Children's Philosophical Inquiry into Defining Art: A Quasi-experimental Study of Aesthetics in the Elementary Classroom

Abstract

A 14-item rating scale designed to determine if children can improve their verbal reasoning about defining art was administered on a pre, posttest basis to two groups of fifth and sixth grade subjects. Treatment focused on teaching the experimental subjects rules of logic pertaining to “perfect,” intensive definitions. An ANCOVA, MANOVA design was employed to infer if subjects would as a result of treatment make significant improvement in the reasoning tasks. Results were positive. As defining art is historically a part of inquiry in aesthetics, this study gives evidence suggesting that fifth and sixth grade children have the intellectual potential to improve significantly in at least one aspect of philosophical discourse about art.