ECP711 Sonja-Lina Sasse ID:212113727

ECP711- Assignment 1 Arts Education Philosophy 0

Table of Contents

Context.................................................................................................................................. 2

The Arts................................................................................................................................ 4

Visual Art.............................................................................................................................. 5

Drama.................................................................................................................................... 6

Music...................................................................................................................................... 8

Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 9

References......................................................................................................................... 11

ECP711 Sonja-Lina Sasse ID:212113727

Sonja-Lina Sasse ID:212113727Due: 18th June 2013

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Context

The Arts contribute to the identity of a culture, society and the lives of

individuals. Through the Arts we learn about historical periods from early cave

man paintings to Mozart’s music and Shakespeare’s plays to modern day graffiti.

The Arts are a way of knowing, a vehicle to raise awareness and a tool to support

change within a society. The various art forms enable us to communicate our

ideas, feelings, ambitions and social makeup without the barrier of language or

time. Thus as educators we need to teach our students how to communicate and

how to comprehend what is being communicated. Although our students may

not become renowned artists, we have a duty to teach our students to be literate

in the Arts.

The Arts are an integral and important part of our everyday life but have not

been a major focus in Australian state primary schools in the past 200 years

(Russell-Bowie 2011). The Arts is part of the public arena but often it is carried

out in ‘institutional tunnels’ (Chung & Ortiz 2011, p. 47) such as classrooms and

conferences. Thus it is no wonder that the public does not understand the

importance that the Arts have in mainstream school education systems. As

Ulbricht (2002 cited in Chung & Ortiz 2011) points out, teachers can show

citizens how art education benefits everyone by bringing art to the community.

Chung and Ortiz (2011) did just that through a street painting fundraising event

called ‘Via Colori.’ This project offered students a ‘real-world’ learning

opportunity as they worked collaboratively to solve a community problem. By

taking Art out of the classroom, the surrounds became not only a resource site

for materials and inspiration but also a mechanism for building students’ social

awareness. This project increased both the visibility and perceived value of art

education in the public domain. Creating art in the public arena to benefit the

community is regarded as ‘participatory public art’, as it contributes both to

community life and to the service of the public realm (Chung & Ortiz 2011). It

also has a real impact on raising the importance of the Arts as part of our

education system.

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As students enter Primary School and become ‘too old to play,’ the Arts take on a

greater role in allowing students to express themselves and communicate in

alternative modes. Through music, drama and visual art, students who have

difficulty in expressing themselves in a traditional reading and writing sense can

communicate. The arts experience draws on both the cognitive and affective

domains of learning in the development of symbolic imagery, sound and

movement (Music Council of Australia 2011). AusVELS describes the Arts as a

domain that ‘engages students in critical and creative thinking and helps them

understand themselves and the world’ (VCAA 2013a). The overview goes on to

state that the Arts ‘fuels the exploration of ideas … through holistic learning

using cognitive, emotional, sensory, aesthetic, kinaesthetic and physical fields’

(VCAA 2013a).

The history of the Arts curriculum in Australian primary education has evolved

in the last 200 years but remains marginalised (Russell-Bowie 2011). The

indigeneous people of Australia saw all art forms as an integral part of their life

and all children were involved in the Arts from birth. However it wasn’t until the

1950’s that white Australians changed their policies regarding the arts from

developing specific technical skills in a teacher centred classroom to a focus on

children’s creativity. Policies in regards to the Arts were entirely dependent on

how strongly political leaders valued the arts in education. The 1960’s saw a

highly prescriptive syllabi for music, art and craft being developed by experts for

generalist teachers. Teachers were seen merely as curriculum content

implemeters (McCulla 1988 cited in Russell-Bowie 2011). The 1970s brought an

influx of migrants and through various policies including the multi-cultural

policy, students were given a broader more inclusive experience within the Arts

focusing on artists, music, artworks and culture from other cultures and the

Aboriginal communities. Even today while reports continually find that the Arts

have value in a child’s education, arts education continues to play only a minor

role in primary schools. In fact as recent as 2009, the government had not

indicated that they would be including the Arts into the third phase of the

National Curriculum (Muspratt 2009 cited in Russell-Bowie 2011). It was only

after heavy lobbying that it was included. The Federal Minister for Environment,

Heritage and the Arts stated that ‘arts education provides students with the tools

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to develop sought after skills such as creativity, interpretation, innovation and

cultural understanding’ (Garrett 2009 cited in Russell-Bowie 2011). All

necessary for new and emerging industries in the 21st Century. It is amazing that

Arts education is still reliant on the support of political leaders and activists

rather than being accepted as an intrinsic part of education and as part of the

core curriculum.

The Arts

The AusVELS overview states that from Foundation to Level 4 all students

should experience learning in both the Visual Arts (Art and Media) and

Performing Arts (Dance, Drama, Music). From Level 5 the number of required art

disciplines falls to just 2 (VCAA 2013a). There are 2 domains in the Arts

dimension; Creating and making and exploring and responding. The latter being

introduced from Level 4.

The creating and making dimension focuses on:

‘ideas, skills, techniques, processes, performances and presentations.

Students explore experiences, ideas, feelings and understandings through

making, interpreting, performing, creating and presenting. Creating and

making arts works involves imagination and experimentation; planning;

the application of arts elements, principles and/or conventions; skills,

techniques and processes; media, materials, equipment and technologies;

reflection; and refinement. Individually and collaboratively, students

explore their own works and works by other artists working in different

historic and cultural contexts’ (VCAA 2013a).

The exploring and responding dimension focuses on:

‘context, interpreting and responding, criticism and aesthetics. It involves

students expressing personal and informed judgments of arts works,

informed by critical analysis of the use of elements, content and

techniques and discussion about the nature, content, and formal, aesthetic

and/or kinaesthetic qualities of arts works. Students develop an

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understanding of social, cultural, political, economic and historic contexts

and constructs, and develop a consideration of ways that arts works

reflect, construct, reinforce and challenge personal, societal and cultural

values and beliefs’ (VCAA 2013a).

Although the Arts is a discipline it provides interdisciplinary learning in terms of

communication, design, creativity, technology, ICT and thinking processes. I

think my general approach to the Arts will be an integrated approach whereby I

will use each of the art disciplines to further explore ideas within a particular

theme. In ECP711 we looked at the theme of sustainability and incorporated art

elements. My 2nd Assignment is developed around the theme of health and

nutrition as this is a theme for level 5 students. As my skills and content

knowledge of the Arts is still being developed, I will take a creative approach

wherever possible. I will develop students’ natural creativity and allow them to

explore within the disciplines of the Arts.

Visual Art

To discuss how I will implement visual art in the classroom I will draw upon my

own experiences as a learner. As a child I moved to a new school every year. The

schools were often in different countries, states and socio-economic areas. I have

first hand experience in the differing policies towards art education as expressed

by Russell-Bowie (2011). I have attended schools that valued creativity and I

have attended schools that focused on technical skills. I spent many days in the

company of my Godmother, a well-known artist in Sydney. I have also spent

many years in classrooms with teachers that had a love of the Arts and other that

saw it as a chore and an imposition on the ‘core’ subjects. With such conflicting

experiences, I am very nervous about teaching Art. But as proven by my

dedication to lifelong learning (I have studied something every one of my 30

years since finishing high school), I will also take on this new subject. At this

stage my nerves are only matched by my willingness and enthusiasm to learn. In

some respects I am at an advantage compared to my artistic peers, as I will

understand the hesitations of my students to delve headlong into Art. I will be

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able to learn with them and through them. I look forward to this joint

exploration.

Foundation to level 4 is about ‘laying the foundations’ (VCAA 2013a) and

students’ observations are used to explore the visual art discipline. I particularly

like the concept of creating artwork from children’s literature and so found the

ideas discussed in We’re going on a bear hunt (Sanday Community School 2005)

particularly appealing. To go out and discover different grasses and then bring

back images and interpret them using different media both in communal projects

(collage) and individual projects (paintings) was quite interesting and do-able

for a generalised teacher like myself. The number of possibilities seems endless

with extensions involving Van Gogh and even musical productions. So many

ideas generated from one book.

Drama

Firstly, as a student I was in various plays and productions. Secondly, I was

always moving with my family which meant that I had to adapt quickly to new

environments and people. These two different sets of experiences as well as the

drama component of ECP711 I believe have set me up for success in teaching

drama at the primary levels.

I adhere to the belief that drama is an extension of play and when children

become ‘too old’ for play, drama gives them an acceptable outlet. The unique

learning opportunities provided through play can be continued through drama.

Gardner’s Theory of multiple intelligences identified eight different types of

intelligence; linguistic, logical/mathematical, musical, visual/spatial, bodily

kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist (Churchill et al. 2011).

Learning through drama can be beneficial to those students who are difficult to

reach through traditional teaching and enhances the development of

kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.

Drama not only assists students to learn about themselves, others and the world

but also to express themselves. At the Foundation level students, through drama,

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‘communicate a character’s feelings at different points in a story through facial

expression, gesture and other non-vocal language’ (VCAA 2013b). This sort of

drama expression develops non-verbal communication skills in children. From

Level 1 onwards students are progressively inroduced to the elements of drama;

focus, mood, tension. time, contrast, symbol and space as well as the stagecraft

elements such as costume, props, sound and lighting. In transposing themselves

into other characters and other times for a performance, students learn to live ,

cope and understand their world.

Through drama I will be able to change the energy of the classroom and

introduce another element, another avenue to my teaching and the students’

learning. Drama is not only an extension of play it also allows us to explore

significant issues, change our time, place and identity and is a social activity

managed by rules and conventions (Winston & Tandy 2009). I have already been

incorporating drama activities in my ESL classes for eight years in the form of

role plays and mini performances. I feel that when students adopt a ‘character’

they are automatically more confident and more willing to try new things (for

example new language for my ESL learners).

While some may not like the idea of games being linked too closely with drama

there are definitely clear connections as well as clear distinctions between the

two (Winston & Tandy 2009). I believe that as a general teacher, I will find it

easier to facilitate the learning of drama if I first introduce games. Both have the

elements of drama, both are structured around rules and conventions and both

depend on emotional and physical engagement. I will be able to select games

that introduce certain topics that we are looking at in other areas such as

historical events and then use drama to explore them further. For example if we

are looking at how the first white settlers came to Australia we could play Ship’s

Captain and then develop the theme through drama activities such as Thought

tunnel and others as detailed in Settlers Under Sail (Raphael n.d).

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Music

I must confess to having a very limited knowledge of music and quite traumatic

memories of music lessons in the classroom. So it is with trepidation that I

consider the notion of teaching music. In the first nine years of schooling, I

attended nine schools and it is in the realm of music that I noticed the least

cohesion between policies and curricula. I remember one school where we

listened to the radio for our music lessons, another school brought in a specialist

teacher who was very funky and he taught us Johhny B Good with the aid of his

guitar. Another school had music theory where I was expected to write sheet

music from listening to the teacher playing the piano. I had never even seen

notes and certainly didn’t know where they belonged among the lines or how

they should be drawn. I joined a school choir once because I wanted to ‘belong’

and was told that I could stay to make up numbers as long as I didn’t sing aloud.

Another school made me conduct the class but as I didn’t know the difference

between beat and rhythm I was ridiculed.

After so many harrowing experiences, it is not unreasonable to suggest that I will

be very nervous in this discipline. While I don’t mind people laughing at me

nowadays, as seen during my ECP711 Music sessions, I do worry that I won’t be

the best teacher that my students deserve. Developmental psychologists believe

that one of the earliest talents to emerge in the developing child is musical

(Helding 2010). Emery (1998, p. 4) states ‘ while nearly all children are exposed

to music in their everyday world, without formal experiences in music

education they will not develop a full capacity to understand and construct

within the symbol system of music.’ I feel that in other content areas such as

history or science, I can read up on the subject but music is different. I

acknowledge the importance of music education and thus will certainly avail

myself of any further training that I can find. However, I also believe in the value

of specialist teachers for this discipline. Rusell-Bowie (2011, p. 169) clearly

states the need for ‘specialist assistance for primary school music programs to

work effectively.’ I do not want to leave my students diadvantaged because of my

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lack of expertise and confidence. With the assistance of a specialist teacher, my

students could develop higher skills, knowledge and understanding in the area of

music. I like the idea put forward by Rusell-Bowie (20111) of the classroom

teacher (me) planning the lessons alongside the specialist teacher and then

sitting in on the classes. This would mean that my expertise and confidence

would grow and I could follow up these lessons with my own. The students

would be taught by an expert who knows and loves music, resources would be

readily available and the students would receive a well-planned arts program

(Russell-Bowie 2011).

My starting practical point towards music is then to seek more content

development of myself in this area and to seek out specialist teachers and

teacher development opportunities. I know that music has a strong connection to

logical-mathematical, personal and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence so it is a very

important discipline. I believe my initial pedagogical approach will be the

creative musical approach. This approach enables students to ‘live’ a musical

experience (Humble 1969). This approach will enable students to enjoy creating

music and have it as a whole body experience. In this approach there’s no wrong

answer as the students decide what they create and how they create it. I can also

envision myself using technology such as Garage Band so that students will have

access to an almost inexhaustible supply of sounds which they can manipulate to

tell a story through sound.

Conclusion

After much lobbying and many policy changes, the Arts now have a definite place

in our curriculum. Although there are still art-rich and art-poor schools (Davies

2008, Pascoe et al. 2005 cited in Ewing 2010), we now need to focus on Arts

education practice and research. How do we make sure the aesthetic knowledge

and the experiences that engage the brain, body and emotions are taught in the

best possible way in mainstream schools that historically focused on the

cognitive aspects of knowledge? If as Winston and Tandy (2009, p. viii) state ‘the

place and quality of drama [and as an extension, the Arts] in schools ultimately

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depends on the skills and confidence of individual teachers’ then I need to seek

more knowledge in this area.

From Russell-Bowie (2011) I have come to understand why artistically inclined

teachers are so passionate, they have had such a long and arduous struggle to

have the Arts recognised. It is their passion that has made the Arts one of the

domains of the National Curriculum. Thus I will respect this by educating myself

to be the best Arts teacher that I can be.

The ECP711 unit while much too short has started me on my journey of artistic

discovery and development. The unit has instilled some historical context, some

theory and thankfully some great practical ideas. I will continue my development

in these areas.

I will use my experiences in the art disciplines, both good and bad, to guide me in

my teaching. Miller (2012) positions the characteristics of a good teacher into 4

fields; affective characteristics, skills, classroom management techniques and

academic knowledge. My strengths are the affective characteristics that Miller

(2012) discusses; enthusiasm, encouragement, humour, interest in student,

availability and mental health. I have been an ESL teacher for eight years and

even on a ‘bad’ day or in a ‘bad’ lesson these are apparent in my classroom and

so my students feel valued, engaged and supported in their learning. My ESL

students often comment on my approachability and friendliness within and

outside of the classroom. I believe my ease in building rapport quickly and

dynamically is one of my key strengths and Palmer (1998) lists the capacity to

connect as one of the attributes of a good teacher. Students also often comment

on my organisational ability and my ability to clearly explain key concepts and

give relevant and often amusing examples. So armed with these strengths and

with my determination to learn more about the various disciplines in the Arts, I

feel that I will be the best teacher that I can be. All children have creative ability

and are prepared to be wrong so rather than eduating them out of this creativity

I want to enhance it throughout my teaching. I will start from a place that I know

in each discipline and together with the students move to a place of greater

knowledge along the learning continuum.

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References

Chung, S, & Ortiz, C 2011, 'Art Education in Action on the Street', Art Education,

64, 3, pp. 46-52, ERIC, EBSCOhost, viewed 5 June 2013.

Churchill, R, Ferguson, P, Godinho, S, Johnson, N.F, Keddie, A, Letts, W, MacKay, J,

McGill, M, Moss, J, Nagel, M.C, Nicholson, P, & Vick, M 2011, Teaching: Making a

Difference, John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, Milton, Qld.

Emery, L 1998, ‘The Arts: A statement on the Arts as a key learning area of the

school curriculum’, paper prepared for Queensland School Curriculum Council,

March 1998.

Ewing, R 2010, ‘The Arts and Australian Education’, ACER Press, Camberwell.

Helding, L 2010, 'Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences: Musical

Intelligence', Journal Of Singing, 66, 3, pp. 325-330, Education Research

Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 7 June 2013.

Humble, K 1969, ‘Creative music in the classroom;, The Australian Journal of

Music Education, vol. 5, pp. 11-13.

Miller, P 2012, 'Ten Characteristics of a Good Teacher', English Teaching Forum,

50, 1, pp. 36-38, ERIC, EBSCOhost, retrieved 1 June 2013.

Music Council of Australia 2011, ‘Music. Play for life’, retrieved 4 June 2013,

http://www.musicplayforlife.org/index.php/research/music-early

Palmer, P 1998, ‘Chapter 1: The heart of the teacher’ The courage to teach:

Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp. 9-

33.

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Raphael, J n.d., Settlers under sail, Museum Victoria Immigration Museum,

retrieved 6 June 2013, http://museumvictoria.com.au/pages/2495/drama-

settlers-under-sail.pdf

Russell-Bowie, D 2011, 'An Ode to Joy ... or the Sounds of Silence? An Exploration

of Arts Education Policy in Australian Primary Schools', Arts Education Policy

Review, 112, 4, pp. 163-173, Education Research Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 5

June 2013.

Sanday Community School 2005, ‘We’re going on a bear’, retrieved 6 June 2013

http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/sharingpractice/w/weregoingonabearhu

nt.asp

VCAA Victorian Currciculum and Assessment Authority 2013a, ‘Overview;

Introduction to The Arts’, retrieved 4 June 2013,

http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/The-Arts/Overview/Introduction

VCAA Victorian Currciculum and Assessment Authority 2013b, ‘The Arts:

Curriculum’, retrieved 6 June 2013,

http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/The-Arts/

Curriculum#level=F&search=8db65c21-db64-4a5b-9583-9f8200bbf3ff

Winston, J & Tandy M 2009, Beginning Drama 4-11, 3rd ed, Routledge, London,

retrieved 6 June 2013.

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