Month: September 2018

Today’s session was centred around the importance of visual art and music with regards to children’s cognitive development and its importance in Scotland’s Curriculum. During discussion, it was argued that teachers have feelings of anxiety and a lack of self-confidence in relation to teaching the arts to their class. Furthermore, the arts are often disregarded during lesson plan making as literacy and numeracy are commonly mistaken as being “more important”.

An occurring theme mentioned throughout both seminars was that of “the arts spark creativity”. Linda Pound (2008) agrees with this by stating the arts have a significant role in creativity, this is due to the fact that they allow for ideas to be represented and symbolised. Thus, clearly depicting the value of the arts within our Curriculum in the 21st century.

During the visual arts seminar we were informed that there various stages with regards to the artwork we create;

• Age two to four – the scribbling stage
• Age four to seven – the pre schematic stage
• Age seven to nine – schematic stage
• Age nine to twelve – gang stage

(McAullife, 2007)

For instance, we were presented with a picture created by a child in the scribbling stage, who had created a drawing of a ‘floating house’. We then viewed work created by children in the gang stage and this all appeared to be copied from other artwork rather than from their own heads. It can be said that in the scribbling stage, art is more free flowing and as the stages progress, the work becomes less self-made. This is arguably due to children ‘losing’ their imagination as they get older and progress through their education.

We began our second seminar by discussing why we believe music is important within our curriculum. Answers included;

• Music develops confidence
• Provides children with direction and instruction
• Music relieves stress
• Encourages hand and eye co-ordination
• Encourages positive study habits
• Sparks creativity

Furthermore, we discussed the Mozart Effect, where in which the educator plays classical music to pupils and from this the children performed better in mathematics. Problem solving became easier for pupils as the music opened up their minds and helped to relieve stress.

Finally, we had time to explore an online application where we learned about rhythm and beats. We used the syllables of the words “square” and “circle” to tap our drumsticks in time to the beat. This was a fun way to present rhythm and beats into music. I’m looking forward to integrating this activity into one of my lesson plans in the near future for placement.

The attached pictures are examples of artwork from children in the gang stage.

References

McAuliffe, D. (2007)Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11. London: Continuum.

Pound, L (2008) How Children Learn – Book 2 London: Step Forward.

The focal point of this week’s integrated arts in education input was the importance of visual arts and music during the cognitive development of children during their primary education.

Throughout Primary School Education, it is renowned that the integration of Arts such as Music, Drama and Dance are as important as Mathematics and Literacy in the learning and intellectual development of a child. However, the arts are often avoided or put to the bottom shelf in primary school’s due to the teachers lack of confidence and feelings of incapability can come in to play within these areas of learning a new instrument or teaching in a dramatic context, so integration of arts is usually of its lowest form.

Music

In the first seminar, we explored why music matters. Music is said to be very powerful in the intellectual development of children, where those children who may not excel in parts of the curriculum such as English and Maths may tend to do very well in areas such as Musical Arts. This reason being that it gives all children a fair chance and level playing field to do well in this area, as everyone is starting something new and may discover their strengths lie within this area of learning. This will further improve their confidence within their capabilities in which will impact positively on their mental health and wellbeing. In primary education, music can be integrated into the curriculum in a vast number of ways in which perceptual and language skills to creativity skills can be explored and executed, such as: learning to play an instrument or sing, using ICT equipment to perform and listen to Music. We also looked at the Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes liked to using music in education: “I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology, to experiment with sound, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamics” EXA 2-17a. During this input, we were shown an exercise we could integrate into our teaching experience as student teachers which gives us the valuable and accessible resources needed to demonstrate the teaching of Arts in the easiest way possible. During this exercise we learned about beats, rhythms and pulses and the only resources required were drumsticks or beaters, meaning it does not have to be of expense. There is no doubt that Music promotes a positive learning environment within the classroom and perhaps gives the children an escape from their daily Mathematics and Literacy lessons, giving them something to not only enjoy but to learn whilst doing it.

Visual Arts

In the second seminar, we were introduced to archives of children’s art work over a long period of time showing the different ages and stages of children as stated by McAuliffe (2007):

(age 2-4 years)- scribbling stage

(age 4- 7 years)- pre-schematic stage

(age 7-9 years)- schematic stage

(age 9- 12 years)- gang stage

McAuliffe, D. (2007)

Having read upon how a child’s creativity can influence their artwork, I was able to reflect upon the archives of children’s work at their different stages in creativity and intellectual development.

This was drawn by a child who was five years old, this is an example of the pre-schematic stage (McAuliffe, 2007, P.26). The child’s teacher has written on the back of the creation that the child is explaining how he can now reach the top of the counter in their family home, extending his arm in the picture beside his parents. This can be recognised as a time or experience that the child is perhaps proud of is desirable. The teacher has shown excellent teaching and empathetic practice by writing this description of the creation on the back as they can go back and ask the child about their creation and perhaps could lead on to an even more detailed piece of work. In addition, by writing it on the back as opposed to the front does not enable for the creation to be spoiled but for an added description as to what the child’s mark making indicated or meant to them. This could be incorporated into Literacy within the Curriculum as the child’s picture could be used during story time to help with the basis of a written/ oral story.

 

These pieces of artwork were drawn by a child who was eight years old, during the “schematic stage”. This artwork is of Chinese origin and represents the different cultures of the world. As art ability is progressing children begin to add more details and features to their work, they are understanding the importance of proportion and placement of objects and the importance of colours (McAuliffe, 2007). This represents the lack of creativity at this stage, as there has been teacher intervention with regards to this creation. This could have been created for a representation of a topic based on China and could have been centred around the lesson plans of the teacher at that time for a wall display in the classroom. This differs massively from early stages of creativity, whereby the scribbling stage and pre-schematic stage are highly linked to a child’s imagination and spontaneous mark making. This suggests that as children move on to schematic stage and gang stage they tend to lose the imagination that they once had in early stages and their reliance on copying the teacher or their peers is high.

 

This was drawn by a child who was eleven years old, known as being included in the “gang stage”. At this stage children are able to make precise drawings of features, likewise children are becoming increasingly conscious of their art work and their ability as skills required become more demanding (McAuliffe, 2007). On this poster, it is promoting Fair-trade. It can be recognised that there are parts of writing done in pencil, clearly indicating that the child had been rubbing parts of their creation out. At this stage children are thought to be perfectionists with their artwork as at that stage they are able to pay fine attention to detail to their piece of work and will try to make it the best they possibly can. This is also an example of high teacher intervention and involvement of a class topic of Fair trade countries as opposed to the imagination of a child. However, a child can still put their own creativity and style to creations like this and where there is teacher intervention, we could also see the level of creativity the child had with their style of writing and images.

Overall, it can be noted that a child who may not excel in some curricular areas may see progress through arts integrated in primary education. This is where we can see links between the two seminars that were executed in today’s session. Where art and music may not be as highly educated as English and Mathematics, they both uphold many benefits and skills for children to be creative, confident and of value to their personal and social development inside and beyond the classroom. Arts should be further integrated into primary education and myself as a student teacher will definitely use the resources given to us by the university lecturers to enable full incorporation of music, arts and more.

References

McAuliffe, D. (2007)Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11. London: Continuum.

• Education Scotland (2009) Curriculum for Excellence. [Online] https://education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf [Accessed: 12 September]