A pilot study on enhancing creativity in teaching ceramics through tactile approach

Training students to perceive and understand form is an important part in the teaching of 3-dimensional art. However, according to psychologists and scholars’ study, it was found that when we look at objects in front of us, our perception and response to the visual images are influenced by factors such as the conditions for responding, the development of perceptual constancy and preconceptions about the objects. These factors will sometimes distract our observation of objects and might hinder our creativity in the art production process. In the teaching of 3-dimensional art, can our students “perceive: forms, understand and appreciate their structure without seeing them? How useful are our hands and fingers as receptive tools, and how accurate can we remember forms and structure after only touching them? The “blind touch” pilot study was conducted to a group of student teachers and some primary pupils at various levels to find out: (1) How much they could “perceive” in the dimensions and scale of the objects only through touching them; (2) to what extent were the characteristics and special features of the objects being noticed by the participants during the touching process; (3) how much of those characteristics noted could be expressed in clay and how the features were interpreted in this material; and lastly, (4) how this tactile approach has fostered students’ interests in studying forms and enhancing creativity in a ceramic lesson. The process and findings of the pilot study will be disseminated in a slide show. Copyright © 2000 香港教育學院.