Investigating Aesthetic Competencies In Painting Classrooms Of Elementary Schools

Promoting the development of students’aesthetic competencies is the direct goal of painting and other art curriculum and teaching. In elementary schools, painting is the main content of art curriculum and teaching so it plays a crucial role in fostering students’ aesthetic competencies. However, to what extent and in what way are teachers actually concerned about the development of aesthetic competencies? This is a still problem worthy of studying. This thesis provides case studies, describes the current status of concerns about the development of students’aesthetic competencies in painting teaching in elementary schools, and analyzes the causes of the problem, and then puts forward strategies for improvement and optimization.The concept of aesthetic competency is defined and characterized in the thesis. First, according to the structure of aesthetic psychology, the aesthetic competency is divided into three interrelated dimensions:aesthetic cognition, aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic expression. Second, according to the specific directions of these dimensions, aesthetic cognition is classified as the cognition of painters, painting content, styles of works, techniques and mediums, etc. The aesthetic appreciation is described as the appreciation of the themes of paintings, drawing elements and the layout of the works, while the aesthetic expression is embodied as forms of individual student work, group work and class work, etc. Based on these studies, we selected 20 different themed painting lessons as the analysis objects, collected materials using classroom observation and other methods, and processed them through transcription, coding, etc.Through the analysis of these painting lessons it can be found that, first, on the whole teachers are concerned with students’aesthetic cognition, aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic expression, but emphasize more on aesthetic cognition. Secondly, at the aesthetic cognition level, teachers pay more attention to the use of cognitive techniques and mediums, and emphasize more on lectures, demonstrations, presentations, and talks, but less on the knowledge of the painters and the styles of their artistic works. Third, at the aesthetic appreciation level, they focus more on painting components, but less on the painting themes, and layouts of art works; in terms of teaching, they emphasize more on teaching methods and talks but lack the appraisal of the works by students. Fourth, at the aesthetic expression level, most teachers give individual assignments and only some teachers give group and class-wise assignments. Fifth, the designs of teaching objectives, selection of the painting themes and assessment of learning performance have a direct impact on the development of students’aesthetic competencies.Based on the findings in the thesis, we believe that in order to promote the development of students’ aesthetic competencies, the following aspects of painting teaching in elementary schools need to be addressed and optimized:First, the design of teaching objectives should integrate aesthetic perception, aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic expression. Second, the themes of the painting must meet the aesthetic needs of students. Third, teachers should encourage students to freely express and share their feelings and experiences about beauty. Fourth, it is recommended to use multivariate assessment methods to guide the development of students’aesthetic competencies.