Research topic and aim

The aesthetic learning process is a meaning-making process through an active reflection on previous and new experiences, where reason and emotions as well as imagination contribute to an innovate form-expression with the aim to touch and influence the learner emotionally. This takes place within the aesthetic form-language, where fragmented pieces of content are transformed into coherent whole in a personally shaped experience.

This paper aims to explore some essential terms and concepts connected to aesthetic learning processes, specifically form-expression and form-language, and related terms like form, expression, mediating tools and content. How can we distinguish between these terms, and what consequences does this have for the theory formation of the aesthetic aspect in learning processes? 

Theoretical framework and research design

My ongoing research is based on hermeneutic philosophy provided by Ricoeur (1993). His text interpretation begins with explanation at the semiological structure level, continues with understanding at the semantic discursive level, to land in self-understanding through application and communication. The process oscillates between distancing and appropriation, between revealing and assigning meaning. The hermeneutical hypothetical-deductive analysis method aims to provide the most coherent and valid meaning for the statement.

Expected results/findings        

The aesthetic quality is shown in the form, not in the content. An expression consists of a content in a form, and this expression of form, following Hohr and Pedersen (1996) and Austring and Sørensen (2006), is called a form-expression, shaped through the aesthetic form-language. There are different ways of categorizing representational forms, such as enactive, iconic and symbolic, where the symbolic can divides into an objective discursive and a subjective emotional form, later by Austring and Sørensen divided into the discursive, the iconic and the aesthetic representational form, where the last is called the aesthetic form-language. This form-language can be supplemented with the adjectives the subjective emotional shaping aesthetic symbolic form-language, and carries an expressive feeling about something, a personal shaped experience through a form-expression.

Relevance to Nordic educational research 

Aesthetic learning processes is a Scandinavian concept, produced, established and developed in a Scandinavian context. It is of significance in all countries, and important to maintain further development of this pedagogical concept. 

References

Austring, B. D. & Sørensen, M (2006). Æstetik og læring – grundbog om æstetiske læreprocesser. Hans Reitzels Forlag. 

Hohr, H. & Pedersen, K. (1996). Perspektiver på æstetiske læreprocesser. Olesen Offset

Ricoeur, P. (1993). Från text till handling. Brutus Östlings bokförlag