A Study on Student Learning in Higher Education: Art Exhibition Motivation

This study explored whether non-majors at the University of Kentucky, were more motivated in a particular course when their finished project was introduced to the public through an art exhibition. The problem being addressed that since the passing of Senate Bill One in 2009 the high school art requirement in Kentucky is met by “allowing a foreign language course, career and technical education course, or a computer technology or programming course to meet the arts and humanities requirement for high school graduation” (Wilson et al., 2016, para. 1). A mixed methods approach with an action research design was used for collection of data before and after the delivery of the lesson from surveys, observation, and the qualitative data augments findings of quantitative data. Results of the study suggest that there were many positive results that lend support to the idea that exhibition-style learning has an important role to play in education and this type of learning experience seems to increase student motivation, a key component of all self-directed learning