The perfect marriage? – Language and art criticism in the Hong Kong public examination context

The perfect marriage? – Language and art criticism in the Hong Kong public examination context

• Lau, Chung Yim The Education University of Hong Kong
• Tam, Cheung On The Education University of Hong Kong

International Journal of Art and Design Education, 36(1), 61-70, 2017

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

2017

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GF Humanities & Arts
• L Educational Measurement & Evaluation
  • LE Public Examinations, Accreditation

Art Assessment Art Criticism Art Interpretation Language Public Examination

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

Art education in Hong Kong has undergone various changes in response to educational reform. In art assessment, a major change in the Hong Kong New Senior Secondary (NSS) Curriculum is the inclusion of art criticism as a compulsory component of the new public examination. Assessing students’ abilities to interpret art in an art criticism public examination context is a critical issue in Hong Kong because the new senior secondary curriculum and assessment has brought attention to the role of written language in the art examination paper. This means the examination assesses not only students’ abilities to interpret art, but also their language abilities required to respond to art in written form. Since this new mode of assessment of art criticism has been published a number of issues have appeared. Recent studies show that teachers and students perceive this development negatively and they believe that the written format will assess students’ written language abilities rather than their critical abilities. These findings challenge the justification of the new art assessment policy and raise questions about the role of written language in responding to art. This article aims to raise the issue of the marriage between language and art criticism in the Hong Kong public examination context. It argues and examines the relationship of language to art interpretation, reasoning in the assessment, and issues in the public art criticism examination context. The issues addressed in this article provide opportunities for researchers and policy makers to reconsider and refine the new form of examination.
[Copyright © 2017 The Author. Ijade © 2017 NSEAD/John Wiley & Sons Ltd.]

• English

Journal Articles

• 14768062

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/1624808d

2017-05-02