“Children need the freedom to appreciate the infinite resources of their hand, their eyes and their ears, the resources of forms, materials, sounds and colours”- Loris Malaguzzi. For me, this quote highlights the importance of giving children the opportunity to harness their knowledge and skills as well as developing new skills and abilities in the arts.
This was our second week in the integrated arts module. The focus this week was on how a child’s artistic abilities develop in the arts, as they grow older and continue throughout school. Prior to the class, we were required to read two readings: Fleming (2012) and McAuliffe (2007). These readings were very insightful, useful and knowledgeable in helping our understanding of how a child’s cognitive development can grow and develop in the arts. It also highlighted ways in which we as educators should be aware of the importance of art and how we should interact with individual children.
Fleming’s “The Arts in Education” was insightful into the value of art and why it should be justified in the curriculum. It suggests that the arts can have a positive impact on the development of children. We looked further into the chapter “An introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy”in our lecture. We were each given a page of the chapter we had already read and were asked to annotate it with visual drawings of the meaning behind the text. I was given page 8, the part of the text that i focused on was when a child asked why they were doing this task, and immediately the teacher sent him out of the room. I decided the best way to capture this point was by drawing doodles of the situation. I thought this was an excellent way of understanding deeper meanings throughout the text, it is an effective tool in developing contextual understanding, evaluation and analytic skills in children. As well as that it also allows the learners to develop skills that they might not be able to express with the written word. It is also an efficient way of connecting literacy with art, it allows for a more fun, interesting and effective lesson.
Throughout the lecture, we also looked at Elliot Eisner’s ’10 Lessons the Arts Teach’ looks at the importance of the arts and how it is a crucial lesson for allowing children to experience and evolve with the vast areas of the arts. Lesson 5 was one that stood out to us as a class as it basically suggests that we know more than we can say and the arts show that no words or numbers can stop on what we can know and that “the limits of our language do not define the limits of out cognition” (10 lessons the Arts Teach). I found that this resource will be crucial for me, as an educator, to ensure that i allow the children the best opportunity to experience the positive impact that the arts can have on their wellbeing.
In the workshop, we got the chance to analyse different pieces of art created by children at different stages of development. The article we read by McAuliffe connected very well with this part of the workshop, it allowed me to understand a child’s development in the arts a lot better as i had already researched it. Lowenfeld and Bittain (1987) suggested that artistic abilities grow and develop in 4 stages: scribble, pre-schematic, schematic and the gang stage. It was designed to help teachers engage and understand more about a child’s work. However, McAuliffe suggests that with time changing and advances in psychology and other factors that it is not as simple to just “slot” children into stages. It is important to remember that all children develop and grow differently and its not as easy to have each child in a stage as every child is unique.
Furthermore, as an educator we need to realise that with a young child’s drawing, it might just look like a series of random lines or marks to us but to them it could be their whole world, it could be a fire engine going down a road at 60 mph. Therefore, it is crucial that we always listen to what the child says about their drawing and show that we value their creation.
As children grow older, they become more focused and pay more attention to detail and features. They begin to modify and refine shapes, focus on the placement and size of the objects. However, some children do have a fear of not being accurate with their work (McAuliffe, 2007). As educators, we should ensure that we give the children the appropriate resources and a wide range of media to develop the ability to make these marks.
Moreover, understanding that the arts is a subject that an be incorporated into various areas of the curriculum will make for a more meaningful and fun learning experience for the children. It is important that as teachers we don’t forget about the value and importance of art, even though in the majority of schools literacy and numeracy often take priority. However, if we incorporate both subjects into the one lesson then no subject is more important than the other. Activities such as reading a passage and taking key words or points but doodling an image can express and help a child understand the passage in a whole other light. Children are able to express a theme related to literature through a drawing and can express their understanding of literature through art.
Overall, from today’s lecture and workshop i have gained more knowledge on ways to support the development of children through the arts. It is crucial that we allow the children the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and abilities in the arts. I want to continue to participate and learn more about this topic as i believe it is an important area that needs to be taught more throughout schools.
References:
National Arts Education Association. (n.d.) 10 Lessons the Arts Teach [Online] Available: https://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/articles/116-10-lessons-the-arts-teach [Accessed: 21st September 2017]
Fleming, M. (2012) The Arts in Education: an introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London: Routledge.
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.
Early Learning HQ. (n.d.) Loris Malaguzzi [Online] Available: https://www.earlylearninghq.org.uk/latest-resources/inspirational-quotation-loris-malaguzzi/ [Accessed: 2oth September 2017]
