An eclectic model : instructional strategies for representational drawing

Abstract

During the age range of late preadolescence and early adolescence, specifically between ages twelve to fourteen, a critical change appears to take place in many art students. In some instances their artistic skills and natural confidence appear to atrophy. They indicate a lack of awareness and aesthetic appreciation. In their representational drawings they leave much of the visual information of the stimulus objects unaccounted for and resort to stylization and stereotypes. Yet instruction of a particular type and programming appears to assist a child in making a more meaningful statement about his visual impressions. From the indications of developmental psychology, visual perception, and brain theory, it is evident that the complexity of the learning process may require a variety of teaching/learning strategies. The traditional analytic, verbal-oriented mode of instruction may not always be suited to a learner’s needs. An eclectic model that is synthetic and holistic in approach and nonverbal-oriented may be a more appropriate instructional strategy for representational drawing. In a study of representational drawing where the students were exposed to learning experiences which were primarily nonverbal and synthetic and holistic in approach, their work became consistently more sophisticated and their confidence and enthusiasm appeared to have been nurtured as well. However, due to the unfortunate unequal matching of the experimental and control groups initially, it can only be speculated that this particular teaching strategy effects a larger gain than more traditional approaches to drawing instruction.