Karin Tollefson-hall

Biography

Dr. Tollefson-Hall taught junior and senior high school art and Spanish for five years in several rural and urban schools in the Midwest before completing her graduate degrees at the University of Iowa. At the University of Iowa she taught three different art education methods courses and supervised student teachers as a graduate assistant.

Research Interest

Dr. Tollefson-Hall’s teaching and research interests focus on school improvement, educational philosophy, scholarship of teaching and learning, diverse pedagogies, and teaching practice. Her research has documented art instruction and educational philosophy at various alternative school settings including, homeschooling, Waldorf schools, parochial schools of several denominations and a transcendental meditation school. Other areas of specialization include qualitative research methods and book arts. Dr. Tollefson-Hall was selected to serve as a Madison Research Fellow in 2013. In 2012 Dr. Tollefson-Hall received the Virginia Art Education Association Higher Education Art Educator Award. She was a Madison Teaching Fellow from 2011-2013 and was selected to be the JMU Faculty Member in Residence in Salamanca, Spain in the fall of 2013 by the Office of International Programs. Dr. Tollefson-Hall supports the Center for Instructional Technology as a technology mentor, and the Center for Faculty Innovation as a qualitative research mentor and by assisting with various programs related to scholarship of teaching and learning