Abstract:

Extended Abstract The article investigates the potential of teaching art culture as an effective tool for developing critical thinking among secondary and high school students. It analyzes current approaches to fostering students’ critical thinking within the context of arts education. Particular attention is paid to methodological strategies that promote intellectual reflection, analytical thinking, and the ability to interpret cultural artifacts in a reasoned way.

The study examines the integration of open-ended tasks, interdisciplinary analysis of artistic phenomena, and the application of modern methods of visual literacy and critical pedagogy. The article presents practical examples of implementing such methods in school education, including project-based learning, interpretive debates, and case analysis. The outcomes of these approaches tested in real educational settings are highlighted. The conclusion is drawn that teaching art culture can be a powerful tool for developing students’ critical analysis skills, independent thinking, and value-based attitudes toward cultural diversity.

Artistic material becomes the basis for intellectual analysis that goes beyond art as such and concerns broader issues of culture, values, and worldview. The study of artistic culture is impossible without inter-era and intercultural comparisons. Students compare styles, eras, art schools, and national traditions. In the process of such comparison, the ability is formed: to identify common and distinctive features; to critically evaluate the evolution of artistic ideas; to understand the relativity of aesthetic norms and canons.

Artistic culture acts as a unique space for the development of critical thinking due to its interpretative nature. Unlike disciplines that are based mainly on rational thinking, art combines emotional, intuitive, and intellectual cognition. It is this synthesis that creates the conditions for the formation of flexible, multi-level analysis, the ability to ask questions, compare, and comprehend alternative points of view.

Keywords: critical thinking, art culture, art education, teaching methodology, art analysis.

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