Curriculum Frameworks Statement
Curriculum documentation is incredibly important for teachers. They outline what is essential for students to learn during their time at school and provide common standards that are used by teachers and schools to plan lessons and assess their students’ progress. Curriculum allows for students to gain an equal education irrespective of what school they are attending. Curriculum is also informed by research about how students learn so it provides students with the best possible learning opportunities.
Each state has different curriculum documents that they refer to. In Victoria this is the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS). VELS draws on national and international research and encourages a flexible and creative approach to learning. VELS acknowledges that the Arts are unique, expressive, creative and communicative forms that engage students in critical and creative thinking and help students to understand themselves and the world (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority [VCAA], 2012).
VELS divides the different learning areas into domains. Within the Arts domain there are six disciplines: Art, Dance, Drama, Media, Music and Visual Communication. Within each Arts domain there are six levels, each with a learning focus statement and a set of standards outlining what students should know and be able to do at different levels (VCAA, 2012).
There are also two dimensions:
- Creating and Making
- Exploring and Responding
Creating and Making involves students engagement in concepts and exploration of art through making. This dimension involves imagination and experimentation, application of arts knowledge and reflection. Exploring and responding is introduced at level 3 and involves students interpreting and responding to art and developing understanding and informed judgements about art using arts appropriate language (VCAA, 2012).
VELS provides useful information for teachers about how to teach art in schools. It acknowledges that the Arts can be linked to other domains such as English, Humanities, ICT and Science. VELS also acknowledges the importance of the different Arts disciplines and recognises the many affordances of including an arts rich curriculum in your teaching (VCAA, 2012).
Exploring VELS has given me a greater understanding of the importance of arts education in schools and providing students with the opportunities to not just create and make art but also to give students time to reflect, explore and respond.
The National Curriculum, produced by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) provides a broad direction on the purpose, structure and organisation of the Arts curriculum. It divides the Arts into five subjects: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts. It stresses the importance of students engaging in all five subjects from Foundation to end of primary school. Like VELS, ACARA lists what students should be doing at different levels. It also states that time allocation for the Arts in schools will be decided by the individual school but sets out guidelines for recommended hours across the different year levels. ACARA recognises that schools are best placed to determine how arts education will be delivered (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2011).
Like VELS, ACARA recognises the uniqueness of the Arts but divides learning in the Arts into Making and Responding. It also recognises that art can be explored through a number of different lenses (ACARA, 2011).
In Visual Arts, students will learn through direct engagement with art and design practices, concepts, theories, histories and critiques. Students will engage with art as artists, designers, critics, historians and audiences. They will understand Visual Arts to be a field of knowledge informed by particular histories, theories and cultures and they will learn to think critically (ACARA, 2011).
The Conceptual Framework was originally developed by Brown, Freeman and Sanger and has more recently been explored by Barbous and Maras. It can be used to compliment and enhance the Arts domains of Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) and directly impacts upon pre-service and in-service teachers implementation of curriculum in the Visual Arts (Barbousas & Maras, n.d).
The Conceptual Framework can be used by teachers and students to structure learning in the Visual Arts. Questions that emerge out of using the Conceptual Framework enable greater understanding of the two dimensions of the Visual Arts curriculum in VELS; art appreciation and art practice.
The Conceptual Framework consists of four elements:
- Artwork
- Artist
- Audience
- Subject matter
Exploring these four elements in the Visual Arts classroom and developing an understanding of the relationships between these elements can facilitate both teachers and students learning in the Visual Arts. The Conceptual Framework enables students to ‘art appreciate’ and ‘art practice’. It also enables pre-service and in-service teachers to formulate effective curriculum in Visual Arts that addresses the learning standards in VELS (Barbousas & Maras, n.d).
The Conceptual Framework also enables both teachers and students to be active participants in the Visual Arts and gain a more in-depth appreciation and understanding of art.
Barbous and Maras in their research have devised a series of questions and talking points to assist teachers to talk about and explore art with their students. The questions composed by Barbous and Maras focus on the relationships between the four concepts: artist, artwork, audience and subject matter. These allow for the Conceptual Framework to be embedded into both learning and teaching and directly impacts on pre-service and in-service teachers implementation of curriculum in the Visual Arts (Barbousas & Maras, n.d).
Through my own exploration of the current curriculum documentation in Australia, specifically VELS and the National Curriculum, it has highlighted to me the importance of providing standards for learning. Curriculum documentation such as VELS ensures state-wide consistency about what is being taught in Victorian schools. Similarly, as we move towards a National Curriculum in Australia, this will facilitate greater consistency in education.
Exploring these documents has highlighted to me the importance of arts education for young people and the many affordances of incorporating art into the curriculum. It has also highlighted the variety in the way art can be taught, how it can be linked in with other disciplines and the range of skills it develops in young people. It teaches students not just to be creative but also to be critical and reflective thinkers.
For me these documents are useful teaching resources for planning arts education. They also encourage teachers to promote students confidence in the Arts, which I think is an incredibly important factor in later development and engagement with art.
Art, while it can be linked with many other disciplines as mentioned previously, also must be taught alone. Students should be given the opportunity to fully appreciate and engage with art as a stand-alone discipline.
While these curriculum documentations carry many affordances for teachers and will influence my future teaching of Visual Arts, I think it is also important to recognise that theory alone does not facilitate good teaching. Practice and experience with art and building your own confidence as a teacher of the Arts in order to be able to instil confidence in your students comes not by following strictly a set of standards but rather through incorporating your own knowledge and experience and ways of engaging students in the Arts into your teaching. I think this is the most powerful too of all in being an effective teacher of art.