With the emergence of art teaching activities, the "learning for nothing" method in art teaching has gradually developed into "learning for nothing". As far back as the end of autumn in China and the ancient Greek period, art teaching mainly took individual teaching forms, which were basically mentoring, mainly using teaching and imitation methods.

In the long feudal society, the development of teaching methods was slow.

China began to establish new schools in the late Qing Dynasty. 1904+1The Regulations on Playing Schools, which was promulgated on June 3rd, 3, clearly stipulated that painting classes should be offered in primary and secondary schools. Teachers' fine arts class in primary schools should stress "the order law of teaching pictures". Excellent normal schools offer teaching methods courses in various subjects. This includes the picture teaching method. 1906, the department of painting and handicraft was first established in Liangjiang Normal University, and the teaching methods of painting, handicraft and music were set up. During the Republic of China 1923, a new academic system was promulgated, and the teaching method was renamed as teaching method, which reflected the spirit of the integration of teaching and learning. 1948 All primary and secondary school pictures were renamed as fine arts. 1956 After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), it was also called pictures. 1979 changed to art again; At the same time, it also developed the art teaching method.

With the development of science and technology, capitalist society needs to cultivate all kinds of scientific and technological talents, and the number of courses in schools is increasing, and a class-based teaching system has emerged, which has caused innovation in teaching methods. Some educators devote themselves to the psychological research and teaching art exploration of young people, actively promote a series of new teaching methods such as demonstration, observation and experiment, and improve teaching, review and practice methods.

Before 1950s, art teaching was the same as other subjects. Mainly to ensure the "double basics" teaching, which is related to the influence of the former Soviet educator Kailov in 1930s. He believes that the primary task of the school is to give students profound and true general knowledge about the development of nature, society and human thinking, and emphasizes that students are not responsible for discovering new truths. Their task is to master the basic knowledge consciously. In the process of teaching, we emphasize the leading role of teachers and put students in a passive position around the "three centers" model of "teacher-centered", "textbook-centered" and "classroom-centered".

After the Second World War, especially since the 1960s and 1970s, with the rapid development of science and technology and the continuous improvement of production level, the whole society has put forward higher requirements for school teaching. The progress of modern science and technology, the application of modern teaching methods and the new achievements in physiology and psychology provide good conditions for the development of teaching methods.

Bruner, a contemporary American educator and psychologist, advocates that the purpose of teaching is not only to help students master scientific knowledge firmly, but also to help each student acquire good intellectual development, so that students can become independent and active thinkers, actively participate in the process of knowledge acquisition, and oppose taking people as passive recipients of knowledge. Bruner advocates "discovery method", emphasizes that students are "discoverers", and demands that students' creative learning should be fully mobilized. They should not only master profound and solid knowledge, but also learn to explore research methods and cultivate their ability to analyze and solve problems.