One of the main objectives of education is to enable the individual to obtain an aesthetic perspective by using language. It is through such classes as Turkish Language and Literature that students not only explore skill-based aspects of Turkish language but also get acquainted with its artistic properties. Therefore, the texts used in these…

This article advocates an approach for teaching critical and contextual studies in secondary art education based on Wittgenstein's philosophy of language in relationship to meaning as use, custom, rule following, and physiognomy. The references to meaning form four metaphorical points on a compass for directing the will for making judgments about…

Focuses on the use of classroom art talk, addressing how to talk about art in school and the scope of classroom art talk. States that there are at least four reasons to study high school classroom art talk. (CMK)

Focuses on an activity in which the students in a beginning drawing class used middle-value brown paper and earthen shades of conte to draw pictures of bones in a desert environment. Discusses how the assignment teaches appreciation of the colors, sounds, and shapes of the desert. (CMK)

This document excerpts journals of eight artists, as they observe and comment on events in their daily lives. Seemingly mundane moments become aesthetic experiences through their eyes, and rare glimpses are afforded of approaches to learning, teaching, and preliminaries to studio work. The artists included are: (1) Amidon Perfond (edited by…

This guide presents public sculpture as an effective instructional tool, with the primary emphasis on works contributing to a sense of national or community identity. Sculptures are introduced according to the chronology of persons or events commemorated. The 10 lessons focus on United States history from the Civil War to the present. Unit 1:…

Defines aesthetics when framed as critical inquiry as the process of teaching students to use critical strategies of professional philosophers to develop aesthetic content. Addresses four major aesthetic issues: meaning and value in art, how to discuss art, aesthetic experience, and beauty. Presents a sequence of critical-inquiry activities. (CMK)

Investigates whether employing the philosophical inquiry approach specifically in the aesthetics and art criticism component of the visual arts curriculum was beneficial to teacher effectiveness and student understandings. Describes the methodology and data analysis and an intervention program that aimed to assist teachers to engage in…

Explores approaches to art-making, art criticism, and aesthetics as applied to conceptual art. Describes a one-day workshop with gifted secondary students to analyze socially critical art. Illustrates how artworks initially classified as provocative or prohibitive in the classroom can become more comprehensible to students. (CFR)

Characterizes much of the current postmodernist art design as capricious and self-indulgent. Explicates three fundamental concepts from the modernist school: a notion of order; clarity of form and space; and significant contrast. Criticizes current design for its emphasis on novelty and systematic violation. (MJP)

Examines what complexity theories might offer to drama and theatre education, as an alternative method of "mapping" and describing complex aesthetic experiences. Attempts to weave the complex "microworlds" of drama into the typical linear "scope and sequence" and "clock time" structures of the classroom.…

Suggests that theatre's capacity to educate is often overstated. Notes theatre created by and for teenagers is especially guilty of proselytizing. Argues the real danger is that the cumulative, subliminal message is that theater is medicine. Suggests that playwrights, directors, and artistic directors leave the education for the classroom and take…

Discusses drama in English in light of what actually happens in the classroom. Claims drama is valuable when discussed as a separate, autonomous subject in the school curriculum as opposed to one subsumed within English. Emphasizes the primacy of performance in drama education. (NH)

Explains that an important relationship exists among democracy, visual technologies, and education. Stresses that one of the essential responsibilities of art education must be to teach students about the power of technological imagery and how to use that power for democratic forms of expression. (CMK)

This special commemorative theme issue features a Philadelphia Folklore Project that sought to encourage a wider discussion about art and the politics of culture; to document and explore the history of a significant folk art form--in this case, tap dancing--from the perspective of the generation of African American women and men who "came…