Art-Based Learning Strategies in Art Therapy Graduate Education
Abstract This mixed methods research study examined the use of art-based teaching methods in master's level art therapy graduate education in North America. A survey of program directors yielded information regarding in which courses and how frequently art-based methods (individual in-class art making, dyad or group art making, student art projects as course assignments, visual journaling, and student art making as a thesis focus) were employed. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews of program directors and recent graduates were analyzed with respect to the function, benefits, and deficits of art-based learning strategies. Such strategies were found to be valued for their integrative function, as a means of personal growth and development, as documentation of experience, and for the transfer of learning to clinical work. Participants also described privacy concerns and ambivalence regarding the evaluation of student artwork.
ABSTRACTBackground: Although it is generally presumed that experienced clinicians are capable of making reasonable decisions concerning rehabilitation potential, inexperienced clinicians may expend efforts and resources somewhat unproductively in managing patients with nonprogressive neurological conditions such as stroke. Clinicians with varied experience may also be influenced by extraneous factors least likely to contribute to an effective admission and treatment planning. Purpose: We report a process for efficient utilization of resources to maximize outcome following stroke rehabilitation. Description: A care planning process with distinctive features of patient profiling, treatment tracking, and outcome staircasing was developed and utilized in the subacute stroke management of African American stroke survivors in an inpatient facility in New York. Outcome of stroke rehabilitation care were compared before and after the implementation of the process using Functional Independence Measures (FIM) score...