Date of Conferral

1972

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Joseph Carol, Ed.D.

Abstract

The writer has had experience as a supervisor of music at the elementary and secondary levels. This experience combined with the development of courses to suit the program for an elementary teacher training institution provided the background for the development of this project.

The problem, as it appeared to the writer, was that in spite of valiant efforts on the part of music supervisors and art teachers’ elementary students did not comprehend music or art as an aesthetic whole. The methods in use, in most Maine schools, presented the arts as a technical skill to be mastered by the student rather than as a fine art to be first understood and then, in later grades, mastered.

Investigation showed that some institutions of higher learning were combining the arts in college programs. Further search indicated an attempt on the part of some secondary and junior high teachers to combine the arts in their teaching. No evidence could be found however, that there was any effort to prepare teachers to deal with this concept at the elementary level. It seemed that this combining of the arts in the elementary grades was the most desirable approach.

With this premise as a base the program of preparing an allied arts teacher for elementary grades was developed.

Methods and Procedures

A survey of the offerings in the area of fine arts was made by studying programs in seventy colleges and universities engaged in teacher preparation. The Music Educators National Conference publications were reviewed to determine what research had been done in the area of that combined arts. Letters were written to members of the National Association for the Humanities in Education to determine what work was being done in the field. Correspondence, review of research, and personal interviews with educators and administrators provided the direction for the study. A survey of the fifty state departments of education which resulted in forty replies pointed up the need for such a teacher preparation program. When the need for the program had been established writer proceeded to collect a bibliography that included music education, art education and general education as well as philosophical observations on the fine arts. The organization and collection of this material was accomplished in the period of two years.

Summary

The program was presented to the administration, Academic Affairs Committee, Faculty Council and the Dean of Academic Affairs of the University of Maine, Fort Kent, in November of 1970. With full campus approval and on the basis of the surveys the program was presented to the University Chancellor early in 1971. In March 1971 the Chancellor approved the program and the University of Maine board of trustees, at their April meeting, endorsed the course of studies for the Fort Kent campus. The program was put into operation in the fall semester of 1971 and has some eleven students involved in all or part of the allied arts concentration.

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