Reflections on the Improvement of Students’ Literacy in Art Classrooms under the New Situation ()
1. Introduction
The new situation exists in the transformation of social needs and the development of information technology, and the new situation of diversified social needs: learner-centered personalized and diversified learning has become the mainstream, and educational evaluation has become more diverse. With richer learning resources and more convenient learning channels, learners have increasingly strong requirements for autonomy in learning time, place, method, and rhythm. “Indoctrination” and “big class” can no longer meet individual needs; afterward, “going to a good school” has become the general mentality and urgent need of the whole society, and the selectivity and requirements for schools, teachers, majors, and courses have become increasingly strict. The development of information technology has presented a new trend of “personalization”. Personalization and customization have become a trend in the field of education. Different students have different learning needs and methods, and traditional education can only meet the requirements of some students. Today, artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies can be used to accurately match the needs of students and improve education methods, so that education can truly vary from person to person and meet the differentiated needs of students.
Educational reform and development not only meet the learning and development needs of students, but also promote China’s economic development, which will become the development goal of the Ministry of Education under the new situation [1] . Guide students to highlight their own employment advantages, comprehensively improve students’ comprehensive quality and professional ability, and establish and improve teaching management models and systems. According to the current development situation, innovate the school’s teaching management methods, and in the process of reform and innovation, improve the school’s teaching quality, expand the scope of teaching, attach importance to personnel training, and promote the school’s personnel training. Higher art education was born in our country through basic education, and now, the sources of higher professional students have undergone major changes, and it is difficult to adapt the traditional education model to this change. Many teachers lamented: “The current student foundation is weak, it is difficult to teach, and it is also difficult to manage”. Facing the new situation and the new structure of student resources, it is essential for all those involved in higher art education and teaching to research and engage in in-depth discussions on how to perform well.
2. Focus on the Problem: The Status Quo of Improving Students’ Literacy in Art Classrooms
Taking the course of the author’s art university as an example, the university has at least two art classes a week. Based on the 18 weeks of each semester, there are about 36 art classes in a semester, and there are more than 300 art classes in 4 years. However, the improvement of students’ ability and literacy in the art class is relatively limited [2] , and many students with good art literacy are due to training in oil painting, Chinese painting, etc. outside the school [3] . Where is the key problem? Why there are so many class hours, many students still have difficulty in understanding painting, wrong painting methods, and worrying about painting style? There are several reasons for this:
2.1. Lack of High-Level Development of Knowledge, Skills and Emotions
Many teachers just lead students to appreciate one master’s painting after another, the teaching content is relatively shallow, and they have not really improved the students’ art accomplishment [4] . Or stay in the study of art knowledge and skills, lacking effective consolidation and improvement. Many students are memorizers of knowledge and practitioners of skills, rather than active explorers and thinkers, which is ultimately not conducive to the development of higher-order thinking and the improvement of core literacy.
2.2. Lack of Deliberate Practice of Advanced Methods
The mastery of skills requires a certain amount of positive practice. Only by insisting on practicing in the correct way can a stable skill be formed [5] . For example, when teaching painting methods, students simply imitate, sometimes right and sometimes wrong, and it is difficult to form a fixed muscle memory.
2.3. Lack of Full Participation of Students
The enthusiasm of the senior students in the art class has declined in the lower grades. On the one hand, it may be because the teaching process presents a “paradigm”, which cannot arouse students’ interest [6] . On the other hand, many students have a different mentality compared to cultural courses, and there are more “randomness” in the classroom, so they lack a high-behavior and high-emotion learning attitude.
3. Teaching Methods: Discussion on Art Methods under the New Situation
3.1. Use Guided Teaching Methods to Improve Students’ Learning Enthusiasm
The so-called guided teaching refers to the combination of inspiration and guidance, with “inspiration” as the essence and “guidance” as the auxiliary [7] , guiding students to actively participate in teachers’ educational activities and make full use of limited resources. The learning time is carried out under the guidance of the teacher, which allows students to make full use of the time according to their own situation, thus improving the teaching efficiency and improving the level of students [8] . Due to changes in the source of higher vocational students, many students have poor foundations, lack of good training and education, good study habits and correct learning methods. The traditional teaching mode is difficult to motivate them to learn independently. Through guided teaching, students can actively participate in the teaching process, change the way of learning, and improve their enthusiasm for learning.
3.2. Use Situational Teaching to Mobilize Students’ Enthusiasm for Learning
Situational teaching refers to the way in which teachers consciously present or create vivid and tangible scenes with specific emotional colors and images in the teaching process, so as to arouse students’ interest and experience, and help students understand and develop the teaching materials [9] . The essence of situational teaching method is to stimulate students’ emotions, guide students to participate in it, introduce roles, explore knowledge and train skills with interest, and help students understand and master knowledge and skills. The current problem faced by higher art education is that students lack self-control ability and learning interest. Only according to the teaching content and the actual workplace, students can immerse themselves in it, see it with their own eyes, do it with their hands, know why and what is missing, actively desire and explore knowledge and skills, and stimulate their enthusiasm for learning.
3.3. Strengthen the Idea of Humanistic Education That Puts Students First, and Cultivates a Good Style of Study
Higher art education aims to cultivate high-skilled and applied talents for the front line of production. So many students define themselves as simple workers, thus reducing their requirements and losing interest in learning. In addition, the current students have a strong sense of society, so higher art education is facing severe tests and challenges. Higher art education is not limited to teaching knowledge and skills, but also includes ethics and self-cultivation, cultivating high-skilled talents for enterprises and qualified citizens for society. When the individual interacts with the collective, the individual will be affected and changed within the collective environment. Only when the collective learning method is good can the individual align with it. It is still very important to have individual instruction and develop a collective learning style. When establishing a learning style, not only does a master plan for the entire college need to be considered, but classes and even small groups such as residence halls are also considered. From the entire school to the dormitory, a unique and positive learning and living environment has been created. By promoting the coordinated development of individuals and groups, it can guide students’ healthy growth and individual growth.
4. Inadequacies of This Article
The teaching of developing advanced art tools is to use modern information technology to teach and guide students to use computers to design art works. The advantage of this is that on the one hand, it can improve students’ interest in art learning and improve the classroom atmosphere; on the other hand, it can improve Students appreciate works of art and enhance communication and exchange of works of art [10] . The emergence of new technologies has broadened students’ horizons and tools, and they can obtain a large number of art works through the Internet. This paper only analyzes the teaching methods for improving students’ literacy in art classes.
The cultivation of innovative ability in art education is a long-term project that requires the persistence and efforts of teachers, students, and parents. Starting from the teacher-student relationship, teaching tools, classroom atmosphere and evaluation methods, I believe that students’ innovative ability will be effectively improved. At the same time, it is also in line with the teaching philosophy advocated by the art education and teaching in colleges and universities. This paper studies the art learning methods from the guided teaching and situational teaching. However, there is a lack of research on evaluation methods, especially the research on the usual and final evaluation of art teaching. In the art class on weekdays, the teacher has to assign some art homework, which is a daily assessment. The homework assignments should reflect whether the ability training and method mastery are good, and whether the attitude is serious; the homework should examine whether the students have imagination and innovation, not traditional knowledge. Diversification is also reflected in the diversity of subjects, and the objects of assessment include teachers, students and parents. The evaluation of teachers is mainly reflected in the evaluation of students, while the evaluation of parents is mainly aimed at children’s learning performance at home. These are very important links in the learning process and should be included in the evaluation.
5. Suggestions and Conclusions for Quality Improvement
Firstly, higher art education should have its own characteristics [11] , that is, it must be closely related to the market, and the way to survive is to increase the employment rate of graduates. In order to increase the employment rate, it is necessary to reform teaching methods, implement teaching innovation, and improve teaching quality to meet the needs of society for art students. Whether it is the theoretical circle, the educational circle or the school itself, a certain consensus has been reached in defining the basic tasks of higher art education. At present, there are still two trends in fine arts worthy of attention: first, it tends to establish disciplines in colleges and universities based on the concept of undergraduate school management. The second is the excessive pursuit of enrollment rate, focusing on teaching requirements, underestimating and ignoring the requirements of vocational skills training for the goals of higher art education. Differences in orientation will lead to differences in teaching content and teaching methods, so teaching reform is necessary and urgent [12] .
Secondly, change the concept and let art implement the goal of the art market. The purpose of higher art education is to cultivate technical talents suitable for production, construction, management and service enterprises, and develop professional ethics and art talents in an all-round way.
In short, the teaching and administration of students who accept fine arts are complex and demanding. Learn from the beneficial experience of advanced colleges and universities, actively explore new teaching methods and educational management models suitable for fine arts, understand the actual situation of schools, and grasp the new trends and challenges faced by colleges and universities. People-oriented, continuous problems and reforms consolidate the educational concept of “students first”, enhance students’ self-confidence, improve self-awareness, and promote the healthy and orderly development of higher art education and teaching.