A Teaching Approach In Chinese Secondary School Visual Arts Education

In art education research and visual arts curriculum development for high schools,there is a surprising lack of objectives related the psychological profile of the late-adolescent student.Also,little can be found in the objectives that relate to,and acknowledge,culturally defined differences.High school visual arts students are generally considered as “students” who produce “school art”.In this study the objective is to prove that late-adolescent visual arts students deserve a full recognition as “young artists” that deserve their own place in the art world,for their art has the potential to be unique and exclusively the domain of late-adolescents with their unstable,but unique,identities;and with their unique perception of an ever changing world.This paper starts with research and analysis of theories and research into lateadolescence in different contexts: psychological,socio-cultural and cultural.The research then continues with examining developments of education in China and developments of approaches to learning and teaching in general,and in art education specifically.The paper concludes with a case study of a teaching approach that is focused on helping late-adolescent artists to develop a unique artistic identity,within the context of an international curriculum and a local culture rooted in collectivism.