December 19, 2016 – Nearly two dozen local art teachers attended a professional development session hosted at the University of Houston College of Education in early December.

Sheng Kuan Chung, lead of the art education program, presented information about the college’s offerings, which include art teacher certification, a Master of Education (M.Ed.) and Ph.D. in art education, as well as a museum education certificate.

The teachers expressed great interest, Chung said, and he responded to several key questions.

Q: Am I qualified for a GRE exemption? 

A: Students will need to have a 3.3 grade point average and to have graduated from UH in the last three years to qualify for the GRE waiver. GRE scores are valid for five years. If you have taken this exam in the last five years, you do not need to retake the exam. However, the GRE is a factor for scholarship consideration. For more details, please email Professor Chung at schung@central.uh.edu.

Q: Do I need to quit my job to pursue a Ph.D.? 

A: No. If you have full-time position, you are welcome to take our program part time. All of our courses are scheduled in late afternoon (after 5 p.m.). Also, several courses are offered online.

Q: What kinds of scholarships are available to new students? 

A: We offer a competitive full scholarship for full-time Ph.D students. All students are qualified for College of Education scholarships ($1,000 to $2,000), opened every spring semester. This information will be announced in the spring through email.  

Q: Can I transfer graduate credits to UH?

A: Up to six graduate credits may be transferred to our graduate program via petition. But it depends on the similarity of the courses you have taken, and the level must be the same as you are taking in the program now. For more details, please email Professor Chung at schung@central.uh.edu.

In the second part of the workshop, Chung talked about issues in K-12 art education. He expressed the importance of integrative art teaching in schools, weaving art into math, science, language and other subjects.

“We encourage art teachers to collaborate with other subject teachers to design curriculum,” Chung said.

He also argued that theme-based, integrative art education is more relevant to students’ daily lives and is key for students to discuss visual culture and social issues. In addition, Chung stressed that students’ artwork should be meaningfully assessed to help their artistic growth. Teachers, he said, can design rubrics to measure areas such as craftsmanship, creativity, understanding of art concepts and engagement.

Chung said the teachers appeared inspired by the professional development session and found it helpful for preparing their admissions applications.