Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Lucas Lima de Vasconcelos

Abstract

High school students in Drawing 1 at a high school in South Carolina struggle to understand meaning or make personal connections to their own artwork. The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the implementation of immersive reality technology, specifically augmented reality (AR), in art for high school Drawing 1 students to help them understand meaning in art and create their own meaningful artwork. Creating personally meaningful symbolic works of art is one of the first Visual Art National Core Standards (National Core Visual Art Standards, 2014). Creating meaning in artwork allows students to understand society, provide an opportunity for expressing thoughts, and help promote a sense of self. In order for students to successfully create meaning in their own artwork, they need to have conceptual knowledge of ways meaning can be constructed. This study focused on three research questions:RQ1: How does augmented reality technology affect high school students’ understanding about the message within a work of art?RQ2: How does augmented reality technology affect high school students’ personalized creation of an art artifact?RQ3: What are high school students’ experiences using augmented reality in an art classroom?

This study followed the parameters of action research design as it allowed greater interaction with the participants. In addition, action research using a constructivism approach allowed the researcher to study a situation in their work environment and create an initiative for change to help the students. The study included 46 participants from two Drawing 1 sessions. The action portion of the research took place among four phases using various AR markers using constructivism design, allowing the students to learn through experiences. Data collection consisted of pre/posttests, think-aloud protocols, interviews, exit tickets, student artist statement/portfolios, and documents in the form of student art artifacts. Data analysis methods included descriptive statistics, paired samples t-tests, thematic analysis, and visual discourse analysis. Quantitative findings indicated that students’ learning of meaning and their creation of art had a significant increase due to AR. Qualitative findings resulted in six themes pertaining understanding, translation, creation, analysis, and attitude. This study has implications for the use of AR within high school art contexts. Limitations are discussed in terms of the methodology, technology, and researcher.

Rights

© 2025, Alicia Joanne Cobler

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