The purpose of this article is to reveal ways to provide the opportunity for students to have aesthetically engaged learning experiences. Using John Dewey's ideas from Art as Experience as a framework, the author uses aesthetic theory to show how such ends can be reached. In addition, he suggests six themes that teachers can draw upon to help students attain engaged learning experiences. The themes, which are elaborated upon fully in this article, include connections, active engagement, sensory experience, perceptivity, risk taking, and imagination. In addition to providing engaged learning, the upshot of providing aesthetic learning experiences is likely to include student satisfaction, an increase in perceptual knowledge, episodic memory retention, meaning making, and creativity and innovation.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Wiley and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Curriculum Inquiry. ABSTRACT Rudolf Steiner founded the first Waldorf school in Germany in 1919. Unique elements of Waldorf education include an arts-based curriculum in which students learn subject matter through a variety of forms of representation, a pedagogy designed to meet students' developmental growth, an administrative system in which teachers govern the school, an organization devoted to sustaining a sense of community, and an integrated conceptual approach to education generally-a place where the cosmic and the mundane are intertwined.Rudolf Steiner's life and writings are the foundations on which Waldorf schools are built. Therefore, this article is devoted to an overview of his work, which should assist us in understanding what goes on in contemporary Waldorf schools. Also, because Waldorf schools in North America are based on the first Waldorf school, I have included an examination of elements of that school's educational program. However, I do not present a simple chronological account of Steiner's life or of the origins of Anthroposophy (an outgrowth of Theosophy and the term used to denote the path of spiritual development from which Waldorf education springs). Rather in the last section of this article, I focus on possible reasons why Anthroposophy has survived and continues to flourish many years after Steiner's death.The first idea was to provide an education for children whose parents were working in the Waldorf-Astoria Factory, and as the Director was a member of the Anthroposophical Society, he asked me to arrange this education. .... And so, in the first place, the Waldorf School arose as a school for humanity as such, fashioned, it could in fact be said, out of the workingclass. ... Here then, we have an educational institution arising on a social basis, that seeks to found the whole spirit and method of its teaching upon Anthroposophy.' -Rudolf Steiner A Modern Art of Education Because Rudolf Steiner's life and writings are the foundation on which Waldorf schools are built, this essay is devoted to an overview of Steiner's work, which should assist us in understanding what occurs (or perhaps what should occur) in contemporary Waldorf schools. Rudolf Steiner ? 1995 by The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Curriculum Inquiry 25:4 (1995) Published by Blackwell Publishers, (1861-1925) is not widely known among American educators. Perhaps this is because his ideas do not fit neatly into any one sphere of knowledge.He was neither full-time educator, nor philosopher, nor artist, nor critic. In addition, his...

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Background/Context Lesson planning is one of the most common activities required of teachers; however, since the late 1970s and early 1980s, it has not been a major focus of study, either conceptually or empirically. Although there are recent articles on the topic, much of the current work is specific to examining a particular teaching method or subject area. This essay not only examines the lesson planning process, a neglected area of study, but also puts forward a perceptual or arts-based approach to lesson planning that has not been attended to since Elliot Eisner's essays on objectives. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purposes of this conceptual paper are is to provide theoretical grounding for perceptual lesson planning; to analytically examine the two current, dominant approaches to creating lesson plans; and to put forward ideas that undergird a fresh approach to creating and analyzing lesson planning. Research Design This study consists of a major literature review and a related conceptual argument. We also present qualitative data (a lesson plan with attendant interview material) and preliminary findings from an ongoing study. Analytic Framework We use an original analytic framework to discuss the two dominant approaches to lesson planning, the behaviorist and constructivist modes, and to compare them to the perceptual mode. Our analytical categories consist of the following: intentions, process, product, and outcomes. By intentions we mean the aims, goals, or objectives of the lesson plan. The process refers to how the lesson plan is created and what that experience is like for the teacher. Product refers to the actual lessons that result from the planning. Outcomes refer to both the anticipated results of the lesson as well as the general kinds of student outcomes desired in the mode of lesson planning. Conclusions/Recommendations Perceptual lesson planning may be characterized as engaging teachers’ and students senses and creativity; as an artistic endeavor that is joyful in and of itself; as consisting of various stylized products; and leading toward meaningful learning for students and teachers in an environment open to elements of surprise and innovation. Lesson planning may be functional and meaningful to teachers and subsequently their students. Lesson planning could be something teachers enjoy, learn from, and appreciate. Thus, we note that focusing on the process of lesson planning is an important part of education that warrants much more attention.

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