College student experience of a studio art class in a liberal arts context

This teacher research examined college student experience of an introductory ceramics class in the context of a liberal arts curriculum. The course projects required introspective planning that guided students to confront the questions Who am I? and What does it mean to be human? Twenty-five students were interviewed and their class journals, artwork, and project planning were analyzed.; The results indicate that despite the liberal arts context of the class, most students were surprised at being asked to connect their inner lives to their course work, and many initially had difficulty doing so. The public nature of working in the studio, at first experienced as intimidating by most students, was transformed as the development of a classroom community supported the self-revelation necessary for artistic expression. In particular, the emergence a few alpha students at the first formal critique, who shared their work and the meaning behind its content publicly, contributed to other students' willingness to engage in introspective planning of subsequent projects. Students learned from each other both during day-to-day interactions and during three formal critiques.; Three factors contributed to student learning of artistic expression: course work based on introspection, sustained peer interaction, and the public nature of learning in the studio. These three factors contributed as well to the development of a classroom community, from which students found the courage to explore their inner lives through their art making. In addition, classroom community fostered students' recognition of themselves and their peers as sources of knowledge.