The Development Strategy of Compulsory Art Education in Universities〔* 〕

Li Jun

(School of Art South － east University，Nanjing Jiangsu 210096)

Ⅰ.Present situation of the compulsory art education

Compulsory art education in our country started from late 19th century and the beginning of 20th century when the government established western style schools.But due to the particular historic and social reasons，compulsory art education in universities encounters unhealthy development，and even disappeared in Cultural Revolution.After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee，high educational world has been putting emphasis on this problem.Tsinghua University set up compulsory art course office first and Beijing Foreign Languages College followed in 1978.Then，this phenomenon expands to other universities and creates a new trend in compulsory art education.

Since opening and reform，a series of instructive documents are issued to recover and develop university compulsory art education，such as principles on Popularizing Art Education in Universities(1988)，Overall Planning of the National School Art Ed-ucation 1989-2000(1989，National Planning on Art Education2001-2010(2002)，Work Regulations of School Art Education(2005)，Guiding Scheme of Public Art Curriculum in Colleges and Universities of China(2006)，Some Suggestions on Promoting the Development of School Art Education(2014).At the same time，regular art activities are launched，such as national art performance and exhibition of university students every three years since 2005 and high art going into campus.Besides，education ministry strengthens its instruction in faculty building，teaching and research through training and education papers report.

In 2009 and 2010，compulsory art course construction is assessed in Jiangsu Province，44 undergraduate colleges included，The research proves 5 results.(1)Most universities bring public art courses into teaching plan and training program.(2)The management includes Dean’s office in charge of art curriculum construction and art education center or humanities college in charge of art course construction and assessment.(3)Building faculty team through teacher training and introduction of experts.(4)Teaching condition has been improving.(5)Most universities employ the art education model of theory and practice combination，popularization and improvement combination，art association construction and campus culture construction combination.Take Nanjing University for example，a culture ＆ art educational center was established in 1996，which was aimed at providing art courses for students，holding relative lectures and art exhibition activities，instructing art association activities and developing academic research.It requires 14 credits of quality education for undergraduates，among which 4-6 credits are art related.In this center，10 text books are written and more than 30 course ppts are produced.The first master’station of public art education was founded in 2006.The professional performances，series lectures of“culture forum”and“art salon”，weekly academic lectures by famous scholars and masters continued for more than ten years.In addition，it cooperates with Jiangsu Art Gallery，and other art units to build“outside-school teaching base for cultural quality”to promote compulsory art education from various perspectives.

Ⅱ.Problems of the compulsory art education

Through more than 30 years of development，though compulsory art education in universities leap forwards there are still many problems.People believe that the compulsory art education has three kinds of functions in the society.One is the theory of moral education，and this theory originated in the Confucianism.It believes the art serves for morality.Until near modern，Marx and Engels regarded，“The art is a very good means of publicity and education.”〔1〕And the other opinion is no utility theory.It came from the West.San Thomas Aquinas believed the difference between beauty and morality，and Kant believed，aesthetic no interest，and Oscar Wilde represented Aestheticism believed art for art’s sake，the West think art is not an moral education.The third is multi function theory.The theory believes the com compulsory art educa-tion can make the people promote the aesthetic judgment through emotional experience，stimulate the imagination，open the intelligence，cultivate noble sentiments.China and the West have a bias in the view.In our country，people believe compulsory art education has“a political，spiritual and moral purpose”，and the West accustomed to thinking it as the source of“self-expression，creativity，spontaneity and source of personal variation”.〔2〕These theories influenced the road of the compulsory art education，made it become the dependency of moral education，or away from the reality，or made the functional hybrid.

1.Evident marginalization and minor status in university

Most universities，to meet the requirement of education ministry，bring art education into undergraduate training，which is limited within curriculum planning and fails to build relative training system based on the real condition of their own.Art education is still marginalized，which embodied in scarce funds，weaker teaching and research compared to other subjects.

2.Development is bottle-necked by faculty power and supporting mechanism is not available

According to educational ministry rules，the number of compulsory art courses teachers should account 0.15%-0.2%of enrollment students’number.This is an impossible goal.On the other hand，professional art teachers are unwilling to devote themselves into compulsory art course teaching on account of varies reasons，such as huge insufficient class hours due to incomplete curriculum system or lack of motivation measures for teachers’development.But in America，taken Massachusetts Institute of Technology for example，there are 19 teachers in the department of music;some teachers are also famous composer，musician，cantor and performer.

3.Irrational curriculum structure and low students’satisfaction index

Deficient text books and teaching power bring obstacles for compulsory art education curriculum.What art courses can a university provide depend on the available art teachers and what courses they can provide.Thus it is difficult for the school to make top design and course construction as a whole.The choice for the students is quite limited.Professor Yi conducted a survey and it founds that university students’assessment of current situation and effect of compulsory art education in universities is mid-low，the current situation of compulsory art course mid-low，course teaching form and resource lowest，and the educational effect of university compulsory art education in improving students’artistic expression poorest.〔3〕

4.Low art practice coverage and disconnection of teaching and practice

In America，the art ensembles face all the undergraduates，and the university campus has art festival every year.During the festival，there are no classes in the university;everyone can participate in the art activities.But in our university，the partici-pants of university art association and activities are mostly students of art talent，which account a small number of students.Many universities put emphasis on high-level art associations and often neglect cultivating common art associations and art practice，thus disconnect teaching and practice.

5.Imperfect assessment system

The assessment of compulsory art education tends to be suggestive except for a few quantitative indexes like the numbers of professional teachers and course offering limitations.Universities fail to make scientific and rational assessment according to their own situations.They are negative in dealing with higher-up inspections and there is no regular self-assessment system.Learn from the experience of American University，each state has its own evaluation criteria in addition national standards，and each school has its own development goals，they set up quantitative indicators for these goals.

Ⅲ.Development strategy of compulsory art education

As a kind of aesthetic consciousness，the art reflects the relationship between the man and the reality.It shows a kind of beauty in the form of sensibility.So，compulsory art education should respect for the laws of art，make the undergraduates enjoy the beauty，enhance the aesthetic ability through creation of aesthetic situation.Specifically，taken the above-mentioned problems into account，this paper，based on curriculum planning，course management，teaching faculty，supporting condition，teaching effect and specialization construction，proposes development strategy from the perspective of differentiation education idea，open teaching system and education management reform.

1.Exploration on differentiation education

According to Howard Gardner’s multi-intelligence theory，the human obtains 7 forms of intelligence，such as language intelligence，mathematical intelligence，music intelligence，sport intelligence，spatial intelligence，interpersonal intelligence and Self cognition intelligence.〔4〕This provides theory basis for differentiation education which is targeting students of diffident levels and qualities.Limited Course offering and credit requirement can be realized in most universities and optional elective courses are the route to realize differentiation teaching.Course offering and selection of optional elective courses are the two methods to start with.In course offering，firstly there should be survey and research on university students’art attainment and interest and following analysis.Secondly，top design is made according to school major features and development target.Then course plan is made by the team work of relative ministering department，teaching department and research department.In course selection，students can be divided into three groups according to their art attainment and interest，that is those with special art skill and qualification，those without special art skill and qualification but with some basic skill foundation，those without any skill.Art Education magazine issued a questionnaire to students from more than120 universities.On the question“have you ever learned art before you enter university”，about 40%students answered yes.〔5〕With the development of economy and society，the proportion of university students with special art skill rises.They are highly comprehensive qualified，which makes differentiation education possible.

2.Construction of Open Teaching System

There are two aspects in the construction of open teaching system.First，the opening of teaching resources，which mainly refers to text book and teaching power development and sharing.Take Jiangsu Province for example，many universities in Jiangsu use compulsory art education text book series by Nanjing University and it proves a success.This case proves a model of entrusting qualified school in developing text books.Particularly，attention can be paid to promote Jiangsu traditional and characteristic art.Professionals from social art associations and folk artisan can take part in this teaching process.In this way，the problems of the lack of teaching power and insufficient class hours are solved at the same time.Secondly，the opening of learning model.Within the framework of top design，students have free options to get their credits such as the second class，lectures，art association or learn in practice bases.

3.Renovation of Education Management

The idea of compulsory art education marginalization should be broken.Steps as following:the establishment of Compulsory art education center，top design and management as a whole，autonomy in human resource，money，teaching and research，acceleration of theoretic research and teaching renovation and pursuit of compulsory art education management justice，Such as，exploration of scientific class hours measurements and disconnection of the assessment and engagement.

Secondly，self-assessment system should be established.The construction and development of self-assessment is a vital part of the top design of university compulsory art education.Therefore，special research program should be established and experts，management faculty and relative members should involve in investigation，research，development and operation.It is also important to pay attention to the combination of self-assessment and higher-up assessment It is a long term dynamic process to build and improve self-assessment system since it requires continual counting and analysis of newly-enrolled students’art attainment and affection of compulsory art education over relative working field after graduation.One important part of self-assessment is student’s assessment.In our country，“quality assessment”is universally employed，which means assess students learning through their learning record.In this way，the result of students’learning is assessed and on the other hand，it helps students to think the process of their art learning and spur them forward.〔6〕The result of quality assessment can be served as the foundation of selfassessment as well as effective reference of differentiation education.

Thirdly，new methods should be explored to fund compulsory art education.University compulsory art education in our country depends on government funding.Since there is no rules on the proportion of funding，universities make compulsory art education funding according to their respective situation.The result is there is sufficient funding for those who put emphasis on compulsory education and serious shortage of funding for those who don’t.Jiangsu Province，as an economically developed and culturally open-minded province，can explore a compulsory art education funding model that involves government，local community and social community participation.This specific operation of this model which is complete in many western countries is to sample assessment every 2 or 3 years according to art education assessment report of universities and allocate funds on year-on-year basis in order to award and motivate universities to raise their compulsory art education funds.At the same time，social financial aid can be resolved to.For example，since 2008，the company Spirit of Jade，held 3-year global tour performance intended for public good.Universities can make use of these social sources to gain money for“compulsory art education fund”and cooperate with sponsor enterprises to ask for tax cut in the name of“education donation”.

In a word，university compulsory art education is a long-term systematic program.It needs to create a scientific development system，establish scientific concept and reasonable evaluation index，and use appropriate methods，learn the advanced experiences from the West.It also must combines with the characteristics of our country.So，we can get out a way of Chinese for the development of university compulsory art education.

〔1〕Xu Jing，Li Benming，The Relation of the Art and Morality from the Literary Criticism of Marx，Engels and Mao Zedong，Drama in Sichuan Province，2013，vol 6.

〔2〕Howard Gardner，The Difference of the Art Education between China and America，People’s Music，1987，vol 4.

〔3〕Yi Xiaoming，Du Lijiao，Current Condition，Effect and Reforming Proposal of Compulsory Art Education— A Survey Based on Students from 12 Universities in Jiangsu，Journal of Aesthetic Education，2012，vol 6.

〔4〕Shen Zhilong，Harvard Experience:Visit American Art Education，Wuhan:Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press，2002，p.53.

〔5〕Ju Xiangling，He Xiumei，How Far Art Education Away from Us — the Current Condition Analysis and Value Exploration of University Compulsory Art Education，Art Education Magazine，2012，vol 8.

〔6〕Zeng Fanren，Study on the Comparison of University Compulsory Art Education in West and China，Beijing:Economic Science Press，2009，p.48.