Higher Education Students’ Stages of Aesthetic Development in Visual Text Interpretation

The present study identified the students' stages of aesthetic development such as accountive, constructive, classifying, interpretive, and co-creative in visual text interpretation using content analysis research design. Five teachers handling the GEC-5 Art Appreciation course and 25 students selected through purposive sampling were the study participants. The researcher collected written outputs of students' interpretations in their respective classes. Written outputs of visual text interpretation were coded and analyzed. Results revealed that almost all the participants belong to accountive stage where in readers view text literally. Significantly, this implies that teaching strategies have a big impact on how students interpret what they see, and that the stages of aesthetic development can only be reached if teachers have the knowledge and skills to teach visual literacy. Based on the findings, the study recommends the use of various visual materials not only as sources of information but also as sources of meaning-making. Teachers may match their beliefs and practices in assessing the viewing skills of students and undergo special training