Active imagining : from response to action: a study of aesthetic engagement

Master of EducationThis study explores the way in which students engage aesthetically in the creative process and how this aesthetic engagement is influenced by an Arts pedagogy. The research was based on Reflective Practice design that explores the intuitive and emergent processes that inform artistic meaning-making. This study also examines the Arts teacher's role in creating an environment that nurtures aesthetic engagement. It explores teaching strategies that promote participants' immersion in the creative process. In this study there are three broad Research questions: How do students engage in the 'felt' experience of the creative process? How are aesthetically charged feelings activated? and When does aesthetic engagement occur? Data related to moments of aesthetic engagement in three Arts classes was collected and analyzed. Stages of aesthetic immersion were documented through classroom observations and Teacher's Logbook, and students' responses were recorded through interviews and written reflections. The work of three theorists, Howard Gardner, Peter Abbs and Malcom Ross, has informed this study. Artistic intelligence is used to refer to the students' use of reflective introspection as a means by which symbolic and cognitive connections are made in readiness for aesthetic engagement. This reflective practice study is an examination of significant moments in my Arts classroom when aesthetic engagement, intrapersonal thinking and self-knowledge seemed to occur. The emergent findings provide insights into how aesthetic engagement occurs in the Arts classroom. Integral to this process is a 'felt' experience, introspective reflection and collaborative disclosure