Abstract

Environmental protection is now the common consensus in the world. If we can teach students how to appreciate the natural environment and love its beauty, they may protect the environment naturally. But how can we learn to appreciate nature? The research on the contemporary aesthetics of nature provides rich discussions and directions. This paper uses literature analysis as the method to examine the main contents of the Western aesthetics of nature and to develop an example of curriculum design. There are two models–a cognitive approach and a non-cognitive approach–in the aesthetics of nature. The former stresses the necessity of scientific knowledge, including ecology, biology, and geography, while the latter focuses more on imagination, intuition, mystery, and folktales. After analysis and review of the two models, I induce them into nine principles of appreciation. Furthermore, I suggest some principles of teaching, such as Cornell’s “flow learning,” art creation, and raising plants or insects by oneself. Finally, according to these principles and teaching methods, I design an example of a curriculum for elementary school students in Taiwan. I will present a unit of frame to provide details about the curriculum and how to teach the appreciation of nature.

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