All visual art teachers and arts teachers and primary generalist teachers should be up in arms at the report by Donnely and Wilshires reccomenadations arising from the national curriculum review. I will include the summary of their particular review of the Visual arts & Arts section for you to read and the National associationss response to the review. Conclusion of Visual Art National Curriculum excerpt. https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review_of_the_national_curriculum_final_report.pdf There is considerable evidence that this curriculum has been cobbled together to reach a compromise among the advocates of all the five art forms, rather than a serious consideration on educational grounds as to the place of each in the whole curriculum, the current practices in schools, and the realities of a school’s resources and time. It would also seem that not a lot of realistic thought has been given to the structure and sequencing of the components of each area and some major rewriting is required along the lines that both subject matter specialists suggest. It is also clear that, as the age level increases, the capacity of a generalist teacher to master the content and devise appropriate pedagogy becomes very strained. There would have to be specialist teachers used, on staff, or on contract, to handle such demanding material. Each strand also seems to be overcrowded and requires slimming down. Professional development would still be required for generalist teachers and the language needs to be made clearer. It is also not evident whether curriculum writers took account of the considerable amount of ‘doing’ or ‘responding’ that schools are already achieving in these creative domains as part of their school- based activity. They will no doubt continue to do so, whether there is a national curriculum or not. Most schools would be very active already, in at least four out of five of these arts areas. They would also be effectively integrated into other curriculum streams; for example, drama in English, music and drama in history, media arts in technology and the ICT capability, dance in health and physical education, visual arts in history, and so on. Consequently, the key question arises as to whether all five strands should be integrated into one curriculum and whether they should all be mandatory. Each of these art forms has much to offer and there can be no doubt that a curriculum should be available in each for those schools who want to access it. However, based on the international research, and evidence and opinions expressed to this Review we consider that media arts should Review of the Australian Curriculum - Final Report While there is some aspects in the review of the arts that I was critical about in the National Arts Curriculum such as: - the need for professional development for primary generalists to deliver the curriculum successfully as an urgent need - and the lack of direction about how the primary curriculum should address the 5 arts in the curriculum time table, for example. One must bear in mind that the Arts curriculum has only been available for trailing this year! Here is the link to the response from the NAAVE ( National Association for the Advancement of the Arts) from the National music association website musicaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Submission-NAAE-review-response-Oct2014.pdf Kim Kim OBrien (Mr.) Teacher (Retired) Artist Private Visual Art Consultant Education Tasmania (VACET) facebook/VisualArtConsultancyEducationTasmaniavacet Council member, Past Vice President & Secretary t – Tasmanian Art Teachers Association; Vice President – Rubicon River Arts. M. Ed. (UTAS- Launceston); B. Ed - (TCAE- Launceston), Dip. Teach. (TCAE- Launceston), Cert. Cer. (TAFE- Burnie).
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 03:13:35 +0000