SYNAESTHETIC AND METAPHORIC EXPERIENCE WITHIN THE CLASSROOM ECOLOGY: AN APPROACH TO AESTHETIC INTEGRATION

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential role of synaesthetic and metaphoric experience as a basis for integration within communication arts curricula in the elementary school. A series of related teaching strategies based on expressive principles common to music, art and the language arts, provided an initial framework in which perceptually structured activities, designed to encourage intermodal experience, served as the basis for sequential involvement with concepts relating to unity, variety, dominance, repetition, and contrast. Primary emphasis was placed on the interdependence between student perceptions within the total environment and the sensing of aesthetic patterns common to the communication arts. Intersensory experience was seen as fundamental to the process of concept formation and thus a vital factor in curriculum organization. Twenty-nine, fifth grade students were involved in weekly sessions of seventy-five minute duration for a consecutive period of approximately six months. Guided by naturalistic research methods, and based on twenty-two sessions in the classroom, data were gathered through the process of participant observation. Sources of data included: samples of student products, discussions with the students, photographs, audio taping and memoing of the involvement sessions, and evaluations by the classroom teacher. The data suggest that synaesthetic and metaphoric perception, a function of intrinsic correspondence between sensory modes, provides a valid basis for integration within the communication arts. The study reflects an apparent relationship between intersensory experience and the process of concept formation in the communication arts. Included in the study are summary outlines of the integrated teaching strategies.