Preparing pre-service primary school teachers to

teach Cross Curricular Priorities and The Arts through ‘big ideas’ and the Zoo

Amy HamiltonFlinders University SA

The Arts The Australian Curriculum• 5 distinct but related art subjects:• dance, drama, media arts, music and visual arts

unique forms of creative expression

utilising traditional and contemporary methods, styles,techniques.

Making and responding

Teaching the arts

encouraging and motivating primary students to develop to their full potential in and through the arts

Pre-service teachers

• very little arts background• their own beliefs about the arts, based on their

past experiences• attitudes are formed and shaped by experience

and these attitudes provide motivation for behaviour

• Self-efficacy plays a strong part in teacher confidence or disposition to teach a particular subject

Worrying trends

• Time for the arts diminished• lack confidence and motivation • Generalist teachers will be expected

to teach all five arts subjects until year 6

• Anxiety due to lack of experience• on-going professional development in

the arts has been almost non-existant

Australian Curriculum: the arts

• Written with generalists in mind

• Provides a framework for learning in the arts

• Tools• beliefs

The Arts

How?

• The key, according to Eisner (1994) is to create a stimulating environment in which learners can become ‘immersed’.

Cross Curriculum Priorities

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures,

• Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, • Sustainability

• The arts provide a particularly rich way to promote understanding and sensitivity to cultural and social diversity

• promote inclusivity for students who are marginalized or have special needs

Through the arts

• we can explore ways to respond to local and global problems and issues of human rights and sustainability.

• considering arts of a much broader range of cultures helps students to understand the histories and values of these cultures and to reflect on their own.

• Recent past-focus on European exemplars in arts

Australian Indigenous artistsTraditional and contemporary

Arts of Asia

Traditional focus in schools on European masters

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

• Generalist teachers– Lack confidence– Little knowledge

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia

Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia

Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia

• a variety of art forms,• media,• instruments • technologies

Sustainability

• enables the exploration of the role of arts in maintaining and transforming cultural practices, social systems and the relationship of people to their environment

• As catalyst for change– Individual – Collectively– Locally– globally

The zoo

Pilot study 2013:Partnership with Flinders University

Aim: to prepare pre-service teachers to teach the arts and Cross Curriculum Priorities

to raise awareness and promote critical thinking about the role of the zoo and the ways that ‘big ideas’ can be

used as a starting point in the integration of the arts with other curriculum priorities.

The Expressive Arts• a compulsory topic undertaken by 3rd year pre-service

primary school teachers and 1st year Master of Teaching students

• taught by experienced arts educators and supported by three practicing

• ‘artists in residence’

• concept of authentic arts education – student creativity, – expressive capacities – aesthetic sensibilities– through experiences that involve arts knowledge and skills

The Expressive Arts: 2013182 pre-service teachers

Lecture series 10 weeks Workshops 14 weeks Assessment

ConceptsAustralian CurriculumChildren’s developmentBig Ideas-the zooIntegrationAssessmentCross Curriculum prioritiesVisiting artists (x2)Planning for authentic arts education

5 x 2 hour hand’s on workshops for each arts subject

Specific content, skills and knowledge

time to plan and rehearse

Participation: all workshops

On-line reflections

Performance and workshop with children

Unit and lesson plan

Unit and lesson

• Plan an integrated unit of work for a specific age group over 10 weeks– Authentic arts skills and knowledge– Integration with a CCP

• A detailed lesson from the unit

• Formative: resubmission

performance

• Groups of 10-12• 10 minute performance at the zoo for a particular

age group (primary school children)• Include all arts forms• ‘big idea’ from the zoo and integrating 1 or more

CCPs• Followed by a 50 min workshop (in pairs)

teaching art skills or knowledge from one of the 5 artforms

Movies removed

Movie removed

Integration

• Educators have understood the importance of making meaningful links between subject areas and with a learner’s real life

• It is understood that simply taking in facts or data is not as effective for learners as applying knowledge in a meaningful way

• Done well an integrated curriculum dissolves boundaries between subjects and enables students to make connections between disciplines

Integration and the arts

• Effective integration ensures that meaningful learning occurs in all of the integrated subject areas connectedness to real world experiences can engage students more deeply in their learning (Beane 1997).

• The arts provide opportunities to learn through multiple forms of literacies such as aural, kinesthetic, and visual and this opens up diverse ways of meaningful learning across subject areas

Learning by doing

• Participants rather than spectators• Modeling integrated curriculum by doing• Learn about the arts and CCPs as they prepare

their performance

Learning Design

• The Department for Education and Child Development’s (DECD) in South Australia introduced Learning Design as an approach to the Australian Curriculum.

• Goal is student understanding and the ability to transfer their learning and make connections between discrete knowledge and skills to make deep meaning

The Expressive Arts

• aims to model this approach by introducing the ‘big idea’ of The Zoo and Cross Curricular Priorities.

• Pre-service teachers demonstrate their understanding of the knowledge and skills that can be learnt in and through all 5 arts subjects and transfer that knowledge through a performance that conveys a strong message about the big ideas

Performance as learning

• student learning should be a process of forming dispositions, intellectual and emotional and that students as participants are inclined to act to assure best possible outcomes (rather than just good enough). (Dewey 1916/1980)

• “only one subject matter for education and that is life” (Whitehead 1929)

education

teachersstudents

parentsGoverning bodies

employersinstitutions

Pre service teachers

‘habitus’

long lasting

not fixed or permanent

can be ch

anged

is created through a social

rather than individual process It leads to patterns that are transferrable from one context to another

Pre-service teachers in the role of artist

Consciously considering audience

‘experiential learning’ Boud (1993)

• Experience Based Learning EBL– Personal engagement with an

idea becomes a focus– Makes what is studied a

reality– Involves the whole person-

feelings, senses and cognition– Evokes awareness and

perception and values

Reflective practice

• Boud (1994) suggest three stages of reflective practice that are essential to EBL the preparation (before) reflection during the process and reflection after the experience.

• potential of critical reflection to enhance organizational knowledge

• Deep structural shift in basic premises of thoughts, feelings and actions

The performances

workshops

• After the performance• Pre-service teachers in

pairs• Small groups in different

areas of the zoo

All 5 arts subjects-following on from the theme in the performance

Data collection• Permission was sought to access pre-service

teachers on-line responses to questions and reflections pre and post topic.

• Feedback from arts teachers, artists and visiting teachers as well as zoo staff

findings

• Integration• Cross Curriculum priorities• The zoo• The arts

Misconceptions-not knownUnderstanding-learning by doing

Performance and workshops

• Positive responses• Surprise• Pushing limits• Gaining confidence• Understanding more about what they need to

know (workshops)

Response to topic overall

• Positive• Hands-on• Value the arts• Better understanding-

integration, EBL, CCP• Changed attitudes• Role as teacher

• As much as I loved the topic I feel with placement coming up Maths

and English (instead of the arts) would have been more useful

• No performances-it should focus on lesson planning

• Hands on stuff won’t help us be better teachers being taught will

• (the performance) not sure how worthwhile it was

• no real cohesiveness-only need one workshop for general ‘artyness’

(this person admitted to not attending any lectures)

• it was fun but too liberal

The future

• More students• The Zoo and

– The Art Gallery of SA– The Museum– Botanic gardens

• More arts of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander content

• More arts of Asia content