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Critical Thinking: Art Criticism as a Tool for Analysing and Evaluating Art, Instructional Practice and Social Justice Issues
Author(s) -
Broome Jeffrey,
Pereira Adriane,
Anderson Tom
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of art and design education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.312
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1476-8070
pISSN - 1476-8062
DOI - 10.1111/jade.12111
Subject(s) - criticism , critical thinking , art criticism , curriculum , argument (complex analysis) , sociology , visual arts education , epistemology , critical theory , social justice , teaching method , psychology , engineering ethics , economic justice , pedagogy , social science , the arts , engineering , political science , art , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , performance art , law , art history
Recent educational initiatives have emphasised the importance of fostering critical thinking skills in today's students in order to provide strategies for becoming successful problem solvers throughout life. Other scholars advocate the use of critical thinking skills on the grounds that such tools can be used effectively when considering social justice issues. In this article we make the case that the teaching and learning strategies of analytic art criticism can serve as fundamental tools used not just for the study of art but can also centre critical thinking and analysis in all aspects of the art education curriculum. Our argument begins with a review of literature on the use of art criticism for critical thinking and meaning making. Then we describe our efforts to address critical thinking with our students by using the critical analysis model of art criticism and applying it to learning environments for forming reasoned judgments about teaching and learning, and also as springboard for examining social justice issues. We believe that promoting this form of affectively driven, intellectually guided critical thinking makes our students potentially more successful not just in their encounters with art and education, but also in their lives as human beings beyond school.