Modes of thought in secondary school art

There is an emphasis in current school education on the teaching of thinking skills, yet there has been little research into the modes of thought that are appropriate for secondary school Art students. A range of qualitative methods were used in this study of eminent professional artists and secondary school Art students. Interviews and observation were used to examine the ways artists and students think in going about the art process of finding ideas, conceptualising or developing those ideas and resolving those ideas in the production of artworks. Eight modes of thought, each with numerous micro-skills, were derived from the data. The modes of thought proposed are Creative Thinking, Intuitive Thinking, Life Theme, Metaphorising, Visual Thinking, Conceptualisation, Critical Thinking and Reflective Thinking.