{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,4]],"date-time":"2026-09-04T06:12:29Z","timestamp":1788502349192,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,4]],"date-time":"2026-09-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788480000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"\n Introduction<\/jats:title>\n Contextual and cultural influences play an important role in shaping young children\u2019s learning, meaning-making, and emotional engagement. In early childhood education, art appreciation provides a valuable context for examining how children perceive, interpret, and emotionally respond to culturally and pedagogically structured learning environments. However, empirical evidence remains limited regarding how culturally grounded contextual teaching approaches influence preschoolers\u2019 aesthetic experience. Drawing on situated learning theory and Li Jilin\u2019s situational teaching framework in China, this study examined the effects of a situational teaching intervention on preschoolers\u2019 aesthetic experience in art appreciation.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n A quasi-experimental pretest\u2013posttest control group design was adopted. Sixty preschool children from two intact classes in a public kindergarten in Beijing, China, participated in the study. One class was assigned to the experimental group, and the other served as the control group. Over an eight-week period, the experimental group participated in situational art appreciation activities organized around life-related scenarios, storytelling, role-play, multisensory exploration, and reflective dialogue, whereas the control group received conventional art appreciation instruction. Children\u2019s aesthetic experience was assessed across three dimensions: aesthetic perception, aesthetic understanding, and aesthetic emotion.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed Group \u00d7 Time interactions for visual perception and verbal expression,\n F<\/jats:italic>\n (1, 58)\u202f=\u202f8.12,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f=\u202f0.01,\n \u03b7p<\/jats:italic>\n 2<\/jats:sup>\n \u202f=\u202f0.12; aesthetic understanding,\n F<\/jats:italic>\n (1, 58)\u202f=\u202f9.32,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f&lt;\u202f0.001,\n \u03b7p<\/jats:italic>\n 2<\/jats:sup>\n \u202f=\u202f0.14; facial expression,\n F<\/jats:italic>\n (1, 58)\u202f=\u202f5.14,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f=\u202f0.03,\n \u03b7p<\/jats:italic>\n 2<\/jats:sup>\n \u202f=\u202f0.08; and preference explanation,\n F<\/jats:italic>\n (1, 58)\u202f=\u202f4.78,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f=\u202f0.03,\n \u03b7p<\/jats:italic>\n 2<\/jats:sup>\n \u202f=\u202f0.08. No significant Group \u00d7 Time interaction was found for viewing duration,\n F<\/jats:italic>\n (1, 58)\u202f=\u202f0.54,\n p<\/jats:italic>\n \u202f=\u202f0.46,\n \u03b7p<\/jats:italic>\n 2<\/jats:sup>\n \u202f=\u202f0.01. After Bonferroni correction, robust intervention effects remained for visual perception and verbal expression and aesthetic understanding, while effects on aesthetic emotion were suggestive and should be interpreted with caution.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Discussion<\/jats:title>\n The results suggest that culturally grounded situational teaching can support preschoolers\u2019 aesthetic-cognitive and socio-emotional engagement by embedding artworks within meaningful, interactive, and emotionally resonant learning contexts. This study provides educational psychological evidence for the role of contextualized teaching in promoting young children\u2019s perception, meaning-making, and emotional expression. It also extends research on contextual and cultural influences by showing how a Chinese situational teaching model may function as a developmentally appropriate contextual learning approach in early childhood art education.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1907627","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,4]],"date-time":"2026-09-04T05:28:45Z","timestamp":1788499725000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Contextual and cultural influences on preschoolers\u2019 aesthetic experience: evidence from a situational teaching intervention in China"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Fei","family":"Fang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiangyu","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lin","family":"Yan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Xiao Baihe Kindergarten","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jian","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Fine Arts, Capital Normal University","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hua","family":"Qin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Fine Arts, Nanjing Normal University","place":["Nanjing, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lijiao","family":"Du","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Fine Arts, Nanjing Normal University","place":["Nanjing, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qilong","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Education, United Arab Emirates University","place":["AI-Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1138420","DOI":"10.3389\/fnhum.2023.1138420","article-title":"The influence of sensorimotor experience on beauty evaluation of preschool children","volume":"17","author":"Ardizzi","year":"2023","journal-title":"Front. 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