Welcome to the Art Education Program

Students are prepared to attain certification for teaching the visual arts to pre-school children through students of grade twelve in Alabama schools upon completion of the UAB Art Education program. Course work involves studies in both the departments of Education and Art/Art History in order to fully educate the pre-service teacher in the standards, history, philosophies and current trends of the art education field.

Through these studies students gain insight into the many benefits the teaching of art has on students as well as society. According to the National Standards for Arts Education, art education experiences benefit the student because they cultivate the whole child gradually building many kinds of literacy while developing intuition, reasoning, imagination and dexterity into unique forms of expression and communication. An education in art also benefits society because students of art gain necessary tools for understanding human experiences both past and present: learning to adapt to and respect others’ ways of thinking, working and expressing themselves; learning artistic modes of problem solving; understanding the influence of art and design on virtually all we use in daily life; making decisions in situations where there are no standard answers; analyzing nonverbal communication and making informed judgments about cultural products and issues and communicating their thoughts and feelings in a variety of modes, giving them a vastly more powerful repertoire of self-expression.