Aesthetic-based teaching: An approach to improve student's attitude towards school

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of aesthetic-based teaching on student's attitude towards school. It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest - posttest and control group design. The research population included 1314 high-school eighth grade male students of Mahābād city in the academic year 2016-2017. The research sample consisted of 52 students who were selected using purposeful sampling method. In the first phase of data collection (pre-test), questionnaire of attitude towards school was distributed among the students of both groups. Then, the experimental group has been taught for 14 sessions, with the aesthetic-based teaching method, including the use of multi-sensory perception, the use of rhythm and music, body language, stimulating student's imagination, attention to affective domain, the use of color and shape of the image and integrating art and teaching, while the control group was taught using the conventional method. Immediately after the end of the course, the test was taken from both groups. To get some information on the student's attitude towards school, attitude towards school questionnaire, developed by MacCoach and Siegel (2003) was used. The data was analyzed using SPSS software through Ancova and Mancova. The results showed that the level of attitude towards school of students who were taught eighth grade science through aesthetic-based teaching method was different from those students who were taught through conventional teaching method at school. Therefore, it can be concluded to the extent that the components of aesthetic-based teaching (visual elements, colors, music, student's imagination, art, student's emotions, happy learning environment, creativity, and fun of learning) are integrated into the teaching process, and the teacher tries to focus on the goals of the cognitive domain through paying attention to and highlighting the student's emotional domain, the student's attitude towards school and school components will improve.