This document examines sixth grade pupils' perceptions of art. Pupils' perceptions were mostly centered around art as a production activity, but also saw it as an intellectual activity. Pupils defined art most often through specific acts like drawing and expressing. They also referred to the content of art in tangible terms like objects and pictures or intangible terms like emotions and ideas. Many pupils also saw art as having personal or social value and serving purposes like a hobby. Teachers' perceptions focused on art as a personal means of expression, though specialists had a more well-rounded view incorporating comprehension and formal elements.

1. 1
Art is … understanding sixth grade pupils’ perceptions of
art
Abstract
Through social interaction with adults, pupils build up a fund of social knowledge, which
influences their own interpretations about the nature of art. This paper examines sixth grade
pupils’ perceptions of art. Data points to cultural assumptions that are implied and underlie
the meaning of art for them. Pupils’ perceptions of art were mostly production centered, but
there was also strong evidence of art as an intellectual activity.
Introduction
This paper aims to examine one aspect of the learning-teaching process that is often
neglected. This aspect deals with the meanings of art that pupils construct during art lessons.
As a practising primary teacher in Cyprus1
, I became increasingly more sensitive to pupils’
opinions, beliefs and views about art. During my teaching I realised that pupils had different
and often limited perceptions of art. This is something noted by teachers and art educators in
different contexts (cultures), too. Understanding pupils’ perceptions will benefit my own art
teaching and that of others like myself.
Defining art is a challenging task. Both philosophers and art educators (Weitz, 1970,
Goodman, 1977, Dissanayake, 1988, Davies, 1991, Anderson, 1995, Elliot, 1997) have raised
several arguments about the very nature of art, which are inextricably meshed with
ontological, interpretive, and evaluative issues and their implications stretch in many
directions. Where matters are as complex and fundamental as this, straightforwardly decisive
arguments are not to be expected. Teachers may hold different positions towards art’s role
and art’s meanings, named as expressive, reconstructive and scientific (Efland, 1990,
Siegesmund, 1998). Here I am not going to advocate in favour of any given definition; this is
not the purpose of this paper. I just want to point out that a variety of definitions exist and
that teachers may show a preference towards one or a melange of art’s roles. Each teacher
contributes to defining her/his field as each one teaches, plans lessons and learning activities.
It is important to understand what the recipients of these activities – the pupils – are making
of art; to understand the ideas presented to pupils and thus the meanings that pupils are
constructing about art. Different researchers/art educators support the view that pupils
develop structures of meanings for interpreting art and art activities based on what is socially
acceptable (Johnson, 1982, Hamblen, 1984, Stokrocki, 1986). It is argued that the terms used
1
While the research mentioned in this paper took place in a particular context, Cyprus, the findings are relevant
for teachers of sixth grade pupils in other countries, too. Cyprus, as a former colony of Britain, has strong
influences from English speaking countries and in particular Britain. These are identified in the national art
education curriculum, which bears many resemblances with the English and Whales curriculum and it appears
to be in line with current ideas about art education. For example, the curriculum acknowledges the multifaceted
nature of art, the theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner 1993) and views art as a distinct way of knowing
(there is strong evidence of Discipline Based Art Education). The curriculum also stresses that pupils should
learn ‘in art’, ‘about art’ and ‘through art’. These aims correspond to the expressive, reconstructive and
scientific streams about rationales for teaching art (Efland, 1990). It puts substantial emphasis on culture,
society and on the creator and the viewer. Here, I would like to note that unlike other countries, such as Canada,
Cyprus Republic is still uni-cultural and not multi-cultural. To be more specific, the population of primary
public schools is of uni-cultural character, which is of Greek origin. Only 4% of the pupils are not Greek-
Cypriots and most of them are Greeks of Diaspora (Kyriakidou, 2002). This has started to change due to Cyprus
joining the EU in May 2004.

2. 2
by pupils for defining art do not just reflect pupils’ attitudes but also their teachers’ attitudes,
and societies’ attitudes. It is also suggested that pupils may have limited perceptions of art
and the role of teachers and/or of researchers is to understand these and move pupils forward
by introducing activities that will expand their perceptions of art (Ladusans, 1996, Russell,
1988, Jeffers, 1998).
This paper aims to highlight ways of understanding sixth graders’ perceptions of art and the
implications of these for their teachers and for their society. While pupils are the main focus,
teachers’ perceptions of art are also explored in an effort to understand how and to what
extent pupils are influenced by them.
Method
Sample
The examination of pupils’ perceptions of art was part of a larger study, which aimed at
understanding sixth grade pupils’ (11 to 12 year olds) attitudes to art and the influence of
their teachers’ art specialisation (Pavlou, 2003). The study was conducted in the capital city
of Cyprus, Nicosia. Six classes were chosen for observations of art lessons and for
interviewing pupils. In total 24 pupils, four from each class were interviewed. Their teachers
were interviewed, too, along with twelve other teachers2
(two men and fourteen women).
This paper focuses on pupils and teachers’ responses from interviews. The selection of the six
classes was based on teachers’ level of art specialisation and attitudes towards art (see figure
1). The selection of the pupils was based on their gender and ‘interest-achievement’ exhibited
during art lessons (see fieldwork).
Research tools
The interviews with pupils and teachers were semi-structured. The interview schedules
included a number of issues3
. Evidence of pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of art was
gathered through their responses to the question ‘what do you think art is?’ or ‘in your
opinion, what is art?’.
Fieldwork
Pupils completed first an attitude scale4
on art that served as a warm up period for the
interviews that followed. This set the pre-conditions for productive interviewing. More
specifically, when the pupils completed the attitude scale, they were asked whether they
would be willing to participate in an interview. Most of the pupils volunteered (by raising
their hands), an encouraging sign to me at the time because it suggested that they had
2
In total sixteen classes and sixteen teachers participated in the study. Only six classes were selected for pupil
interview, but all sixteen teachers were interviewed.
3
The interview schedule for pupils included questions about pupils’ perceptions of art, pupils’ feelings towards
art and art activities, most and least favourite activities in school, perceptions of their competence, perceptions
of ‘good’ artworks, perceptions of art’s usefulness in their lives, perceptions of support given by the teachers
(teacher’s role), processes of art making and engaging with art outside school. The interview schedule for
teachers included questions on issues about teachers’ own experiences with art from the time that they were
pupils, their beliefs about the role of art in pupils’ lives, their views on the role of art in schools, their lesson
aims, their opinions on pupils’ art learning, their views on the art curriculum and their perceptions about what is
art. Moreover, teachers were asked to give examples of art lessons and to refer to any problems that they were
facing.
4
An attitude scale was designed for the purpose of this study and was completed by all the pupils of all sixteen
classes.

3. 3
something interesting to say about art. Their teacher selected four of them based on their
gender and ‘interest-achievement’. This was because I wanted to interview an equal number
of boys and girls and pupils who exhibited distinctive levels of interest and achievement in
art lessons ranging from ‘talented’/enthusiastic to those who were indifferent towards art.
Interviews were conducted in groups of fours. Individual chats were also carried out, later on,
during which pupils were asked to bring some of their own work and talk about it.
Figure 1: Sampling
Teachers5 Classes Pupils
5 Art Specialists (AS)
teachers
Selection
of
classes
2 AS
classes
4 boys and 4 girls of
mixed ability
6 Enthusiastic Non-
Specialists (ENS)
teachers
2 ENS
classes
4 boys and 4 girls of
mixed ability
5 Unenthusiastic Non-
Specialists (UNS)
teachers
2 UNS
classes
4 boys and 4 girls of
mixed ability
Total no of
participants
interviewed
16 24
Results
Predetermined categories (Johnson 1982) were used for understanding the respondents’
perceptions of art and for comparison purposes with other studies.
Pupils’ perceptions of art
Table 1 presents the categories used (Johnson, 19826
) to describe pupils’ perceptions of art.
Pupils referred to art most often through specific terms, that is, almost all the pupils referred
to the category of act and more than half of them also used the content category. The kinds of
acts mentioned were mostly ‘draw’ and ‘express’. The content of art mentioned had both a
tangible orientation (ten comments were about things, something, objects, pictures, statues
and pots) and an intangible orientation (there were eleven comments about emotions,
feelings, imagination, self, ideas, and thoughts). For example, ‘we can draw different things
using our imagination’, ‘we can draw whatever we are able to do’ or ‘you can express your
feelings through pictures that you make’.
5
All the teachers were primary school teachers. The classification of them into three categories was based on
their extra qualifications and on their attitudes towards art teaching. The art specialists (AS) had MA in art and
design education or BA in fine arts. The non-art specialists were categorised in two groups: those who showed
enthusiasm and interest towards art teaching and those who exhibited disappointment or frustration or
indifference. For a detailed presentation of teachers’ categories and profiles see Pavlou (2004).
6
Johnson’s study is the only other study that deals with sixth grade pupils’ meanings of art in a systematic way.
Johnson studied pupils’ perceptions of art from Kindergarten to grade 12. In Johnson’s study there are three
more categories that are not mentioned here because a very small number of pupils in Cyprus used them to
define art. These are the categories of ‘time and place’, ‘medium’ and ‘art form’.

4. 4
Table 1: Pupils’ perceptions of art
Categories Rules of inclusion
Act Pupils refer to art in terms of an action, such as draw, do, make, and
express.
Content Pupils give emphasis on what is acted upon, made, or expressed,
which includes things, stuff, something, emotions, our imagination,
etc.
Purpose and
use
Pupils believe that art serve to do things, that it is useful for a
certain reason.
Value Pupils refer to art as something that has value (e.g., it’s something
important), or they refer to the qualitative aspects of experience
(e.g., it’s nice).
Personal
choice
Pupils mention art as an ‘event’ that exists through personal
statement or decision (e.g., you can express your emotions, your
feelings, yourself).
Interestingly, two thirds of the pupils also used more abstract terms; that is, they talked about
art in terms of value, and/or purpose and use, and/or personal choice. It is worth noting that
when responding to other questions everybody made a comment that was categorised in the
value and purpose and use categories. More specifically, the value judgments expressed were
all, but two, positive. Meanings of this category involved terms such as ‘I like it’, it’s nice’, ‘I
enjoy it’, ‘it’s my favourite subject’, ‘I love it’, ‘it’s very important’, ‘I relax’, ‘it’s good’,
‘it’s useful’. In addition, five pupils mentioned that art experience involved another kind of
thinking: ‘art is not mechanical, like accountancy’, ‘you have to think in art, but it’s not the
kind of thinking that you do in maths; art is very different from maths, the “thinking” of art is
different’. This meaning of the value category is connected with the qualitative aspects of the
art experience and was not reported in other studies (Johnson, 1982, Stokrocki, 1986,
Ladusans, 1996, Jeffers, 1998/1999). They tried to explain this other kind of thinking, but it
appears that it was hard to express it in words: ‘it’s something spiritual’, ‘in art you leave
your imagination to work and not your mind. You don’t think what to do and how to put it.
You free yourself and the picture comes to your mind … just leave your imagination free’,
‘the thinking of art is different. In art you feel free and you focus totally on what you are
drawing’. They understood artistic thinking as easier and more enjoyable than other ways of
thinking; ‘you don’t have to think so much like in other subjects’, ‘you do not think so hard,
like you do in mathematics, e.g., in equations, or in Greek when you write a text’, ‘it’s like
time for rest; you don’t think so hard, the way you do in mathematics but still, you have to
focus a lot to achieve a good result’, ‘you don’t have to tire out yourself thinking’.
Pupils believed that art could serve to do things (purpose and use category), such as ‘we can
have it as a hobby’ or ‘I will study art when I finish school’. They believed that art was useful
or that it would be useful when they would have grown up for different reasons (profession
/hobby) and because they could relax from other subjects. Others noted that during art they
learnt things that otherwise they would not have learnt by themselves, e.g., ‘we learnt how to
work with different tools and materials’, ‘how to do shades/tones’, ‘what is background’.
Half of the pupils also talked about art in terms of personal choice. Pupils believed that in art
you could draw/express/show ‘what you think’, ‘what you have inside you’, ‘what you
know’, ‘whatever you want to’, ‘whatever you are able to do’, ‘your emotions’, ‘your
feelings’, ‘yourself’.

5. 5
Teachers’ perceptions of art
There were few differences among the ways that teachers tried to respond to the question ‘in
your opinion, what is art?’, when Johnson’s categories were used to classify teachers’
responses. Teachers’ perceptions of art fell primarily into the personal choice category. They
referred to art as a personal way of expressing/ seeing/ learning/ comprehending/
communicating emotions/thoughts/ anything. They cited that art was ‘what you feel’, ‘how
you comprehend the function and expression of things’, ‘your personal relation with the
world around’, ‘is somebody’s view on a matter’, ‘is the mirror of our soul’, ‘it’s free
expression’, ‘it’s the way we live’, ‘it’s our effort to do something nice’, ‘it’s life’. Their
perceptions also include terms that could be placed in the act and content categories, but their
emphasis on the personal choice should be underlined. The kind of acts mentioned included
mainly ‘express’, ‘create’, and ‘comprehend’. The context of art had an intangible orientation,
such as ‘everything/anything’ and ‘feelings/ emotions’. Only two teachers cited a tangible
orientation to the context of art, which was ‘colour, shapes, and space’. All the teachers made
value judgements or referred to the qualitative aspects of art as a response to other questions7
.
All but three (from the UNS group) made positive comments, such as: ‘it’s very important’,
‘I like it’, ‘I need it’, ‘I’m happy’, ‘it was one of my favourite subject’, and ‘I was good at it
when I was a pupil’. Five teachers referred to some art forms, such as two and three
dimensional artworks, realistic and abstract art, drawing, painting, sculpture, and
installations. Teachers referred to a variety of media, mostly drawing materials or materials
for picture making during the interviews as a response to different questions.
Although the dominant view of art among these teachers was that art consisted of personal
attribution, that it was a personal way of expressing one self (emotions and thoughts), there
was a difference in the way that the three groups of teachers viewed art in terms of expression
and comprehension. This difference was highlighted when teacher interview data about their
perceptions of art were analysed based on the constant comparative method of analysis
(Maykut and Morehouse, 1994). The categories that were used to get a fresh insight into
teachers’ perceptions of art are presented in table 2.
Table 2: Teachers’ perceptions of art
Categories
Art as
Rules of inclusion
Teachers think of art in terms of
Expression and
comprehension
expression and comprehension, of feelings and thinking, of
emotions and intellect.
Expression expression (of their selves, of their emotions and of their
feelings).
Creation creation, of making something.
Everything of life, of everything.
Formal elements relationship of the various aspects of an artwork, e.g. colour,
shape, performance and the relationship of these in space
As expected art specialists appeared to have a fuller view of art than other teachers. They
defined art in terms of expression and comprehension, feeling and thinking, emotions and
intellect. One of them also defined art in terms of the relationship of the formal elements of
7
The interview schedule included a few questions about teachers’ personal experiences with art, which among
others included their feelings about art when they were pupils and students and their engagement with art, in any
way, in their present life.

6. 6
an artwork: ‘for me, it’s a game of colour, shape, performance […] and it’s the relationship of
all these in space’. Enthusiastic non-specialist teachers focused their responses on the
expressive role of art, the expression of feelings/emotions. Looking at their overall responses
during interviews, it was clear that at least half of them also viewed art as both expression
and comprehension. Unenthusiastic non-specialist teachers referred to art as expression or
creation (practical work) or as everything. The ‘everything’ response was not particular
helpful for understanding teachers’ views of art.
Cultural assumptions
Cultural assumptions are widely perceived knowledge or beliefs that a society has. Pupils
made reference to six cultural assumptions: a) art consists mainly of the action of making, b)
art involves intellectual thinking, c) art is a subjective event, d) art as fine arts, e) art as a
pleasurable and serious activity, and f) art as an intrinsically rewarding activity. These
assumptions show a trend towards a more inclusive perception of art by pupils. These
perceptions became clear when pupils’ overall comments during interviews8
were taken into
consideration. This was because I came to realise, that pupils’ understandings of the question
‘what is art?’ is laced with expectations and could be perceived as a test question having a
‘correct’ answer. This was evident when a number of pupils and teachers wanted an approval
for their answer. E.g., ‘you can express your emotions on paper, is that what you want us to
say?’ (pupil) and ‘I may be wrong, I wasn’t specialised’ (teacher). When pupil interview and
scale data were analysed in their entirety, pupils’ perceptions of art were more clearly
revealed.
Art as a productive activity
The sixth graders included in the study appeared to view art mainly as a productive activity.
They mentioned that art had to do with ‘draw’, ‘express’, ‘make’, ‘do’, ‘show’, ‘learn to
draw/do’, ‘work’, and ‘create’.
Art as an intellectual activity
As mentioned earlier, five pupils believed that art involved another kind of thinking which
was different from maths and Greek. Here, it is also important to note that the perception of
art as an intellectual activity was strengthened when thirteen pupils commented that art had to
do with thinking, deciding, knowledge, and learning. The intellectual activities they
mentioned were all closely linked to production. They referred to the processes of art making
and not just to the end product. However, a few pupils appeared to be aware that art could be
talked about or of art making by artists. They used terms like ‘evaluation’, ‘talking about
artists’, ‘looking at pictures’ and the enjoyment of ‘seeing nice pictures and admiring them’.
Art as a subjective event
Thirteen pupils (mostly from the ENS and UNS groups) believed that art existed by personal
decision. They supported the belief that art making was a personal journey, a subjective way
to express one’s feelings, emotions and thoughts. Johnson doubted whether in practice pupils
actually ‘exercise the latitude of personal creation that they attribute to art in their comments’
(1982: 66), such as, art is everywhere, everything and anything you want it to be, because
they used commonly known methods and tools. It is true that during my visits to the schools,
8
See footnote, 3.

7. 7
pupils were using tools and methods that are universally known in the visual arts, and during
the interviews, pupils made references to these tools and methods, such as collage and
drawings with mixed materials. However, my interpretation of the way that pupils viewed
subjectivity is that they referred to individuality and not to the use of new methods. In
general, pupils made few references to the social context of art, and these were mostly when
they were asked directly to comment about the usefulness of art.
Art as traditional fine arts
Pupils in general failed to mention different art forms. The fact that they mainly referred to
drawing materials and clay and that they mentioned only few established art forms, painting,
and ceramics, supports the view that most pupils had in fact very limited perceptions of art
forms and thus of art. Textiles and collage were also mentioned when pupils referred to best
and least liked art activities. Pupils did not mention art forms used in contemporary art, such
as video, installations, digital and computer-generated images. They limited their views of art
to traditional fine arts and this indicates that more pupils need to have opportunities to see
and make different kinds of art. Teachers who showed reproductions of artworks mainly
focused on famous western artists and on very few occasions they showed Cypriot artists’
works.
Art as a pleasurable but also serious activity
There was no question that the majority of the pupils enjoyed art. Both the interviews and the
attitude scale9
indicated that art was conceived as a pleasurable and motivating activity.
Fascinatingly, pupils also held the opinion that art was not only fun but that it also included
serious work. Their comments that art was fun, relaxing and enjoyable were complimented
by their comments that art was ‘a very important subject’, ‘a very good thing to know’, and
useful in their lives, e.g., ‘I’m going to study art’. Pupils also indicated that art involved hard
work. Many noted that they were drawing at home because they thought that through practice
they could improve. In addition, when pupils described art activity as enjoyable, it was
assumed that art activity was challenging because it responded to pupils’ skills. This is
because pupils clearly stated that they were not bored during art, nor did they consider it as a
waste of time (scale data).
Art as an intrinsically rewarding activity
In my experience Cypriot pupils do not usually want to engage with any school subject at
home unless they have been given homework to do. It is interesting to note that the majority
of the pupils in this study drew at home despite the fact that they never had art homework. I
was not altogether surprised, as I have frequently witnessed pupils, mostly young children
(from friends and family), drawing at home. In this case however the pupils were pre-
adolescents, who often experience more difficulties with drawing than young children10
(Lowenfeld and Brittain, 1987). The attitude scale (background information section) showed
that 81.9% of the pupils drew at home (a few, 15.2%, drew every day, the majority, 39.5%,
drew 2-3 times per week and some, 26.9%, drew 2-3 times per month). When the issue was
9
The attitude scale explored pupils’ attitudes in terms of four dimensions: enjoyment, confidence, usefulness
and support needed. The enjoyment sub-scale received high scores by the majority of pupils.
10
According to Lowenfeld and Brittain (1987) sixth grade pupils are in the process of moving from the stage of
dawing realism towards the pseudo-naturalistic stage. At these stages it is common for pupils to exhibit interest
in details, be more self-conscious about their work and more aware of their shortcomings in art. Art activity is
no eager spontaneous and pupils increasingly demand greater realism in their work. It is at this stage that pupils
start to doubt their abilities in art and be less confident in their art making.

8. 8
raised during the interviews almost all the pupils said that they drew at home, with a similar
frequency as the one mentioned for the attitude scale.
When looking at teachers’ definitions of art, it was clear that they shared similar cultural
assumptions as they ones noted by the pupils. Teachers viewed art as a productive activity.
Half of them also viewed it as an intellectual activity (especially the AS teachers and some of
the ENS teachers). These teachers believed that it was an enjoyable activity but at the same
time they demanded serious work from the pupils. Teachers in general believed that art
existed by personal attribution and most of them, especially the non-specialists, connected it
with fine arts.
Discussion
Pupils’ descriptions of art indicate that pupils do construct structures of meaning by which
they interpret art experiences. Art was a satisfying and fulfilling subject for the sixth graders
of this study. Art was so motivating that they believed time spent in art making was
worthwhile. In fact, the majority of them drew at home. They defined art as a productive
activity; they frequently referred to the acts of ‘draw’ and ‘express’ and rarely to other acts
such as make, construct and discussing about artworks created by their classmates or by
artists. These comments suggest that pupils frequently engaged with drawing and painting
activities but had limited opportunities to create three dimensional art works, to view art
works (either in reproductions or in exhibitions) and to talk about or to artists. Pupils also
perceived art as an intellectual activity and as another way of thinking. For them, art making
was not simply a practical activity. It was an intellectually demanding activity; an activity
that required thinking about how best to express/represent their ideas/thoughts/feelings. Few
pupils were able to articulate that the type of thinking required in art was different from the
type of thinking required in other subjects. It seems that sixth graders are in a position to
distinguish different kinds of intelligence (Gardner, 1993) and that further investigation is
needed about how they view ‘artistic’ thinking/intelligence11
. Understanding the intellectual
activities involved in pupils’ learning in art can direct teachers to think more carefully about
their aims and lesson content.
Another assumption that appeared to have a considerable impact on pupils’ views was that art
was a subjective event. They viewed art making as a personal exploration that was expressed
in artworks. Pupils portrayed very well a view dominant within their teachers. Almost every
teacher made a comment that was classified in the personal choice category. Another
explanation about pupils’ emphasis on personal expression may be that when pupils are asked
to define art, they may not try to distinguish it from non-art, and that they may try to highlight
its value to them on a personal level. And this value has to do with being able to create and
express themselves.
Most of these sixth graders believed that art was a pleasurable, important and serious activity.
They perceived art lessons to be challenging and ‘easy’, but at the same time not boring or a
waste of time. Pupils felt art was important as a hobby or for a profession (once they grew up
11
While, strictly speaking, Gardner (1993: 109) rejects the existence of artistic intelligence, he does informally
accept that ‘it is perfectly all right to speak of artistic intelligences […] as a shorthand for intelligences that are
frequently mobilised for artistic ends’. Moreover, Edwards (1999) talks about an ‘artistic mode’ of seeing and
thinking and emphasises the need for teachers to acknowledge and understand this mode. The main thesis of her
book is that drawing is not a ‘magic’ event, exhibited by ‘talented’ people, but a teachable, intrinsically
rewarding activity, that every person should be able to attain competence in.

9. 9
to become adults). For many it offered them knowledge; it had educational value because
during art lessons pupils learned how to draw, how to express their feelings and how to
improve their skills in using different materials. All these data point to art as an intrinsically
rewarding activity. Pupils were motivated to pursue drawing at home because they derived
satisfaction from it, and this acted as a reward. Few of the pupils interviewed explained that
they devote time and effort to art because they gained a quality experience from it, something
Csikszentimihalyi (2000: 36) calls flow, a ‘holistic sensation that people feel when they act
with total involvement’12
.
All the above findings were based on pupils’ overall responses during the entire interview.
Thus, the data indicates that a series of questions about art can lead to a better understanding
of pupils’ perceptions of art than simply asking them a single question i.e. ‘in your opinion,
what is art?’ Questions referring to the way pupils use art, what is art about, the way they
value art and the way they feel when making art or responding to art are crucial for revealing
clearly pupils’ perceptions of art. Changes in the form of the question(s) may empower a
deeper understanding of pupils’ perceptions of the nature of art. Subsequently, the categories
proposed by Johnson (1982) need to adjust to reflect the changes in the question(s) and to
adequately describe the types of meanings that pupils might use. More specifically, the
following table describes the eleven categories13
that a researcher may employ for describing
pupils’ types of meanings for art. Three new categories are added. These are the categories
of: ‘intellectual activities’, ‘satisfaction’, and ‘discontent’. The category ‘value’ is slightly
changed because some of its original meaning is now included in the ‘satisfaction’ category.
Table 3: Categorising types of meanings for describing art
Categories Rules of inclusion
Act Pupils refer to art as an action, such as drawing, doing, making, and
expressing.
Intellectual
activities
Pupils describe the intellectual activities that are demanded by them in
order to produce art or describe the kind of thinking14
that art activities
require.
Content Pupils give emphasis on what is acted upon, made, or expressed, which
included things, stuff, something, emotions, our imagination, etc.
Personal choice Pupils mention art as an ‘event’ that exists through personal statement
or decision (e.g., you can express your emotions, your feelings,
yourself).
Purpose and use Pupils believe that art serves to do things, that it is useful for a certain
reason.
12
For example, ‘I become absorbed when making a drawing [at home]’, ‘I prefer drawing at home because I can
really concentrate... and forget everything else’. In addition, when pupils tried to explain ‘this other kind of
thinking’ that art involved, few of them characterised art as an activity that involved high personal engagement,
expressed by words such as ‘concentration’ and ‘focus’, e.g., ‘in art you feel free and you focus yourself totally
on what you are drawing’, and ‘it is something like self-concentration […] it pleases me and I don’t give any
notice to the noise. I just concentrate.’
13
Here, I also include three of Johnson’s categories that were not included earlier (table 1) because pupils in this
study hardly ever used the types of meanings that they describe. However, I believe that they are useful and that
they should be included here.
14
During the description of the results meanings about art as another kind of thinking were included into the
‘value’ category because of the given categories by Johnson – it was the only one that could include such
responses. Now, with the proposed new categories types of meanings connected with “art thinking” will be
included in this category.

10. 10
Value Pupils refer to art as something that has value in general (e.g., it’s
something important), or in their future (e.g. we can have it as a hobby)
or in their present life (e.g. educational value).
Satisfaction Pupils refer to the qualitative aspects of the art experience (e.g., it’s
nice), which may include comments of art as a motivating, or
challenging, or intrinsically rewarding activity.
Discontent Pupils believe that art is a boring, or an unchallenging or a hard activity.
Art form Pupils refer to art by mentioning the type of art or its form, e.g.,
painting.
Medium Pupils define art with the materials used in art.
Time and place Pupils describe art as something that happens at specific time and place.
Some differences between the three groups of pupils based on their teachers’ specialisation
and attitudes were noted. Firstly, there was a difference in the use of abstract terms. The AS
group frequently used the value and purpose and use categories, something that the other two
groups needed a prompt to do so. Pupils from the AS group did not use terms that could be
classified in the personal choice category, whereas these were the only abstract terms used by
the UNS group. Pupils from the AS group did not think that art could be ‘everything that you
want it to be’. This appears to reflect AS teachers’ notion of art, which included both the
concepts of expression and comprehension. The reasons for considering art as useful differ
among the three groups of pupils. Art was conceived as useful as a profession, for a
profession and/or as a hobby by the AS and ENS groups. Art was conceived as useful
because pupils could relax by the ENS group and by few pupils of the UNS group. Most
pupils included in the UNS group noted that it was not easy to relax and concentrate during
art lesions because of the noise. Their teacher did not have clear lesson aims and their
comments indicated that there might be a disciplinary problem in that classroom15
. It seems
that art no matter how intrinsically interesting and attractive, can be poorly taught with
immediate effects on pupils’ perceptions of enjoyment and importance.
In relation to the particular context that the study took place, it must be noted that pupils and
teachers’ perceptions of art mark a shift in what was perceived by the researcher to be a
dominant attitude towards art in the Cypriot society (there are no evidence from the past to
suggest what pupils’ perceptions about art were some years before). However, we often
observe and hear in schools that art is a much-neglected area of the primary curriculum
because of pressure to deliver the core subjects. It was expected that many teachers and
pupils would view art only as a hands-on activity, which was not particularly intellectually
demanding; an activity that provided pupils the opportunity to relax from the other subjects.
Fortunately, these expectations were not met. Sixth graders did not describe art only as a
pleasurable activity, which involved art production. There was recognition of the intellectual
thinking that art activities include, and the hard work that it presupposed. Art was a favourite
subject for pupils and the majority of the teachers interviewed also appeared to view art as an
important subject in its own right, even the teachers who acknowledged that they were not
providing meaningful art lessons (UNS). These findings can lead to an understanding of art
that strengthens its worth in the Cypriot society. They can serve as a reminder to parents,
15
The actual linkage between teachers’ perceptions and those of the pupils becomes more explicit when one
compares each foursome’s responses with their own teacher’s response and not the overall comments of the
twenty four pupils selected from six classes with all sixteen teachers involved in the study. For more details
about the case studies of the study and the connections between teachers’ and pupils’ attitudes see Pavlou,
(2003), chapters 6 and 7.

11. 11
colleagues and educational policy makers of the value of visual arts towards a balanced and
complete education.
Equally important is to establish whether all features of visual arts education are met through
the implementation of a well-balanced curriculum. This study has implications for evaluation
in art. It indicates that the expressionist position of art education still holds a very strong
place in the meaning of what art is (in the Cypriot context) and not much emphasis is placed
on activities that promote pupils’ learning ‘about art’ and ‘through art’. AS teachers were
those who had clearer views on the importance of aesthetic development and the disciplines
of art learning16
. The view that art is personally determined is not complemented with views
about the importance of ‘familiarity with art, analysis and criticism of artworks, questioning
and formation of views on themes about art and culture […], development of abilities of
general use, such as observation, creative imagination, aesthetic development….’ (Ministry
of Education and Culture, 1999). Art specialists and their pupils were in a better position to
acknowledge the complexity of the nature of art (intellect and emotion). AS teachers’
comments indicate that they were able to move pupils beyond art production and personal
preferences into more sophisticated and complex levels of aesthetic understanding and
judgment, but still, AS pupils seemed to limit their perceptions of art to traditional fine arts.
Pupils did not refer to different forms of arts (such as communication, design, and
environmental arts).
These findings raise a number of questions that merit further research, such as:
- What kinds of experiences do primary teachers have during their training? How do these
experiences address the social structures of meaning for interpreting art? If we want to
change pupils’ learned expectations about art, then we must understand teachers’ role in
making such changes and the reasons why non-specialists teachers hold certain arbitrary
expectations, such as ‘art is free expression’.
- How does the art curriculum in primary school relate to the perceptions that pupils acquire?
While the Cypriot art curriculum stresses the need to learn ‘in art’, ‘about art’ and ‘through
art’ (aims that correspond to the expressive, reconstructive and scientific streams about
rationales for teaching art, Siegesmund 1998), in this study there were references mainly to
the expressive role of art. Multiculturalism and even interculturalism, as concepts have come
of age, but pupils participating in this study did not make any cultural references (of their
native or other cultural heritage) when defining art. This is quite worrying in a world that
seems to becoming closer all the time.
By answering these questions we can really examine the ideas presented to pupils and assess
the perceptions that pupils are constructing about art.
To sum up, this paper presented a study that contributes to a better understanding of pupils
through their own accounts of issues relating to art they experience at school. There were
implications about new ways of interpreting sixth graders’ perceptions of art, which at times
can be more sophisticated than expected. Pupils’ views of art as an intellectually activity,
seen both as pleasurable and serious, is very positive for the position of art at schools.
However, the findings stress the need for art educators to think more carefully about teacher
training courses and in-service courses and how art is presented to primary teacher students
and primary teachers; teachers who do not have strong subject matter knowledge in art. As
long as teachers believe that art is concerned only with feeling, and that the main concern of
16
These data derive from the entire interviews with teachers and not just from the parts that are presented in this
paper.

12. 12
schooling is to develop pupils’ ability to think, art will occupy second place in relation to
other, more central concerns of schooling (Eisner 1972).
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