An aesthetic approach to lessons can be especially beneficial for children with sensory, cognitive, or emotional needs, like those you homeschool. It focuses on sensory experiences to guide engagement with content. This method creates a visually and emotionally enriching learning environment that engages the senses and supports individual learning styles.
Being fully engaged in experiences and then reflecting on such experiences can lead us to a greater awareness of life in general. (Greene, 2001) The more we perceive through our senses, the more we come to know. It places the role of the senses of center stage. (Uhrmacher, 2009)
Instructors can infuse a dull subject with energy and interest for their students (and themselves). Rather than focusing on standards and measurable outcomes, the aesthetic approach invites teachers to focus on the activities they will create for their students.
Aesthetic lesson planning enhances creativity by honoring and fostering “lateral thinking” by connecting various subject areas and ideas. These experiences can lead to growth, joy in learning, creativity, memory retention, engagement with subject matter, and meaning-making. Art education focuses on understanding and exploring aesthetic objects’ intent, value, and appreciation.
Aesthetic Approach CRISPR
Aesthetic lesson approach has six dimensions, defined by the acronym CRISPR, are needed for a fully enlivening and engaging experience:
- Connections refer to how people become engaged with the content. It involves intellectual, sensory, personal, and social connections.
- Risk-taking refers to students’ opportunities to try something new and step out of their routines. The instructor must create a safe space for learning.
- Imagination refers mainly to inward activities of creation. In one instance, students do something creative for themselves. The other is when students create something relatively new for the world.
- Imagination may be intuitive, in which a person has a sudden insight, and it could have been fanciful, in which a person combines unexpected elements.
- Interactive imagination is when a person works with material for an extended period to yield a product.
- Mimetic imagination is one in which a person mirrors or mimics the creative work of another.
- Sensory Experience refers to students using their senses to investigate and engage with objects to discern subtle qualities.
- Perceptivity is the deepened sensory experience during which one thoroughly examines an object using one or more senses.
- Active Engagement requires students to participate in their learning fully. It includes physical activity, making choices, and treating personal meaning.
Here’s a breakdown of how you can apply an aesthetic approach across subjects:
Incorporate Visual Beauty
Use of Color and Art: Integrate rich visuals, color schemes, and artwork that align with each subject. For instance, when teaching history, you might show classical paintings or culturally significant images, allowing students to draw connections between visual art and historical context.
Nature-Inspired Elements: Decorate learning spaces with plants, natural light, and calming color tones. In subjects like science, bring in natural materials (leaves, rocks, shells) to connect with biology or earth science lessons.
Sensory-Rich Materials
Textural Experiences: Use various materials (fabrics, clay, textured paper) to engage tactile learners. This can be especially helpful for students with sensory processing disorders.
Hands-On Art Projects: Incorporate projects like painting, sculpting, or collage-making to help students express what they’ve learned in creative ways. This will make learning more engaging for those who benefit from nonverbal expression.
Emotional Connection to Content
Storytelling and Emotional Themes: Build lessons around stories or characters that evoke empathy, wonder, or excitement. Choose emotionally rich narratives in literature that connect to your student’s interests or experiences.
Reflective Spaces: Set aside time for students to reflect on what they’ve learned. This could be through journaling, drawing, or talking about how a particular topic makes them feel. For students with expressive language challenges, this helps them process and articulate their thoughts.
Theatrical and Performance Elements
Drama and Role Play: Introduce role-playing to bring subjects to life. For example, students can act out scenes from historical events or novels in history or literature lessons. This kinesthetic engagement benefits those with ADHD or dyspraxia.
Music Integration: Play background music that matches the lesson’s mood or time period, helping students with auditory processing challenges focus on the lesson’s thematic elements.
Personalized and Flexible Spaces
Learning Stations: Create various “stations” in the room that invite different learning modes. One station could be dedicated to reading, another to art creation, and another to science experiments. This allows children to engage with content in the most comfortable ways.
Sensory Corners: Set up a quiet, aesthetic, sensory corner with soft fabrics, calming lights, and sensory toys for students to retreat when overwhelmed.
For aesthetic lesson planning, assessment and evaluation involve developing student interests and growth and evaluating their performance in demonstrating what they have learned in particular subject areas. Learning objectives are expressive, with the goal of focusing on an activity that students should find enjoyable and informative. Goals do not consider all outcome possibilities, only the connections made.
This aesthetic-driven approach taps into the power of beauty, sensory engagement, and emotion to create a more holistic and immersive learning environment. It can be especially useful in accommodating children with different learning needs, such as ADHD, OCD, or sensory processing difficulties.
Aesthetics is at the core of the teaching and learning processes in Waldorf, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia homeschooling.