Teaching Aesthetic Perception in the Elementary School

National Art Education Association

Teaching Aesthetic Perception in the Elementary SchoolAuthor(s): Ann Bachtel-NashSource: Art Education, Vol. 38, No. 5 (Sep., 1985), pp. 6-11Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3192852 .

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__III ' I 1 I I I I Ie

Teaching Aesthetic

Perception In The

Elementary School * Ann Bachtel-Nash

W ha hat is aesthetic education? Can it be taught in the regular elementary curriculum by a class-

room teacher who is not an arts specialist? According to Public Law No. 98-410, which President Reagan signed on August 29, 1984, the arts are included as one of six basic academic subjects to be taught in our schools. This new law, regarding the value of the arts and arts education, includes the phrase "aesthetic appre- ciation." The Classroom Teacher and Aesthetic Education The dilemma of classroom teachers is not confined to understanding aesthetics. Questions embrace clarification of aesthetic education as part of, yet dis- tinct from, general offerings of arts and crafts experiences in schools. Ob- viously, aesthetic education is something different from the experiences of art often observed in elementary school classrooms. Many teachers may be dis- mayed by their lack of understanding about what may be expected of them. Fortunately, some art educators and aestheticians are working constructively to close gaps between lay teachers and subject specialists. The Aesthetic Eye Project Without what I now know about aesthetics and aesthetic education, I was a part of a unique experience known as the Aesthetic Eye Project. It proved to be a very special addition to my life personally and professionally. This project was co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Los Angeles County Office of the Superintendent of Schools with Dr. Frances Hine as its leader.

Fifty participants from diverse edu- cational settings were involved in a

summer seminar, studying aesthetic education under the tutelage of art educators Ronald Silverman, Dwaine Greer, and Gilbert Clark and specialists such as Harry Broudy. During the sub- sequent school year, participants made use of the skills and knowledge they learned in the summer seminar and shared their experiences at periodic meetings. Final reports were also pre- pared, such as Teacher to Teacher Talk (Hine, Clark, Greer, and Silverman, 1976).

The experiences reported here were part of my involvement with the project. The problems I faced were, what is aesthetics?, what is aesthetic education?, what is arts education?, how do I teach any or all of these disciplines? and are they in any way synonymous or overlapping?

The Aesthetic Eye Project was based on the assumption that teacher training in aesthetic education and aesthetic perception would provide necessary teaching skills to help teachers facilitate student learning in this area. The study tested the validity of this assumption.

As some limited understanding of aesthetics and aesthetic education emerged, the question of its teach- ability by lay teachers became a major concern. Assessment of this question was the subject of a formal study by Bachtel (1976). It was conducted in a multi-cultural, desegregated, elementary school in an urban area. The school enrollment hovered around 540

*I would like to express my apprecia- tion to Ron Silverman of California State University at Los Angeles, and to Dwaine Greer of the University of Arizona for their assistance with the preparation of the original study.

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pupils with a 20%o mobility factor. A Study of Aesthetic Perception For this specific study, the parameters of aesthetic education were limited to student responses to reproductions of original paintings, such as "Sunflow- ers" by Vincent Van Gogh, "I and the Village" by Marc Chagall, "The Night Watch" by Rembrandt Van Rijn, "View of Toledo" by El Greco, and "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci. These paintings are generally regarded as masterpieces because of their enduring

Observing what appears to exist within a potentially aesthetic object or event by identifying as completely as possible its SENSORY PROPERTIES Visual properties: shape, color, texture, proportions, etc. Aural properties: tone, pitch, tempo, dynamics. etc. Visual properties: shape, color,

texture, proportions, etc. Aural properties: tone, pitch,

tempo, dynamics, etc.

Responding to ways in which objects or events are organized to achieve expressive power by identifying their

FORMAL PROPERTIES Organic Unity - each element is

necessary (unity in variety) theme - apparent dominant

characteristics thematic variation - variety in

repetition of the characteristics balance - equilibrium of oppo-

sites (balance plus thematic variation equals rhythm)

evolution - unity through re- lationships by moving from one part to another

hierarchy - elements which are more dominant than others

Responding to the value import - what it has to say - of objects or events by identifying their

EXPRESSIVE PROPERTIES Objects and events which are aesthetic possess metaphorical and presentational characteristics which evoke responses from one's "imagic store" and translate sensory properties into pervasive qualities, such as:

acceptance by scholars and the knowing public.

A basic assumption for aesthetic education was drawn from Broudy's Enlightened Cherishing (1972). It was that a person needs basic skills and values in order to experience aesthetic satisfaction from an art stimulus. The working schema of the Aesthetic Eye Project was developed by participants and addressed two aspects of aesthetic education, aesthetic perception and aesthetic judgment.

Mood Language - forms which evoke nuances of feeling descri- able in terms such as sobriety, menacing, etc.

Dynamic States - forms which express a sense of tension, con- flict, relaxation, etc.

Idea and Ideal Language - ex- pressions of nobility, courage, wisdom, revolution, etc.

Realizing the significance of the object or event by noting how it was created and identifying its

TECHNICAL PROPERTIES Knowing how something is made is important to aesthetic perception, even though aesthetic responses and judgements can be made without such awareness. HISTORICAL - determining the

nature and expressive in- tent of works of art within their historical context: school, period, style, cul- ture.

RECREATIVE - apprehending imaginatively what the ar- tist has expressed in a specific work of art.

JUDICAL - estimating the value of a work of art in relation to other works, using three criteria: degree of formal excellence, truth, and significance.

AESTHETIC PERCEPTION AESTHETIC PERCEPTION AESTHETIC CRITICISM

Procedure Based upon this schema, procedures were developed to test the belief that students taught by teachers with a back- ground in aesthetic education will de- monstrate a measurable increase in their sensitivity to aesthetic stimuli. The operational definition of aesthetic sensitivity was confined to a property system of art works defined by Broudy (1972) as sensory, formal, expressive, technical, and subject matter properties. Criticism included responses clas- sified as historical, recreative and judgmental.

Both teachers and students engaged in formal lessons about aesthetic perception and aesthetic judgement on a regularly scheduled basis. All the students were involved in exploration and knowledge acquisition that frequently extended into less formal learning sit- uations. Formal sessions were scheduled monthly; the informal became almost daily occurrences. During formal lesson periods, my class was organized into five or six separate groups in which aesthetic properties or aesthetic criticism was taught, rein- forced, or expanded. Students attend- ing Station One studied development of aesthetic perception through the viewing of art prints. This development of vocabulary and basic communica- tion skills was an essential component. With students' limited ability to talk about art, teachers encountered con- siderable resistance to eliciting responses from viewers. Group size was limited to six students, and dialogue was initiated by teachers as facilitators. As the school year progressed, overt directions from teachers decreased as student confidence and competence in- creased.

Following group discussions about aesthetic perceptions of paintings or sculptures, students wrote responses to assigned pictures. Each of the students responded to different stimuli and de- monstrated remarkable growth in their language abilities during this school year.

All recorded verbal responses were labeled, transcribed, converted to numbers and plotted on a categorical chart, and compared as indications of student growth in aesthetic sensitivity. Growth was assessed by significant changes in responses within a category between October and May. A chart was developed from the Aesthetic Eye

Art Education September 1985

Table 1 Aesthetic Education Project Schema

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Project schema illustrated in Table 1. This tabulation included a number of connections among categories. A transcribed response was marked with numbers corresponding to aesthetic responses expressed. Numbered responses were then charted and tabulated as indicators of analysis and evaluation. Comparisons between pre- and post- test responses were made for each student in each category.

A second comparison was made utilizing total responses of the sample students. Group responses in the pre- test section were compared to group response recorded in the post-test section of the same category. This procedure was used for each of the eight identified aesthetic property categories. Results Results were indicative of changes between original responses and later

responses made in May. Pre-test responses were fewer in all categories and lacking entirely in formal, technical, historical, and recreative categories. All categories were utilized by most students in the post-test. The greatest response increase (plus 49) involved the use of sensory properties.

The second greatest change was in use of formal properties. In October, none of the students made responses

Table 2 Pre-Post Taped Responses of Ten Students

Student Recreative Sensory Formal Expressive Technical Subject Matter Judgmental Number Historical Properties Properties Properties Properties Properties Properties Properties

Oct. May Oct. May Oct. May Oct. May Oct. May Oct. May Oct. May Oct. May I1 12 2 1 10 4 27 4 2 1 1 6 10 3 3 5 4 1 3 10 11 4 1 5 2 2 20 12 1 7 5 2 4 6 4 3 4 10 12 2 6 1 5 2 1 10 17 2 7 2 1 3 2 3 2 1 5 3 1 8 1 2 4 5 10 3 8 4 23 16 1 3

9 7 1 6 10 10 1 1 3 2 3 8 1

Totals 0 4 0 8 17 66 0 26 7 27 0 13 97 109 2 21 +4 +8 +49 +26 +20 + 13 + 12 +19


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indicating awareness of formal properties. In May, however, this category was used twenty-six times.

It is also interesting to note that fifty o of the students showed a decline

in responses to subject matter. This may be a reflection of their increase in awareness in the other seven categories.

Art lessons were a part of the aesthetic education program in my classroom, as were lessons in music, move- ment, and poetry. Although my school was located only twenty-five miles from the ocean and in the foothills of a mountain range, the majority of students had never seen the ocean, heard the water lapping at the shore, felt the

sand between their toes, or walked a cool mountain path between tall trees. Working from an extremely limited image bank, these students expanded their abilities to comprehend artists' perceptions in the creations we studied in the classroom. Sounds, light and shadow, textures, to name a few, all became learned expectations of these young viewers, an exhilarating experience for the teacher. Conclusion The use of the term aesthetics is ex- panding and changing. However, the meaning of the term has maintained continuity with concepts of beauty and sensuous cognition. This is also true

as it refers to academic differences among perceptual theories, symbolic theories, and institutional-cultural theories (Carter 1983). Aesthetic education includes both aesthetic perception and aesthetic criticism. Through use of the Aesthetic Eye Project schema, appropriate curricula can be designed and incorporated into regular classrooms by teachers who aren't formally trained art specialists.

Assessment of student learning showed that a rise in positive aesthetic sensitivities occurred with all students. The least response changes noted were attributed to students with low academic potential, as interpreted from low I.Q. scores.

Overview of the results of this study suggest that aesthetic education is a subject that can be integrated into basic school curricula. Subjective teacher observations of each student noted improved self images, self-confidence, and acceptance of others, as well as acceptance of unfamiliar ab- stractions and objects. This change was very noticeable and appeared to be, at least in part, due to the aesthetic education program.

In closing, I would like to quote Broudy (1974).

Very early in life, it (the aesthetic

experience) is subordinated to the practical and cognitive attitudes so necessary to thought and action. We all have the capacity for it and infants probably use it spontaneously, but adults and even children impair the capacity by disuse fairly early in the game. If we urge the school to under- take aesthetic education, it is because this capacity presumably needs culti- vation and is worth cultivating. 1

Ann Bachtel-Nash is President of Arts and Education Associates in Pasadena, California.

References Bachtel, A.E. (1976) A study of the develop-

ment of aesthetic perception in a sixth grade class of culturally deprived children. Unpublished master's thesis. California State University at Los Angeles.

Broudy, H.S. (1972) Enlightened cherishing, Urbana; University of Illinois.

Broudy, H.S. (1974), March) Arts education as artistic perception. In Conference on the Foundations of Education, Lehigh University, PA.

Carter, C.L. (1983) Arts and cognition: Per- formance, criticism, and aesthetics. Art Educa- tion, 36 (2). 61-67.

Hine, F.D., Clark, G.A., Greer, W.D., Silver- man, R.H., (Eds.) (1976) Teacher to teacher talk, Los Angeles: Office of the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools.




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Teaching Aesthetic Perception in the Elementary School