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Social and Behavioral Sciences
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 83 (2013) 437 - 442
2nd World Conference on Educational Technology Researches - WCETR2012
Art and Moral Values - A Pedagogical Approach through the
Hexadic Model
Lumini^a Heliana Munteanu a *, Ion Croitoru b, Gabriel Gorghiu c, Laura Monica Gorghiu a
a Faculty of Sciences and Arts, Valahia University Targoviste, 18-24 Unirii Blvd., 130082 Targoviste, Romania
bFaculty of Theology, Valahia University Targoviste, 35 Lt. Stancu Ion Str., 130105 Targoviste, Romania cElectrical Engineering Faculty, Valahia University Targoviste, 18-24 Unirii Blvd., 130082 Targoviste, Romania
Abstract
Engaging yourself into the process of self-discovery and human values knowledge means to be deeply involved in an on-going quest, to oscillate between the desire and the desirable, but also to build the fundament of an education through the real values. In this respect, the paper emphasizes on a model that founds its antecedents in the reformatting actions of the teachers and initiators of educational sciences, who have formulated various concepts in the area of humanistic pedagogy, in the post-modern era. The main poles of this pedagogical model consisted of: (a) trainer (teacher); (b) beneficiary of the formative activity (pupil / student); (c) objectives and results of the training process; (d) illustrative and procedural content of education; (e) ways of semantic re-storage; (f) ways of semantic establishment; (g) assessment and pedagogical activities related to content transfer and ways of understanding; (h) application of the hexadic model - by reporting the subject to art and his/her emancipation by emphasizing on the moral values.The approach of the aesthetics and moral education by applying the hexadic model has been performed on different students / teachers categories that came from the areas of educational sciences, theology, art education and musical pedagogy, but also on pre-primary and primary teachers, taking into account the use of technology (informational support). A proper feedback was registered, being strongly linked to a better understanding of the keyword culture, but also to the ability for acting and judging based on the aesthetic and moral values. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hafize Keser Ankara University, Turkey
Keywords: pedagogical model, hexadic model, aesthetics, morality, art, sacred, truth, culture, teacher professional development;
1. Introduction
The reception of art and moral values represents pedagogical actions that model the human personality and lead to the formulation of concepts whose extensive field involves judgments on certain data that are multiplying on extensive areas, indicating at the same time in the person of the seeker, the reflex of faith and objective choice. Thus, the education through art indicates one of the fundamental paths of the subject ability to communicate, to relate to the reality and to give personal beliefs the most appropriate finality: self-comprehension, the understanding of culture, of the world and their judgment. Along with art, the human feels the need to model his own values of the sacred and the work of human virtues. The cultivation of the capacity to judge will contribute to the accomplishment of the fact that reason seeks the understanding, but also seeks the beauty, that requires the understanding to be able
* Corresponding Author: Lumini^a Heliana Munteanu. Tel.: +40-245-213382 E-mail address: heliana_munteanu@yahoo.com
1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hafize Keser Ankara University, Turkey doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.086
to feel it and in the perspective of the religiosity understanding is the highest mark of the sacred. The human need for the sacred cannot be put to an end and if modernism teaches us that the sacred can be sacrificed, the reality shows us that the sacred is the one that sacrifices everything, because there is no higher value. Therefore, moral values (the respect for life, expressing positive feelings, the formation of civic consciousness etc.), in relation with the sacredness are universal and objective accepted, as essential and adjustment axis for the human relationships (Eliade, 1992; Barlogeanu, 2001). For the purpose of opening to the human spirit's and sacred universe, the perception of art and moral values represents a concept that established different functional relationships with other concepts (creativity, knowledge, education, communication),with whom they relate intensely and at the level of components that induce a structural analysis. The significance of the concept of notion of reception art (NR) involves, necessarily (in the sense of the formal logic of the concept), two ways of evaluating its specific components: 1) the deduction of NR from the axiomatic components of the concept's structure, with a specific representation in the model and 2) by putting in correspondence the homologous objects from a concrete case of perception of art and moral values. The model proposed may allow the study of the relations between the two evaluations, the research involving a mobility of approaches. The present study explores two evaluations, through implementing the hexadic model (Barlogeanu, 2001; Jauss, 1978), with the didactic use of ICT specific elements (Gorghiu et. al., 2008), related to the model and available on the Internet.
2. The hexadic model
The hexadic model was inspired by the Romanian philosopher Constantin Noica when he developed the hexagon of the fundamental types of pronunciation (narrative or determinative pronunciation, generalized pronunciation of the knowledge, realized or practiced pronunciation, integrated or contemplative pronunciation, delimited pronunciation, custom pronunciation) and styles of thinking (inductive, deductive, integrative, inventive, symbolized and that systemize), as attempts of spiritual and educational enlightenment, of the human being. The hexagonal model represents a standard argument, with a complex structure whose explanation can be realized through selecting the elements that constitute a situational and pedagogical analysis of the concept of art perception (Barlogeanu, 2001).
As a simplified representation of the phenomenon of art and moral value perception, the hexadic model highlights multiple relationships between its components that can generate the change of the finalities of teaching the artistic disciplines and those with moral connotations, but also the modalities to act towards achieving these finalities. The descriptive function of the hexadic model facilitates the pedagogical action of organization the perception and the correlation of the functions of description and prediction make possible the syntax and the semantic of perception. The pragmatic dimension is assumed by the pedagogical investigation through the importance of findings/discoveries of all pulsating law connections.
The selection of model elements explores the educational environment (rules, values, codes and action dispositions) through the reinterpretation of the human beings reflexivity and leads to the distinction of certain specific functional parameters of the human, as a person and as a member of the society (critique, judgment, creativity, openness to different experiences of the application of knowledge and basic pedagogy. The cultural mediator (teacher) can create the conditions of the act to perceive, to discern, to memorize, to know (it also implies the act of self-knowledge). The intervention in the pedagogical act is not an iceberg type of mechanism, but requires the involvement of the human person with his whole personality, with his most profound, deep and constant feelings, necessarily determining the actualization of self-improvement and stabilization needs (loan, 1995). This activity induces deciphering the meaning of the pedagogical act under the aspect of modeling the personality of a human being (through the selection of elements that participates at the achievement of the highest value of education) and the balance of this personality (the emotional relationship between the subject and the cultural mediator with a life experience sufficiently enhanced to be able to have the confidence that the affective obstacles are overwhelmed and do not prevent the access to culture) in a mutual project.
This model generates correspondences at the level of teaching and learning styles, but also at the level of aspects regarding the nature of aesthetic and moral values, issues contained in the resulting approaches from the
phenomenon of the intentionality of education. In determining the variables regarding the situational analysis of the perception precedents exist in various semiotic models (O. Clouzot, C. S. Peirce, C. W. Morris, L. Blaga, C. Noica, L. Barlogeanu etc.), which bring into discussion the essential conditions of the access to artwork, with the development of creative situations (Clouzot, 1999, 2001; Peirce, 1977, 1982; Morris, 1977; Blaga, 1992, 1996; Barlogeanu, 2001).
The model presents specific parts as following:
(a) subject receptor (S) - corresponds to the variable of the trained, the student, to whom it's addressed the artwork. He becomes simultaneously a subject with direct action of interpretation and an object of the art influence that he receives. From a semiotic point of view, treating the variable S is very generous because facilitates the profile of moral-aesthetic education, while the value presents concrete aspects. Found in the possession of an artistic education in relation with moral values, any topic can become an active part of the public art and value receptor, shaped by the new artistic productions, even influencing the development of art and even expressing a power of discernment of the fundamental socio-cultural pragmatisms, that interest modeling the aesthetic and moral dimensions of the human personality.
(b) creator of the artwork (C) - in the ideal model of the pedagogical situation is the variable of the trainer, the teacher, the initiator. The creator, regardless the practiced hypostasis (musician, poet, writer, painter, architect, director), is the authentic educator. Cultivating the affectivity zone, the creator will model the art receptor sensitivity, hardly experienced by the modernist civilization. In his approach, he is guided by his own feeling, but also by his taste, facilitating the spiritual reflection moment of the receptor and an additional delight. The aesthetic force of the creator's discourse is generated by the original themes and artwork's structure, which shows the necessity of cultivating moral values. The fundamental dimension assumed by the creator is the one that even gives the role to build the identity of a human being, through revealing their own needs and the personal history of an artistic project. The creator's project also indicates a rational change of the attitude towards a possible unilateral perspective of the modern culture, through a model that includes life's moral values, images that connect to a spiritual enhanced humanity, where is determined the personalization of the individual. By selecting a language for the act of creation - generated by experiences and common affective states of all human beings - the creator's impact on the receptor is durable especially through expressiveness. The final artistic evolution induces the choice of expression means and necessary separation of regular communication of good taste.
(c) result of perceiving the art and moral values (F) - the third variable of the model occurs in the relationship between the first two, with a meaningful weight in all pedagogical studies. It is also a human subject relationship variable, about to accede to his true existence, with the spirit figures and spiritual life symbols, that lead to the recognition and acceptance of the consciousness. With the spirit we integrate those figures, categories, symbols that make from the consciousness, self-consciousness. The teachers that are pursuing absorption of values, make this approach by putting the subject in relation with figures that have the attribute of objectivity (artwork, monuments etc.) and from whose exteriorization makes the human being becomes self-conscious. The process of education through art is built in different languages, where are used regimented symbols (symbols from fairy tales, legends, architecture, art etc.), common symbols (taken from the usual communication within the social community) and perspective symbols. Education through art expresses its intentionality by acceding to moral values, leading human beings, through an intense process of erudition, to the desire of aesthetic-moral modeling. The specific of educational intentions requires from the receptor two complementary attitudes: explanation and comprehension, as the art to expose a truth based on universally accepted moral principles and the art to understand and interpret the exposed truth.
(d) interpretation of artwork activities (A) - this variable includes forms, styles, techniques and methods, teaching strategies used in teaching-learning situations, planning/management and control of formative activities. From a pedagogical point of view, through interpretation activities of an artwork, we outlined the ambiguity and the multiplicity of artistic languages and also the importance of moral values. The multiple meanings of symbols, especially those developed at an artistic or religious level are expressed directly or indirectly in an artwork and the receptor has a certain understanding or even formed ideas. The interpretation makes possible an explanatory conduct in relation with the artwork, through the game, for example, of oppositions and signs in a system of discrete units
(sounds, lines, colors etc.). The structural analysis consists in the segmentation and distinguishing the elements, their classification and comparison through establishing the levels of integration of the parts from a whole, which is leading to the formation of a sense that notices the combining of the parts exposed in this process. Organizing certain explanatory activities, in relation with artwork and perception of moral values, represents an important step through the notification of aesthetic and moral values that can be expressed using signs, symbols and artistic languages. The explanation must be completed by understanding as a live act of transmission of something to someone, as a reflection of his methodic character.
(e) semantic restoration procedures (R) - this variable refers to the means of recovery of the meaning contained in the artwork through the understanding of signs that make the artwork (words, sounds, colors, images, rules) by investigating the connection between the symbolic sense and his sensitive meanings and also by the notification of moral values and their objectivity. The participatory deciphering of all connotations is the result of an act of judgment through which the receptor interprets, recovers and restores the sense. The artistic discourse and the approach of values awareness are beyond the primary meanings of signs, defining the choices made by the user of a code and can be realized, for example, in the harmony's sound of an artistic architecture, the expressiveness of verbal or musical sounds, flexibility and speed of the movement becomes a mean of expression in all the arts, containing in same time a moral movement as a core of ideas or effects.
(f) semantic instauration processes (I) - this variable is correlated with the previous ones because it allows personal contributions of the receiver, his preferences and especially the desire to get closer to the work. As opposed to the variable of the semantic restoration, this variable facilitates the understanding art and moral values of life and is facilitated by opposite values like freedom and criticism, which transforms it into a true relation between art and the world. By the quality of the meaning as the mental phenomenon, art as a messenger of a fund very generous in ideas and reports to the moral regularity of big importance for the human being opens the shortest path to the capacity of representation, motivation, understanding and knowledge acquirement towards the education of the art receptors. In this case, it's not about a core of meanings defined on the extra-linguistic sign-reality axis anymore, but of one defined in comprehensive relation between the possible world and a spiritualized one, through the quality of symbol of the sign and the perception dynamism of the sacred.
The new relationship valued by the hexadic model requires a multitude of signs - value, aesthetic, moral, sacred, religiosity, society etc. - that are targeted to a valuable potential and spiritual achievement of the human being. The analysis of the artwork, as a sign, shows two types of references: 1) the ones which are generating criteria of differentiation, for example, those between the domain of painting or the one of sculpture and 2) the ones which are operating in the world of music, carrying the representation moral values in inaccessible ways for another sign. Between the two types of references, there is the literary sign which receives facets from painting when it expresses recognizable meanings, or sometimes getting closer to the music, especially when the meaning is more of psychological nature. But both are always referring to moral values, aspect without whom they are emptied of content (Morris, 1966, 1971, 1977; Pourtois, 1997, Simmel, 1981; Clouzot, 1999, 2001; Barlogeanu, 2001).
3. Results and discussions
The education through art, in relation to the exposure and the cultivation of moral values, through educational activities where are used specific ICT components, cannot be concretized by simplified the teaching of some contents, because it involves six dimensions, in analogy with the hexadic model:
(a) personal dimension of the psycho-behavioral profile by overcoming prejudices and sometimes personal stereotypes;
(b) cognitive dimension, as the knowledge of art history assumptions, but also stylistic, sociological, regarding the generation and the moral consequences of cultural phenomena;
(c) methodological dimension, that refers to the accumulation of procedures and methods of differentiation and customization of values;
(d) relational dimension of knowledge of real data on human subjects with whom they work;
(e) socio-cultural dimension, where is promoted the beautiful and all that ennobles the human being within the society where it is found and within the civilization where it lives;
(f) sacred dimension, which values (from the moral point of view) the languages which are used in art.
The importance of the model components was analyzed in the frame of the particular teacher professional development programs (that contain face-to-face sessions, but also distant learning), having as trainees: music, art and religion in-service teachers. At the end of the training program, an evaluation questionnaire was applied to 30 trainees, with the view to emphasize how the participants rated the model dimensions, using a five-level Likert scale (1- Totally; 2 - To great extent; 3 - To some extent; 4 - Not sure; 5 - Not at all). Figures 1-6 illustrate the teachers opinions related to the six model dimensions.
I Totally
To a great extent I To some extent ■ Not sure I Not atall
I Totally
To a great extent I To some extent I Not sure Not at all
Figure 1: Increasing the self motivation (personal dimension)
Figure 2: Increasing the scientific content understanding (cognitive dimension)
I Totally
To a great extent I To some extent I Not sure "Not atall
I Totally To a great extent
■ To some extent
■ Not sure
I Not at all
Figure 3: Improving the teaching methods (methodological dimension)
Figure 4: Attracting the learners to study and cooperate (relational dimension)
I Totally
To a great extent ■ To some extent I Not sure "Not at all
I Totally
To a great extent I To some extent I Not sure "Not at all
Figure 5: Applying the knowledge in social activities (socio-cultural dimension)
Figure 6: Attracting the learners to retrieve their moral values in the development process of their own knowledge (sacred dimension)
4. Concluding remarks
The central purpose and the transformation in the contemporary culture and education represents the communication with the great works of human culture, various institutions of society and with other people, communication with them, to understand and to be able to interpret emotions, cultural expressions by the favorable placement of the subject into a spiritual disposition which favors knowledge of human creation.
Extrapolating, the purpose of culture and education that facilitates communication opens three directions: (1) the relationship between the human being and culture; (2) the communication of every individual with their own interiority; (3) the interpersonal communication.
Culture generates a world in which man carries his everyday life, aspiring towards the sacred and this world would be incomprehensible an impossible to live in it, if it would be emptied of moral values. Detected by the instruments of culture and art, is enriched with new meanings and positive events with direct consequences on the evolution of phenomena from our perceptual field.
The analysis developed at the end of the teacher professional development programs proved a very good rate for: increasing of self motivation and scientific content understanding, improving the teaching methods, attracting the learners to study and cooperate, applying the knowledge in social activities and last but not least, attracting the learners to retrieve their moral values in the development process of their own knowledge. This leads to a good representation and implementation of the hexadic model components in the teaching-learning process.
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