self-examination: A learning methodology, reexamined

This study extends and partially replicates an investigation by David W. Courtney, titled The Self-Examination: A Learning Methodology, conducted in 1974 with two groups of students enrolled in an interdisciplinary art course. The original study was adapted to an art appreciation course. The purpose of this study was to reexamine the efficacy of the self-examination (SE) to promote creative thinking and aesthetic perception as well as a favorable student attitude toward the course. The study was conducted with two groups of students enrolled in an art appreciation course at Palm Beach Community College North in the Fall semester of 1989. The experimental group wrote two SEs and the control group wrote one comparison paper and took a multiple-choice examination. Both groups also took multiple-choice quizzes and final examinations. Pretest-posttest analyses of the test for creativity and aesthetic perception, using t-tests, and of the course evaluation, using multivariate tests of significance, indicated no significant difference between the experimental and control groups.