In 1995 an Aesthetics and Arts Criticism substrand was included in The Arts Curriculum and Standards Framework document for schools in Victoria, Australia. The researcher believed that in order to implement the new curriculum requirements and cope with the complexities that accompanied the emergence of postmodern art, teachers would need to alter their practice and find strategies for encouraging greater student participation and critical thinking in art room discussions. Research of the literature and classroom practice led the researcher to believe that a teaching method called philosophical inquiry, together with a range of strategies inspired by art education theorists and philosophers would assist teachers. The extent to which philosophical inquiry was grounded in existing practice in the art classrooms and whether teachers were employing the content of the aesthetics component of The Arts CSF was sought through case studies involving observation, transcript analysis and interviews. In order to monitor existing discussion content, the Flanders' Interaction Analysis system was modified and used to categorise the content of the observed discussions. Specific focus was on the teachers' approaches to discussions and the subsequent student contributions in class. Following the analysis of the observed sessions, an intervention program was designed. Approaches believed to facilitate inquiry in arts criticism and aesthetics and improve the cognitive levels and quantity of students' verbal contributions during discussions were modelled. The teacher participants were again observed and transcripts of discussions analysed. A method called 'Texting' was devised to compare the data which emerged from the comparison of pre- and post-intervention classroom sessions. It revealed substantial changes in verbal interaction patterns as well as the presence of aesthetic content, philosophical inquiry approaches and postmodern perspectives. Teachers, when interviewed, were able to describe the changes that had occurred as a result of the relatively short, but precisely designed, intervention program.