Toward an Aspirational Learning Model Gleaned from Large-Scale Assessment

Abstract

The aspirational model resulted from the authors’ secondary analysis of the Mother/Child (M/C) test block from the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress restricted data that examined the responses of the national sample of 8th-grade students (n = 1648). This test block presented no artmaking task and consisted of the same 13 questions between 1997 and 2008. Constructs operating in M/C were identified as art knowledge, technical knowledge, aesthetic properties, and meaning. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used for data preparation, and linear structural relationships was used to conduct structural equation modeling analysis. Polychoric correlation matrix was employed to generate the model-fit statistics and path diagram with 13 variables and four constructs. Findings clarify an aspirational model, which moves from art knowledge to technical knowledge to aesthetic knowledge to meaning. Technical knowledge appears requisite to developing aesthetic understanding and meaning. Authors reason that an aspirational model like M/C might be used in curriculum planning and implementation.