An investigation of conceptions of teaching art of secondary school art teachers

The study aimed to gain an understanding of whether art teachers' conceptions of teaching are related to their approach to teaching in practice. Environmental influences on teaching and the formation of teachers' conception of teaching were explored.;Qualitative methodology was adopted. The grounded theory approach was used to discover theory from the data. Eighteen art teachers were interviewed with questions that structured to examine their teaching conceptions and approaches. Mismatches were found in that teachers changed their approaches to teaching in higher forms because of examination demands. The conceptions and approaches were therefore analyzed for teaching at the junior level. Approaches to teaching at the senior level were explored separately.;Four conceptions of teaching art resulted, namely moral development in art, aesthetic development in art (with subcategories named leisure and living and academic), intellectual development through art, and expression and therapy through art. Four approaches to teaching were identified, namely instructional, discipline inquiry, social interactive, and personal. The conceptions and approaches can both be visualized by the analogy of a continuum, with the essentialist-contextualist conceptual label for the former, and subject-centred and student-centred for the latter. By intersecting the two continua, six conception-approach categories were resulted. A framework was produced to illustrate the six categories by intersecting the conception and approach continua. The conception continuum was used to represent the vertical axis, and the approach continuum represent the horizontal axis. The terminology of this framework can supplement the existing literature in identifying teaching conceptions by measuring teachers aims and rationales of teaching. By gaining a composite view of teachers' conceptions and approaches, their philosophy of teaching can be gathered in a deeper sense.;The results of correlating art teaching qualification, and the school academic status to the categories of teaching held by teachers, suggest that the formulation of teachers' view of teaching is an interplay of factors. Neither of the variables examined can be regarded as exclusive in affecting the form of conceptions teachers hold.;The finding also shows that examination pressure brought radical shifts to art teachers' approaches to teaching. The approach they used for higher form teaching was skill-based. Follow-up case studies suggested that a teacher holding a skill-based orientation to teaching art had a fulfilling experience in his career, while a teacher holding a student-centred view has experienced frustration. Implications for research methodology, direction of education and teacher education, and art education were made.