An Assessment on the Practice of Art Education in Compulsory Education in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Pan, Chin-Ding, 潘金定
• Other Authors: Michel Shu-Huang Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/38973469759835888339

博士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 美術學系 === 101 === If we consider which areas may be improved in general art education in the current model for compulsory education in Taiwan, it is crucial to find appropriate areas from which we can begin to look for the key elements of improvement and from which will we find improvement strategies that are concrete, actionable, and that reach educational objectives. The objective of this study is aimed at this very problem. In 1998, the Ministry of Education (MoE) published the “General Guidelines of Grade 1-9 Curriculum of Elementary and Junior High School Education”, which integrated music, visual arts, and performance arts into one academic area—“Arts and Humanities.” Many scholars believed that this new set of guidelines was an important milestone in the development of compulsory education in Taiwan. It was also a crucial point where Taiwan’s compulsory education took on a new form. Furthermore, it was a paradigm shift in the core value and meaning of education. I just happened to be serving at the MoE affiliated National Taiwan Arts Education Center at this crucial point in time, where there was much discussion and research over a range of fields concerning the results of the important changes to the educational system. During this period I participated in the 2002 study on compulsory education in the arts for grades 1 to 9 performed by the National Hualien University of Education, regional public hearings and reviews at the 2005 National Arts Education Conference, and the MoE art-policy specialist advisory conferences held at the “Taiwan Art Education Association” from 2009 to 2012. In the process of these meetings, there were several topics worth discussing and researching in regard to Taiwan’s general art education model, to list a few of them generally: regulations, systems, administrative-level issues, educators, curriculum, and educational facilities and resources. There were even suggestions to begin new discussions of the objectives to be set in art education. Based in a practicable framework and set of objectives, this research paper will sift through each important element concerning policy management blueprints from the Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission’s “Taiwan 2010”; I will use these elements as an important point of reference while surveying and assessing the issues I raised above. I will also provide important reference structures, comparative theories, and feasible theories for counter strategies. Some of the focal areas of this thesis will be centered on the objectives set for national art education, and much of my argument will use theories describing arts appreciation events. I will especially stress the close relationship between aesthetic experiences and the basic concepts in the compulsory education curriculum in shaping the artistic interests of the public, realizing their creative potential, and fostering individual growth. Arts appreciation events have a specific history, are meaningful because of the people participating in them, and have internal and external elements that influence each other, thus they are rich cultural experiences and are full of variety, in turn these events: I. Sculpt an interest in the arts in addition to immediate aesthetic pleasure; II. Reach deep into the thoughts of the entire world and bring out creative potential; III. Influence life in a very real way since art appreciation is a representation of the entire character of the individual. Art appreciation not only satisfies the three educational standards as according to the British philosopher R.S. Peters—“worthwhileness,” “cognitiveness,” and “voluntariness,” it can also reach the ultimate objective of the basic concepts of the compulsory education curriculum, namely the full development of the individual. From this basis, I will then look at each influential regulation and improvement strategy in art education practice and raise my own suggestions.