Visual Thinking Courseware: Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills Through Art Criticism

Abstract

Art criticism provides knowledge, skills, and understanding that enable students to have broad and rich experience with works of art by responding to and making judgments about the properties and qualities that exist in visual form. It requires higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) that integrate contents from the four disciplines of art (art aesthetics, art history, art production, and art criticism) that contribute to the creation, understanding, and appreciation of art. Findings from a survey conducted in three Malaysian public universities revealed that less than 30 % of the undergraduate art students are able to analyze works of art critically. This is an alarming state considering their involvement in art activities that require them critically to analyze and criticize works of art. For students undergoing teacher training courses the skill is very much needed as they will be going out to teach art subjects in schools. Because technology has taken a front seat in the teaching and learning of many art-related subjects in higher education courses in Malaysia, this research looked at how visual thinking courseware can aid in the teaching and learning of art criticism. In particular, this chapter looked at how the selection of visual images, Gagne’s 9 events of instruction, the flow theory, and Feldman’s art criticism model can be put together to design courseware that can help enhance the quality of learning about art criticism and increase students’ critical thinking skills.