Bases of Preservice Art Teachers’ Reflective Art Judgments

This descriptive study investigates the bases used to support judgments of artworks by preservice art teachers at two large universities. Bases art teachers might use to judge artwork range from personal preferences, to cultural expectations, to criteria drawn from values of various artworlds. The 26 preservice teachers in this study used a narrower range of bases than we expected. Most participants based their judgments on ideas associated with beauty, realism, and skill or ideas associated with the expression of feelings and ideas. Few participants used modernist ideas to support their judgments. Only one participant in the study used postmodern ideas. The authors discuss the possible explanations for participants’ reliance on a narrow range of ideas, raise questions, and draw implications for art teacher education.