I walked into the lecture with very little idea about what I would be expected to carry out during my time in the integrated Arts module.

During the lecture, We were introduced to “TALLIS Habits Pedagogy wheel”  which teachers can use as a guide when teaching. The wheel is separated into 5 habits which are Imaginative, Inquisitive, Collaborative, Persistent and Disciplined.

We also discussed about how teaching arts is not given the same level of importance as teaching literacy and mathematics. However, arts can be incorporated into both of these curricular areas as well as health and well being and can help to make learning more meaningful and more enjoyable for students. Taking part in any kind of arts can bring many benefits. In The book “The arts in education: an introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy”, Fleming (2012) discusses about why arts should be taught. He provides the readers with many reasons and from that list i found two points very fascinating; to “improve performance in other subjects”; To “develop the mind- help pupils to think” (page 11).  Personally, I had always assumed arts to be something that was mainly done for pleasure but the points raised by Fleming has helped to educate me about the wide range of benefits arts can bring. Fleming (2012) also talks about how arts can be integrated into other curricular areas and make learning more exciting for the pupils. As a result, it may improve “attendance and attitudes to schools as a knock-on effect” (page 12)

Visual arts

The first workshop I took part in was all about visual arts. This workshop not only gave me an insight into how people view from different perspective but also allowed me to think more into detail about the artwork children produce from an early age. We discussed about how every piece of artwork will have a message that the artist is trying to convey. Even in schools, the students will have a story behind a picture they have created and by asking thoughtful and curious questions, we can develop the student’s literacy skills.

The above picture was drawn as a example during the workshop. Although this artwork may not have any meaning to the viewer of this picture, it could mean a lot to the artist.

Music

For the second workshop, we focused on music and how it can affect ours moods. we discussed about how different sounds of music can change the meaning of something. We carried out a task as groups of 4/5 which involved listening to a piece of music and trying to interpret what the story behind the sound was. Although every groups came up with different ideas, we all had similar concepts behind our story (sad, happy, something dramatic happens etc).

In conclusion, I found today’s lecture and workshops to be very interesting. The teaching style for this module seems to be different from the other modules and i look forward to my next Integrated Arts class.

 

References 

Fleming,M.(2012). The arts in education: an introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London:Routledge