Outlines six instructional approaches to aesthetics and discusses the instructional applications of these approaches. Assesses their feasibility for classroom practice and places them in relation to established educational rationales. Considers multicultural aesthetics, humanist applications, populist applications, studio instruction applications,…

Introduces assumptions about instrumental outcomes in teaching art education. Argues that, through instrumental outcomes, art causes students to think in new ways and knowledge is transferred from the study of art to traditional subjects. Presents research findings and implemented programs that support relationships among art instruction,…

Considers the impact of testing on art education if it is conducted as a means to legitimate art studies. Concludes that some new art programs may be buying into a system that has produced an educational structure which alienates young people. Concludes that testing will contribute to lower levels of cognition. (GEA)

Considers what discipline-based art education (DBAE) teaches through its implicit characteristics and basic assumptions. Argues that DBAE should not be evaluated in terms of any one curricular model because there are many possibilities for its presentation. States that DBAE does not need to present standardized content or limit study to artistic…

The questions that teachers ask students are often not the best types of questions for initiating an art dialog. Classroom discussions require an open atmosphere and properly constructed questions. Examples of effective and ineffective types of questions and appropriate and inappropriate teacher responses are provided. (IS)

Aesthetic perception must be taught if we expect students to use it. Within a given society, the creators and viewers of art are socialized to more or less agreed upon aesthetic codes and conventions. (Author/RM)

Discusses six instructional approaches to aesthetics: (1) historical-philosophical; (2) cultural literacy; (3) aesthetic inquiry; (4) social-critical consciousness; (5) cross-cultural and multicultural; and (6) aesthetic perception and experiences. Examines instructional applications of these approaches, assess their flexibility for classroom…

Comments on the negative aspects of discipline-based art education (DBAE), focusing on standardized instruction and testing. Criticizes the designers of DBAE for using a technocratic, rationalistic model of education. Expresses concern that DBAE evokes identical student responses, rather than the diverse outcomes that should be the goal of art…

Instructional questions, when properly sequenced, can foster student involvement and the development of complex levels of thinking. Most questions posed in classrooms, however, elicit memory-recall responses. It is proposed that art criticism questions be formulated within the hierarchical categories of Bloom's taxonomy. Specific examples are…

A chronology of art education theories and programs from 1750 to 1982 is presented, and the limitations, biases, choices, and interpretations inherent in this chronology and in historical research and reporting in general are examined. (Author/RM)

Technocratic rationality emphasizes manipulation and control of variables, predictability of outcomes, and efficiency of means. Whether discipline-based art education represents an acquiescence to technocratic rationality for the sake of survival is discussed. (RM)

Asserts that research and foundational deficits revealed in the literature may be contributing to the lack of consistent and widespread art criticism instruction. (JDH)

Cognition, as a key semantic descriptor, is examined to discover how its use reveals Western attitudes toward knowledge acquisition and toward art as a subject area. (Author/CS)

Despite calls for change and numerous proposed alternatives, art education remains committed to the studio model. The retention of the status quo may be related to the economics of art studio materials and especially to the extensive advertising of art supply companies in art teachers' journals. (Author/IS)

Provides a brief background on current developments in aesthetics and the contested concepts of three approaches to aesthetics: (1) historical philosophical aesthetics; (2) aesthetic perception and experience; and (3) aesthetic inquiry. Concludes by proposing a fourth approach based on critical theory. (Author/BSR)