conceptions of teaching art held by secondary school art teachers

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290 Conceptions of Teaching Art Held by SecondarySchool Art Teachers

Bick Har Lam and David Kember

Research into teachers’ conceptions of teachingcan be justified in that deep seated beliefsimpact upon the way teachers teach and influ-ence the learning approaches of their students.This study examined conceptions of teaching art,through interviews with 18 secondary school artteachers in Hong Kong. The analysis resulted in atwo-level characterisation of conceptions underbroad essentialist and contextualist orientations.There were four subordinate conception cate-gories, namely moral development in art andaesthetic development in art under the essential-ist orientation, and intellectual development

through art, and expression and therapy throughart as sub-categories of the contextualist orientation. The categories were defined anddelimited by six dimensions. The categories wereseen as clearly distinguishable but related,though not hierarchically. There was no evidenceof the category scheme being culturally specific,as the majority of the teachers held beliefs whichwere not consistent with the traditional mannerof Chinese painting.

Abstract


Conceptions of teaching artThere has been a considerable amount ofresearch into teachers’ beliefs or conceptions ofteaching [1–5]. Part of the justification is that theconceptions have a strong influence on howteachers teach. The topic has been of particularinterest when reform has been on the agenda asdeep seated beliefs can be hard to change, andso can be an important factor in determiningwhether reforms are successfully implemented.Teachers can be successful change agents butcan also be obstacles for change when theproposed reform challenges their conceptions ofteaching [6–9].

In higher education conceptions of teachinghave been found to be largely independent ofdiscipline. A review of thirteen studies [10], eachof which encompassed a range of disciplines,found that category schemes could be synthe-sised into a common model with two broadover-arching orientations towards either teacher-centred / content-oriented or student-centred /learning-oriented conceptions. The teacher- andstudent-centred distinctions have also beencommonly found in school teachers’ conceptions.

There have been few empirical studies ofconceptions of teaching art. Chapman [11]researched 27 prospective teachers who weremajoring in art education and confirmed fourhypothesised conceptions, namely, the person-alist, idealist, experimentalist and realist. The resultcan be explained by the teacher- or student-centred terminology with the former twocharacterised as student-oriented conceptionsand the remainder more teacher-directed. Apple[12] conducted a large sample survey of generalteachers’ attitudes towards art. There were posi-tive indications of attitudes in three areas ofsignificance, i.e. individual, societal, and instruc-tional. The results suggest that teachers may carrymore than one belief in teaching, as suggested byPajaras [13].

As there are multiple contrasting potentialframeworks, derived from theory, for teachers’beliefs about art teaching, and such a dearth of

empirical work, it is timely for a systematic studyof teachers’ conceptions of teaching art. Theresearch question used to guide the study was,‘What are the conceptions of teaching art held byart teachers?’ Here, conceptions are understoodto be qualitatively different ways of describingindividuals’ understanding of phenomena, andare time and context specific [14].

Method The sample for the study consisted of 18 artteachers in Hong Kong. The sample was chosento represent a spectrum of professional andbiographical profiles in terms of age, experienceand training. The schools in which the teacherstaught were also varied according to academicstatus and the band structure used to classifyschools in Hong Kong.

Qualitative methodology was used, as is thecase for most teacher thinking research [15–16].Grounded theory was used [17]. The methodol-ogy centres upon a theory building process withthe condition of ‘sensitive theorizing’ in datacollection and analysis [18]. ‘Constructive’ and‘transactive’ interactions [19] were built into therelationship between the researcher and theresearched. This was accomplished by invitingteachers to talk about their practical experiencein response to open prompting questions. Theinterview questions focused upon teachers’ aimsof teaching, perception of art knowledge andlearning outcomes.

The data analysis included three stages.Initially, the researcher read individual interviewreports carefully. Units or dimensions were iden-tified based on the broad interview schedule foreach report. In the second stage, codes wereused to characterise themes which emergedwithin and across individual reports [20]. The datawere then further sorted by dimensions discov-ered from clusters of codes, which related to sixdimensions of teaching conceptions: namely,aim of teaching, art ability, nature of art knowl-edge, skill and creativity, process and product,expected learning outcomes.

291Bick Har Lam andDavid Kember


From the interviews the teachers suggested thatthe view they held about teaching the junior forms,i.e. forms 1–3, was not necessarily implementedfor teaching senior forms, i.e. forms 4–5. Theapproach to junior forms was likely to representtheir own conception of teaching art as they wereallowed a reasonable degree of freedom in decid-ing curriculum design, teaching methods andachievement targets. Policies set by school admin-istration for matters such as basic syllabusrequirements and general classroom discipline didnot seem to restrain them from developing teach-ing consistent with their own will or conception.

It was the Certificate Education Examinationtaken by students in form 5, and the externally setsyllabus for it, which influenced their teachingorientation in senior forms. The teachers’ concep-tions of teaching art reported in this article arederived from reports of teaching in junior forms.Included in the sample were some teachers whodid not teach senior forms and several whoclaimed that their teaching was consistentbetween junior and senior forms.

Essentialist and contextualist orientationsThe analysis concluded that the most appropriatedescriptor of the conceptions of art teaching wasa two-level category scheme. The higher ordercategories consisted of broad essentialist andcontextualist orientations. The nature of thesewas more akin to a continuum with clearly definedpoles than to two dichotomous categories.

Subsumed beneath the orientations are fourdistinct categories of conceptions of teaching art.Under the essentialist orientation were two cate-

gories named moral development in art andaesthetic development in art and subsumedbeneath the contextualist orientation the twocategories were labelled intellectual developmentthrough art and expression and therapy through art.Table 1 shows the orientation and categoryscheme and the relationship between orienta-tions and conceptions.

The structure of this scheme is closely alignedto that which resulted from a review of 13 studiesof the conceptions of university teaching [10]. Thecategorisation model synthesised from the stud-ies had two higher-level orientations that werelabelled teacher-centred / content-oriented andstudent-centred / learning-oriented. Each of thetwo orientations had two subordinate categories.There was also an intermediate category. Thestructure of the synthesised model was thereforevery similar to that of Table 1, though the categorylabels were quite different to those of this study,presumably reflecting the concentration upon artteaching in schools in this study as opposed touniversity teaching across all major disciplines inthe review.

Essentialist orientationAn essentialist conception is defined as basingart education on the essentials of art, that areexcluded from other instrumental values. Theintentions of the essentialist conceptions servethe value or functions suggested by art. Teachingis for the sake of achieving the uniqueness of artin students. This notion can be characterised asteaching for art’s sake. To signify the characteris-tics, the term ‘in art’ is used in the labels of the


Table 1 A scheme for classifying conceptions of teaching art, with two broad orientations and four categories

Orientation Essentialist Contextualist

Direction In art Through art

Conception Moral Aesthetic Intellectual Expression andDevelopment Development Development Therapy throughin Art in Art through Art Art


293Bick Har Lam andDavid Kember Conceptions

DimensionsMoral Development inArt

AestheticDevelopment in Art

IntellectualDevelopment through Art

Expression andTherapy through Art

Orientation Essentialist Contextualist

Direction in art through art

Aim development based on the subject:• the nature of art can

function in the moralaspect of humans indeveloping characterand enhancing goodqualities

development based on the subject:• art can help to

nurture aesthetic ability of humanswhich can bringabout satisfactionand pleasure

development of the person:• through art learning

student can developindependent thinkingand social abilitywhich is useful forliving in the socialworld

development of the person:• art is a channel for

expression throughwhich humans canrelease emotions thatwould lead toemotional stability

Nature of art knowledge

rule-governed,absolute:• the skill and technique

of making differentforms of art

rule-governed andinventive:• theory, concepts

and basic skills, or a discipline whichcomprises differentfields of study

not certain, is contextual:• different methods

and ways of dealingwith art at differenttime and space

not certain, flexible: • individual

interpretation• any art expression

made by people

Art ability stress on training:• to be trained

stress on development:• needs conscious

effort to cultivate

stress on interaction: • subject to

environmental andcultural influence

stress on interest:• need a supportive

environment toencourage

Skill and creativity skill oriented:• skill is important for

achieving finaloutcome

• creativity is anotherelement concernedabout content andideas

• they are judged separately

co-existed:• are the essence of an

art work so should beseriously considered

inseparable, in harmony:• skill is inventive• skill is not just

technical but to beconsidered with thecontent as a whole

promote creativeexpression:• skill is the technical

mean• creative idea reflects

experience and is themain concern

• encourage personalstyle

Conception aboutprocess and product

viewed from achievement:• process represents

effort• product reflects stan-

dard of work• both effort and stan-

dards are counted inmaking art

viewed from achievement andparticipation:• process leads to final

product• process is interactive

that determines theoutcome of final work

• teacher guidance andstudent involvementare crucial in theprocess

viewed from experience:• are the whole

experience of art • the process is impor-

tant as it bringsmeaning that isunique to the person

• failure in final productis not important,learning has beensucceeded throughthe process

• evaluation is moreimportant thanoutcome

viewed from personalorientation:• process is important

as an experience forthe individual

• process should beunderstood as itcarries individualideas

• only judging the final product is meaningless

Expected learningoutcomes

knowledge achievement and moral development:• ability to perform art

with good skill• morally disciplined

person

enhance quality of life:• arousing interest and

enhance spiritual life• gain essential art

experience

intellectual thinking :• able to handle

problems in life• have independent

thinking and criticaljudgement

personal development:• develop art as a

mean of leisure ora vocation

• achieve emotionalstability

Teachers/ allocated to this conception

2 8 3 5

Table 2 Conceptions of teaching art as defined by six dimensions


essentialist conceptions derived for this study toshow its art-oriented nature.

Two conceptions of teaching art derived fromthe study were identified as holding an essentialistorientation. Teaching was based upon an art-oriented perspective, in which subject knowledgeis enhanced. The teachers allocated to the twoessentialist conceptions believed that art teachingcould achieve moral or aesthetic development.

Contextualist orientationThe other two conceptions of teaching art weresubject to a contextualist orientation, in which thefocus of teaching was oriented towards personaldevelopment for living in society. Since teachingis oriented to achieve certain functions, it isregarded as instrumental. The major characteris-tic is that the two contextualist conceptionsadvocate art education as a means to achieve theintended intellectual development and psycho-logical therapy. The contextualist conceptions aretherefore labelled ‘through art’ to signify the char-acteristics. Both of the concerns are to achievepersonal development rather than teaching artknowledge to students. The functions or benefitsto be addressed for art education for the twocontextualist conceptions are intellectual devel-opment and expression and therapy.

Dimensional characteristics of the conceptionsIn this section, findings on the four categories ofconceptions of teaching are elaborated by the six-dimensional profiles. The four conceptions ofteaching are moral development in art, aestheticdevelopment in art, intellectual developmentthrough art, expression and therapy through art.To illustrate the major features of the profiles, thedimensional characteristics of each conceptionare shown in Table 2. The number of teachersallocated to each conception is also shown in the table.

To properly define the four conceptions theywere distinguished by six constituent dimen-sions. The six dimensions which characterise the

four conceptions are represented by teachers’views of:

• The aim of teaching• art ability• the nature of art knowledge • skill and creativity • process and product• expected learning outcomes.

In the remainder of this main section, eachdimension is taken in turn and the beliefs of eachof the four categories with respect to that dimen-sion will be described. Typical quotations areused to amplify the aspect of the conception foreach category. The discussion shows a trendacross the conceptions from the essentialist(teaching for art) to the contextualist (teaching forlife). The discussion concentrates upon illuminatingthe trend between essentialist and contextualistpoles. More fine-grained distinctions betweencategories can be seen in Table 2.

Aim of teachingThe view of the four conceptions on the aim ofteaching indicated a trend that ranged from an art-directed orientation to an orientation that aimedfor developing the person. The aim suggested bythe conception of moral development in art wasthe training of art skills, which helped to developstudents’ morality.

The aim advocated by the conception ofaesthetic development in art is also regarded asessentialist. While encouraging the enhance-ment of aesthetic ability, knowledge acquisitionwas emphasised. The expectations to developknowledge or understanding to a general orsophisticated level are suggested as the aim ofthis conception:

I think the most important role of art education isto develop in students the unique function that liesin the subject that we term aesthetic education. Itis basic to the subject, and the development of thisability can help the students like or appreciate arts



– visual arts – helps broaden their horizon, and tostimulate their thinking more.

In contrast, the conception of intellectual devel-opment through art suggests a contextualist aimof art teaching. It focused art teaching on devel-oping the thinking and judgement of students. Artis used as a means but not an end in art educa-tion. The expectation is to help students becomethinking persons in society.

The conception of expression and therapythrough art also suggests a contextualist view ofart teaching. Art education is used as a means tohelp students to integrate well into society anddevelop positive attitudes towards their ownliving, by achieving emotional release or personalexpression through engagement in art activities:

Art education is a subject to help students’ psycho-logical growth, to assist students to overcomeemotional problems, so that they can live happilywith a healthy mind.

Nature of art knowledgeThe four views indicate a trend which progressedfrom belief in absolute knowledge to free inter-pretation. The conception of moral developmentin artemphasised art knowledge as derived fromexpert sources that are absolute and objective.Holders of the belief would see certainty in recog-nised skills (such as painting) and knowledge(such as colour theory):

The nature of art knowledge is governed by somerules, i.e. the skill and content knowledge of thissubject. There are different forms of art and eachof them requires particular skills and techniquesto be formed. The rules have to be learnt first andafter that you can handle art well by the rules.

The conception of intellectual developmentthrough art suggests the uncertain nature of artknowledge, advocating that art knowledge isdefined by context which may differ acrosscultures. The notion that art will be changed by

time was emphasised. The conception of expres-sion and therapy through artadvocated the flexiblenature of art knowledge. Art is subject to personalinterpretation, and therefore is virtually individual:

What is art depends on the interpretation of indi-viduals. This idea can represent the idea of art. It isso flexible, individual, and unique to a person. Theway they like to express, how they make knowntheir ideas, in what way, for what impact. This is alllegitimate and this is really art.

Art ability The conception of moral development in artfocused on training the art ability of students. Theexpectation was of developing students toachieve art skills effectively:

Most of them have the ability but individual differ-ence is great. If they cannot develop properlywhen they are young, it will be very hard for themto learn when they grow up. So teaching is impor-tant for training this ability.

In terms of art ability, the views of the conceptionsintellectual development through art and expressionand therapy through art were both orientedtowards a contextualist stance. The formeremphasises the interaction of environmentalinfluence and inborn ability. The expression andtherapy through art conception also supports thisidea. It further advocates that art ability is inbornbut would have been suppressed by the environ-ment. Art education should develop this inbornability in students so that they can enjoy art:

Art activities are not encouraged in our society.Children are afraid of drawing when they growolder, owing to psychological development. Thephenomenon is due to the discouraging of art inour culture. We don’t seem to encourage our chil-dren to be expressive, to release our uneasiness,happiness, or sadness, we don’t communicatevery much, hence we are not able to draw, sing,dance, and so on.



Skill and creativityMoral development in artemphasises skill training,as it is considered essential to creating art.Creativity is simply understood as imagination andexpression, which can add to the liveliness of art:

The handling of materials and presentation meth-ods are the prerequisite of art learning, you haveto learn how to master materials and methodsotherwise you cannot create. The concept is likelearning any kind of knowledge, you have to knowthe rules and then you learn and then can managethe knowledge.

The aesthetic development in artconception recog-nised both skill and creativity as important. Theywere considered to co-exist. Skill was consideredas the determinant of the success of a project:

In fact both of them are not contradictory, not tothe point of destruction of either side. But for tech-niques which can’t be neglected, the students usethem as tools to realise fine arts. In fact I think wehave to take both seriously.

The conception of expression and therapy throughart emphasises the importance of creativity. Skillis regarded as techniques that could be devel-oped and invented by individuals. Creativity isdefined as free expression of thought and idea:

It is fair if all can develop the style based on their ownstyle of expression. I object to impose them withsomething they don’t agree with. I give the choicesfor them. Sometimes my students will just say to me‘Miss I don’t want to follow your suggestion’, I willalso let them know that is their right to choose.

The view of teachers on skill and creativity acrossdifferent conceptions shows a trend thatprogressed from an attitude of promoting art skilland knowledge, to concern about personal expe-rience and expression. This corresponds to anessentialist to contextualist orientation from theenhancement of skill to the promotion of creativity.

Process and productFor the dimension of process and product, thefour conceptions suggest quite different viewsfor the essentialist or contextualist orientation,which are concerned with achievement of knowl-edge or promotion of interest, respectively.

The idea of process and product suggested bythe conception of moral development in art indi-cates an achievement-oriented conception. Effortis perceived as important during the workingprocess, while the final product is meant to reflectthe learning outcome. Based on this view, thestandard of achievement in terms of skill andknowledge is expected to be observed from thefinal art product:

The process is dependent on students. It is thetime for them to do the task required within thetime framework. For the process is important indetermining the final work. So what I consideredin the process is student effort.

For the conception of expression and therapythrough art, the process of making art is weightedheavier than the product, as the process isconceived as the way to gain personal meaningand emotional fulfilment. The orientations ofthese two conceptions are regarded as contex-tualist, both oriented to achieve growth andexperience of students:

We have to appreciate them. Sometimes the finalproduct is not important, but the productionprocess is. Practically the picture might fail if it isnot good, but I would give it a pass grade andpraise him for the participation stage. You just can’tfrustrate him by failing him.

Expected learning outcomeThe dimension of expected outcomes, assuggested by the four conceptions, showsclearly the intention towards either subject devel-opment or personal development, whichrepresents the characteristics of the essentialistor contextualist orientations.



The concern of the conception of aesthetic devel-opment in art is on developing the aesthetic abilityof young people to help them to enjoy and appre-ciate art. The aesthetic sense or ability is believedto be developed through learning the subject:

I don’t expect them to be an artist, but at least theycan acquire the ability and interest that can begiven by art, that may stimulate them to furtherpursuit. This is something important.

The expected outcomes raised by the conceptionof expression and therapy through art were alsoaddressed to non-art outcomes. It focused on help-ing students to maintain their emotional well being,so that they could adjust well to living in society:

I want them to develop themselves through art,and through the activities students participatedinto a community and learn from each other. It islike establishing their participation in society.

Category scheme for conceptions of teaching artThe essentialist and contextualist characterisa-tion of beliefs posited in the literature has provedbe as an adequate orienting framework for cate-gorising conceptions of teaching art. Theessentialist / contextualist dichotomy, though,does not by itself provide a full characterisation ofthe conceptions.

The study confirms that it is misleading tojudge teachers’ orientation to teaching as essen-tialist or contextualist orientations solely byconsidering the aims teachers claimed. Thejudgement needed to be based upon the criticaland dominant aspect indicated by dimensions ofthe orientation. It was suggested from the datathat teachers may claim an aim that was seem-ingly contextualist but viewed teaching in quite anessentialist orientation, or vice versa.

The teachers allocated to the essentialistorientation in this study showed a strongtendency towards the training or cultivation ofstudents’ skills or ability, with the aim being to

develop the essential function carried by subjectlearning. Teachers allocated to the opposite orien-tation allowed greater freedom to students toexpress, think and experience through art activi-ties, hoping to achieve holistic development ofthe person in a non-art sense.

This study avoided the limitations of bipolarcategorisation by setting up a dimensional inter-view schedule to identify possible conceptioncategories, and to decipher the basic orientationof teaching art. In this way complications within apiece of data were attended to and addressed.Using the characteristics of each dimensionresulted in defining clearly the four conceptionsfor the study. This made it possible to clearly char-acterise and distinguish categories. The use ofdimensions to define and delimit categoriesavoids potential ambiguities about the number ofcategories and the relationship between them ifcategories are purely described by interviewquotations, as has commonly happened inresearch into conceptions of teaching [10].

Disciplinary distinction in conceptionsStudies into conceptions of teaching in highereducation have not identified major distinctionsbetween disciplines. The teacher/student-centred orientation has been found to provide anadequate framework across studies which haveincluded a wide variety of disciplines [10].

Within the school sector, though, disciplinedoes appear to be a major influence uponconceptions of teaching. In the findings of teach-ers’ perception of teaching particular subjects,the nature of the conceptions commonly reflectsteachers’ views towards the particular subject.Examples are the traditional or constructivistperspective of understanding science knowledge[21] and grammar learning or creative languagelearning for the interpretation of language [22].The essentialist–contextualist distinction seemedto be more appropriate as an organizing orienta-tion for categorizing conceptions of teaching artthan the general teacher/student-centred termi-nology prevalent in higher education.



Relationship between conception categoriesThe four conceptions are arranged from theessentialist to the contextualist. The ordering wasdetermined by whether the conception wasinclined to teach for developing the essentialvalue that is unique to art, or teach for a better lifein society. To decide the ordering of the concep-tions within the continuum, the overall view ofeach conception on the six-dimensional featureswas carefully judged, in order to estimate a rela-tive position in the continuum.

The four conceptions were ordered in themanner illustrated in Table 2 from moral develop-ment in art towards the essentialist pole toexpression and therapy through art nearest thecontextualist pole. The judgements for this posi-tioning were based upon consideration of each ofthe six dimensional constituents of the concep-tions. The comparison of the positions which ledto this ordering has been discussed in some detailfor each dimension in the main section headed‘dimensional characteristics of the conceptions’.

In some other studies of teaching conceptions,particularly those which adopt a phenomeno-graphic approach, it has been suggested that theconceptions form a hierarchy. Samuelowicz [23]interprets hierarchical ordering as meaning thatcharacteristics present in lower order categoriesare present in all other categories.

If this is the case, the four conceptions of thisstudy do not suggest a hierarchical nature. Firstly,there is no obvious hierarchical ordering unless avalue judgement is made between essentialistand contextualist orientations. Secondly thedimensional analysis of each conceptionssuggest quite distinct perceptions towards artteaching for each of the dimensions, rather thanthe addition of elements. The relationshipbetween the categories, therefore, appears betterinterpreted as qualitatively distinct categories,which can be related by an ordering provided bythe essentialist / contextualist orientations.

The conceptions gathered from this studycannot be claimed to be mutually exclusive.Although there was no evidence to show that

teachers held two conceptions of teaching art,there were indications from the analysis that theviews between the conceptions in the sameorientations are similar in certain aspects. Forexample, the conceptions of moral developmentin art and aesthetic development in art consideredart knowledge as important in art learning forstudents. The conceptions of intellectual devel-opment and expression and therapy both suggeststudent experience and personal development asmost important for art education. With the char-acterisation of the categories by the dimensionsit was possible to show that each category is adistinct entity, though for some dimensions atleast, there was a reasonably close relationshipto neighbouring conceptions.

Cultural significance of the teaching conceptionsThe canon for moral and character developmentis a familiar concept in art education found in theEast and West. In the period before theRenaissance in the West, art was envisaged as ameans to develop the fine character of a person,sharpen aesthetic perception, or to develop goodtaste. Art education was largely based on skilltraining and acquisition of art knowledge [24], [25].

The idea is also consistent with the teachingof Chinese painting, of which strong emphasishas been placed on training the mind and soul ofa person. Teaching of Chinese painting is highlyreliant on constant practice of skill and techniquesthat have adhered to traditional conventions [26].

This essentialist conception had beenassumed in the literature to continue to formChinese teachers’ conceptions of teaching [26],[27]. Chinese teachers were understood toengage in subject teaching, concentrating ondeveloping knowledge and skill. There is a suppo-sition that students are conformers and thestudents’ learning perceptions are reinforced bythe traditional mode of teaching. The existence ofthe moral development in art conception seems toprovide some evidence that some art teachersare influenced by this tradition.



However, the origin of this teaching philosophycan be found in the history in both eastern andwestern cultures. The concept of literate educa-tion showed its influence in Greek civilisation andit continued to influence early twentieth-centuryeducation in the West. A lot of research findingson teachers conceptions also show subjectcentred teaching as a major conception amongteachers in western society [21], [3], [28].

The emergence of the two contextualistconceptions has shown that teachers in Chineseculture have also taught in a more contextualistmodel. It is widely suggested from the literaturethat more progressive child-centred educationalideas originated from western philosophies [29],[26], [30]. Yet, the progressive philosophicalstance has also penetrated into different aspectsof education in eastern society. Educational prac-tice in China shows this influence. The mostsignificant and critical time for the influence ofprogressive education in China was the timewhen Chinese started to break away from thetraditional Confucian philosophy in education in1954. At that time western ideology penetratedChina through the intellectuals who receivededucation from abroad. A lot of Chinese thinkerssuch as Hushi and Luxun made efforts topromote the concern of individuality in learning inthe 1950s. This period was termed the ‘Five-FourMovement’ in history to highlight the influence ofwestern culture on China [31].

ConclusionThe importance of research into teachers’ beliefshas been reinforced by a recent review on learn-ing to teach [32]. This underscored the difficultyof changing beliefs, but concluded that certaintypes of programme have been shown to influ-ence beliefs of beginning teachers. There waslittle impact from courses which aimed to providebeginning teachers with information and skillsabout teaching. More promising wereprogrammes in which the beginning teachersexamined their prior beliefs and moved towardsnegotiating a satisfying teaching role.

There is also greater evidence that beliefs impacton the way teachers teach. Some of this may beviewed as rather negative as it is an accumulationof evidence that values, techniques and knowl-edge taught in teacher education courses cancommonly be ignored during initial practice, ifinconsistent with prevailing beliefs [32]. In a morepositive sense, there have been two studieswhich characterised approaches to teaching andboth showed evidence that the approachadopted by teachers in the respective studiesfollowed logically from those teachers’ beliefsabout teaching [33], [34].

Two studies, at least, have shown that teach-ers’ beliefs about teaching impact upon theirstudents’ learning. Both studies showed thatteachers’ beliefs about teaching influenced theapproaches to learning students adopted in theircourses. Kember & Gow [35] showed this at thelevel of departments within universities andTrigwell, Prosser & Waterhouse [36] foundcomparable results with individual teachers.

There is therefore every justification foraccepting Pajares’ [13] argument for the impor-tance of research into teacher beliefs. There isalso a clear need to heed his injunction to ensurethat such studies are carried out with rigorousattention to detail and definition.

This article has attempted to further knowl-edge in this field by performing a detailed analysisof the teachers’ conceptions of art teaching.Effort was made to give very detailed descrip-tions of the resulting categories of conceptions interms of six dimensions pertinent to art teaching.

The analysis resulted in a detailed two-levelconceptual model. At the higher level wereessentialist or contextualist orientations. Undereach orientation were two conception cate-gories. Under the essentialist orientation weremoral development in art, and aesthetic develop-ment in art conceptions, while under thecontextualist orientation came intellectual devel-opment through art, and expression and therapythrough art.



AcknowledgementsThis research was part of a Ph D conducted bythe first named author, supervised by the second.

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conceptions of teaching art held by secondary school art teachers

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