The Effect of the Concept Ladder Strategy on Acquiring Aesthetic Concepts among Students of the Institute of Fine Arts in the Subject of Aesthetics

Abstract

The present research aims to identify the effect of the Concept Ladder Strategy on acquiring aesthetic concepts among students of the Institute of Fine Arts in the subject of Aesthetics. To verify the objective of the research, the researcher formulated the following hypothesis: There are no statistically significant differences at the level of (0.05) between the mean ranks of the students of the experimental group and the mean ranks of the students of the control group in the post-achievement test of the subject of Aesthetics.The researcher adopted the experimental design of two equivalent groups (experimental and control) with a pre-test and post-test. The research population consisted of fourth-grade students in the Institutes of Fine Arts in Baghdad / Al-Karkh. The research sample consisted of fourth-grade students at the Institute of Fine Arts for Boys in Al-Kadhimiya Al-Muqaddasa for morning study during the academic year (2025–2026). The sample included (32) students distributed into two groups: an experimental group of (16) students and a control group of (16) students.The researcher used an achievement test as the research instrument and applied a number of statistical methods to ensure the equivalence of the two research groups and to extract the psychometric properties of the test. The control group was taught using the traditional method, while the experimental group was taught according to the Concept Ladder Strategy during the experimental period, which lasted eight weeks of the first semester.After collecting the data, they were statistically analyzed using the Mann–Whitney test for two independent samples. The results showed the superiority of the students of the experimental group who studied according to the Concept Ladder Strategy over the students of the control group who studied using the traditional method in the achievement test. The researcher concluded that the Concept Ladder Strategy had an effect on acquiring aesthetic concepts and recommended benefiting from it in teaching the subject of Aesthetics and training teachers to use it in teaching due to its role in improving students’ learning and their clear understanding of aesthetic concepts.