Introduction

With secondary students focusing more on creating a unique body of work, critique of that work is crucial for students to grow their art skills as well as increase their visual literacy skills. With the right set of vocabulary specific to their artistic discipline, students will be able to better describe and communicate more effectively when critiquing their own work or the works of their fellow students. However, does knowledge of specific vocabulary and technical terminology raise the level of critical thinking during critiques of any work of art for high school students? Determining a link between critical thinking or elevated inquiry and subject specific vocabulary could students find unique and creative solutions in their art making more easily, especially if vocabulary is embedded in their critiques. Since creativity is at the top of the modern Bloom’s taxonomy, and basic knowledge is at the bottom, it would be an interesting result to see if mastering the knowledge or vocabulary allows students to automatically elevate their thinking into the higher tiers of the taxonomy.

Literature Review

Current literature regarding technical vocabulary focuses mostly on the development of secondary students in engineering and technology learning. In these fields, tests often require students to understand a wide variety of terms and apply them in real-world problems, which requires a great deal of critical thinking and situational understanding (Klink, 2015). These classes attempt to prepare students for careers and higher learning in the engineering fields, and the learning and use of vocabulary specific to those disciplines will help students to reach their goals. This article also notes that the development of vocabulary often falls to the language arts department, but that it significantly reduces the amount of contextual vocabulary the students are exposed to if not addressed in the actual classes they are taking and the only resources students use to develop vocabulary is casual literature. “Students must be exposed to words in diverse ways to truly connect the word to its meaning” (Klink, 2015, p. 10.) This implies vocabulary terms can have multiple meanings depending on the subject being learned, and students will have to use higher level thinking skills in order to judge which definition is likely to fit the context.

More directly related to art vocabulary, Cotner (2001) suggests that when vernacular language used when talking about the artwork a student has created, the patterns in which students think will begin to shift and become influenced by the vocabulary used in discussions, especially in the high school art classroom. The verbal cues given during the discussion of art can significantly increase the students interpretation of the meaning behind the work of art, which falls under the understanding level in Bloom’s taxonomy—a level above simple describing. Similarly to Klink’s article, Cotner (2001) finds that students need to become conversant in the terminology and vocabulary that they will likely hear from teachers and experts if they are to succeed in communicating to others in the art world. The specific language used in the art context is vital to the ability to the student to create meaningful connections between their own work and the works of others. When critiquing art, the students with a higher understanding of the works, will often exhibit higher levels of thinking when discussing the works, often getting into judgments about the artwork, rather than focusing on descriptions and subject matter. This is likely related to the student being able to articulate thoughts about the artwork, without a barrier of unknown vocabulary. It is noted also, that the students will often compare the artwork to events in their own lives, which is another example of higher level thinking.

When students can connect multiple aspects of their lives to the information being learned, they will have a higher understanding of the content than if they simply compartmentalize the information (Stinson, Chandler, Epps, & Frieberg, 2006). This multidisciplinary approach lends to students learning to think flexibly and pushes them to have numerous perspectives on any given subject matter. Interestingly, the study of discipline-specific vocabulary shows that students are not always fixated on one specific or primary area of study when it comes to their vocabulary, but they often provide multiple meanings of words from a variety of contexts. The research implied that definitions are often not agreed upon by teachers or professionals of different fields, so students must “spend more time in dialog about the essence of concepts” (Stinson, Chandler, Epps, & Frieberg, 2006, p. 29) in order to generate a clear understanding of the language along with the nuances for each discipline.

Finally, Tollifson (2011) makes a strong case for including qualitative language when critiquing artwork, which are specific elements of vocabulary used in order to better describe the visual characteristics of art. Not only are specific descriptions used, but metaphors and analogies, which elevate thinking into the analysis level of Bloom’s taxonomy. “When students’ preliminary descriptions of artworks are qualitative, the resulting analyses, interpretations, and evaluations will be enhanced” (Tollifson, 2011, p. 11). This is in direct contrast to students using lower-level thinking and merely describing the nouns in the work of art, which are too general and fail to capture the specific nature of the work being discussed. While this article is not advocating the use of specific vocabulary pertaining to the art discipline, the general idea of using more descriptive words in the forms of adjectives, verbs, and adverbs allows students to transform their responses to a more specific area of study, such as art. Tollifson (2011) goes on to state that language is tied directly to perception, which is a key component when critiquing visual works of art.

Conclusion

While researching the literature pertaining to my question dealing with the relationship between discipline specific vocabulary and increased critical thinking skills presented during critiques, much of the cited references show a strong connection. Students who have mastered the vocabulary to the degree that they can differentiate between definitions of the same word used in different contexts exhibit higher level thinking in a sense that they have multiple solutions to a given problem. As an art teacher, I would model qualitative language and give my students the opportunity to use similar language structures during critique, so they will naturally see positive results in analyzing and judging artworks for themselves. Having my students design their own metaphors in art conversation only cements the concepts better, and helps them encode the information in way that is special and memorable to them. If I take the examples of technology and engineering vocabulary as being crucial to communicating within the discipline, I can give art terminology the same status and prove how vital vocabulary is to art criticism.

Putting vocabulary into practice during student critiques is the first step in getting students comfortable and familiar with the art specific terms. In order to do this, I would insist that students use proper terminology when offering basic descriptions until the use of these words becomes second nature. Only then will my students start to move past the lower level types of thinking and elevate themselves to a level of critical thinking. Of course, a student does not have to master each level of Bloom’s taxonomy before moving to the next one, but if the vocabulary is preventing the students from engaging more efficiently with the artwork being criticized, then they may not be able to express their higher-level thoughts in an effective manner, forcing them to play it safe with simple descriptions. Often, these industry specific terms act as shortcuts for professionals to convey deeper concepts that require years of study and practice to understand, and it is a detriment to a student’s ability to converse within a discipline if they do not get comfortable using them in school. All in all, giving my students an opportunity to think more critically about their art and the works of other students will make them better artists. Being able to talk about art using specific vocabulary increases the quality of their thinking, so naturally it will become an emphasized practice in my art curriculum.