This week’s visual arts workshop mainly involved a discussion surrounding the provision of visual arts that our class have witnessed in our placement schools. From the discussion, it was evident that expressive arts education across schools and local authorities is implemented to vastly different degrees, and using different methods. It is likely that this may be due to each local authority’s priorities (e.g. local authorities participating in the attainment challenge (2015) vs schools which see higher levels of attainment), and perhaps due to teacher confidence in integrating the expressive arts in their classroom (Education Scotland, 2013). The discussion was more centred around the implications for teachers in implementing expressive arts education than how to teach visual art, and it did incite some further thinking on my part.
The main point which I drew from this discussion was the importance of my ability to critically reflect on teaching practice in schools, as I witness it across my current and future placements, and measure it against what my own view of what an integrated expressive arts approach to education should be, and allow this to influence how I improve and implement my own teaching practice as a future educator. Harland et al (2005) stipulate that professional reflection is crucial in order for educators to develop new knowledge and awareness, and their values with regards to arts teaching, resulting in more effective practice. I think this is certainly the case, as throughout the course of my BA so far, it has been impressed upon us that critical reflection of our own skills, and taking steps to improve and develop based on this evaluation, is a fundamental part of not only studying at university level, but of teaching as a field. Just as teachers must reflect and improve upon their skills in providing meaningful and engaging literacy and numeracy inputs, so to must they provide arts education which is stimulating and engaging for pupils.
It is also important for teachers to develop a classroom practice which fosters creativity in its pupils (Jeffrey and Craft 2003; Craft and Jeffrey 2004). Through self-reflection and improvement of their own skills and confidence, I believe that teachers will be more likely to feel comfortable in integrating the expressive arts (including visual art) into their classroom practice, as opposed to approaching the arts as a stand alone subject which is used to fill the timetable or check boxes in the curriculum. In visual art, it is important to allow children freedom of expression and originality in their work (Gibb, 2012). I can understand the tendency to focus on the final product, as teachers have to be seen to produce “results” from their teaching, and that tends towards a focus on the development and progression of “artistic ability” in children. However, I think it is important that teachers are able to step back and allow children the freedom to develop in the arts as they will, with support and provision of resources from their teacher. This allows children a sense of ownership and investment in their work, and I believe they stand more to gain this from traditional instructional teaching in the arts.
In music, we focused on rhythm in a completely practical session. I found this session to be greatly enjoyable, using music from the Red Hot Chilli Pipers along with musical notation and drumsticks. This was an important, grounding session, I think, particularly if students had not had much musical training prior to the course. I have had prior musical experience, so I believe I took to the practical element quite quickly. It was still an important perspective to have however, as I think it is beneficial for teachers to experience the arts from a learners perspective. It makes it easier, I believe, to pinpoint where children might experience confusion or difficulty in learning music, and can allow the teacher to tailor the content or teaching style in order to address thes difficulties, and ensure the learning is accessible for all children. It also reinforced the notion for me that the arts should be fundamentally fun, that children should be able to enjoy learning through and about music, and engage with the learning without making it feel like a class, as such.
Similarly to the visual art input, I found myself considering the importance of teachers having the ability to reflect and improve throughout their career, in order to enable their pupils to full experience the expressive arts within their classroom in a meaningful and engaging way, which encourages them to join in and enjoy expressive arts education.
References
Craft, A. and Jeffrey, B. (2004), Teaching Creatively and Teaching for Creativity: distinctions and relationships. Educational Studies, 30(1): 77-87
Education Scotland (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3 – 18. Edinburgh: Scottish Government.
Gibb, C. (2012). Room 13: The Movement and International Network. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 31(3), pp.237-244.
Harland, J., Lord, P., Stott, A., Kinder, K., Lamont, E., and Ashworth, K. (2005) The Arts-Education Interface: A Mutual Learning Triangle? Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)
Jeffrey, B. and Craft, A. (2003) Creative teaching and teaching for creativity: distinctions and relationships. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Special Interest Group in Creativity in Education Conference, 3 February, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes.
Scottish Attainment Challenge. (2015) Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/improvement/Pages/sac1tosac11scottishattainmentchallenge.aspx [Accessed: 12 December 2017].
