Abstract

Classroom practice is used in this exploratory research to study the dialogue content and process associated with High School art viewing activities. Using content analysis research methods with recorded audio and video data of Art History and Art Critique classroom sessions from five research sites, this study suggests the nature and outcomes of art viewing sessions in schools are widely varied due to differing underlying purposes and goals of the teacher. The teachers implicit and explicit purposes and goals determine what dialogue content, questions, and comments relating to the works of art viewed serve to explicate. Different goals tend to focus the discussion on different issues and interests. Goals identified in this study focused student attention on varied aspects of history, style, artistic expression, artist information, or class assignments. In addition to being driven by individual goals and purposes, teachers used works of art in their viewing sessions to serve different ends. The role actual works played in the viewing art sessions of this research ranged from a superficial inclusion to a complete integration where information distilled from the works constituted the reason for, and the substance of, classroom discussion. Integration distinctions included: the use of art as allusion, as illustration, as example, and as the substance of the critical talk. Merely exhorting teachers to include or increase talk about art in their teaching practice is insufficient in determining what that might mean regarding curriculum outcomes. Increasing critical talk about art cannot guarantee that this talk will be moving students toward the same ends. Although teachers may build comparably described sessions into their curricula, they will do so with different goals and purposes in mind. Teachers will be better able to shape the content and determine the outcomes of viewing art activities in schools as they become cognizant of their implicit and explicit purposes and goals, and decide on the role actual works of art will play in their process.