Teaching the Whole Student: Perceived Academic Control in College Art Instruction

While college art instructors strive to respond to the current generation of students, educational psychologists stress the importance of teachers’ focusing on students’ cognitive-affective makeup in addition to conveying course content. Attribution theory—and more specifically, student perceptions of control over academic outcomes—can serve to enhance teaching effectiveness and raise instructor empathy for students’ diverse educational competencies. This study examines the impact of academic control-enhancing teaching methods on first-year college art student success and defines best-practice recommendations based on quantitative and qualitative findings. Results suggest that understanding perceived academic control and incorporating that insight into classroom instruction can help college art faculty to more effectively support first-year students’ adaptation to college, academic performance, mid-year retention, and matriculation to a second year.