Research topic

Aesthetic learning processes (ALP) aims to form and transform fragmented pieces of content into personally shaped and expressed experiences. This paper aims to explore the role and importance of personally owned and embodied knowledge.

Theoretical framework

My research in the field of ALP is based on Ricoeur’s comprehensive hermeneutic philosophy. I choose to emphasize the refiguration act, where the interpretation and understanding process from pre-understanding to self-understanding is completed through appropriation. This is an embodied completion by making one´s own what was initially alien. The constitution of the self is contem¬poraneous with the constitution of meaning.

Methodological design

Ricoeur’s hermeneutical methodology is used for interpretation, refiguration and appropriation. The data from the school study is based on observations, written reflections/supervised self-completion questionnaire, and obtained course grades. In total, approximately 100 students and 50 teachers participated in the study.

Expected findings

The aesthetic is an essential foundation for the human created and communicated world, a prerequisite for experience and learning in general. The aesthetic connects to the formwork to embody the experience, i.e. a personal experience of and in the world. This experience weaves together new and previous experiences, thoughts and feelings, into a personal expression, where the form is cen¬tral to the meaning-making process. ALP concerns the qualitative encounter between the human and the world, where senses, emotions and imagination are valuable in the formation and expression of embodied knowledge. 

My research shows a significant correlation between a high aesthetic quality on the form-expression and a high course grade in school. This can be explained by the similarities between an aesthetically shaped and expressed experience, and the course criteria for the highest grade. A high course grade requires deep understanding, i.e. a personal conceptual embodied knowledge beyond simple reproduced surface knowledge. According to the students and teachers in the study, this can be advantageously achieved through ALP and its core elements.

Relevance to Nordic educational research

Aesthetic learning processes is a Scandinavian concept, produced and developed in this context, but of significance in all countries, also of importance for maintained development. The relevance of personal embodied knowledge can sadly be viewed as a challenging adventure in today´s neoliberal homogenized educational practices. 

References

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

Ricoeur, P. (1991). From text to action. (K. Blamey, & J. Thompson. Trans.). Athlone. (Original work published in 1986)