This qualitative classroom action research began with a problem that developed over the course of a school year at a rural kindergarten through fourth-grade Title One elementary school in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Before beginning this research project, many of the students were highly engaged in their learning; however, some students were identified as not engaged and seemed to be coasting. The teacher researcher decided to try something new to engage all fourth-grade students. She decided to present her students with a constructivist approach to solving the problem of stacks of unwanted phonebooks from the district office. She challenged fourth-grade students to each repurpose a phonebook, thus inviting students to be an active participant in constructing reality and not just a passive recorder of one’s environment (Elkind, 2004). Rather than being told what to do with the materials, students had to make a plan for themselves. The only instructions were that students must repurpose the phonebook so that the phonebook became something new. What possible impacts might open-ended art projects have on the perceptions of fourth-grade students learning in art? Data were collected in the form of student and teacher completed rubrics, open-ended and multiple-choice questions completed by participants, and the teacher researcher’s anecdotal notes. Four primary themes in the data: student choice, social interaction, recycling/repurposing, and success. This research will inform the teacher researcher’s current and future classroom teaching practices regarding the use of constructivism in fourth-grade art lessons.
","abstract_html":"<p>This qualitative classroom action research began with a problem that developed over the course of a school year at a rural kindergarten through fourth-grade Title One elementary school in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Before beginning this research project, many of the students were highly engaged in their learning; however, some students were identified as not engaged and seemed to be coasting. The teacher researcher decided to try something new to engage all fourth-grade students. She decided to present her students with a constructivist approach to solving the problem of stacks of unwanted phonebooks from the district office. She challenged fourth-grade students to each repurpose a phonebook, thus inviting students to be an active participant in constructing reality and not just a passive recorder of one’s environment (Elkind, 2004). Rather than being told what to do with the materials, students had to make a plan for themselves. The only instructions were that students must repurpose the phonebook so that the phonebook became something new. What possible impacts might open-ended art projects have on the perceptions of fourth-grade students learning in art? Data were collected in the form of student and teacher completed rubrics, open-ended and multiple-choice questions completed by participants, and the teacher researcher’s anecdotal notes. Four primary themes in the data: student choice, social interaction, recycling/repurposing, and success. This research will inform the teacher researcher’s current and future classroom teaching practices regarding the use of constructivism in fourth-grade art lessons.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Swanson, Amanda M"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts in Education","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Education, Leadership and Public Service","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Christi Edge, PhD"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2014-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:34Z","subjects":["Elementary Education","Elementary Art","Open-ended art","Constructivist approach","Art Education"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/20","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Christi Edge, PhD"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Swanson, Amanda M"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-07-11T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Education, Leadership and Public Service"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts in Education"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Elementary Education","Elementary Art","Open-ended art","Constructivist approach","Art Education"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/20"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This qualitative classroom action research began with a problem that developed over the course of a school year at a rural kindergarten through fourth-grade Title One elementary school in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Before beginning this research project, many of the students were highly engaged in their learning; however, some students were identified as not engaged and seemed to be coasting. The teacher researcher decided to try something new to engage all fourth-grade students. She decided to present her students with a constructivist approach to solving the problem of stacks of unwanted phonebooks from the district office. She challenged fourth-grade students to each repurpose a phonebook, thus inviting students to be an active participant in constructing reality and not just a passive recorder of one’s environment (Elkind, 2004). Rather than being told what to do with the materials, students had to make a plan for themselves. The only instructions were that students must repurpose the phonebook so that the phonebook became something new. What possible impacts might open-ended art projects have on the perceptions of fourth-grade students learning in art? Data were collected in the form of student and teacher completed rubrics, open-ended and multiple-choice questions completed by participants, and the teacher researcher’s anecdotal notes. Four primary themes in the data: student choice, social interaction, recycling/repurposing, and success. This research will inform the teacher researcher’s current and future classroom teaching practices regarding the use of constructivism in fourth-grade art lessons.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["PERCEPTIONS OF OPEN-ENDED ART BY FOURTH-GRADE STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHER"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Christi Edge, PhD"],"dc:creator":["Swanson, Amanda M"],"dc:date.available":["2014-07-11T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This qualitative classroom action research began with a problem that developed over the course of a school year at a rural kindergarten through fourth-grade Title One elementary school in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Before beginning this research project, many of the students were highly engaged in their learning; however, some students were identified as not engaged and seemed to be coasting. The teacher researcher decided to try something new to engage all fourth-grade students. She decided to present her students with a constructivist approach to solving the problem of stacks of unwanted phonebooks from the district office. She challenged fourth-grade students to each repurpose a phonebook, thus inviting students to be an active participant in constructing reality and not just a passive recorder of one’s environment (Elkind, 2004). Rather than being told what to do with the materials, students had to make a plan for themselves. The only instructions were that students must repurpose the phonebook so that the phonebook became something new. What possible impacts might open-ended art projects have on the perceptions of fourth-grade students learning in art? Data were collected in the form of student and teacher completed rubrics, open-ended and multiple-choice questions completed by participants, and the teacher researcher’s anecdotal notes. Four primary themes in the data: student choice, social interaction, recycling/repurposing, and success. This research will inform the teacher researcher’s current and future classroom teaching practices regarding the use of constructivism in fourth-grade art lessons.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/20"],"dc:subject":["Elementary Education","Elementary Art","Open-ended art","Constructivist approach","Art Education"],"dc:title":["PERCEPTIONS OF OPEN-ENDED ART BY FOURTH-GRADE STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHER"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Education, Leadership and Public Service"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts in Education"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:34Z"}