Classroom art talk: How discourse shapes teaching and learning in a high school art classroom.

摘要

Statement of the problem. Arts curricula at national, state, and local levels call for instruction in art criticism, art history, and aesthetics, in addition to studio practice. Language-based domains of art present new challenges to teachers and students, who have traditionally focused on studio. The aims of this study of Classroom Art Talk (CAT) are: (1) To describe and analyze the contexts in which CAT occurs. (2) To describe and analyze the patterns of speech and the terminology of CAT. (3) To describe and analyze how the social and curricular levels of CAT shape teaching and learning.;Procedure and methods. (1) Observation: 216 hours as participant observer in one classroom. (2) Audio recording: 45 hours of CAT and interviews with teacher and students. (3) Photographic documentation: student artwork and classroom setting. (4) Videotape: one group interview and two class sessions. (5) Episodes of CAT were selected for analysis based on being illustrative and representative of typical CAT in the classroom studied. (6) The of content CAT was analyzed with particular attention to the social and curricular aspects of the talk.;Results. (1) CAT occurs in three distinct contexts. (2) CAT is abundant. (3) The four domains of art, Art Criticism, Art History, Aesthetics, and Studio Practices (CHAS), do not get equal attention in CAT. (4) CAT is primarily teacher-talk, thereby imbued with the curricular and social concerns of the teacher. (5) CAT includes direct, indirect, tangential, and ancillary references to the four domains of art education. (6) CAT focuses on characteristics of art that simultaneously support social functions critical to speakers' roles in the classroom.;Conclusions. Classroom Art Talk is unlike other art discourse, in part, due to its simultaneous social and curricular functions. This study suggests that students are likely to benefit from exposure to a variety of art discourse, e.g., whole-class lectures, one-on-one talk with the teacher, one-on-one talk with peers, films depicting artists, reading, and writing. Extending exposure to discourse about art is likely to extend the ways in which students think about art criticism, art history, aesthetics, and studio practice.