Enlighten the Intellect with Beauty, Educate the People with Beauty-A Preliminary Study on Teaching Aesthetic Education in Elementary School

Abstract

IAesthetic education is an important part of quality education, its value is determined by its essential and aesthetic characteristics. Aesthetic education has a pivotal position and function in quality education, which is different from other education, it is a form of "teaching with fun", "diving into the night with the wind, moistening things," and can purify people's souls. Beauty and the human heart are connected. As Kant said, "beauty" is the bridge between "love" and "virtue. Aesthetic education is to use the beauty created by human society to beautify the value of the self, so that people have a state of fullness of spirit, and through the whole of human heart and life, forming a conscious and rational power. Aesthetic education is one of the important courses in elementary school, which can improve students' aesthetics and ability to create beauty, so that they can get all-round development in moral, intellectual and physical aspects. However, there is a backward concept of education and poor quality of teachers in our schools. This paper mainly discusses the importance of beauty, creativity and expressive ability to the growth of primary school students from the perspective of beauty.

Headnote

How to cite this paper: Xinrui Fu. (2023). Enlighten the Intellect with Beauty, Educate the People with Beauty-A Preliminary Study on Teaching Aesthetic Education in Elementary School. The Educational Review, USA, 7(5), 625-629. DOI: 10.26855/er.2023.05.017

Received: May 10, 2023 Accepted: June 8, 2023 Published: July 5, 2023

Corresponding author: Xinrui Fu, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

Aesthetic education is an important part of quality education, its value is determined by its essential and aesthetic characteristics. Aesthetic education has a pivotal position and function in quality education, which is different from other education, it is a form of "teaching with fun", "diving into the night with the wind, moistening things," and can purify people's souls. Beauty and the human heart are connected. As Kant said, "beauty" is the bridge between "love" and "virtue. Aesthetic education is to use the beauty created by human society to beautify the value of the self, so that people have a state of fullness of spirit, and through the whole of human heart and life, forming a conscious and rational power. Aesthetic education is one of the important courses in elementary school, which can improve students' aesthetics and ability to create beauty, so that they can get all-round development in moral, intellectual and physical aspects. However, there is a backward concept of education and poor quality of teachers in our schools. This paper mainly discusses the importance of beauty, creativity and expressive ability to the growth of primary school students from the perspective of beauty.

Keywords

Aesthetic education, Art education, Discovering beauty, Creating beauty

1. Introduction

Aesthetic education refers to the cultivation of students' artistic qualities and skills in the process of receiving education, so that they can have a good aesthetic awareness and good moral sentiment, thus enhancing their ability to perceive, appreciate and create beauty. The education reform in the new era highlights the importance of "aesthetic education", which not only cultivates sentiment, but also improves the overall quality of people and promotes their all-round development. Aesthetic education, which is the stage of basic education, enables every student to experience the excellent art and cultural traditions created by human beings in the school's aesthetic education classrooms. By cultivating their artistic potential, they will love art from an early age, and then have the talent to add colorful art to their lives with gorgeous brushes and wonderful sounds, thus strengthening the overall quality of students.

2. The Meaning of Aesthetic Education in Elementary School

The love of beauty is in everyone's heart. In the development of human civilization, people's relentless pursuit and creation of beauty has always been an eternal theme, learning to appreciate beauty, learning to create beauty, which is conducive to the physical and mental pleasure of people, the full and healthy development of aesthetic connotation. In China, as early as the Zhou Dynasty, there were "six arts" in the education of the nobility, namely "ritual, music, archery, royalty, calligraphy and mathematics", which is exactly the "all-round development" advocated by today's society. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the "poetry education" and "music education" advocated by Confucius can be regarded as the germ of "beauty" education. Confucius advocated "to poetry, to ritual, to music, to music", which fully embodies the idea of "beauty-based" education. In modern China, Wang Guowei and Cai Yuanpei opened up a new dimension in the traditional three-dimensional education of "moral, intellectual and physical", which is aesthetic education. During his tenure as Minister of Education of the Nanjing Provisional Government, Cai Yuanpei pioneered the idea of "beauty as education" and opened up a new path for aesthetic education in China (Qiutong Zhang, Kaining Meng, & Ning Sun, 2022).

Since the founding of New China, from the provisional regulations on primary education issued by the Ministry of Education in 1952 to the 18th National Congress, China has made aesthetic education one of the important elements of its education policy. In the Decision of the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform, China made "strengthening aesthetic education, improving the quality of aesthetic education, and raising the level of aesthetic education" as the first major decision of the Party. From ancient times to the present, aesthetic education has not only promoted students' good aesthetic consciousness and ability, but also cultivated good moral qualities, and played an irreplaceable role in the cultivation of "complete human beings" who are enlightened by beauty (Wang Guowei's words).

3. Take Advantage of the Situation, Take Multiple Steps, Promote the Development of Aesthetic Education in Schools

In the 2010 edition of the National Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan, it is clearly stated that "We should strengthen aesthetic education, improve the level of aesthetic education of primary school students, and improve the overall quality of primary school students". In such a general environment, each elementary school should base on the actual situation, establish the educational concept of "quality-based, personality-based development", and use the educational ideology of "enlightening the intellect with beauty and educating people with beauty", and strive to achieve the goal of "building a nation with beauty and educating people with beauty". The goal is to "establish the country and educate people with beauty" (Victoria V. Bezrukova & Lyudmila N. Mikheyeva, 2021).

3.1 To Achieve a Scientific and Integrated Arrangement

First, we should investigate the actual situation of students in school, investigate the characteristics and needs of students in school, make scientific predictions and analyses, and propose development plans for aesthetic education in elementary schools, so as to show the way for the development of aesthetic education. Second, we need to increase investment. In recent years, the school based on its own geographic location, and actively develop campus greening, beautification of the campus, humanistic landscape, fences, etc., so as to achieve a combination of points and surfaces, to create a four-season green, birdsong, quiet and elegant environment for nurturing people, beauty education in the environment, embellishment, planting the seeds of beauty in the minds of students. Third, the harmony of development. The National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan clearly states that "people-oriented, comprehensive implementation of quality education" is an important element of China's current educational development. In this context, the development of "people-oriented, comprehensive implementation of quality education", which is a necessary requirement for the future implementation of quality education. For this reason, schools must be fully aware of the inherent relationship between moral education, aesthetic education and intellectual education, combining moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor, which lays a solid foundation for the development of elementary school students.

3.2 Actively Explore, Innovate Teaching Methods, Establish a Modern Operating Mechanism for School-based Aesthetic Education

To further improve and refine aesthetic education on campus, it is necessary to reform the intrinsic organization of elementary schools, starting from a well-developed educational system, so as to effectively dissolve these institutional bottlenecks. In the new environment, improving and perfecting aesthetic education on campus is the top priority of moral education in elementary schools. First, we need to develop and improve various management methods (Muchao Zhang, 2021). The establishment of the "school rules" is an opportunity to review the current "aesthetic education" in elementary school systematically, and then to develop a practical and reasonable management system based on the current work and future development, which provides a theoretical basis for the development of aesthetic education. Second, we should promote the reform of art education. At present, in the change of classroom teaching mode, many changes in the knowledge education curriculum are underway, while the reform of the teaching of aesthetic education is "the sound of waves remains the same". The fifth small experimental school in Quanzhou City adopts new classroom teaching methods, changes teaching methods and approaches, and promotes changes in education and teaching, so that the teaching effectiveness of the aesthetic education classroom can be further improved.

3.3 Integrating the Efforts of All Parties to Seek a Breakthrough, Steadily Promoting Campus Art Education

According to the basic theory of cultivation, based on the actual school, create the characteristics of the school's aesthetic education, promote the integration of aesthetic education and subject teaching, and carry out aesthetic education from the following four aspects (Laura Veneroni et al., 2015).

First, moral education aesthetics. Starting from the effect of improving moral cultivation, fully explore the beauty component and the role of beauty in moral cultivation, improve moral cultivation from the perspective of beauty, so that they can find beautiful people and things, experience beauty and develop a beautiful character. Through self-reflection and spiritual resonance, they form a correct worldview, outlook on life and morality, and they are able to use their love-filled emotions to give thanks to others and return to society. In moral education and aesthetic education, the unity of beauty of mind and beauty of behavior is achieved, and the effect of "cultivating morality with beauty" is obvious. For example, since 2010, the school has been selecting "Campus Stars" to discover outstanding cases, and set up the example of "Campus Stars" to integrate "good people awareness" into the quality of elementary school students.

Secondly, the aesthetics of knowledge. In the process of implementing "beauty" education, the school has developed "beauty" in all aspects. The school will fully explore the curriculum of various specialties, taking beauty as the main way to integrate beauty education into the "daily" teaching. Schools should explore the traditional highlights of beauty education, and according to the school environment and the actual situation of student experience, design their own characteristics of school-based curriculum, the integration of beauty education into the daily education and teaching, so that students feel the beauty of knowledge, feel the joy of learning.

Third, art aesthetics. In the practice of art aesthetics, students should be good at mobilizing their aesthetic consciousness and creativity, so that they can engage in it and get the experience of beauty from it, thus improving their artistic creativity, which will stimulate their wisdom, enrich their emotions, perfect their personality and open their hearts. At the same time, relying on literature club, technology, street dance, guitar, animation, calligraphy and painting; such as chess, basketball, martial arts and other activities activities, this brings students a variety of forms of artistic activities, so that they can experience beauty, understand beauty, appreciate beauty, express beauty and create beauty in the activities (Yujing Zhang, 2021).

Fourth, physical aesthetics. Schools need to focus on comprehensive physical exercise for all students, not only to implement the "one hour a day" call, but also to cultivate the aesthetics of students' bodies. For different students, professional clubs such as track and field, basketball, volleyball, etc. which improve the physical quality of students and better shape their external image.

4. Integration of Aesthetic Education and Primary School Teaching

4.1 Actively Play the Important Role of Teachers in Teaching Aesthetic Education

To innovate ideas. Aesthetic education is a course of innovative thinking and a creative discipline. Aesthetic education is an enlightening education for people, a comprehensive development of students' personality, and art is important for cultivating sentiment and creating outstanding talents. First of all, we must use new ideas, new thoughts and new methods to stimulate the intelligence of students, as well as constantly innovate the aesthetic education in schools. Secondly, aesthetic education should be open to all people and insist on popularizing art, so that everyone can enjoy high-quality aesthetic education. Finally, with the development of society and education, more and more schools are paying attention to aesthetic education, especially the training of art majors. So, how is the arts culture of the school built? First, educational administrators and art teachers should always pay attention to the cultural spirit of the times, the spirit of our culture today, which is centered on human subjectivity and on cultivating, and demonstrating human consciousness of life. Secondly, we should absorb the essence of the culture of the times in the campus culture, and then make it a campus culture with the characteristics of the times (Qin Hongqing, Chen Xiaoyu, & Sun Mingmei, 2019).

To practice hard. Aesthetic education is a creative education that requires both a sense of innovation and practice, as well as making full use of student autonomy. The wisdom of aesthetic education creates wise teachers, and diligent practice creates excellent teachers, whose value is reflected through effective teaching activities. Art teachers bear the burden of creating special features. Teachers give full play to their role as teachers in the development of artistic personalities, and play a good role as teachers in the training of elementary school students, which are all teachers' responsibilities and obligations. Interest is the driving force of learning, only to stimulate students' interest and actively engaged in learning, so as to achieve better learning results. Therefore, in the classroom, teachers should make full use of the unique charm of the art subject to create a lively and interesting teaching environment through a variety of ways, so as to enhance students' interest in learning and transform it into a sustained emotion, allowing them to enter a wonderful learning paradise. In the process of careful lesson preparation, teachers should also create a variety of teaching environments and teaching designs, then fully mobilize students' subjectivity and initiative with rich teaching resources. In this way, students will feel the joy of learning, so that they can carry out their work better (Lin Yang & Heng Cui, 2020). To sum up: careful arrangement of each topic, reasonable arrangement of each link, flexible use of advanced teaching resources; through a novel and rich teaching process, students can better focus on learning and achieve better teaching results. For example, storytelling and listening to stories are students' favorites. Therefore, teachers can read the textbook carefully before each lesson and find a story suitable for the material with the requirements of the textbook, which can then be introduced into the classroom.

4.2 Using Disciplines as a Carrier to Dig Deeper into "Beauty"

Curriculum education is the core and foundation of the work of elementary education. Integrating aesthetic education into professional education is a high degree of unity in the basic philosophy of education. Aesthetic education should be carried out in different disciplines, from different perspectives, in multiple directions and at multiple levels. Music education should enable students to recognize, love and appreciate the beauty of music and to develop musical imagination on their own initiative. Art education should enable students to feel and recognize the beauty of color and line; to learn to observe, capture and express beauty, and to develop and develop creativity in beauty on their own initiative. In sports, students are taught about the beauty of movement, strength and gesture of the body, so that they can embody and experience beauty in their free and stretching movements. Through geography education, students learn about the beauty and affluence of the country and they are able to stimulate their noble patriotic feelings. Through the education of history, students will learn about the long history and glorious culture of China, so that they will have a determination and will to revitalize the nation and serve the motherland. In language education, students are enabled to understand the beauty of written expression, to feel and appreciate the beauty of literary works, and to take the initiative to use their own words to create. In mathematics education, to enable students to understand the beauty of mathematics, for example, when determining teaching objectives and teaching priorities, teachers should give full play to the role of aesthetic education, especially when determining teaching objectives and teaching priorities, teachers should pay attention to the development of students' emotions, attitudes and values. For example, in mathematics textbooks, the requirements for proportion, symmetry, balance and simplicity (Aoxiang Liu, 2021). Harmony, logic, reveries about the golden section, the numerical relationships in the Egyptian pyramids, and in-depth exploration of mathematical equations, which can and should permeate the concept of aesthetic education. In history textbooks, there are many illustrations that should enable students to intuitively experience natural scenery, labor creations and the emotions of people, so that they can be enlightened and educated in the process of feeling beauty.

Students' minds are the freest. They yearn for spring, to be close to nature, and to soar freely in the world, which requires every teacher to fully expand their space and enrich their activities, allowing children to participate in experiences, explore actively and practice actively, so that every child's dreams can be released. The teacher can provide sufficient space for each student to display, arrange various activities, encourage everyone to express their ideas in the classroom, dare to show their talents, and continuously enhance the students' self-confidence. The teacher can outline a beautiful blueprint of life for the students, making them hopeful for a better future, so that they can better realize their ideals (Hui Tang, 2021).

5. Conclusion

Aesthetic education is essential at the elementary school level. Aesthetic education for students can not only improve their physical fitness, but also promote their physical and mental health, and cultivate their moral character. In order to realize the modernization of our country, China's modern education must be combined with aesthetic education, so as to promote the better implementation of our educational policy.

References

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