literacy, and museum literacy with selected poetry, performance and other works of art.
Social media prevades our social life with implications for education, business and beyond. Examine the sociological and psychological impacts, benefits and risks of social media. We examine social networking sites, (micro) blogs, video and wikis; focusing on their use in classrooms to build community, develop literacy and foster critical thinking.
Independent study can be arranged between a student and instructor. Project plans must be clearly stated in writing and signed by the Chair. Masters candidates are limited to two independent studies in the course of their graduate work.
Students will explore the two pillars of the Michael Chekhov acting technique: psycho-physical expression and the creative imagination. They will engage in specific acting exercises and reflect on their work with the goal of accessing emotions through an embodied, imaginative approach. They will apply these explorations to improvisational character studies.
Students will explore the history, foundations and methods of creative dramatics, including theatre games, creative movement, story drama, playmaking, theatre in education and drama-based instruction, among others. They will explore the role of literature and script writing in the creative dramatics curriculum.
Through creative exploration of spoken word poetry and storytelling, students will discover engaging ways to support the oral language and literacy development of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. They will develop their own expressive literacy skills through creative speaking and writing, exploring the musicality and sensory richness of human language.
