Abstract:
This paper sets out Elliot Eisner's qualitative methodologies as a basis for the design of innovative curriculum through the 'Hothouse Art Appreciation Project'. The main aim of the project is to explore teaching and learning strategies in the design of materials and activities around the experience of students' encounter with art works. The project elucidates how different types of audiences received and processed ideas and meaning about a group of artworks. Although the project takes as its focus a specific group of images that are contemporary and traditional works of art that comprise the Hothouse exhibition, the project has application to the understanding of learning and teaching styles across the broader visual culture. As the theoretical under-pinning of the design, this paper presents several significant aspects of the work of educational research by the educator and philosopher Elliot Eisner. Reflection on the philosophy of Elliot Eisner, as well as the adoption of his specific proposals as the basis for our curriculum design was integral to the initiation of the project.