Teaching arts

promoting aesthetic thinking

Lieke Roof

pp. 137-147

in: Bert van Oers (ed), Developmental education for young children, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

As in other areas of learning, the role of the teacher is highly important in arts education. The teacher's guidance of young children in this area should be mainly focused on the collaborative inquiry of what art is as well as on the development of children's aesthetic thinking. This chapter describes how a teacher can ask evaluative questions and enable children to create and demonstrate their own aesthetic (ostentative) definitions, which should be stimulated by challenging young children in making, judging and improving creative work. Focusing on children's creative activities from a developmental perspective, the teacher has to focus on three things in arts education: development of aesthetic thinking, development of skills and competences, and development of a personal progressive oeuvre in children. This chapter offers insights into the classroom practice from a teachers' perspective and will discuss several classroom examples.