Generative Artificial intelligence (AI) art is increasingly integrated into higher education (HE). While its creative potential has been discussed, its actual pedagogical impact and implications for educational equity remain underexplored. This study conducts a systematic review to evaluate how AI art has been applied in HE settings, what teaching and learning outcomes it supports, and what structural barriers exist in its integration. Using the PRISMA framework, 65 peer-reviewed articles published Scopus and Web of Science. The included studies were synthesized thematically and find that generative AI tools are being used to support ideation, multimodal expression, and interdisciplinary projects. However, barriers such as limited faculty training and unclear evaluation standards may hinder equitable access and long-term integration. This review contributes a conceptual framework for understanding the integration of generative AI art, highlighting opportunities and structural limitations. It offers insights for curriculum designers, educators aiming to support responsible, creative, and inclusive uses of AI in arts education.

The research on teaching scaffolding for preschool children’s oral language development (OLD) has become an important topic in the academic world. However, there remains a lack of evidence-based research on the integration of scaffolding strategies integrated into creative art contexts to support children’s creative expression and language production. In this study, a qualitative case study was conducted to analyze the non-participatory observation and artwork analysis of five-year-old children’s drawing activities in a kindergarten in China based on socio-cultural and scaffolding theories. Three types of core scaffolding strategies were summarized. The findings reveal that the three strategies work together dynamically within the children’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): (1) the visual prompt strategy enriches the vocabulary diversity of metaphors, adjectives, and ordinal words; (2) dialogic narrative co-construction effectively improves narrative coherence across exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution; and (3) emotional engagement strategies foster a safe expressive environment, promoting the integration of affective vocabulary with intrinsic motivation. Accordingly, a three-dimensional integrated “visual-linguistic-emotional” scaffolding model was constructed, emphasizing the practical guidelines of simultaneous scaffolding and gradual scaffolding withdrawal during the warm-up, creation, and sharing sessions of the drawing activity. This study expands the application of scaffolding theory in unstructured art contexts, and provides a systematic practical framework for the design of cross-contextual language support strategies and teacher training in preschool education.