Experiential, Inquiry-Based Learning for High School Students about Themselves for Adolescent Self-Awareness Innovative Possibilities of the ‘Body Mapping’ Complex Art Program in Education

Abstract

This study examines the nature and 21st-century relevance of the Body Mapping complex art program as a supporter of adolescent personality development, viewed through the lens of cognitive and artistic reflections that have emerged as cultural heritage throughout human history. By exploring the experiences related to the Body Mapping art program, focus shifts to the innovative possibilities of school development, which represents both the constructivist approach and a key characteristic of innovation: voluntariness. The program supports self-awareness, allowing participants to mobilize and reflect on their existing personal knowledge and experiences through a summarizing narrative that utilizes artistic tools. This creative process culminates in an integrated and conscious understanding of oneself. From the perspective of the constructivist model of knowledge organization, the program fosters metacognition regarding the participants’ potentials, encouraging the ownership of their uniqueness and the “brave” and free mobilization of their individual characteristics. In this sense, the pedagogical introduction of the program in adolescence, according to the positive preconception of the research, can effectively support mental well-being and impact self-efficacy, academic resilience, and indirectly, cognitive, personal, and social competencies. The project represents the pedagogical adaptation of a method developed during clinical art therapy work, currently being researched at the Doctoral School of Education Sciences at Eszterházy Károly Catholic University. It serves as both a pedagogical development and a trial, reflection, and analysis, functioning as a form of action research.