Art education as a didactic strategy for meaningful learning in secondary school

José Altagracia Holguín-Cabrera
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José Altagracia Holguín-Cabrera: Universidad Católica Nordestana (UCNE)

Pedagogical Constellations, 2025, vol. 4, issue 2, 781-799

Abstract: This theoretical manuscript analyzes arts education as a didactic strategy to foster meaningful learning in secondary school, moving beyond its reduction to a supplementary or merely motivational activity. Based on a critical synthesis of recent literature, it argues that the arts can act as a pedagogical tool when designed with intentionality, sequence, and coherent assessment. Four explanatory mechanisms are proposed: (1) aesthetic experience that sustains attention and engagement; (2) the emotion-identity connection that enhances the personal meaning of the content; (3) multimodal representation that drives conceptual reorganization and the construction of meaning; and (4) critique, iteration, and reflection as metacognitive drivers for consolidating understanding and transfer. Risks and counterarguments are also discussed: empty aestheticization, talent-based assessment, exposure that increases anxiety, and the perpetuation of inequalities related to cultural capital or access to resources. As a contribution, the article establishes minimum implementation conditions—explicit objectives, conceptual scaffolding, teacher mediation, interpretive dialogue, and assessment based on criteria focused on understanding—and proposes a research agenda aimed at strengthening evidence, indicators, and comparable designs in diverse school contexts.

Keywords: Meaningful learning; didactics; arts education; metacognition; secondary education; socio-emotional development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cvp:pedagi:v:4:y:2025:i:2:id:148

DOI: 10.69821/constellations.v4i2.148

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