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Developing group critique methods in contemporary fine art courses at Chinese art universities

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Developing group critique methods in contemporary fine art courses at Chinese art universities

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Content 1
Developing Group Critique Methods in Contemporary Fine Art Courses at
Chinese Art Universities
Shuai Fu
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
August 2024

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© Copyright by Shuai Fu 2024
All Rights Reserved

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The Committee for Shuai Fu certifies the approval of this Dissertation
Tracy Poon Tambascia, Committee Chair
Anthony Maddox
Larry Picus
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2024

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Abstract
In 2021, China commanded the second largest art market globally, second only to the US
(McAndrew, 2022). The development of an art market has led to an increase in students in China
and has driven their desire to enter art universities for further education. Under this premise, the
limitations of art education for Chinese students are also more obvious. The higher education
curriculum in China has become one of the main obstacles preventing Chinese undergraduate
students from developing independent and critical thinking, particularly in the arts, humanities
and social sciences (Zhang, T., 2017). The purpose of this research was to explore the potential
for designing a discussion-based student-centered studio critique approach for fine art students in
art universities in China. This mixed-method study focusing on students who are currently
studying in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, one of the leading art academies in China, found
that there was an urgent need to design more open teaching models to cultivate students' innovative thinking in fine art classes in Chinese universities. Recommendations for practice
include policy and management changes in course content and volume, teaching methods and
stakeholders involvement. Keywords: Fine art education, Chinese art universities, critical thinking, student-centered
learning

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Dedication
First and foremost, I would like to express my love to my family for their unconditional
support as always. To my mom, Mrs. Zhou Shushi and my dad, Mr. Fu Junguo, thank you for
always being my role models and for your support in a career that I believe in. You have always
encouraged and educated me to care about society and take responsibility. You are artists and
educators in life, and as I grew up, you have inspired me along the way. I am also very grateful
to my sister, Ms. Fu Jia. You always think of giving me advice and help at any time. I wouldn’t
be where I am today without all the support you three gave me. I hope that I have not let you
down and I make you proud.

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Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my dissertation chair, Dr. Tracy Poon Tambascia. I know I am not the fastest or the best among your students to complete
assignments, but you did not make me timid or insecure. Instead, you gave me a lot of
encouragement and support. I know you also know that those words gave me a lot of motivation
to complete the tasks I should have completed. To my committee members, Dr. Anthony
Maddox, Professor James Chu and Dr. Larry Picus, I would like to express my appreciation for
your expert advice. Thank you for believing in me and encouraging me to accomplish tasks that I
did believe I can accomplish. Furthermore, to my dearest C-11. You are talented and
accomplished, and during the two years we have been together, you have truly become my best
friends. I looked forward to meeting you again every time I return from an intensive!
Last but not least, thank you to alumni Yingjia and Lily for joining our frequent gatherings in
Shenzhen, which gave me a lot of advice in sharing your experiences in this program. You have
also become my best friends! Thank you to all the participants for graciously sharing your
experiences and stories with me throughout this dissertation process, despite your busy schedules. Thank you to everyone for your tolerance and support along the way, and thank you to myself
for not giving up and the motivation to arrive at this moment.

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Table of Contents
Committee Approval........................................................................................................................3
Abstract........................................................................................................................................... 4
Dedication....................................................................................................................................... 5
Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................... 6
List of Tables...................................................................................................................................9
List of Figures............................................................................................................................... 10
Chapter One: Introduction...........................................................................................................111
Statement of the Problem........................................................................................................ 112
Purpose of the Study................................................................................................................113
Significance of the Study.........................................................................................................115
Definitions............................................................................................................................... 115
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................116
Chapter Two: Review of Literature ............................................................................................ 118
Introduction............................................................................................................................. 118
Education in China .................................................................................................................. 118
Fine Arts Education in Higher Education in China ...................................................................20
Current Approaches to Discussion-Based Class Structure ........................................................29
Social Cognitive Theory ............................................................................................................33
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................34
Chapter Three: Methods................................................................................................................36
Organization Overview..............................................................................................................36
Population and Sample .............................................................................................................. 37

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Data Collection and Instrumentation .........................................................................................39
Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................42
Credibility and Trustworthiness................................................................................................ 42
Validity and Reliability............................................................................................................. 43
Ethics......................................................................................................................................... 44
Limitations and Delimitations................................................................................................... 45
Role of Researcher.....................................................................................................................46
Chapter Four: Findings..................................................................................................................48
Overview of Study Participants.................................................................................................48
Presentation of Findings............................................................................................................ 50
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................59
Chapter Five: Discussion and Recommendations for Practice ..................................................... 61
Discussion of Findings.............................................................................................................. 61
Recommendations for Practice ..................................................................................................65
Limitations and Delimitations of the Study...............................................................................70
Recommendations for Future Research .....................................................................................71
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................72
References..................................................................................................................................... 74
Appendix A: Information Sheet.................................................................................................... 84
Appendix B: Interview Protocol................................................................................................... 86
Appendix C: Survey Items............................................................................................................ 92
Appendix D: Recruitment Letter...................................................................................................93

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List of Tables
Table 1: Student Enrollment in the Eight Art Schools in China (2020-2022) 25
Table 2: Course List, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts 27
Table 3: Proportional Stratified Sampling Strategy Analysis for the Survey 38
Table 4: Information about the interview participants 49
Table 5: Response to survey question on feedback sources 54
Table 6: Responses to a survey question on skills and knowledge needed 57

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Growth trend chart of the percentage of university enrollment in the total population in
China (2001-2021). UNESCO Institute for Statistics 20
Figure 2: Distribution of majors among students participating in the survey 49

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Chapter One: Introduction
Arts education is well established in China, with a total of 366 institutions that offer art
majors, and 449, 000 students enrolled in higher education art programs in 2020 (Shanghai
Ranking, 2023). Furthermore, a commitment to art continues to grow, according to the 2022 Art
Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, in 2021, there was a dramatic expansion of the art
infrastructure in China. China commanded the second largest art market globally, second only to
the United States, with art sales increasing by just over one-third (35%) during 2021, reaching
$13.4 billion and commanding some 20% share of the global art market. The development of an art market has led to an increase in art students in China and has
driven their desire to enter art universities for further education. In 2010, the number of
undergraduate students enrolled in the arts category expanded to 294,400, increased to 381,400
in 2015, and reached a record high of 449,000 in 2020. In just 15 years, the enrollment of art
undergraduate students has expanded from 6.35% of the total number of undergraduate students
in 2004 to 10.13% in 2020 (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2021). Since 2010, the number of Chinese students enrolled in fine arts and applied arts programs in
U.S. higher education has more than tripled—a much faster rate of growth compared to the
traditional leading fields of studies, such as engineering, business and management, and math
and computer science. But under this premise, the shortcomings of Chinese art students are also more obvious. In
terms of creativity and critical thinking. Chinese students' artwork is perceived as less creative by
both Chinese and American judges (Niu & Sternberg, 2001). Three different factors are posited
as reasons for the discrepancy in rated creativity between Chinese and American students. They
are social values, school pedagogic practices, and educational testing systems (Niu & Sternberg,

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2003). The higher education curriculum in China, which is heavily regulated by the state, has
become one of the main obstacles preventing Chinese undergraduate students from developing
independent and critical thinking, particularly in the arts, humanities and social sciences (Zhang, T. 2017). The teaching of art majors in universities in China is still unbalanced in terms of theory
and practice. Teachers mainly teach knowledge in class, while students passively accept
knowledge mechanically. It is not conducive to the cultivation of students' ability to explore
independently (Li, 2019). With the increasing studies of interdisciplinary art, it is particularly
urgent to design more open teaching models to cultivate students' innovative thinking (Cao et al., 2022). Although for hundreds of years China was known to embrace an innovative culture that
yielded significant inventions and discoveries, the current state of arts education does not reflect
the level of open inquiry that may have fostered cultural advancements in the past (Staats, 2011). Statement of the Problem
Although Chinese educational reform has focused on creativity and innovation since 2000, the transfer of educational philosophy to practice has not yet occurred (Lockette, 2012). The
teacher-centered curriculum in art universities in China is neglecting the importance of creative
thinking and art criticism in fine art studio classes. This pedagogical structure is not successful in
offering a thorough and open classroom discussion atmosphere to encourage every student to
participate in discussing their artwork and to constructively criticize them (Chumley, 2016). Chumley’s study (2016) offered an opportunity to look inside the creativity class hosted in
the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). In those classes, the professor led the discussion, and
any opinions other than the professor’s authority were not encouraged. Critical voices from the
students were not being heard.

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One of the main reasons art in China does not reflect critical thinking is due to the fact that
China's education system places great emphasis on the importance of exams and has not
encouraged the presentation of students’ personal opinions throughout its historical development. The respect and obedience of students toward teachers is widely expected on Chinese campuses
(Cortazzi & Jin, 1996). Any deviation from teachers' opinions is considered a rebellion against
traditional educational ideas. In addition, due to the deep cooperation and reverence between
China and the Soviet Union in the early days of China's founding, contemporary art education in
China was deeply influenced by socialist realism (Sullivan, 1999). Therefore, art education in
China places more emphasis on cultivating students' figurative realistic techniques and skills, while neglecting their individual thoughts and creative expression in art school. In such an
historical and cultural context, Chinese art colleges and professors have not actively engaged in
researching methods and abilities for cultivating the students’ personal creative voices (Chumley, 2016). This has become a major disadvantage among students who are creating artwork during
their study in art universities in China.Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to design a discussion-based, student-centered studio critique
approach for fine art students in art universities in China. Through this curriculum, students’ personal artistic opinion of their own artworks and professional discussion and debate among
their peers, will be encouraged. Through analyzing the theories and approaches in art criticism
used in art education, the result of this research has provided reference and methodology on
critique for use in Chinese art classrooms. By engaging more in professional writing, adopting
art criticism and enhancing the study of contemporary artworks with its relative theories during
this process, students will also be more confident in interpreting and defending their works. In

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order to achieve that, I have conducted a mixed-method study that involved a survey of students
that assessed the current state of studio courses in Chinese art universities and how the students
responded to the current teaching methodology, followed by individual interviews with students. The survey also provided demographic information to allow for purposive sampling. The
interview collected data on current opinions on the studio critique method among students. This study utilized Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) as the theoretical framework, because the
focus of this dissertation study was assessing the relationship among students and professors in
the classroom environment. SCT is used in education, psychology, and communication, and
posits that learning occurs in a social environment where there is a dynamic and interactive
relationship between people, environment, and behavior (Bandura, 2014). SCT emphasizes the
role of the environment and behavior just like behavioral theory, but also includes the person’s
beliefs and mental processes. In SCT, a portion of personal knowledge acquisition may be
directly related to engaging in the behavior personally or by observing someone else performing
a behavior and the consequences of their behavior. Its scope has expanded to address processes
of external and internal social reinforcement such as motivation and self-regulation (Bandura, 2014). The research questions that guide this study are:
1. How can a student-centered discussion-based critique method be implemented in fine
art classes in Chinese universities?
2. What are Chinese students’ perceptions of the student-centered discussion-based
critique method in fine art classes?

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Significance of the Study
The content and results of this research can provide more guidance and reference for
teaching methods in fine art and contemporary art studio courses in universities in China. It will
provide teachers of these courses with a structured teaching plan and a more organized student- centered classroom review mechanism. A student-centered classroom implies that both the
curriculum and the teaching methods of the mentor in the classroom revolve around enhancing
students' participation in discussions and dialogues, and such activities are based on students' interests, enabling them to better understand and develop their ideas and works. It does not mean
that the instructor or faculty guidance and role are not important or valued. Findings from this
study can also guide Chinese students in relevant majors to express their personal artistic
language and understand the creativity and theories in the making of their artwork. The answers found in this study could be useful to senior-level administrators of art
institutions gain a deeper understanding of problems that exist in studio-based project creation
courses and gain some solutions. Taking this as an initiative, the administrative and academic
departments of the university can observe and conduct research on more majors, and reform
classroom teaching mechanisms based on the different characteristics of various art majors such
as visual art and design, animation, etc. For researchers in related fields that are concerned with
higher education in arts, this study provides a deeper examination towards some of the problems
and possible solutions in the education of art and creativity, with a closer observation and deeper
understanding of China's art education situation. Definitions
The following terms will be used throughout the dissertation:
Art criticism: refers to the discussion or evaluation of visual art (Elkins & Newman, 2007).

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Contemporary art: refers to the art produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the
21st century (Smith, 2009). Critical thinking: refers to the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments
in order to form a judgement by the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and
evaluation (Glaser, 2017). Curriculum: refers to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's
experiences in terms of the educator's or school's instructional goals (Wiles, 2008). Fine art: a visual art considered to have been created primarily for aesthetic and intellectual
purposes and judged for its beauty and meaningfulness, specifically, painting, sculpture, drawing, watercolor, graphics, and architecture (Hegel, 1998). Gaokao: (高考; gāokǎo; 'Higher Education Exam') refers to the standardized college entrance
exam held annually in Mainland China (Pires & Duarte, 2019). Social Cognitive Theory (SCT): used in psychology, education, and communication, holds that
portions of an individual's knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others
within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influences (Bandura, 2002). Theory of Mind: refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to
them (Leslie, et al., 2004). Conclusion
There is very limited data and information specific to the art colleges and universities in
China on how they facilitate critical discussions in fine art studio classes, in the support of their
students. The subsequent chapter provides a review of the relevant literature and the conceptual
framework. I will explore empirical and theoretical works pertaining to fine art education in

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China and its curriculum in higher education aspect. academic advising, social capital, and
institutional agent theory. I will also examine how the knowledge of art criticism has founded the
basis of methodologies adopted in a studio critique session in art classes. Social cognitive theory
helped build the theoretical framework for the entire research.

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Chapter Two: Review of Literature
Introduction
This chapter focuses on the research on student-centered, discussion-based critique teaching
methods in the context of arts education. In this literature review, fine art education in higher
education in China and the impact by politics and economy will be introduced. The relationship
between the curriculum and contemporary theory and critical thinking will also be covered. In
the end, I will present the existing theories of art criticism and the support of social cognitive
theory for current approaches to discussion-based classroom teaching structure. Education in China
From Confucius to the Gaokao, China's education reflects the concentration of ideology by
the ruling class throughout history. Education in ancient China was originally only for boys from
rich elites and important families. They learned about government, religion, and war, as well as
art, music and important ceremonies attached to the culture. Since the establishment of the
People's Republic of China in October 1949, the Communist government focused on improving
literacy through both formal schooling and literacy campaigns (Ching, 2012). In 1949, China had
180 institutions of higher education enrolling 80,000 students. By 1957, enrollment had jumped
to 440,000 (Pepper, 1978). The cultural revolution had a negative impact on education in China
due to the closing of schools and universities (Meng & Gregory, 2002). China's professors and
researchers had been denied access to teaching and research. Library collections, laboratories and
personal research materials were often damaged and sometimes destroyed (Pepper, 1978). This
catastrophic situation continued for 10 years until the College Entrance Exam (Gaokao) was
resumed in 1977 (Saywell,1980).

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China's education is mainly managed by the state-owned public education system under the
Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China is one of the
cabinet departments of the State Council of China, responsible for basic education, vocational
education, and higher education affairs throughout the country. The Ministry of Education
sponsors most public universities and colleges in China. The Ministry of Education also conducts
certification work for higher education institutions, courses, and schoolteachers (Ministry of
Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2009). China’s Constitution provides for three levels of administration. The provincial-level
division is the highest level of classification. The primary responsibility for education lies with
counties for managing and delivering primary and secondary education, whereas higher
education falls under the jurisdiction of provincial authorities. The autonomous regions, like
provinces and municipalities, have their own local governments. The central government has
granted the autonomous regions more legislative rights because they are home to large
populations of minority ethnic groups. Provinces and municipalities have their own local
governments. They elect delegates to the National People’s Congress (NPC), which governs the
administration of economic, social and cultural affairs. A municipality has the same political, economic and jurisdictional rights as a province. The four municipalities are: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing (OECD, 2016). All Chinese citizens must receive at least nine years of government funded education, which
is called nine-year compulsory education. Compulsory education includes six years of primary
education and three years of junior high school education. Primary school education usually
starts at the age of six and ends at the age of twelve, while junior high school education usually
starts at the age of thirteen and ends at the age of fifteen. After junior high school education,

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there are three years of high school education, and senior high school education is also three
years. After high school, there is a national unified level exam, called Gaokao. China's laws
regulating the education system include the Degree Law Compulsory Education Law, Teachers
Law, Education Law, Vocational Education Law, and Higher Education Law. China has the world's largest higher education system. By the end of 2021, there were more
than 3000 colleges and universities on the Chinese Mainland, more than 44.3 million students in
total, and 240 million Chinese citizens had received higher education, which represented 19% of
the population. According to the data from 2020, the enrollment rate of higher education
institutions reached 58.42% (Zou, 2022). Figure 1
Growth trend chart of the percentage of university enrollment in the total population in China
(2001-2021). UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Fine Arts Education in Higher Education in China
Art is usually taught using tools such as painting or watercolor, sculpture, and installation. Art making is seen as an experiential activity that involves observing, explaining, and

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discovering appropriate marks to reproduce observed phenomena. Since the Hellenistic period, art teaching has been a component of formal education in Western culture (Efland, A. D., 1990). In the history of art education in Asia, Calligraphy was included in the Six Arts of Gentlemen in
the Zhou Dynasty of China, while calligraphy and Chinese painting were included in the Four
Arts of ancient Chinese literati (Welch, P. B., 2013). Nicholas Houghton (2016) identified six definitive historical art school curricula: “apprentice, academic, formalist, expressive, conceptual, and professional." From an historical
perspective, art in Europe was taught through a studio methodology, where artists received
apprenticeships and learned their profession. In their free time, formal training was conducted in
an art studio, or more commonly at home or alone outside. It is in these studios that artists
learned this skill through apprenticeship to masters, and this relationship was controlled by
guilds and regulations (Dunkerton, Foister, Gordon, & Penny, 1991). In the 1980s, art schools
began to be recognized as legitimate universities. Since then, art departments have been
integrated into many different types of schools and universities as evaluable and formal courses
(de Araújo, 2018). Administration of Art Education
In 1986, the Ministry of Education of China officially set up in its organizational structure, the Division of Art Education, which was responsible for art education in educational institutions. In 1989, the Department of Social Sciences Research and Art Education was set up. In 1993, for
the purpose of further regulating and organizing the administrative system and exercising a more
effective unified administration over art education, the Ministry set up the Department of
Physical, Health and Art Education. Meanwhile, administrative units were established
accordingly in all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. At present, in all provincial

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education commissions of the country, there is a special unit and full-time staff responsible for
art education. In the majority of provinces, municipalities or autonomous regions, provision of
staff and research staff in music and fine arts has also been established at the prefecture or city
level.An administrative network of art education has taken an initial shape in the country. In 1985, the Art Education Committee of the State Education Commission was also established as a highlevel consultative organization. It consists of well-known scholars and experts in art circles and
outstanding teachers of art education within the country. Education administration at the
provincial level has also set up its local art education committee (Ministry of Education of the
People’s Republic of China, 2004). Art Education in Universities
There are eight major art universities in China. Every year, tens of millions of high school
graduates compete for admission to these eight universities (Table 1). Those who fail can only
apply to the art department of a comprehensive university, which was considered a secondary
choice. The only other option is to retake the Arts Gaokao the next year. The art college entrance examination is divided into three steps. An art major student who is
about to graduate from high school will be required to take the provincial unified examination
(Tongkao) in January in the province where the student’s identification is registered. Around
March, that student will choose to register and participate in the art examination (commonly
referred to as the school examination) independently organized by major art colleges (usually the
eight major art colleges) across the country according to their own preferences. And in June of
that year, the student would participate in the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao)
for common courses, which are commonly referred to as the 3+x subjects. The subjects are

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Chinese literature reading and writing, mathematics, English, and a combination of knowledge
checks of either humanities subjects or science subjects. Only when students meet the
corresponding requirements in all of these three exams can they obtain the admission
qualification to the art college they wish to attend (Yuan, 2015). But this does not necessarily
mean that the student will be able to attend any university, as their comprehensive score will be
recalculated using a set formula and ranked across the province or even the country. Only when
the student’s ranking is within the admission population limit of a certain school in the same year
can they finally receive an admission offer letter from that school (Foreman, 2018). The provincial art unified exam and the art exam organized by the school independently are
basically the same in terms of exam content, but the difficulty varies. There are three main
subjects: sketching (sumiao), color or painting (secai), and fast drawing (suxie). Individual art
colleges may arrange a separate fourth exam subject based on the different majors that students
apply for, such as decorative painting, creative sketching, comics or animation, and design basics
(Chumley, 2016). To prepare for the provincial unified examination and the school entrance
examination organized independently by the art universities, many training classes and private
small schools have emerged in major cities or cities where the art universities are located. These
privately owned schools usually charge high tuition fees to students, providing art courses to
students who hope to pass the art examination but lack confidence in their art skills or students
who hope to improve their skills to obtain higher scores (Liu & Helwig, 2022). Postsecondary Arts Institutions
The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) is the most prestigious and renowned art
academy in China, with an admission rate of only 4.3%. Located in the Beijing, CAFA is also
the only art university that is managed by the Ministry of Education of China. Being the oldest

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art academy of China, CAFA was originally advocated and established by China’s famous
educator, Mr. Cai Yuanpei, in 1918. CAFA fine art majors are a well-known specialty of the
school, such as in oil painting and sculpture. There are more than five hundred teachers and staff
for over 3,800 undergraduate and graduate students, and over one hundred international students
are enrolled at this school. Other than its BA programs, CAFA provides three MFA programs
and three PhD programs. In addition to traditional majors, such as, fine art, design, animation
and film, and architecture, CAFA utilizes the geographical advantage of Beijing's natural
political, cultural, and commercial center to provide professional courses such as cultural
industry management, which is relatively rare in China's art colleges. The China Academy of
Fine Arts (CAA) is located in Hangzhou, founded by the famous Chinese artist, Lin Fengmian, in 1928, and is now managed by Zhejiang Province. CAA is renowned for its long-standing
focus on traditional Eastern art, with renowned specialties such as calligraphy, traditional
Chinese painting, and seal cutting. CAA provides twelve MFA programs and four PhD programs. There are over 7,000 undergraduate and graduate students in three campuses with a faculty and
staff of 800. As one of the youngest among the eight major art academies, the predecessor of Guangzhou
Academy of Fine Arts, Zhongnan Art School, was established in Wuhan in 1953. In 1958, it
moved to Guangzhou and was renamed Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA). Due to its
geographical location in Guangdong, a major province of GDP navigation in China, and its
proximity to major companies and enterprises, GAFA's design, animation, and gaming majors
have always been highly competitive in China. There are over 5,000 undergraduate students in
GAFA. It provides two PhD programs and three MFA programs.

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Table 1
Student Enrollment in the Eight Art Schools in China (2020-2022)
School Name
2020
Enrollment
2021
Enrollment
2022
Enrollment
Central Academy of Fine Arts 976 1132 1039
China Academy of Art 1800 1823 1690
LuXun Academy of Fine Arts 1676 1430 1430
Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts 950 950 1010
Sichuan Fine Arts Institute 1564 1564 1564
Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts 1600 1640 1650
Hubei Institute of Fine Arts 1692 1740 1742
Guangzhou Academy of Fine
Arts
1597 1466 1811
Total 11855 11745 11936
Fine Arts Curriculum
The curriculum in Chinese art universities focuses more on the field of professional courses;
ignoring the intersection of art disciplines leads to students' narrow vision, rigid thinking, and
lack of innovation ability (Lin & Li, 2017). All eight art universities in China share the same
structure of basic skills in freshmen year, with the later three years dedicated to training in the
program in which students were admitted (Chumley, 2016). At GAFA, for example, the current

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curriculum only gives students the opportunity to make conceptual work in the last year of a
student’s bachelor's degree. The rest of the college years are highly focused on figurative portrait
training (Table 2). The goal has been to train the students to copy real life as accurately as
possible, through the lens of a Chinese-developed style from Soviet realism (Qin, B., 2020). The NMAD (New Media Art Department) of the China Academy of Art stands out as a
pedagogical experiment in formalizing contemporary art education in China by offering classes
in the application of contemporary media (Yuang & Ersoy, 2021). The NMAD is divided into
three different branches: Experimental Art, Open Media, and Media Performances. The NMAD
is like any other experimental art department in China, trying hard to embrace what is newly
happening in the contemporary art scene. However, NMAD has difficulty framing and even
naming the multimedia phenomenon in a higher education setting (Archive, A. A. 2022). At the
end of those courses, China's art universities are still failing to provide constructive feedback to
students on their work due to the absence of a comprehensive curriculum and effective
management.

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Table 2
Course List, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Critical Thinking and Contemporary Theory
Some researchers have reported that Chinese students are weak in critical thinking (CT) and
contemporary theory (Tian & Low, 2011), and that Chinese students are generally not disposed

28
to think critically (Ip et al., 2000). Researchers such as Atkinson (1997) have argued that Chinese
students in Western universities have difficulties with creative and innovative writing, and that
they are quiet in class. Researchers have attributed both phenomena to the influence of
traditional Chinese culture on Chinese students. They have, in effect, claimed generally that
critical thinking is culturally based, and specifically that Chinese culture is not conducive to the
development of CT skills. Thus, Atkinson (1997) argued that CT is cultural thinking and a kind
of social practice. Appealing to the findings on the early socialization of children, he concluded
that CT is an unconsciously developed social product in individualistic Western cultures, and
that it is incompatible with the collective tradition in Chinese and Japanese cultures. This theory
is also agreed upon by Egege and Kutieleh (2004). In Hofstede and Bond’s (1984) view, Chinese
culture seems to value harmony, avoiding offense or confrontation, rather than recklessly seeking
the truth. Some people go further and believe that there is no equivalent of the word "critical
thinking" in Chinese. These factors are also because China's education is an important tool for
the ruling class to strengthen the concentration of ideas and maintain power (Yu, 2008). Wan
(2001) suggested that inasmuch as Chinese culture encourages respect for authority and
advocates conformity, and students are accordingly expected to respect teachers and listen
quietly and carefully in class, and this is exactly what they do (Hu, 2002; Liu, 1998). It is evident
that the Chinese Communist Party aims to control the thoughts of young people and to subjugate
independent political judgment and attitudes to Party ideological norms, which resulted in
Chinese students being intentionally denied opportunities to develop their critical thinking
disposition, skills, and knowledge (Zhang, 2017). Although Chinese educational reform has
focused on creativity and innovation for over a decade, the transfer of educational philosophy to
practice has not yet occurred. The main barrier to Chinese students becoming more creative and

29
innovative may be the culture itself, which is modeled after Confucian philosophy and does not
allow secondary students to act divergently or question any authority (Lockette, 2012). Li and
Liu (2006) attributed this respect for authority to the long rule of feudalism in China. They
argued that in the old feudal society, there was a strict hierarchy system, in which a lower-level
official must be subordinate to the high-level officials, and a son must be subordinate to his
father. Political Restrictions
Since the Communist Party came to power in 1949, the Party's institutions and its Marxist
Maoist ideology imposed such strict control over cultural life that art is naturally seen primarily
as a reflection or expression of political power (Sullivan, 1999). All universities in China, including Chinese art institutions, are structured with Party branches and secretariats (Jiang & Li, 2016). Moreover, China has been influenced by socialist realism, which has become the main
style of art that has been celebrated in academic circles (Sullivan, 1999). Current Approaches to Discussion-Based Class Structure
Chumley (2016) examined the pedagogical forms through which students who matriculate to
Chinese art academies after years of rigorous training of their technical skills in art. Her study
offered an opportunity to look inside a discussion-based “creativity class” hosted at the Central
Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). Chumley found that though the class was oriented to the generic
constraints of contemporary art, and the professors said that their goal was “to make students into
artists,” the class was not really about contemporary art. The researcher reported that this “creativity class” was experienced not as a relaxing liberation from rigid hierarchy or formality, but as an often intimidating and frustrating confrontation with new and unfamiliar expectations. The students’ anxiety reflected the fact that discussion making in the class was not entirely open

30
or free. Although the professor regularly said things like “these are all just suggestions, think
your own thoughts,” and “don’t do things for me, do what you like, don’t let my voice be in your
head,” the hierarchy of authority was manifested in many little ways. But despite all the insufficiency, this teaching method where the professor still serves as the
center of the discussion environment shares some similarity with the theoretical model developed
by Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006). In their model, an academic task set by the professor in
class is shown as the trigger to initiate several pedagogical learning processes, including one of
the key aspects, which is the external feedback provided by the professor and peers. But a key
argument from Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick is that the students need to be already assessing their
own work and generating their own feedback. In order to do that, Scagnetti (2017) proposed a
method where he categorized these questions into the meaning-making quality feedback
(interpretation, exploration, comparison) and the error correction feedback (direction, judgment). While Leemann (2017) also proposed a similar method, which is more specific and easier for
students to adopt during the critique, by writing down some basic questions on the wall like: “What are you trying to say? Did you think about . . .? Did you mean to. . .?” at the initial stage
of a critique to guide students to have a dialogue. Professor Clara Lieu of the Rhode Island
School of Design (RISD) has uploaded video recordings of multiple critiques demonstrated by
her and her peers on Youtube (Lieu, 2016). These critiques are valuable examples for they were
distinguished by different disciplines and media. Criticism in Art Education
Studio critiques are a means by which a student's display of their physical work is examined
and discussed in the studio, to mimic the kind of discussions taking place in an art museum or a
commercial gallery installation. These works could be paintings, sculptures, photographs or

31
videos. Apart from being skillful in whatever these practical subjects might be, students reaching
proficiency in art should also be able to possess the knowledge of discussing or writing about art
critically (Subramaniam, Hanafi & Putih, 2016). In current art education settings, the study of
critical knowledge is conducted through theoretical subjects such as art history and art criticism. Barrett (1988) has pointed out that systematic approaches to art criticism should serve as a basis
for studio art professors concerning their practice when conducting critiques in the studio. In this
section, different systematic approaches to art criticism in art education will be discussed. Feldman (1970) articulated several goals in learning the process of criticism, which he identifies
as description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment. According to Feldman, description is an
impartial inventory that contains only the things other people would agree are obvious visually. Someone describing a work could make a list of the visual qualities of the work that can be
immediately perceived, including content and subject matter in representational works as well as
abstract elements in nonrepresentational pieces. Analysis is the second stage, when the
relationship among the things we see is described, to understand what the forms do to each other, and how they affect or influence each other. Feldman advised the artist to focus on the formal
aspects of elements of art, principles of design, and other formal considerations: exaggeration, and composition. In the third stage, which is interpretation, emotions, feelings, or intentions one
might have in the presence of the art object were expressed by the description and explanation of
ideas. It was assumed that the art object has aims and purposes that it “wants” to reach certain
objectives. These objectives were made obvious based on the evidence found in the description
and analysis phases earlier. The final step is judgment, which happens only for discussing the
overall strengths, success, and merit of the work. There are several philosophies of art for
justifying critical judgments. Formalism, Expressivism, and Instrumentalism refer to the

32
different categories of judgment that critics use to come to a final evaluation in an art classroom
(Blackmon, 2015). Formalism is a philosophy that stresses the importance of the formal elements
of art and the way in which they are organized together. The formalist is interested in beauty
instead of the view’s associations or memories about what they see. The expressivist is more
concerned about the depth and intensity of the experience and communication one might have
when they look at art. Expressivists believe that art communicates feelings and ideas forcefully. Unlike formalists, expressivist think an excellent work of art could even be ugly. An
instrumentalist is interested in art's effectiveness for a purpose which has been determined by
persistent human needs working through powerful social institutions. Art should serve, for
example, the interests of the church, the state, or business, or politics (Blackmon, 2015). Similar to the Feldman method (1970), Broudy’s (1972) method also had those four stages
of aesthetic perception. They are sensory (descriptive) properties, formal (analysis) properties, expressive (interpretation) properties, and technical (judgment) properties, which are followed by
three stages of aesthetic criticism: historical, recreative, and judicial. Smith (1973) distinguished
between two basic sets of activities in his approach to criticism: exploratory aesthetic criticism
and argumentative aesthetic criticism. Exploratory aesthetic criticism was described by Smith
(1973) as a means of helping and maintaining aesthetic experiences. Argumentative aesthetic
criticism can be referred to as critical communication representing specific criticisms. That is to
say, having experienced an artwork both aesthetically and evaluated its strengths (or weaknesses), views from audiences will be exchanged and debate will appear. In other words, both basic types
of criticism have their unique functions. Louis Lankford’s (1984) art criticism method consisted of five components, which are
receptiveness - orienting - bracketing - interpretive analysis - synthesis. They were built upon

33
emphasizing the viewer’s observation and perspective as well as the properties of the work of art, including feelings generated, immediate reflections, phenomenological description, and others. Chapman (1978) advocated what she referred to as deductive, inductive, and empathic
approaches to criticism, so that children gain the ability to respond to works of art and the
environment. Tom Anderson’s (1988) approach to art criticism stressed critical thinking because
it encompasses all thinking skills such as analysis, deductive reasoning, and interpretation
(Anderson, 1988). Anderson’s method followed closely to educational criticism in its ways to
incorporate affective and intuitive thinking with analytical ways of perceiving artwork. The
stages are reaction, perceptual analysis, personal interpretation, contextual examination, and
synthesis (Hamm Walsh, 1992). Social Cognitive Theory
Given the focus of this dissertation study, which is assessing the relationship among students
and professors in the classroom environment. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) provides a helpful
framework to understand the complicated relationships involved in the studio critique in the fine
art classes. SCT is used in education, psychology, and communication, and started as the Social
Learning Theory (SLT) in the 1960s by Albert Bandura. In 1986, SLT developed into SCT and
posits that learning occurs in a social environment where there is a dynamic and interactive
relationship between people, environment, and behavior. Behaviorism influenced the
development of SCT (Stajkovic et al., 1998). Behaviorism is a group of theories focused on how
the environment exerts influence on behavior (Bandura et al., 1977). Behavioral theories
emphasize that the environment is what changes behavior and changes in behavior are what
conceptualize learning (Araiba, 2020). SCT emphasizes the role of the environment and behavior, just like behaviorism, but also includes the person’s beliefs and mental processes. SCT explains

34
that a portion of personal knowledge acquisition may be directly related to engaging in the
behavior personally or by observing someone else performing a behavior and the consequences
of their behavior. Its scope has expanded to address processes of external and internal social
reinforcement, such as, motivation and self-regulation (Bandura, 2014). Art students focus on the
physical technique of creating art, learning to closely observe what they are making and envision
what they want to create. They learn to expand their abilities, engage in cognitive thinking about
their work, and express concepts through their art (Hetland et al., 2007). An alternative
theoretical approach is Theory of Mind. Theory of Mind was first introduced by Premack and
Woodruff (1978) and refers to the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and other people
(Premack & Woodruff, 1978). This theory plays a positive role in the development of specific
forms of reasoning, which may be an important step in cognitive development (Moore & Frye, 1991). Special forms of reasoning can be obtained through alternative explanations, perspective
choices, holding two seemingly contradictory ideas (appearance and reality) and understanding
them. The understanding of appearance and reality is closely related to theory of mind, which
can further understand the relationship between theory of mind and the understanding in art
(Keskin, 2009). Based on the similarity between the acquisition of theory of mind and
symbolism, children with developed mental theory ability will be more advanced in expressing
themselves with symbols, giving symbols new meanings and their perception of the world. Students with mature theory of mind are aware that appearance may not be consistent with
reality (Lundy, 2002), or at least not with complete reality. Conclusion
The literature review presented an overview of the historical background of how fine art
education has developed in China, including the higher education aspect and their curriculum.

35
Critical thinking and contemporary theories have provided a big part of the basic knowledge for
discussion-based class structure, while art criticism in arts education has formed the basis of
methodologies adopted in a studio critique session in art classes. And social cognitive theory
helped build the theoretical framework for the entire research. The following chapter provides
the methodological approach for this study.

36
Chapter Three: Methods
The purpose of this study is to examine teaching methods and curriculum in contemporary
fine art studio courses in art universities in China and to understand the potential for developing
studio critique system methods that would increase learning. In response to the long-standing
hierarchy of teacher-centered education in fine art studio courses (Chumley, 2016), I intended to
explore solutions from current approaches to discussion-based class structure and means of art
criticism in arts education. This chapter discusses the study's methods and rationale for utilizing
a mixed-method research design that includes a survey followed by an interview, and includes an
overview of the study methodology, research questions, the population and sample, instrumentation, data collection, and analysis, trustworthiness, and conclusion. Organization Overview
The organization of focus for this study is the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA). GAFA is one of the eight major art universities in China. It was founded in 1953 in Wuhan
originally, moved to Guangzhou in 1958, and started recruiting for bachelor’s degree students. Now GAFA has roughly more than 6,000 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students. GAFA is the only major art university located in the southern region of China. Guangdong
Province, where GAFA is located, has numerous innovative enterprises and plays a leading role
in economic and cultural development throughout China. With the biggest population in China of
over 100 million people, Guangdong province had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 430
billion US dollars in the first quarter of 2023 (Global Times, 2023), which also ranked top in
China. Therefore, the proportion of innovative thinking in the educational philosophy of the
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and its application is crucial to the development of this region
and even the development of the national arts and innovative industries. GAFA has always been

37
known among students for its openness towards innovative curriculum and experimental
teaching methodologies; therefore, GAFA is more suitable than other art universities in China
should a new pedagogical approach be implemented. GAFA has 11 major departments and programs. Within them, there are four programs that I
am choosing to study because I am seeking to design a critique method for fine art and creative
classes. These four programs are the only ones in GAFA that have fine art classes and creative
classes:• School of Chinese Painting
• School of Oil Painting and Printmaking
• School of Sculpture
• School of Cross-Media Art
Population and Sample
I distributed a survey and interview invitations to undergraduate students in the Chinese
Painting program, the Oil Painting and Printmaking program, the Sculpture program, and the
Cross-Media Art program. More than 1500 students are enrolled in these four programs. I am
focusing on students in these four programs for my interview pool because they host
contemporary artwork creation class sections. In their curriculum, at least one-fourth of the
academic year includes short-term courses that require students to create their own artwork. Since I am seeking to design studio critique methods for contemporary fine art and artwork
creation classes only, it is more suitable to design survey questions and conduct interviews with
students from these four programs. In the interview, I asked questions about the participants' past
experiences in the classroom, drew on their perceptions and suggestions for the discussion-based

38
teaching structure in a fine art classroom, and designed a studio critique method that is suitable
for them. Table 3
Proportional Stratified Sampling Strategy Analysis for the Survey
Chinese
Painting
Oil Painting
and
Printmaking
Sculpture Cross
Media Art
Total
population of
4 programs
Population
Total number of the
students
316 740 295 268 1619
Expected number of
survey responses at a
10% return rate for
each school and art
program
32 74 30 27 163
Recruitment for the Survey
In the survey recruiting process, I sent out invitations as well as a link to the survey to the
students’ Wechat groups from those schools. Wechat is the social media networking software
that is widely used in China. Each school and grade has its own Wechat group. I did not know
who has clicked the link from the message sent to the Wechat group, so the identity of the
participants is protected. I only knew the demographic information that participants put in the
survey. Every program has its own curriculum structure, and I knew that not every student had

39
answered the survey. Therefore, as shown in Table 1, I accepted all completed survey responses
and recorded the number of the responses from each program and their demographic information. However, I only chose a certain number from each program to interview to create a stratified
sample. Recruitment for the Interview
The survey I administered included a question asking if they would be willing to participate
in an interview. When the participants replied yes, they could choose to share contact info with
me, then I followed up with them separately to schedule the interview. The characteristics that
they provided in the survey—gender, program and degree that they are in—were used to
purposefully sample interviewees. Data Collection and Instrumentation
I utilized a mixed-methods approach by integrating both quantitative and qualitative
methods to develop findings and solutions (Merriam, 2016), then drew interpretations based on
the combined strengths of both sets of data to answer the research questions (Creswell, 2007). The method implemented for this study were captured by both sending electronic surveys
through Wechat and conducting interviews with participants via online meeting software. Because the participants are college students, they are relatively young adults. An online meeting
can reduce the tension of interviewees and increase the authenticity of their answers. Interviews
were not limited by geography and distance, which reduced the possibility of interviewees not
being able to participate. I sent a link that connected to the recruitment page to the Wechat group
of those four programs. The page included a brief introduction of the researcher and an overview
of the study. The link to the survey was sent with the information sheet. The approach for data
collection was explanatory sequential. The survey collected demographic information regarding

40
each participant’s program, number of years in the art school, and also pertinent questions about
the experiences of art students when they were studying in the art universities. Survey
I designed a 12-item survey electronically with Qualtrics, a web-based survey system. A
combination of open-ended, Likert-scale, and forced-choice response questions was used. It can
be sent through Wechat page, based on the fact that Chinese students are more accustomed to
using Wechat. I translated the questions into the Chinese language so that Chinese students
would have a better understanding of the questions. Questions numbers 1-3 were demographic
questions. Questions 4 to 11 were set up to collect data. The last question, Question 12, was used
to screen those who are willing to participate in the later interview stage. One of the reasons I
want to use a survey was to clarify some primary data about the target group of interviewees, such as how much freedom they feel they had from the professor in the art-creation class, as
shown in Question Number 6 of the Interview Protocol (Appendix C), and how often they
communicate with their peers or instructors about their work, as shown in questions number 7
and 8 of the Protocol. I believe these data have provided me with more authentic opinions on the
classroom and teaching methods from the students themselves, including the teaching methods
being adopted and the students' own experiences. These data also helped with the interviews. Because of their prior participation in the survey, participants were more likely to join the
interview later. Some of the survey questions also helped me screen out students. For example, I only
wanted to interview students within those four schools. Once responses to the surveys were
completed, I reviewed the survey responses to identify those who met the inclusion criteria.

41
Those participants who were willing to join the interview and met the inclusion criteria were
notified. Interview
In order to have a deeper understanding of the student’s experience and the relationship
between themselves and their peers or their professor, the interview allowed for insightful one- on-one conversational information regarding how the student participants would view, feel, and
think about the specific subject, occurrence, or situation (Patton, 1990). A one-time semi- structured interview was scheduled for each participant using the web-based online video
platform, Zoom. I inviteed a total of 12 students to participate in the interview session. Participants did not have to answer all questions. Interviews were taken place in a quiet and
private setting. Before each interview, I asked the participant’s permission to record the
interview. The interview protocol was translated into Mandarin so that the Chinese students had a
better understanding of the content of the questions. The interview protocol was no more than 10
questions, and the semi-structured interview format offered more flexibility and allowed the
researcher to rearrange or rephrase questions and adjust probing questions (Appendix B). Personal interviewing can provide information about the subject, feelings toward a particular
situation, and insight into participants’ viewpoints (Patton, 1990). All interviews were recorded
by audio and video to capture the participants’ true essence of all responses. Detailed notes were
taken during the interviews. Neither name nor other identifying information was associated with
the audio or video recording of the interviews or the transcript in any way. Only the researcher
was able to listen to the recordings. The recordings were erased once the transcriptions were
checked for accuracy. Transcripts of the interview were reproduced in whole or in part for use in

42
written products that resulted from this study. Names and identifying information were not used
in presentations or written products resulting from the study. All data were secured and password
protected. Protection and confidentiality of personal information are important to prevent the
potential for unfair treatment of students by the schools. Data Analysis
Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted once all survey results were submitted. The
analysis results provided me with information about the respondents' experiences and feelings
during school classes. This information provided background information for the interview and
improved the interview content. For example, frequencies were calculated for survey responses. I
also calculated averages and note ranges of responses in some of the key questions where I could
not define students’ reactions towards the means of giving class and its quality. For the interviews, I began the process of data analysis during the data collection phase. I
wrote analytic memos after each interview. I documented my thoughts, concerns, and
preliminary conclusions regarding data related to my conceptual framework and research
questions. Once I left the field, interviews were transcribed and coded. In the first phase of analysis, I
used open coding, looking for empirical codes and applying a priori codes from the conceptual
framework. A second phase of analysis was conducted where empirical and prior codes were
aggregated into analytic/axial codes. In the third phase of data analysis, I identified pattern codes
and themes that emerged in relation to the conceptual framework and study questions. Credibility and Trustworthiness
In qualitative research, credibility and trustworthiness are essential. Trustworthiness is
thought of as the degree to which your data collection, analysis, and presentation of findings are

43
presented in a thorough and verifiable manner (Lochmiller & Lester, 2017). Strategies for
establishing trustworthiness include but are not limited to audit trails, engaged time in the field, member checking, peer debriefing, and triangulation. I kept a detailed record of field notes, documents, and interview transcripts that were gathered, collected, and analyzed. The
included/captured emails, invitation letters, demographic surveys, consent forms, and
audio/video transcriptions were kept on a secured computer. Participant names were removed
from documents to adhere to USC IRB requirements, and a pseudonym or identifier was
assigned to each participant to protect confidentiality (Creswell, 2018). Data triangulation of the
surveys, interviews, and mixed-methods document analysis were used. I reviewed all data, made
sense of it, organized it into codes and themes, and reorganized the data sources. Member
checking was achieved by allowing participants the option to review their transcribed interviews
for accuracy and to ensure information was not misinterpreted. I used different words for my
interpretation and then took the preliminary analysis back to some of the participants and asked
whether my interpretation has reflected their true thoughts. I also asked a colleague to scan some
of the raw data and assess whether the findings were plausible based on the data (Merriam, 2016). Furthermore, each interview lasted at least 45 minutes, and I continued to conduct interviews
until the saturation of themes was apparent to ensure sufficient time and effort were spent in the
data collection process. Validity and Reliability
Examining the validity of a study’s findings is a vital part of the data analysis process
because validity supports the trustworthiness of the findings. In this quantitative research, two
threats to validity exist: researcher bias and reactivity (Maxwell, 2019; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The task is not to remove researcher bias but to understand the researcher’s bias and how their

44
knowledge, beliefs, and perceptions may influence the research process and the interpretation of
the data. In the same way, reactivity, which is how the researcher influences the environment and
the participants, is also to be understood and used appropriately. It is the responsibility of the
researcher to intentionally seek to understand their bias and how the participants in the study
might react to the researcher in the research process. Ethics
Interviews were conducted with the participant’s consent. Participation was voluntary, and
they could withdraw from the study at any time (Glesne, 2016). The interview was recorded
through use of an audio recording device and notes. During the interview session, questions were
distributed without any assumption to any specific participants. They could answer freely and in
whichever way they wish to. All respondents in the study had their identities concealed in the
analytical phase. No personal information was shared with any third party. Participants could
withdraw their answers anytime without penalties. Because my research involved students' critical feedback on their professors and the school, if they raised any dissatisfaction with
teachers or the school in the survey or interview, it would not result in them being threatened and
persecuted in their future learning and professional career. I know that research is often done by people in relative positions of power in the guise of
reform. And interviewing as exploitation is a serious concern (Seidman, 2006). I gave a full
description of the process that would be taken place before the actual interview starts. And had
the participants fully understand that this experiment is for the sake of creating a student- centered discussion-based studio class critique structure for Chinese students, with the
presentation of my doctoral dissertation from the Global EdD program at USC. No commercial
outcomes and goals were involved, this was purely academic research. I had let them know that

45
their identity would not be shared with a third party and that their comments or feedback were
protected and would not bring consequences. Because I was educated in this same system, I want
to make a difference to the bigger picture in arts education in China. Limitations and Delimitations
One of the limitations of this study was that I had worked for the university where the study
took place and had professional relationships with some of the participants. Researcher bias and
participant reactivity were potential factors (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Therefore, I had framed
questions that were open-ended to prevent the participant from simply agreeing or disagreeing, and guided them to provide a truthful and honest answer. If the answers did not sound accurate, I
would ask the question in different ways, and phrased the questions in a manner that allowed the
participant to feel accepted no matter what the answer is. This study took place in a single region
of China, therefore the findings may have limited application to art universities in other regions
or parts of the country due to diverse cultural, social, and political climates. There were three delimitations of this study that needed to be identified. First, the study only
focused on students from professional art universities that were from Tier 1 of the recruitment
process in the arts Gaokao of China, and not students from Tier 2, which are comprehensive
universities. The decision to focus on professional art universities was based on the research that
shows these universities are more likely than comprehensive universities to have specifically
designed programs intended to support fine art students (Chumley, 2016). Second, this study was
focused only on fine art students and not students from other disciplines such as design or film. The reason for this distinction was that fine art curricula and other disciplines in art schools are
different in terms of skill requirements and forms of work (Archer, 1979). Third, this study used
a pre-survey to determine a purposeful sample of participants to interview individually (Merriam

46
& Tisdell, 2016) but did not use focus groups to gather data. The intention of this method was to
obtain data from personal experience and not what might be collected from a group process that
could be influenced by the reactions and responses of others. Role of Researcher
In qualitative research, ultimately it is the researcher’s credibility, ability, “training, experience, and intellectual rigor” that influence the validity of the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As the researcher, I hold a worldview that has shaped my life through various experiences
that may lead to unconscious bias. Life-shaping experiences have directly influenced my
thoughts, views, and responses. As a person who has been studying in the United States for a
total of four years and has personally experienced a completely different and more open
classroom review and critique system compared to the one in China, I may have brought the
subjective idea into my interview and research work, and the belief that approaches I have
experienced in the United States were a better and more useful teaching method. At the same
time, American society is generally more free, and focuses more on the characteristics of
individual wishes and ideas, which may also have given the researcher the illusion that this is a
more correct way of thinking in life. The community and cultural impact that has shaped me, and
the educational experiences from undergraduate to doctoral work to my employment, all have
shaped my worldview. Deciding how to conduct research comes from the ‘intersection of
philosophy, research designs, and specific methods’ (Creswell, 2018). The researcher’s
philosophy or worldview was important to understand to gauge its influence on how the study
was designed and the methods that were used to conduct the research; all three components were
aligned. As a student who has been through the education system, I studied under a curriculum
that did not encourage creativity and criticism. I have accumulated and planned ideas for

47
organizing such research work for many years. I would like to see changes in education that have
shaped my experience, and that emotion is strong. This continuum has affected my thought
process and perspective even as it related to my research. I gave respondents the freedom to
provide their answers, and I limited my influence. In order to avoid unnecessary hints, I did not
provide facial expressions or gestures during online meetings. My questions were also asked in
an open format to avoid bias.

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Chapter Four: Findings
The purpose of this study is to design a discussion-based student-centered studio critique
approach for fine art students in art universities in China. In recent years, the teaching methods
and quality of fine art majors have been widely criticized in art colleges in China. It is
particularly important to rethink how to enhance the attractiveness of fine art creative courses to
students and their satisfaction with the classroom. After the completion of this study, I will
design a manual for conducting the studio critique based on the research results. Twelve one-on-one, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students studying in
fine art majors in one of the art universities in China. This chapter will provide an overview of
the study participants, followed by key findings in the data. Overview of Study Participants
This study focused on programs at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA). GAFA is
the only major art university located in the southern region of China and is known among
students for its openness towards innovative curriculum and experimental teaching
methodologies. Therefore, GAFA is more suitable than other art universities in China should a
new pedagogical approach be implemented. I only chose the four programs that have fine art
classes and creative classes to study because I am seeking to design a critique method for fine art
and creative classes. These programs are School of Chinese Painting, School of Oil Painting and
Printmaking, School of Sculpture, School of Cross-Media Art. I distributed a survey and interview invitations to the 1500 students who are currently
studying in these programs. I asked questions about the participants' past experiences in the
classroom, draw on their perceptions and suggestions for the discussion-based teaching structure
in a fine art classroom. Sixty-six survey responses were received, and 12 interviews were

49
conducted. Figure 1 summarizes demographic information about the students who completed the
survey. Of the students who completed the survey, well over 56% were from the School of Oil
Painting, and over 40% were from the School of Sculpture. Figure 2
Distribution of majors among students participating in the survey
Table 4 summarizes information about student participants. Of the students who completed the
survey, six out of 12 were from the School of Sculpture, and four out of 12 were from the School
of Oil Painting. Table 4
Information about the interview participants
Student# Gender Program Grade
1 M Painting 4
2 F Sculpture 3
3 M Sculpture 4
4 F Sculpture 4
5 F Sculpture 5
6 F Printmaking 2
7 M Painting 3
8 F Printmaking 3
9 F Sculpture 4
10 M Sculpture 2
11 F Painting 4
12 M Painting 4

50
Presentation of Findings
Research Question 1: How can a student-centered discussion-based critique method be
implemented in fine art classes in Chinese universities?
The first research question seeks to understand the methods that would be needed to
implement a student-centered, discussion-based critique process in fine art classes in Chinese
universities. Questions such as, “ How do you describe the policies and procedures of how a
student work is discussed in a studio-based creative class (Chuang zuo ke) you have experienced, where you were to generalize your own theme and topic in artwork?” and “How would you
describe your experience with the studio course professor and your relationship with your
classmates?” were used to gather responses. Three key findings emerged through data analysis. 1. Fine art students have more freedom in creation and topic selection in the creative class, but the evaluation and review mechanisms for student work made in class were chaotic and
inconsistent. 2. Although feedback from classmates about their work is relatively singular and superficial, at least this feedback is more substantive than feedback from teachers. At the same time, students
lack feedback from students in other majors and professionals in the art field. 3. The university and the department provide very little guidance for the development and
career of students after graduation, and the course teachers have little understanding of students’
future plans and goals. The discussions below contextualize the findings, described the lived experiences
encountered by participants in a studio-based creative class (Chuang zuo ke), and describe their
initial practices, perceived gains, and confusion in their art studying journeys.

51
Finding 1: More Freedom but Less Organized
Fine art students in this study reported that they have gained more freedom in creation and
topic selection in the creative class, but different teachers in different course titles have different
evaluation and review mechanisms for their work that were made during the class, resulting in
chaotic and inconsistent standards. Even some teachers lack a systematic methodology for
critiquing and evaluating student work. In the survey, students were asked the question: “In the current curriculum that you are
taking, how often are you able to create your own unique artwork with your own theme and topic
in a creative class (Chuang zuo ke)?” The answer, “Frequently, in about 70% of the chances
when I could have,” was the top choice for 28% of the participants Among the 12 students I
interviewed, 10 of them also stated that in the creative class, the teacher gave them enough
freedom and did not forcefully change or hinder their creative themes. As described by Student
#1 from the Oil Painting Department, “Our studio's courses do not limit you to specific topics to
explore.” As one of the students in the fourth year graduating class of the second studio course
for oil painting (focusing on conceptual painting work), he further elaborated his experience in
the second studio:
In this process, I think our creation is very free and relaxed. Because in this teaching mode, my identity as the creator is fully respected, while also having greater limits and freedom to
create what I want to create. However, when further probed about the actual policies and procedures for teaching the
creative class, it was revealed by the students in the interview that there are some issues with the
scheduling of creative classes and the standards for reviewing work. For example, Student #4
stated that her current contemporary direction studio in the Sculpture Department only arranged

52
conceptual creative courses for them in the third and fourth years, resulting in many students' work being scattered, not forming a series, and lacking continuity in learning. “There are many
things that we actually come into contact with in our senior year, including some contemporary
theoretical knowledge. I think they should be featured in our class content in our first and second
years,” she said. More importantly, in the freshman and sophomore years, without any
arrangement for students to read and learn about concepts and contemporary art, suddenly giving
students a lot of creative freedom in the third and fourth years let to students being unclear about
what and how to create. Being a student studying in the printmaking major, Student #6 said “I
feel like I don't know what I want to express during the creative process.” Each course had steps
for evaluating and reviewing work at the end of the course, but both Student #4 and Student #6
agree that their creative classes were very chaotic in this regard. “The biggest difference in this
course from the past is that we need to integrate and express many of our own ideas, but the
teacher did not define or specify what is good, what is correct.” Finding 2: Superficial Feedback on Work
Students interviewed reported that feedback from classmates about their work was relatively
singular and superficial. At the same time, students lacked feedback from students in other
majors about their work, and they also lack feedback from professionals in the art field outside of
school about their work. All 12 interviewees stated that their creative work received feedback from their classmates
and teachers. Among them, nine interviewees stated that feedback from classmates was too
simplistic, some of them were just basic compliments that lack improvement suggestions. “If a
classmate has a work I made that they like, they will come over and say they like your work, but
I can't hear that kind of critical evaluation,” said Student #2. Student #4 also agreed on this kind

53
of relationship with the classmates:
I don't have much communication with some of my classmates, and some who have good
relationships tend to communicate more. However, there doesn't seem to be that kind of
particularly hot creative communication either. Maybe just a few words of praise or chat
will be enough. Everyone does their own thing every day, as if everyone is like this. Among the 12 respondents, only four participants mentioned that they had communication
about creative work with students from other majors, of which two were with students majoring
in art history, and the content of these exchanges was related to criticism about their artwork. None of the participants claimed that their work had been seen by people outside of school, except for their parents, but all interviewees said their parents were not able to provide
professional opinions and feedback. However, this did not mean that students did not want to
receive comments from experts outside the university. In the survey responses, when students
were asked who else besides their classmates and teachers they would like to receive feedback
from on their work, they named gallerists, museum directors, art historians, and teachers or
classmates from other schools. These options were chosen by more than half of the survey
participants (Table 3). Students also filled in the "other" space provided in the question: young
artists, non-art professionals, publishing institutions, commercial institutions, and the general
public.

54
Table 5
Response to survey question on feedback sources
Finding 3: Lack of Guidance for the Future
Although there is no information from the survey to illustrate this issue, data from the
interview showed that the university and the department provide very little guidance for the
development and career of students after graduation, and the course teachers have little
understanding of students’ future plans and goals either. When asked about the current
difficulties in school learning, all interviewed students expressed concerns about their
employment and career development after graduation. Eight of them expressed their clear career
choices after graduation, but they all stated that their teachers and school did not help them
dispel these doubts, nor did they provide effective assistance. Student #2 expressed very directly
in the interview:
If I want to become a professional artist, it feels difficult because at least during my three
years of study, I have not received any guidance from teachers or schools on how to become
a professional artist, including how to enter galleries, the art market, and the museums. Moreover, among these 12 respondents, eight indicated that their instructors were not clear

55
about their future development goals and aspirations. “The teachers in charge of the course, I
should say that they have no understanding of my interest in this major. They only demand you
to focus on completing the coursework requirements and ultimately ensure that you can
graduate,” Student #9 indicated. But students #4 and #5 both pointed out some of the reasons they think that are behind this. “Some teachers themselves may not have a lot of insights in this topic.” Student #4 believed that
this is a generational issue. The teachers are from a different generation, and they did not think
about career choices and options when they were students. Student #4 also believed that the
teachers seemed to have no time to consider content beyond their teaching work due to work
pressure and school arrangements. Student #5 was one of the four interviewees who stated that
their teacher was clear about the student’s career plans and goals, but Student #5 also explained
why she felt other students think that the teacher did not provide good help in this regard. The teacher didn't take the initiative to talk to me, but if I go to talk to the teacher, the
teacher will guide me, such as what profession I want to pursue. He will tell me that I can
do this and that, but he won't take the initiative to come to me. Yes, I will still have to take
the initiative to find the teacher. Summary of Findings for Research Question 1
In summary, all three findings reflect the shortcomings of the creative classes in Chinese art
universities. Starting from the relationships between different stakeholders (among classmates, between students and teachers, between students and professional colleges, between students and
schools, and between students and art market). A large amount and different variety of
communication and content exchange needs to be carried out for the students to supplement their
learning goals and desires in studying fine art if the critique method is to be implemented well in

56
Chinese art universities. Research Question 2: What are Chinese students’ perceptions of the student-centered
discussion-based critique method in fine art classes?
From the interview, the discussion-based teaching methods that students have already
experienced in creative classes in the field of fine art also reflect a number of issues and concerns. These problems focused on two dimensions in a discussion-based critique method: what to say
and how to say it. Data from the surveys and interviews found that the root causes of these issues
not only lie in the curriculum design of the specific department, but also have deeper cultural
reasons. Therefore, there are two main findings as follows. 1. The students agreed that they lack knowledge of contemporary art theory and art criticism
as a foundation to support their critique of their own and other classmates' work. 2. The traditional Chinese personality being relatively humble and introverted, which avoids
conflicts and critical opinions, resulting in sharing not being able to truly express the other
person's criticism. Finding 1: Theoretical Knowledge is Needed
The students agreed that they lack knowledge of contemporary art theory and art criticism
as a foundation to support their critique of their own and other classmates' work. As shown in Finding 2 of Research Question 1, nine out of 12 respondents believed that
comments from classmates on their work were shallow and singular even though the rest of the
students also found it difficult to present their genuine criticism in front of many classmates. When discussing their work one-on-one with their best friends, although sincerity was no longer
a problem, another problem arose. For example, during the process of discussing artwork with
his roommate, Student 10 discovered that a lack of sufficient relevant knowledge reserves was

57
one of the important reasons why the discussion of artwork could not proceed healthily. He said
“Because everyone's knowledge reserve is not high enough, there will be an embarrassing
situation where you cannot persuade me, and I cannot persuade you either.” Student #6 is one of
the only two interviewees who had discussed work with student from the art history department, but he also indicated that this issue is more apparent in the situations he has encountered. He said, There is a common problem, when I was talking to my art history classmates about these
things, comparing to them. Us fine art students are not very familiar with some of the art
history knowledge and artists he mentioned because we do not have enough knowledge in
the subject matter. Table 6 shows all the skills and knowledge students said was needed in order for them to
effectively participate in the critique. Table 6
Responses to a survey question on skills and knowledge needed
From the answers to this survey question, creative thinking, critical thinking, and
communication skills are what students believe they lack the most. The interview offered

58
additional insight: participants said that there are two reasons why they lack creative thinking, critical thinking, and communication skills. One is the absence of academic reading and writing
training courses in the curriculum system. Based on the descriptions of their course content and
plans from the students, the Sculpture Department has courses on Western and Chinese sculpture
history, but there are no courses such as exhibition prefaces, work descriptions, and artist
statements. Some studios in the Oil Painting Department have guidance on exhibition prefaces
and work descriptions, but they have not formed a teaching system. The Printmaking Department, on the other hand, has none of these courses or assistance as mentioned earlier. The other reason
is that some of the creative courses arranged by the school are more based on material
exploration rather than conceptual topics. Student #2 expressed her helplessness when facing a
creative class based on material development. She said, In one of the creative classes, the teacher first gives you a material for you to look at and
then come up with a plan. Sometimes, I have no interest in the material at all. I think it's
strange to first get some object and then come up with an idea. I am currently taking a
course on jade materials. I am holding that piece of jade and looking at it, I really have no
thoughts at all. Finding 2: The Influence of Traditional Culture
Although there is no information from the survey to illustrate such a problem, the interview
shows another influence factor. That is the traditional Chinese personality being relatively
humble and introverted, which avoids conflicts and critical opinions, resulting in sharing not
being able to truly express the other person's criticism. Another piece of information obtained from the interview was that four students mentioned
that Chinese traditional culture and their childhood education have cultivated a humble and

59
harmonious mindset when communicating with their classmates, which is also one of the reasons
that hinders them from receiving genuine feedback from their classmates. Student #5 said, Generally speaking, there is more praise than advice, and this kind of language tends to be
more than genuine advice from the heart. I think this may be because Chinese culture is
more humble. I won't sharply say that your thing is not good, I don't accept it, I don't
understand it, this thing is not good, etc. There won't be such sharp remarks, but more
praise, just saying that your work is nice and powerful. When being asked about why it was difficult to share or receive feedback on her artwork, Student #5 expressed that different people have different mindsets and personalities. Even
though it was not difficult for her to speak up her true thoughts, she said “After all, I am an
outgoing class monitor, so I have good relationships with my classmates.” But she also realized
she needs to be careful about who she is sharing to and watches her language. Summary of Findings for Research Question 2
In summary, these two findings once again are demonstrating that each different department
needs to incorporate professional writing courses and art criticism content into their own
curriculum and design a systematic framework to guide students in interpreting and criticizing
artwork from their own and the others. Conclusion
Based on the five findings stemming from the surveys and the interviews, the discussion- based critique method is actually very limited in the implementation of creative courses in fine
art majors in Chinese art colleges, and the quality is also less than satisfactory. From the ignoring
of participation in different stakeholders involved in critique to the unsuitable arrangement of
time and quantity in creative classes themselves, from the lack of theoretical and methodological

60
support for critiquing work in creative classes to the neglect of the impact of ethnic cultural
characteristics on this issue, the creative classes of fine art majors in Chinese art colleges need
several steps of improvement from multiple aspects such as textbooks, curriculum outlines, and
teaching arrangements to effectively practice the student centered discussion-based critique
method.

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Chapter Five: Discussion and Recommendations for Practice
The purpose of this study was to design a discussion-based student-centered studio critique
approach for fine art students in art universities in China. To better understand this topic, two
research questions were asked: How can a student-centered discussion-based critique method be
implemented in fine art classes in Chinese universities? What are Chinese students’ perceptions
of the student-centered discussion-based critique method in fine art classes? To answer these
questions, this study included surveys and interviews looking at students' satisfaction with
creative courses, their views on the scope of abilities taught by the art school, and their
understanding of the expression of their artwork. Survey data from 66 participants and interview
data from 12 participants were collected and analyzed, which led to the five emergent findings
discussed in Chapter Four. This chapter will discuss these five emergent findings, followed by recommendations. A
summary of the study’s limitations and recommendations for future research will be presented to
conclude this chapter. Discussion of Findings
This section will discuss the findings of the study based on the two research questions. Research Question 1: How can a student-centered discussion-based critique method be
implemented in fine art classes in Chinese universities?
Data from this study suggests that what is needed to implement a student-centered, discussion-based critique process in fine art classes in Chinese universities is an increased
number of creative courses, which will expose students to contemporary art knowledge and art
criticism methods in the earlier stage of the university study, organize more academic exchange

62
exhibitions and seminars, invite students to participate in speeches, and organize more scholar
visits to the students’ studio. According to the feedback collected from the participants, overall, the fine art majors of
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts have made significant improvements in empowering students
with more initiative and self-awareness, so that students were encouraged to make artwork based
on their own ideas. In Chapter Two, I also discussed the issue of the number of courses and when
creative courses are offered in the program sequence in the fine art majors of Guangzhou
Academy of Fine Arts. This was also emphasized by the students in the interview. Although
students gained more freedom in creative courses, this course, which emphasizes creativity and
self-awareness, was arranged in the last one to two years of the entire university learning period. The number of the courses was very small, resulting in students finding that their learning time
and opportunities were running out when they truly encountered creativity and contemporary art. In this way, even if students have more self-awareness and original creativity, without the course
time to polish their artwork, which will lead to unsatisfactory work effects, the initiative of these
young artists will be undermined. This also confirms the point mentioned in Chapter Two that
China's art colleges still overly emphasize figurative portrait training. The goal was to train the
students to copy real life as accurately as possible, through the lens of a Chinese-developed style
from Soviet realism (Qin, B., 2020). In terms of student-to-student relationship, students already have some active connections
and communication with their classmates. However, there was still a significant gap in the
relationship between teachers and students, as well as between the department and students. Teachers and departments have not established close multichannel communication and
interaction with students than in the classroom, which is not beneficial for the students’ progress

63
in the curriculum and future career planning (Myers et al., 2014). In addition to important
communication between students and their peers and teachers, students also have a great need to
access resources in the field of contemporary art. Students believe that these resources will have
a beneficial impact on their future career development during their school studies. The
questionnaire survey reflects that students hope to communicate with working artists, gallery
owners and curators, art critics, and museum directors. They believe that these dialogues can
provide more accurate and practical guidance for future career development and planning. Social
cognitive theory suggests that learning occurs in a social environment where there is a dynamic
and interactive relationship between people, environment, and behavior (Bandura et al., 1977). If
art professionals have the opportunity to participate in discussions about their artwork, they can
provide students with more direct and genuine opinions from the employment environment and
the current art market. If art programs want to adopt a student-centered, discussion-based critique method to
improve students' innovation and competitiveness in future employment and development, the
traditional teaching philosophy based on realism and replication must be fundamentally changed
in China's art colleges. Increase the number of creative courses and expose students to
contemporary art knowledge and art criticism methods in advance within four years of university. Only in this way can students establish their own portfolio structure and career path earlier and
prepare for graduation and employment. At the same time, the college and its teachers need to
mobilize resources from other departments and other schools and the society as much as possible, organize a diverse classroom discussion atmosphere, organize more academic exchange
exhibitions and seminars, invite students to participate in speeches, and organize more scholar

64
visits to the students’ studio, so that professionals in the art field from society can enter the
classroom of the art college, so as not to waste their learning in the art college. Research Question 2: What are Chinese students’ perceptions of the student-centered
discussion-based critique method in fine art classes?
As explained in Chapter Two, Barrett (1988) pointed out that systematic approaches to art
criticism should serve as a basis for studio art professors concerning their practice when
conducting critiques in the studio. Data from interviews and surveys in this study have shown
that student participants who are currently studying fine arts identify their lack of knowledge in
art criticism and contemporary art theory, and urgently believe that they should supplement this
knowledge to effectively participate in a discussion-based artwork critique method. One of the issues reflected in the interview is that the art history theory courses implanted in
all fine art majors, as well as the art criticism or specific professional history courses designed by
each fine art major, are relatively chaotic. The division of labor between majors is not clear, and
the arrangement of history theory, art criticism, and academic writing courses for each major is
uneven and unbalanced. If students want to better express their work concepts and ideas within
their major, the course design of each fine art major needs to be combined with their own major, and also reference the theoretical and critical writing course design of their other fine art majors. At the same time, they need to cooperate with the course design of art history majors to identify
and fill in gaps, and organically cooperate with the different topics taught by these different
majors. Barrett (1988) has pointed out that systematic approaches to art criticism should serve as
a basis for studio art professors concerning their practice when conducting critiques in the studio. In Chapter Two, I discussed various approaches to art criticism, summarized by different art
historians and critics. Feldman (1970) identified four goals in learning art criticism: description,

65
analysis, interpretation, and judgment. Different judgment categories in art criticism include
formalism, expressivism, and instrumentalism (Blackmon, 2015). Smith (1973) described two
types of criticism: exploratory aesthetic criticism and argumentative aesthetic criticism. Lankford’s (1984) method has five steps: receptiveness, orienting, bracketing, interpretive
analysis, and synthesis. Chapman (1978) suggested deductive, inductive, and empathic
approaches to help children respond to art. Anderson (1988) emphasized critical thinking, incorporating skills like analysis, deductive reasoning, and interpretation. This knowledge should
be taught to students in the fine art creation course of Chinese art colleges, so that students can
have a method and purpose to perceive and comment on their own and their classmates' works. Although the data from this study and some literature discussed in Chapter Two suggest that
Chinese students may lack critical thinking and innovative consciousness compared to students
from other cultural backgrounds, Chinese culture encourages harmonious coexistence and does
not support opposing opinions (Atkinson, 1997). However, within the academic scope of the
school, through professional knowledge training and early guidance, students can separate pure
professional interpretation and academic criticism from personal emotions, and this should also
be consciously made by teachers in the classroom to make students are aware of the differences
and make similar distinctions. A good critique should be an objective evaluation of how a certain
element of the work has succeeded or failed, based on evidence, rather than purely emotional
criticism. Recommendations for Practice
In this section, I will introduce recommendations from several different dimensions such as
time arrangement, participants, and content to help students better enhance their creativity and
critical thinking, as well as the quality of their works and prepare for future career development.

66
These recommendations include course scheduling and sequencing, critique method within the
course, course content, and diversified teaching activities organized around the classroom. Recommendation 1: The Directors of Fine Art Programs Should Increase the Number of
Fine Art Creation Courses and Start Arranging These Courses Earlier During College
Years
In the fine art majors of Chinese art colleges, the existing number of creative courses is far
from enough, and they are all scheduled for the last one or two years. To improve this situation, it is necessary to first intervene in the creative course from the first year of college. This creative
course can involve three departments simultaneously: the basic training department, art history
department, and the specific major (such as sculpture or oil painting). The basic training
department is responsible for consolidating the basic figurative training in the first year of
college and adding training on concept conversion into visual symbols. The courses in the art
history department should include analysis of contemporary artists and works and the specific
major needs to be combined with specific professional directions to enable students to
understand the overall course development path over the four years in advance. In the freshman
creative course, it is necessary to help students establish their own contemporary art language
right at the beginning, to frame their short-term creative ideas for the next four years. At this
time, it is suitable to use some short-term small-scale project to train students' abstract
imagination thinking, pay attention to the initial drafting process of the project plan, and use
model simulation instead of landing experiments. Each project should complete a cycle within
two weeks, from opening the topic, writing the plan, creating the model, to commenting and
concluding the lesson. During the freshman to sophomore years, gradually expand the project

67
scale and try various methods of creative process such as group assignments and on-site
experiments to gradually cultivate students' creative habits and ways of thinking. This recommendation speaks directly to Finding #1 of Research Question #1 in Chapter
Four, in which participants stated that their current contemporary direction studio in the
department only arranged conceptual creative courses for them in the third and fourth years, resulting in many students' work being scattered, not forming a series, and lacking continuity in
learning. This recommendation aligns with research on developing university curriculum to foster
students' creativity and innovation. It suggests incorporating content and materials that help
students develop these skills within their programs and immersing them in activities that build
the necessary dispositions and components of creativity and innovation (Huang, 2014). Recommendation 2: The Directors of Fine Art Programs Should Incorporate
Contemporary Art Theory Writing Content, Speeches, and Presentation Training Into the
Existing Curriculum System for Fine Arts Majors
More academic writing content and presentation training need to be added to the existing art
history and theory courses of various fine art majors. The content that needs to be added from the
beginning of freshman year includes methods and approaches for art criticism and exposition, writing of artist's personal statements, museum research reports, artist analysis reports, contemporary artwork analysis reports, and writing of resumes. These mentioned reports play a
very important long-term role in the learning and improvement of artists and their long-term
career development. Therefore, there is a need for methodological support in the writing process. After the writing is completed, the teacher and all classmates could comment together as a

68
blueprint, and specific modifications and adjustments can be made according to different future
goals.In addition, it is necessary to gradually extend from training freshmen and sophomores to
comments on classmates' works in written form, and then gradually train them to directly express
comments on classmates' works verbally. In this process, teachers need to train and adjust the
logical thinking structure of students. In the third and fourth year of college, the process could
gradually extend from a mini critique of a single work that lasts half an hour to a long critique of
a work, or a group of works, for a major assignment in a fine art creation class. On the other hand, it is necessary to train students to showcase creative ideas and career
development plans in front of their class. When editing speeches and presenting the slideshows, students need to be able to review their work from the source of inspiration to the delivery of
concepts and visual elements, to the completion and even plans of a photo shoot. From a more
long-term perspective, they should be able to present all their past works and future creative
ideas and plans on paper and screen and explain them to classmates and teachers. This can also
exercise students' ability to review and summarize, as well as improve their grasp of the style and
tone of the work. They can explore and consolidate the thread throughout different work and
underlying conceptual clues that can run through their entire career in this process. This recommend speaks directly to Finding #1 of Research Question #2 in Chapter Four, in
which the participants said that they lack knowledge of contemporary art theory and art criticism
as a foundation to support their critique of their own and other classmates' work. This recommendation also aligns with published research about the importance of art
students to position themselves to understand and respond to their practice through writing. A
study by Lockheart (2018) emphasized that writing practice can bridge theoretical and contextual

69
thinking about art, design, craft, politics, culture and philosophy coming from the students. She
wrote:
Art educators should remove the separation between the complementary or contextual side
of the course and the studio or practicing element to co-develop critiques involving
observation and engagement with contemporary culture; to become better writers, thinkers
and readers; better communicators (Lockheart, 2018, p.171). Recommendation 3: The Directors of Fine Art Programs Should Implement a Discussion- Based Classroom Critique Teaching Method in the Creative Courses of Fine Arts Majors, With the Participation of Different Parties
This recommendation is focused on incorporating a student-centered critique approach into
the creative courses of fine art majors in Chinese art colleges. This may start with experimenting
with several different ways of critique within a course cycle. A process may include several steps. First, the author of the work remains silent, lets the classmates and teachers explore the work
together as they do not understand the author's purpose and explanation, and derive from a fresh
perspective. Then, in the middle section of the critique, the author themself will state the purpose
and meaning of their work, and then move on to the second half of the group critique. Based on
the reasoning and judgments already made in the first half, combined with the author's personal
statement, the second half will discuss whether the author's purpose has been achieved, whether
the effect has been successful, and from what perspective the judgments made by other
classmates in the first half can be combined with the author's purpose. Then perform new
reasoning and evaluation in the second half. Each professional department needs to invite students and teachers from other majors to
participate in critiques to avoid fixed audiences and opinion providers leading to convergence of

70
opinions. Inviting students from the Department of Art History and the curation major to
participate can provide more suggestions on historical theory and exhibition organizing for
students majoring in fine art, as well as specific works and artist cases for students majoring in
Art History and the curation major, so that they can learn from each other. In addition, these fine
art majors should also regularly invite students and teachers from other art schools to visit, participate in critique in the classroom, visit and exchange ideas while paying a studio visit. At
the same time, they should also invite currently working artists from outside the school, as well
as professionals from various art fields, to come to the school and interact with students, understand the difficulties and problems in the student creative process, and provide answers and
guidance. This recommendation speaks directly to Finding #2 of Research Question #1 in Chapter
Four, in which students reported they lack feedback from students in other majors about their
work, and they also lack feedback from professionals in the art field outside of school about their
work.This recommendation also aligns with published research about the power of feedback in art
classes. When used effectively, feedback promotes student ownership in art making by
encouraging students to inject originality, persist, and improve. Feedback can be used regularly
and constructively to help students understand alternative viewpoints and guide them to make
effective decisions with useful advice. Indeed, feedback is a persuasive tool to empower students
in their art-making journey (Low, 2015). Limitations and Delimitations of the Study
One of the limitations of this study is that I have worked for the university where the study
has taken place. Researcher bias and participant reactivity were potential factors (Merriam &

71
Tisdell, 2016). Therefore, I tried to frame the questions in a manner that was open-ended to
prevent the participant from simply agreeing or disagreeing and guided them to provide a truthful
and honest answer. When some of the answers did not sound accurate, I asked the question in
different ways, and phrased the questions in a manner that allowed the participant to feel
accepted no matter what the answer was. This study took place in Guangdong, a single region of
China, therefore the findings may have limited application to art universities in other regions or
parts of the country due to diverse cultural, social, and political climates. There are three delimitations in this study. First, this study only focused on students from
professional art universities that were from Tier 1 of the recruitment process in the arts Gaokao
of China, and not students from Tier 2, which are comprehensive universities. The decision to
focus on professional art universities was based on the research that shows these universities are
more likely than comprehensive universities to have specifically designed programs intended to
support fine art students (Chumley, 2016). Second, this study is only focusing on fine art
students and not students from other disciplines such as design or film. The reason for this
distinction is that fine art curricula and other disciplines in art schools are different in terms of
skill requirements and forms of work (Archer, 1979). Third, this study used a pre-survey to
determine a purposeful sample of participants to interview individually (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) but did not use focus groups to gather data. The intention of this method was to obtain data
from personal experience and not what might be collected from a group process that could be
influenced by the reactions and responses of others. Recommendations for Future Research
In order to increase the diversity and richness of stakeholder groups, future research might
include comparative studies among the other seven art academies, because the specific situation

72
of each fine art major varies. Moreover, the current study examines the internal environment of
fine art major in higher education. If possible, it would be ideal to further analyze and compare
art education and teaching methods in high school, middle school, and primary school, which
provides a comprehensive understanding and investigation of the development of art majors in
China from childhood to adulthood. However, because the education stage before the Gaokao
more comprehensively covers fields such as literature, mathematics, nature and science, in order
to conduct a more in-depth and comprehensive study of the innovation and critical thinking
abilities of Chinese students generally, it is necessary to conduct a study on the differential
impact of different subjects on the basic education in early ages of these students. Conclusion
This study focused on an art university in mainland China and adopted social cognitive
theory to examine how a student-centered, discussion-based critique method can be implemented
in the fine art creation class curriculum to prepare students for the future career with better
creativity and critical thinking ability. Students that are taking fine art courses, as the
stakeholders of this study, were surveyed and interviewed to collect data and further validate five
emergent themes in the area of subject, communication, and culture. Three recommendations
were proposed accordingly and followed by implementation plans. Undoubtedly, China has achieved remarkable results in economic development and
progress in the society, but the education in the fields of art and creativity in China is still clearly
insufficient to cultivate talents who meet the global competitiveness of the 21st century. These
abilities include innovation, critical thinking, eloquence, and teamwork. However, the lack of
these abilities seems to be rooted in deeper traditional Chinese culture and social ideology, so
these problems are ubiquitous in families, schools, and companies, yet difficult to solve.

73
Interviews with this new generation of young Chinese students born in 2000 or even 2005
reveal that they are more aware of these issues and actively seek solutions. Moreover, they have
a stronger global talent awareness, better English proficiency, broader thinking, and are able to
more easily navigate the cultures and ideas of other countries. I hope my research can provide
valuable ideas and references for the new generation of teachers and students in Chinese art
colleges, starting from a small step towards change.

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Appendix A
Information Sheet
My name is Shuai Fu, and I am a student at the University of Southern California. I am conducting a research study on art education in higher education in China. The name of this
research study is DEVELOPING GROUP CRITIQUE METHODS IN CONTEMPORARY
FINE ART COURSES AT CHINESE ART UNIVERSITIES. I am seeking your participation in
this study. Your participation is completely voluntary, and I will address your questions or concerns at any
point before or during the study. You may be eligible to participate in this study if you meet the following criteria:
1. You are a fine art student currently studying for bachelor degree in Guangzhou Academy of
Fine Arts, and you are studying in these four programs:
School of Chinese Painting
School of Oil Painting and Printmaking
School of Sculpture
School of Cross-Media Art
2. You are over 18 years old. If you decide to participate in this study, you will be asked to do the following activities:
1. Complete an online survey for 20 minutes
2. Participate in a 1:1 online interview over Zoom for 45-60 minutes

85
I will publish the results in my thesis. Participants will not be identified in the results. I will take
reasonable measures to protect the security of all your personal information. All data will be deidentified prior to any publication or presentations. I may share your data, de-identified with
other researchers in the future. If you have any questions about this study, please contact me at my email address:
shuaif@usc.edu or my phone number +86 18520108838. If you have any questions about your
rights as a research participant, please contact the University of Southern California Institutional
Review Board at (323) 442-0114 or email irb@usc.edu.

86
Appendix B
Interview Protocol
1. What year and program are you in currently?
2. What was your motivation when you decided to apply for this program?
a, What did you hope to gain from studying in this program?
b, How much influence did your family have on you in making this decision?
c, What other factors influenced your decision at the time?
3. Do you consider yourself successful in your program so far? Why or why not?
a, What was the biggest challenge that you have faced so far, if any?
b, What was the biggest fear that you have had since you started your studying in the
program, if any?
c, What was the biggest facilitator that you have obtained in the program?
d, What was some of the hopes that you have gained in the program?
4. During your study in the department, how well do you think your advisor and chair and
dean of the department knew you and your particular interests? Explain. a. Do you feel they were really concerned about you? Why or why not?
d. Did they talk about creative careers? Specifically, becoming an artist?

87
5. How do you describe the policies and procedures of how a student work is discussed in a
studio-based creative class (Chuang zuo ke) you have experienced, where you were to generalize
your own theme and topic in artwork?
a, Is there anything that you feel limits your creativity? Do you think the professors add
to/increase creativity?
b, Tell me how a student artwork is evaluated or graded? Is it based on technical merit? How is
creativity encouraged? How is creativity evaluated?
c, By the end of the class, what was the feedback that you received on your work (from anybody)?
6. How would you describe your experience with the studio course professor?
a, Is it a positive or negative experience? Describe how. 7. How would you describe your relationship with your classmates?
a, When it was about the artwork you or your classmate made during the class period, what was
the conversation like?
b, During the conversation, what were the difficulties for you to share or receive feedback. 8. Tell me about a time when you receive feedback or advice on your artwork from
someone other than your professor or your classmates. a, What do you think was different from the feedback you received from your professor or your
classmates?
b, Did you feel supported or encouraged by this person upon your pursue in the creative and
artistic career? How?

88
9. During your study in the art school, please describe to me a course you took that is
somewhat about professional or academic writing. a, What content in the class did you think was helpful for your creative and artistic career?
b, What aspects of that class did you think was not helpful for your creative and artistic career?
10. What do you want to achieve as an art student, both during your study in the school and
also after graduate?
a, What are the things that you wish to learn in the process of learning art, and why?

89
Appendix C
Survey Items
1.Are you currently studying in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts?
Yes. No – thank you for your time on this survey. 2.What major are you studying in?
School of Chinese Painting
School of Oil Painting and Printmaking
School of Sculpture
School of Cross-Media Art
None of the above – thank you for your time on this survey. 3.What degree are you currently studying for?
Bachelor Degree
Other – thank you for your time on this survey. 4.In the current curriculum that you are taking, how often are you able to create your own unique
artwork with your own theme and topic in a creative class (Chuang zuo ke)?
Never
Rarely, in less than 10% of the assignments in a creative class
Occasionally, in about 30% of the assignments in a creative class

90
Sometimes, in about 50% of the chances when I could have
Frequently, in about 70% of the chances when I could have
Usually, in about 90% of the chances I could have
All the time
5.In those courses, how much creative freedom do you have?
Degrees of creative freedom
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
None Some A lot of Freedom
6. How often did you approach to your art professors and communicate about your work during
the time when you were taking their classes?
Never
Rarely
A moderate amount
Always
7. How often do you talk to your classmates about your original artwork, in general?
Never
Rarely
Occasionally
A moderate amount
A great deal

91
8.Aside from classmates and faculty, would you like more feedback from other sources? If yes, please select all that apply. Professors from other institutions
Students from other institutions
Gallerist
Museum director
Art historian
Other, please indicate:
9. In your art learning experience, how often have you experienced group critique or any form of
class-based discussion about artwork created by one of the students? Critique is when all
students and the instructor can join the conversation to comment and give feedback on student
work. Never
Rarely
Occasionally
A moderate amount
A great deal
10.To what degree do you think a discussion-based class is important in helping you learn
contemporary art making?
Strongly disagree

92
Somewhat disagree
Neither agree or disagree
Somewhat agree
Strongly agree
11. In order to effectively participate in class-based discussion and critique, which skills would
you need to learn? Select all that apply. Technical skills and tool using
Art history knowledge
Art market experience
Communication skills
Contemporary theory
Critical thinking
Creative thinking
Other, please indicate:
None, I have all of these skills already
12. Would you be interested in participating in a 30-45 minute interview as part of my study on
developing group critique methods in contemporary fine art courses at Chinese art universitites?
Yes – thank you. Please provide your contact information here __________ No – thank you for your time on this survey.

93
Appendix D
Recruitment Letter
Dear Student
Hi, my name is Shuai Fu, and I’m currently a doctoral student at the University of Southern
California. My dissertation topic in the program is to research finding and design a suitable
critique method (a discussion-based class form) for contemporary art students in China. In order
to know more about what you think of the art learning experience that you had, I am asking you
to kindly complete the following questions, which can be found here. There are 12 questions and
this will take you no more than 15 minutes. The answers that you provided will not be shared with any third party. This questionnaire is only
for academic research purposes and will not be used for other purposes. The final dissertation
will not show your name or any other form of identification and contact information. Your
participation is entirely voluntary. If you wish to withdraw at any time, please give me notice and
you will not be penalized in any way. If you have any further questions about the survey or my topic. Please feel free to reply to this
email, or text me on my number 18520108838. (Same as wechat)
Thank you for making art education in China better. Shuai Fu

94
Doctoral Student
University of Southern California
If the hyperlink does not allow access, please use the link provided below
https://usc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7WIHUNUPh9qQ1vg

Abstract (if available)

Abstract In 2021, China commanded the second largest art market globally, second only to the US (McAndrew, 2022). The development of an art market has led to an increase in students in China and has driven their desire to enter art universities for further education. Under this premise, the limitations of art education for Chinese students are also more obvious. The higher education curriculum in China has become one of the main obstacles preventing Chinese undergraduate students from developing independent and critical thinking, particularly in the arts, humanities and social sciences (Zhang, T., 2017). The purpose of this research was to explore the potential for designing a discussion-based student-centered studio critique approach for fine art students in art universities in China. This mixed-method study focusing on students who are currently studying in Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, one of the leading art academies in China, found that there was an urgent need to design more open teaching models to cultivate students' innovative thinking in fine art classes in Chinese universities. Recommendations for practice include policy and management changes in course content and volume, teaching methods and stakeholders involvement.

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Creator Fu, Shuai (author)

Core Title Developing group critique methods in contemporary fine art courses at Chinese art universities

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Degree Conferral Date 2024-08

Publication Date 08/22/2024

Defense Date 07/16/2024

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag art,art class,Art Education,Chia,Chinese art education,Chinese art universities,contemporary art,creative thinking,critical thinking,critique,fine art,group critique,group critique method,OAI-PMH Harvest

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