How content complexity and sensory modality influence student satisfaction in art education

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Art Education Studies
• Cultural Heritage Preservation

Background:

• Art education is crucial for cultural heritage and sustainable development.
• Increasing curricular complexity and abstraction negatively impact student satisfaction, a key indicator of educational sustainability.
• Construal Level Theory (CLT) provides a framework for understanding student psychological responses to educational content.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of perceived content complexity and modality structure on student satisfaction in art programs.
• To apply Construal Level Theory (CLT) to explain the psychological mechanisms underlying these effects.
• To provide data-driven insights for improving art curriculum design and institutional strategies.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of aggregated data from 73,368 students across 1524 academic programs in China.
• Statistical examination of the relationship between content complexity, auditory-visual (A/V) ratio, and student satisfaction.
• Utilizing Construal Level Theory (CLT) to interpret the cognitive-perceptual factors influencing student evaluations.

Main Results:

• Higher perceived content complexity was found to significantly reduce student satisfaction.
• A lower auditory-visual (A/V) ratio, indicating less visual emphasis, also decreased student satisfaction.
• The A/V ratio moderated the negative impact of content complexity on student satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• Cognitive-perceptual mechanisms are central to students' evaluative responses in art education.
• Curriculum designers should consider content complexity and modality balance to enhance student satisfaction.
• Findings offer practical implications for art institutions aiming to improve educational sustainability and student engagement.