It is essential that as a teacher we ‘interact with individual children who are finding their own identity, their own means of understanding and communicating and their own powers of creativity’. (McAuliffe, D 2007).
Today was our first insight into the module and we spent some time going over what we were to expect from the module and the different areas that we will be covering. The following passage gives a summary of the module and details how important integrated arts in education is for a child.
This module will provide time to allow immersion in each of the four arts areas (visual arts, music, drama and dance) as well as provide an overview of the concepts, principles, and theoretical perspectives that underpin the expressive arts in education. It will examine a range of practices labeled as ‘interdisciplinary’, ‘arts-infused’, ‘cross-disciplinary’ and ‘arts-based’ and examines its implications for the school environment and arts practice.
In general this module will give expression to our understanding of the role of the arts in education and will adopt a critical pedagogical approach to its application. Through this integrated arts module learners intellectual, personal and social development will be enhanced. Learners will also be provided with opportunities to experience group and partnership working in variety of expressive arts areas.
In today’s workshop with Diarmuid, we studied numerous paintings and drawings from a wide range of age groups and also, we discussed the importance of a child’s expression through the different art forms. Some of the drawings were done in paint, chalk, pencil and some even made up of entirely tissue paper to create texture. We compared the different paintings from different age groups, which varied from age 3 up till age 11. Diarmuid then proceeded to ask us which age group we found to be the best and most effective in a child’s learning and creative expression.
I chose the youngest stage which ranged between 3 and 6 years old. I chose this stage as I found it to be very significant in a child’s way of expressing themselves as at this point in their development they may not be able to read and write. Their drawings were more markings using colour, but to them, the drawing meant a great deal to them and contained a story which they used their imagination and creativity to portray onto the paper for us as teachers to enjoy. One aspect of an arts lesson which a child can control is the choice of paper they draw or paint on. Giving a child a large A3 piece of paper allows them to have lots of space to explode their inner feelings and creativity onto, also this means that they do not feel restricted to a small area. This can be further development by allowing the children to use the colour of paper they wanted, as if the paintings were completed on white paper they would not have had the same effect or be as bold.
Something which I observed was that when we carried on going up the age range, the drawings and paintings become more careful and similar. Instead of it being an expression of their creativity and imagination, it became more of a manufactured piece of work that every other child had produced. this is probably due to the teacher presenting the child with a model or object to simply copy instead of producing their own interpretation of it. I found that these painting lacked any personal story or meaning to them because the expression did not come from the child but instead what the teacher wanted them to achieve.
Below are some photographs of the pictures we studied at various levels.
References
- McAuliffe, D (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11 (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Herne and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London: Continuum.
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Fleming, M. (2012) The arts in education: An introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
