Research Reflection Week 4

This past weekend I had the opportunity to meet face to face with one of my critical friends. I was struggling to form my question and she helped me formulate my thoughts very well. My question is "What guidelines/tools can be developed to help an evaluator to identify specific teaching strategies during an observation of a Florida high school art teacher?" The process that I am planning on using to gather data are interviews with art teachers, administrators, other subject area teachers and art teachers from other states. However, after reading the article (Zeni, 1993), I am must more sensitive to the effects it might have on the research subjects. I wish to use Hickman's (2001) thoughts about different types of art teachers to target specific classroom actions that indicate the state mandated evaluation system of teaching strategies. I am concerned with what results will come of this. Will these art teachers feel threatened? Will they want to see the results of the research?
The intent is to create a webpage/flip chart/presentation to help an evaluator recognize the evaluative bench marks during an art teacher's evaluation. For example, how does an art teacher use reading and writing in the art classroom? How does an art teacher use differentiated instruction? Graphic organizers? Summarization strategies? etc. We have several administrators that need to know what an art room should 'look' like.
Please, any art teachers reading this, please let me know your thoughts. I can not look at the test data side of the evaluation process, but the classroom observations can be researched. Any thoughts anyone? I have the results of a study I conduct earlier dealing with art teaching styles will use information obtained to help formulate this research process.

Methods at this point:
-interviews with art teachers, school based administrators, other subject area teachers, professional organization leaders
-observations of art teachers
-gathering previous research on teacher evaluation


Hickman, Richard. "Art Rooms and Art Teaching." Art Education. 54.1 (2001): 6-11. Print.