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The aim of this study is to explain the case that preservice teachers will enable alternative experiences to today's visual arts education by using alternative ceramic firing techniques. In this study, qualitative research was carried out using a single-case study during the 2018-2019 academic year. Six preservice teachers were chosen using the criteria of having the necessary knowledge and skills for ceramic training and teaching, and for being educated in the Fine Arts Education Department. In the collecting data part of the research, the techniques of alternative firing such as; fumed firing, raku firing, saggar firing, and obvara firing techniques were practised in the context of this study. The main research data were based on the observation data collected through the process of the practices which were conducted by the artist- researcher. In addition to observations, a data set was gathered to understand and describe the case such as; lesson instruction materials, diaries, self-evaluation forms, and product evaluation forms. The data was analysed using a descriptive framework based on art education and teacher training literature. The findings of the study represent seven themes; "Adaptation of learning to school conditions", "Organising practise steps", "Motivation for creative experiences", "Suggestions for professional practices", "Suggestions for problems", "Adaptability to teaching" and "interaction during the teaching process". According to the findings, it can be stated that the alternative firing techniques transformed into alternative ways for teaching processes in visual arts education through this case. Consequently, the discussion topics are as follows: "Alternatives motivate creative experience"; "Adapting the alternatives to school conditions"; "Organising steps for alternative practises"; Transferring alternative experiences to professional lives".

Pottery making in technology education aims to foster students' practical and creative ability. In a typical pottery making class, students receive the teacher's instruction on the fundamental techniques used in pottery making and have opportunities to practice. It is meaningful to construct an observation-doing-reflection process for students in a pottery making class to promote their learning experience and performance. Therefore, in this study, a Virtual Reality (VR)-based pottery making approach was applied to technology education in a junior high school to examine its effects on students' creativity and learning engagement. A total of 97 seventh graders from three classes participated in pottery making in class. One class of 34 students was assigned to be the experimental group learning with the VR-based approach, while the other two classes were assigned to be the control groups, with 30 students learning with the paper-and-pencil approach and 33 students with the clay-based approach. The results showed that the students learning with the VR-based approach were not only more creative in terms of their products, but also had higher cognitive engagement than those in the control groups. Moreover, the VR-based approach improved the students' behavioral, emotional and social engagement compared to the paper-and-pencil approach.

The teaching of ceramics is a topic that has been much discussed in pedagogical discourse throughout the entire second half of the twentieth century and until today. The present study deals with the topic of third-level education in the field of ceramics at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. The incorporation of ceramics into the education of future art teachers in Olomouc was not always a matter of course as it is today. It underwent many changes during the second half of the twentieth century. Several personalities played an important role in the process of the gradual consolidation of its position in pedagogical education. The most important of these are presented in this study. It describes their main contribution to the field, deals with their attitudes to teaching ceramics, and above all analyses the interconnection of their own art or scientific research theoretical work with the content of teaching. The historical-methodological study connects its theme with historical socio-political events, as well as with the development of fine arts in the second half of the twentieth century. Thus, it contributes to the formation of a comprehensive picture of the topic "artists as art teachers" in the Europe-wide context.

In place of a traditional Advanced Placement Chemistry class at the high school where I teach, I have recently developed and implemented a year-long, interdisciplinary curriculum that presents typical inorganic chemistry topics in the context of their relevant applications in archeology, art history, studio art, and the investigation, authentication, restoration, and conservation of cultural heritage materials. One of the units in the new course explores the chemistry of pottery and includes curricular materials presented in three lessons and described here: (1) an introductory slideshow and a problem set that has students complete general stoichiometric and gas law calculations and examine SiO[subscript 2] specific gravity data, refractive index data, and phase diagrams related to chemical reactions that dehydrate kaolinite clay and temperature changes that produce SiO[subscript 2] phase transformations during firing, (2) a laboratory exercise that has students create their own pinch pots and coil pots and measure mass changes resulting from water lost during drying and bisque firing, and (3) a slideshow, web-based video resources, and case study that allow students to explore in detail the technically sophisticated, 3-stage (oxidizing--reducing--oxidizing, hereafter "ORO") firing process that was used to create aesthetically elegant, Athenian black- and red-figure vases starting in the sixth century BCE, and to conduct thermodynamic calculations to verify the plausibility of several dehydration and redox reactions that are thought to have produced characteristically colored minerals that have been observed both in ancient pots and in modern reproductions. These curricular materials represent a novel way to stimulate and engage students in the application of their chemistry skills and content knowledge in an interdisciplinary context and are suitable for use by teachers of general chemistry or interdisciplinary science and art classes in high schools, colleges, and universities.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have switched to online learning platforms, which inhibits engineering students from completing formative hands-on experiments. To address this, we developed at-home experiments for an undergraduate biomaterials course. These inquiry-based learning experiments were well received by students and resulted in positive learning gains by pre/post-test assessment. These results motivate the use of similar experiments to remotely teach engineering concepts to wider audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

This article describes a ceramic arts research project that provided children with opportunities for meaning making using bone china clay, a medium with strong cultural and historical links to the city where the research took place. The children were positioned as artists and their work was curated and presented for exhibition by an international ceramic artist, affording equal status to their work as that of adults. Findings identified that children made meaning based on lived experiences, popular culture, unique family and cultural heritage, and school identities. We also acknowledge that adult attitudes and school schedules can both enable and limit children's creativity. We further assert that the professional exhibition validated children's processes, competence, cultural funds of knowledge and agency.

Clay is an effective medium in art therapy insofar as it promotes mindfulness, acceptance, and a keen awareness of impermanence. Specifically, Buddhist-inspired lessons of meditative practices permeate the clay studio and embody ceramic arts techniques such as wabi-sabi and kintsugi. Of all art media, clay offers a hands-on approach that facilitates a present-moment experience that is particularly well suited to contemplative engagement.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine tensions around play, performance and artmaking as becoming in the mix of expected and taken-for-granted discourses implicit in an after-school ceramics makerspace (Perry and Medina, 2011). The authors look closely at one adolescent girl's embodied performance to see how it ruptures the scripts for compliant bodies in the after-school program. While these performances take place out-of-school and in an arts studio, the tensions and explorations also resonate with broader issues around student embodied, performative and becomings that run counter to normalized school expectations. Design/methodology/approach: A contemporary approach to nexus analysis (Medina and Wohlwend, 2014; Wohlwend, 2021) unpacked two critical performative encounters (Medina and Perry, 2011) using concepts of historical bodies (Scollon and Scollon, 2004) informed by sociomaterial thing-power (Bennett, 2010). Findings: Playing while painting pottery collides and converges with the tacitly desired and expected ways of embodying student in this after-school artspace. Emily's outer-space alien persona ruptured expected discourses when her historical body and embodied performances threatened other children. While her embodied performances facilitated her becoming a fully present participant in the studio, she fractured the line between play and reality in violent ways. Originality/value: As literacy researchers, the authors are in a moment of reckoning where student embodied performances and historical bodies can collide with all-too-real violent threats in daily lives and community locations. Situating these performances in the nexus of embodied literacies, unsanctioned play and thing-power can help educators respond to these moments as ruptures of tacit expectations for girlhoods in school-like spaces.

Interested in learning about current perceptions of success held by high school students, we carried out a qualitative research study in order to examine what adolescents identify as success in different contexts. Through discourse analysis, we found that the students' artworks served as a means to communicate their current challenges, values, and goals. We also learned that the students often reflected the messages about success that they received from society. Though they valued personal expression in their artwork, students struggled in identifying art education as important.

This article examines the benefits that can be realized when a study contrives a poly vocal environment that allows the participants a larger stake in the conduct of research among them. The article, therefore, does not dwell on the main findings of the study conducted among "Bang' Jomariek" women group of West Reru. The main objective of the research study was to explore the teaching and learning processes utilized by women artists in the art forms of basketry, pottery and indigenous architecture. This article, however, dwells on the observations the researcher makes of the experiences of the study participants which emanate from their being allowed more control of the study conduct. Thus, by focusing on a collective of indigenous women engaged in the education and production of the art forms of pots, baskets, and indigenous architecture, this article explores study participants' roles in fieldwork. The study site was West Reru area of Western Kenya. Scholars Adler and Adler (1987) among many others have suggested behaviors and attitudes that make up ethical researcher conduct. In this article, the researcher draws on the post feminist and post colonial theoretical perspectives to explore the participants' identity construction in an arguably poly vocal research context. Additionally, the study reviews the consequent epistemological concerns that emerge in such a study environment. These women, referred to their educational and production processes as "chwuech". The researcher coined the phrase "chwuechgogical study methods" to describe the study methods and instruments.

Historically, minority women artists and scholars of color have been ignored by the White patriarchal canon of art education and the arts. I uncrate Josefina Aguilar's 14-piece clay "muñecas," which have been stored away in the Palmer Museum of Art for more than two decades, to demonstrate this lack of exposure. I position my own Latina history with Aguilar's in an attempt to examine the cultural sequestering of such artists by making visible how I operate from nepantla, a liminal space described by Gloria Anzaldúa. Using Anzaldúa's concepts of "autohistoria" and "autohistoria-teoria," I lay a theoretical framework of transcultural feminist curating, and I interweave the "testimonio" I have used to decolonize art education, art, and curating. As a witness to the Palmer Museum of Art's neglect in not showcasing Aguilar's works, I expose how women's life histories are often crated and stored in private spaces and seldom opened and appreciated.

Historical overview of ceramic development has been provided in the paper. It has been stated that the trail of ceramics has been rooted in Indus valley civilization. Advancement of materials leads to afflux of development in the fields of science and technology. Present paper deals with the realm of Ceramic Engineering, mainly focuses on education and jobs in the respected fields in India. This paper also holds the framework and research work in Ceramic Engineering in India. It has been defined that the whole processing of ceramics is done in the laboratories, like refractories, ceramics white wares, fuel furnace and pyrometry etc. There are a number of jobs which are offered by government sector as well as private sector. It has been determined that ceramic engineers are able to get job opportunities in aerospace, automotive industry, building material manufacturing, chemical industries, electronics, food processing, mining, medicine and refinery sectors in India. Curricula, undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Ceramics Engineering have been characterized. The peculiarities of dual degree education in Ceramics Engineering have been described. It has been stated that there are several initiatives taken by the government for the enhancement of skills and knowledge in Ceramics Engineering, which have been discussed in the extant paper. It has been defined that a new advancement in Ceramics Engineering is the initiative for enhancement of the knowledge through video lectures, offered by a couple of institutes. The prospects of ceramics application have been analyzed. It has been stated that the momentousness of ceramics are protruding diurnally just like in sculptures designing, pottery, building constructions, sanitary & textile etc. Not only the designing field of ceramics but its use in electronics field has been covered. It has been concluded that ceramic has a great potential to give solutions to the heat absorption between the walls or contacting surfaces. Earthenware was the heretofore product of ceramics. It has been proved that the future scope of ceramic is enormous. It has also been stressed that nowadays Ceramic Engineering is one of the emerging fields in engineering education, but a very prospective one.

This paper presents a methodological framework for the use of gesture recognition technologies in the learning/mastery of the gestural skills required in wheel-throwing pottery. In the case of self-instruction or training, learners face difficulties due to the absence of the teacher/expert and the consequent lack of guidance. Motion capture technologies, machine learning, and gesture recognition may provide a way of overcoming such issues. The proposed methodology is used to record and model expert gestures and then to compare this model in real time with the gestures performed by the learner. Differences in kinematic aspects such as hand distances are detected, and optical/sonic sensorimotor feedback is provided to the learner by the system, alerting him/her when errors occur and guiding him/her to achieve better results. In the case described here, the system was evaluated with 11 learners. With the use of our system, the gestural performance of learners during self-training has been improved in comparison to cases of self-training without computer assistance.

Socially engaged artwork challenges viewers to ask critical questions about society, to dialogue about issues that affect quality of life, and to question how art is considered. Art educators can provide opportunity to discuss and respond artistically to issues within their communities. One way to approach this is through place-based educational experiences that emphasize social justice and promote art activism. Place-based learning connects learning and problem solving to the local area and helps students see themselves as "actors and creators rather than observers and consumers" (Smith & Sobel, 2010, p. viii). Artist Charity White's "Prescriptive Space" was a temporary public installation of three ceramic figures on city benches in Gainesville, Florida. The installation was a comment on how the city controls space for the homeless through the recent implementation of benches that use a dividing handrail to deter people from sleeping on them. The figures were bisected not only to emphasize the dividing handrail, but also to contain information related to the city's history of public policy and the movement of marginalized people. Art activism such as "Prescriptive Space" is not centered around changing policy so much as it is on understanding alternative perspectives and counter cultural ideas. By pushing students to question their assumed environment, teachers increase the likelihood of them desiring alternative outcomes. The end result of art activism is to make students active instead of passive citizens.

This paper complicates notions of Black girlhood by examining the dual experiences of gendered racism that result in both strength and sadness in Black girls' educational experiences. I highlight the need for a curriculum of liberation to combat historical and current social conditions negatively impacting school-aged Black girls, such as harsh disciplinary practices, low academic expectations, and sexual objectification. The Super-Girl phenomenon serves as a metaphor illustrating the balance and imbalance of multiple social constructs. Utilising constructivist grounded theory [Charmaz, K. 2006. "Constructing Grounded Theory." London: Sage], the key concepts in the research derived directly from the voices of 18 school-aged girls (8-13) as well as my observations, interpretations, and related experiences. Data collection utilising observation notes, interviews, written responses, and activity products provided from monthly sessions over the course of two years, offer critical insight into some of the complexities of Black girlhood. The most striking common themes abstracted from their voices were concepts related to "strength" and "sadness" in their lives. Thematic narratives were found to be most relevant to (1) negative teacher-student relationships, as well as, (2) policed bodies and sexual objectification. This work offers specific recommendations for future girl empowerment programming, curriculum, and evidence-based intervention development that can aide in liberating Black girls.

In this essay, Albertson and Davidson explore the attributes of photography and ceramic arts education to identify eight key elements integral to engagement in these art studios for under-served and disenchanted learners. They suggest that these key elements can provide numerous clues as to how teachers and school communities might reimagine both their mission and approach to classroom practice. Through this exploration, they relate literature on apprentice models of teaching and learning, relational education, resiliency theory, and care in the context of classroom practice to their experience and research into teaching and learning in photography and ceramic arts. Albertson and Davidson believe that what is good for the most vulnerable learners, is good for others too, and by bringing these attributes to light, it is their goal to illustrate some of the ways that all teachers might build pathways to engagement for their own "tough audiences" in all subject areas. (Contains 8 figures and 6 footnotes.)

Developmental and development-oriented learning with digital media are discussed in relation to the concepts border crossings and multimodal composition. The first concept refers to a transveral of disciplines and recombinations of elements from them. Local-global relations in knowledge building are covered. The second refers to the collaborative construction of multiliteracies across media types and discourse modes. Three case studies relating to Zimbabwe are presented, one in fine arts and two in performing arts. A cultural historical activity theory frame is adopted. Analysis draws on expansive learning. As a whole multimodal discourse and activity theory may be enriched through study of students' production of mediating artifacts.

Materials science--the science of stuff--has made our lives better by making it possible for manufacturers to supply us with products. Students have misconceptions about materials use. Many may think using bottled water, for example, is harmless because they recycle the plastic empties, but they fail to consider the resources and energy used to produce, transport, and recycle something that, in any case, is superfluous in a city that has safe drinking water. This article describes a series of lessons in which students investigate the technological and engineering ingenuity involved in making materials--and also the environmental ramifications. The aim is to equip students to make informed choices about materials use and disposal. The unit addresses the technology and engineering of materials, including plastics, ceramics, wood, metals, alloys, and composites. The driving question is "How do we safely dispose of all this stuff?" As part of the unit, students act as consultants to help the school green club create advertising that informs the student body about materials, packaging, and the garbage produced as well as the concepts of reduce, reuse, and recycle. The unit, written for five 75-minute classes, aligns with the "Next Generations Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013)

While one author was reading "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh" (2013) in preparation for a presentation, the second author asked what in the book would be interesting to discuss. The topic of Klein bottles was on the first author's mind at that moment, so he tried to describe and explain the form to her--a real challenge, since they were driving and had no illustration to depict the form. She is a high school art teacher and art education instructor, and he teaches mathematics and math education at a local college, so while they started out using a shared vernacular, the conversation quickly became overly mathematics specific or perhaps not art specific enough. In either case, the discussion reached a serious impasse, and he knew that in order to explain Klein bottles more effectively, he would need to strengthen his understanding of them. In this article, the authors present how mathematics and art can share perspective and prominence in a collaborative learning experience.

In my classroom, a typical live demonstration often resulted in a crowd of fidgety, wiggling, middle school students standing on tiptoes and squeezing between others to see the easel. I struggled with finding ways to keep students engaged and focused when presenting new material. There were always a number of students who could not see the demonstration. The pacing never seemed quite right: too slow for the fast workers, too quick for the detail-oriented. Those who missed class on the day of the demonstration had difficulty catching up. My presentations would vary from class to class, elaborating here, forgetting there. Some students would get lost toward the back of the group, where they would covertly play on their phones or hold whispered conversations. Students would forget the information, and I would end up explaining the same thing multiple times during the course of each unit, losing valuable class time. These problems opened up a unique opportunity for exploring a different avenue of presentation. My solution to the crowded easel was to digitize the demonstration, creating tutorial videos covering skills such as portraiture, perspective drawing, ceramic processes, and papier-mâché and posting them to YouTube.

Ronald E. Hays is the former Director of the Hahnemann Creative Arts in Therapy Department at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the cofounder of the graduate art therapy program at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. At the age of 62 he was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia. In this viewpoint the authors relate how a leader in the field of art therapy applied his knowledge and skills to improve his quality of life as his disease was advancing. Based on personal interviews and examples of Ron's work they demonstrate how Ron used ceramics to develop a self-facilitated therapeutic process to manage the disease.

This paper draws on the experiences of students from two vastly different disciplines to both explore the theoretical background supporting the use of multimedia resources to teach practical skills and provide a qualitative evaluation of student perceptions and experiences of using bespoke resources. Within ceramics and podiatry, practical skills are traditionally taught via an apprenticeship model within small groups. We explore the practical and pedagogic benefits of developing bespoke multimedia resources to teach practical skills, identifying common themes from these disparate discipline areas. Student focus groups revealed that, practically, the opportunity for repeated viewing at convenient times promoted less reliance on lecturers and better preparation prior to practical demonstrations. Pedagogically, time for reflection and sense making underpinned an increase in confidence which in turn led to increased creativity. The student voice was also used to identify recommendations and challenges driving future change.

Three independently developed educational leadership courses used the arts to depart from lecture and passive learning, prime students to solve school problems creatively, and build social justice awareness. Photo captioning was used to promote intrapersonal leadership development around professional identity formation and social justice awareness (Case 1). Arts-based activities, such as sculpture making from found objects, were used to illustrate school visions and hone interpersonal skills (Case 2). Lastly, improvisational theater role-playing was used to develop organizational goals around effective teamwork, collaboration and a positive school culture (Case 3). The cases are compared, and students' dispositional responses are discussed with implications for arts-based leadership research.

Students sometimes struggle with visualizing the three-dimensional solids encountered in certain integral problems in a calculus class. We present a project in which students create solids of revolution with clay on a pottery wheel and estimate the volumes of these objects using Riemann sums. In addition to giving students an opportunity for tactile learning, this project focuses students' attention on concepts relating to (i) functions that have no algebraic formula; (ii) notation and construction of Riemann sums; and (iii) error estimation. We will describe our project design, implementation, and suggested adaptations.

The classroom offers a unique and effective venue for community engagement and an opportunity for teaching artists to dive into a topic on both practical and theoretical levels, resulting in well-informed input. That well-informed input is then translated into thoughtful action. It is exciting to engage students early on in shaping their community so that they can carry the expectation into their adult lives and can impact the world they live in. In this article, environmental designer, Carrie Ann Christensen discusses the arc of community-engaged teaching in a recent teaching experience, called Water Stories, that she had with a group of fourth graders. The school first approached Christensen's team--which included a regional arts organization, and a ceramicist who specializes in environmentally themed works--with the question, How can art connect students and the larger community to water and landscape at the school? This team approached the project not just as public art but also as a chance to help manage the landscape and water-based resources at the school in a more sustainable way. In this scenario, the school is not thought of as separate from the outside world. The school grounds are part of the larger community, connected to the watershed, the wildlife, and the infrastructure of the surrounding area. Through the lens of community-engaged teaching, this was an opportunity to teach "Community engagement" to students, teachers, and school staff about water issues through the arts and engage them in developing innovative solutions to water problems on a site with which they interact on a daily basis.

Little research exists on using clay as an anxiety-reducing intervention with patients in psychiatric hospitals. This article reports on a study that used a one-group, pretest/posttest design with 49 adults in a psychiatric facility who created a clay pinch pot. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used as a pre- and posttest measure. Results revealed a significant decrease in anxiety and a significant gender interaction. Pretest mean scores for men were higher than those for women, rendering the amount of anxiety reduction significantly greater for men. These results provide evidence that clay work may effectively reduce state anxiety for adult psychiatric inpatients.

Despite the significant role of pottery in preserving cultural identity and providing a source of livelihood to the people of Nanumba, their artistic development of pottery production has been stagnant. This has resulted in low patronage of their products, which is further accentuated by the influx of the plastics industry on the market. This in turn has led to low social sustainability of pottery production. As a society, there is the need to promote education, creativity, and the development of human potential for the whole population; preserve the cultural and biological heritage and strengthen the sense of connectedness to cultural history and environment. This article follows teaching artists at work on unraveling complexities in the designs of indigenous youth potters in the Nanumba South District of Ghana and expanding the frontiers of pottery production in the interests of social sustainability. The project discussed in this article looks at Nanumba pottery with the primary objective of unraveling its design complexities and expanding the frontiers of potting production to meet contemporary expectations.

Formal ceramics art education is becoming a fundamental requirement for professional practice in ceramics in Nigeria. Considering the ample resources available for ceramic practices in the country with a teeming population of over 140 million people, there is a promising future for the art, in spite of the effects of globalization and inter-cultural infiltrations. Despite the existing raw material potential, ceramic resources are still underutilized, while the ceramic art programme still cannot produce individuals who can function productively in a highly competitive ceramics market economy. An appraisal of the professional engagement of art and design graduates does not find the objectives of the programme in Nigerian tertiary institutions to be met. This article examines the current status of ceramic art education by identifying existent problems and inherent potentialities, as well as suggesting a way forward through repositioning art education in Nigeria. (Contains 4 figures.)