Courses

Teaching is a creative process. To direct, train, and educate artists requires more than a knowledge of art. An effective teacher must communicate visual ideas, facilitate creative growth, and engender a desire for learning to prepare artists for professional challenges. Students at PrattMWP prepare for their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in Art and Design Education by completing the foundation art courses in their freshman year then developing both their visual art skills and abilities in communicating those visual ideas to others. Students who major in Art and Design Education may then go on to earn a New York State Initial Certification in Teaching Fine Arts in grades Pre-K through 12.

ADE 200
From Studio to Classroom
3 credits
This course draws on each student's studio core and considers ways that the artist-teachers can adapt studio competencies to an educational setting. Through fieldwork observations and research, students will identify the concepts, skills, techniques, materials and language specific to each studio core. Students then begin to adapt, translate, and make studio learning accessible for the diverse abilities and interests of individual learners and groups of learners. This course includes 25 hours of fieldwork in a k-12 setting. Students must leave one day free in their schedules for school visits.

ADE 201
Youth in the City
3 credits
New York City's neighborhoods and institutions serve as a lens through which to examine how educators, social activists, artists, and policy makers frame, debate and negotiate racial, economic and social inequalities among the city's youth. The course challenges the deficit model approach to addressing inequality and in doing so questions assumptions about purposes of education within the context of an ongoing struggle for democratic rights and opportunities. Through an institutional study of a school and its neighborhood, students explore youth, family, and community assets. Leadership and agency. Students analyze and synthesize evidence, take into account different viewpoints and perspectives, and apply their findings to professional practice.

SS 391
Child and Adolescent Development
3 credits
Theories of development from infancy through adolescence are critiqued through readings in psychology and literature, formal observations, and personal experiences. Learning and environmental factors such as gender, race, disability, and economics in the home, school, and community are included in the discussion. Students consider language acquisition and literacy development, sexuality, and cultural identity development.