Aesthetic lessons in the International Baccalaureate: An examination of teacher creativity in the promotion of aesthetic experience

Aesthetic education operates as a means of encouraging students to think creatively and authentically. The International Baccalaureate seeks also to encourage critically-minded, independent thinkers. This study uses four International Baccalaureate teachers' reflections on and discussions of aesthetic lessons in order to highlight correspondences between aesthetic education and the aims of the International Baccalaureate. It offers a brief overview of the history of aesthetic pedagogical interpretations and applications from Plato to Alain Badiou. It then highlights aesthetic pedagogy within the International Baccalaureate program by presenting specific lessons utilized by the participants in the study in their effort to promote aesthetic experience. The study examines Language A1, IB Philosophy, IB Visual Arts and Theory of Knowledge. The lessons are framed as conversations and discussions in order to highlight their aesthetic qualities. Each participant is also interviewed and sheds light on how teachers translate their educational thoughts and aesthetic interactions into the creation of lessons. The study concludes with an examination of each of the lessons, considerations of correspondences between aesthetic education and the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile, and pedagogical considerations in the promotion of aesthetic experience.;The study discovers that there is a strong correspondence between the promotion of aesthetic experience and the aims of the International Baccalaureate. Teachers with experience in and familiarity with the curriculum of the International Baccalaureate utilize subject material as a means of encouraging students to make and explore their own experiences. Subject matter operates as a form that the imagination can interpret, come to understand, and utilize in order to create new interpretations and authentic interactions. The valuing of the student as interpreter and creator enables aesthetically-minded teachers to build their instruction around ongoing interaction between subject and learner. The result is an active educational atmosphere that consistently encourages aesthetic encounter and experience.