Artistic Cognition in Secondary School Literature Lessons

The subject of Literature studies is connected with the specifics of literature as the art of words and the cognitive abilities of the particular age group. It is crucial that the cognitive process during Literature lessons has a personal significance for the pupils, therefore the teacher should engage in artistic cognition together with the pupils, taking up activities that aim to develop creativity and co-creation. Creative tasks in Literature lessons not only develop logic, rationality and analytical skills; creative tasks help to involve pupils in imaginative, emotional and reflective processes. Such activities cultivate critical thinking and associative skills, stimulate imagination and encourage self-discovery and self-expression. Concepts, opinions and conclusions are not the only cognitive forms – there are images (creative mental models) and thought experiments as well. Therefore, the process of studies can be both reproductive and productive; problem solution, analysis and synthesis using literary fiction and, interdisciplinary, other arts, is at the very heart of artistic cognition process as applied to Literature studies. Solution of unconventional tasks posed by fiction studies requires not only critical thinking, but also creativity and creation of new values. During Literature lessons, the teacher encourages the pupils to engage in artistic cognition correspondent to the needs and abilities of their age group, taking into account the importance of stimulating pupils’ aesthetic needs in a value-oriented learning process, development of pupils’ artistic perception and creative thinking, reproductive and productive imagination, cultivation of artistic empathy and compassion, development of artistic analysis skills, collaboration, encouragement of self-discovery and self-expression.