Reimagining Calligraphy Education in Higher Education through Artificial Intelligence and Interdisciplinary Pedagogy

Abstract

The Chinese calligraphy, the intangible heritage held in high esteem, is challenged with the traditional mode of the calligraphic teaching, which is still labor-intensive and hard to be scaled. To deal with this, the current developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and interdisciplinary STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) teaching are potentially transformative. This paper examines the combination of AI-based feedback and project-based learning in calligraphy classes as the way to integrate the artistic tradition with technological innovation. The research design used a quasi-experimental design (n=642) comprising of undergraduate students, n=321, of a large research university were randomly selected to be assigned to either an experimental group (n=321) with AI-enhanced instruction or to a control group (n=321) with traditional methods. An experimental curriculum was used, which consisted of a computer vision pipeline (grayscale conversion, Gaussian blur, Canny edge detection, and ResNet-50-based convolutional neural networks) trained on 40,000 samples of calligraphy and used to produce saliency maps and formative AI feedback. The students were engaged in interdisciplinary STEAM-based activities involving the connections between brushwork, geometry, physics, and chemistry and cultural studies. A significant improvement in the performance of the experimental group by 7.8 points (p < 0.001) of the post-test results and effect sizes of 0.78 to 1.12 were observed. The mediation analysis showed that the frequency of AI feedback did not directly enhance aesthetic proficiency by increasing self-efficacy, as opposed to the importance of the pedagogical design rather than the frequency of feedback. These results emphasize that the AI-based stroke analysis, combined with an effective STEAM approach, positively affects both interest and cross-cultural awareness, which implies the extensive applicability of the Calligraphy 2.0 model to the renewal of traditional arts and the maintenance of cultural heritage via digital humanities. The model provides a means of changing the conventional form of art education to an interactive, data-oriented, experience, which can be applied to all global heritage practices.