The purpose of the monograph is to identify instructional practices in art criticism that are based upon historical developments in aesthetics. Part 1 presents a history of the transformation of the aesthetics into the three areas of art doctrine, art history, and art criticism. Part 2 provides an overview of major developments in the history and theory of art criticism from antiquity through modern aesthetics. Part 3 presents major aesthetic schemes and criticism models in contemporary art education. Four criticism models encompass many of the historical approaches to art criticism and are transferable into teaching materials: (1) mechanistic criticism; (2) formistic criticism; (3) contextualistic criticism; and (4) organismic criticism. The basis of four aesthetic schemes in contemporary art education provides further information: (1) aesthetic responding schemes; (2) analytic schemes; (3) interpretive schemes; and unifying schemes. Part 4 presents sample units of subject-centered lessons. Unit 1 studies emotional responding with the aesthetic responding schemes to provide a therapeutic opportunity to study subjective responses and express feelings. Unit 2 looks at the balance of emotion and restraint with the analytic scheme to develop the skills of describing and comparing elements in a field. Unit 3 studies interaction in art with interpretive schemes that teach the skills of integrating opposites. Unit 4 explores transcending nature with unifying schemes to develop the spontaneous and creative imagination. (Author/CK) Contains 30 references. (Author/CK)