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ECP711 Creativity and the Arts in Childhood
Assignment 1 Arts Education Philosophy

Introduction
Early childhood educators have a unique opportunity to work with an
emergent curriculum to engage and enrich learning experiences tailor
designed to childrens interests (Queensland Studies Authority, 2013).
Throughout my early childhood teaching degree my personal philosophy has
been shaped and formed as I have explored an array of teaching and learning
theorys and practices. These have encouraged me to push my creative
boundaries to the limit, where I strive to create flexible, shared and hands-on
play-based learning experiences that respond to childrens strengths, needs
and interests, whilst incorporate elements of the Victorian Early Years
Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) and Early Years Learning
Framework (EYLF). This document outlines my arts teaching philosophy,
where I will draw on my previous arts experiences from my secondary science
teaching degree and experiences in the early years whilst exploring elements
of the primary curriculum of AusVELS and the Australian Curriculum for arts
education.

Arts Education
According to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA, c.
2014) arts education is defined as a unique, expressive, creative and
communicative form that enables students to gain a better understanding of
themselves and their world around them through the promotion of creative
and critical thinking. Similar to Koster (2009), I believe visual art can affect
humans deeply and is an integral part of everyday life and value the task of
implementing arts education into kindergarten and school programs. I believe
educators should use childrens funds of knowledge to create personalised
learning experiences in a kindergarten, primary and secondary school setting
to create richer and deeper learning opportunities (Moll et al. 1992). I identify
with the Reggio Emilia Approach that views children as capable of carrying
out and constructing their own learning through their curiosity, potential and
interests (Wood & Attfield 2005, p.129). As suggested by Fitzgerald (citied in
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Grenfell, 2014a) educators who use the arts as a vehicle to encourage critical
thinking and analytical skills through creative teaching and learning practices
provide children with a variety of ways to learn, process their world and make
choices about discerning information.

I believe art education in the early years offer educators and children with
exciting opportunities to explore and express ideas through artistic creations,
whilst encouraging students to make decisions about art forms created by
others. Additionally art can be connected to the five learning outcomes within
the VEYLDF and EYLF, linking art with childrens physical, social, emotional
and intellectual growth as well as their health and wellbeing.

Teaching Art
While the AusVELS Arts curriculum encompasses five arts disciplines
including art, dance, drama, media, music and visual communication (VCAA,
c. 2014), I believe there is a wider use for arts across multiple subject areas to
engage children and improve teaching and learning outcomes. Furthermore,
educators must be aware of the similarities and differences between
AusVELS and the Australian Curriculum for Arts, using elements of each to
plan lessons and assess learning outcomes for their students. Similar to the
AusVELS and Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
(ACARA, 2011), children in the early years are encouraged to create, make,
explore and respond to there own and others artworks (DEECD, 2011).
Additionally, the VEYLDF and EYLF highlight the variety of ways in which art
can be connected to the five learning outcomes, where children gain a sense
of identify, create connections with their community, improve their wellbeing
and learning outcome and expand their language skills as they engage in and
discus art and art experiences. This can be linked to research such as Barnes
(2011) who discusses the importance of incorporating art experiences into
early childhood programs highlighting a variety of positive benefits associated
with arts education including the stimulation of brain development, improving
wellbeing, building visual perception, developing thinking and also creating a
sense of community through cooperative work.

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I believe to create effective art experiences for young children educators can
benefit from using components of the Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, the
Reggio Emilia approach to teaching and the inquiry method as these three
approaches view children as capable learners, who learn by doing and
through interactions with others. Additionally I believe children can develop
new skills through interactions with their teachers and capable peers, shaped
by my previous research into Vygotskys zone of proximal development
(ZPD), where children move through zones of learning progressing from their
actual level to their potential level of development (Oakley 2004, p. 41).
Johnson, Christie and Yawkey (1999) suggest that educators should not base
their decisions about future play and activities for children on a single days
observations, thus I aim to be a teacher who uses observations over time
combined with discussions with other staff members and the students families
to inform my planning. Observations during practicum further influenced my
believe that I align my teaching principles with Vygotsky's sociocultural theory,
as I directly saw children learning through collaboration with capable peers
and educators (Chiron, 2013).

According to Rybka (citied in Grenfell, 2014a) there is a body of evidence
which suggest that students with an arts integrated curriculum perform better
in other subject areas including science, English and mathematics. Barnes
(2011) highlights the importance of creating authentic learning experiences
that involve adults and children learning together, suggesting that when
teachers partake in the learning process students show greater motivation.
Arts integration taps into multiple learning styles and has the potential to
involves all the sense, however Barnes (2011) warns that educators who use
a cross-curriculum approach must use detailed preparation, planning and
follow up if they are to truly create a meaningful learning experience.
Throughout my Bachelor and Masters degrees I have explored Howard
Gardners theory of Multiple Intelligences. This has influenced the ways in
which I plan activities within a learning experience or lesson plan, where I
always attempt to create experiences that take into account childrens unique
learning styles, steering away form a one-size-fits-all approach to education.
This was evident throughout my undergraduate course, which was a
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secondary science teaching degree where I would assess my lesson plans
based on the question Do I have something in this lesson for everybody?
Posing this question as I planned allowed me to see the strengths and
weakness within my planning for certain learning styles. An example of a
lesson where I incorporated varied teaching and learning techniques was a
Year 8 lesson on the structure of plant and animal cells I taught at Mater
Christi, where I created a range of revision activities for students. For the
visual learners, we went over an interactive animal and plant cell on the
interactive white board (IWB). For the auditory learners, I include an online e-
book activity from Jacplus, which is an online version of Science Quest 8 and
for the tactile/kinesthetic learners, students used materials such as soft putty
and coloured paper to make a model of a plant and animal cell. Whilst this
example provides evidence in the ways I have attempted to incorporate
teaching and learning strategies for different learning styles, it does still lack
elements of incorporating activities for the eight identified intelligences (Miller,
2002 citied in Grenfell, 2014b) such as music smart. Examples of activities
where I have combined art and science have not been limited to the
secondary science classroom. During my five week kindergarten practicum
after engaging children in a floating and sinking experiment I provided them
with an arts space where they could create art representations of their
experiment. After they had finished their art representation I encouraged them
to share their ideas about their artwork to further explore their conceptual
understanding of floating and sinking.
Throughout my early childhood practicum I created learning experiences that
catered for childrens varied learning styles for music, drama, dance and art
where I planned individual, small group and whole group activities that
catered for each of the eight intelligences. Although one learning experience
did not cater for all learning styles, the variety of learning experiences I had
set up throughout the kindergarten room did. As I embark on the primary
education cohort of my teaching degree, I am reminded that incorporating
elements of art into lesson plans, such as making animal and plant cells in the
year 8 lesson previously discussed lends itself to authentic learning.
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It is my opinion that the Arts should not be confined to one specific section of
the curriculum and should be integrated and weaved throughout as many
subject areas as possible, offering students opportunities to strengthen skills
they practice in one content area but also encounter in another (Aguilar,
2008). I have witnessed authentic learning occur through an integrated
approach to teaching and learning, particularly within the arts, where
kindergarten children expanded their communication skills, verbally and
nonverbally to explain their own or other artists pieces of work, whilst
developing respect and creating a sense of community within the kindergarten
classroom through shared projects.
Implementing the Arts
Sociocultural theories of learning discuss the pivotal role interactions play in
childrens learning, where educators support, challenge and extend childrens
learning through sensitive interactions (Arthur et al. 2012). This is termed
intentional teaching in the EYLF (DEEWR, 2009). It is my belief that arts
should be integrate across multiple disciplines to strengthen teaching and
learning outcomes, however as mentioned previously creating an integrated
learning experience, lesson plan or unit of work requires careful preparation,
planning and follow up (Barnes, 2011). Koster (2009) suggests a step-by-step
approach to integrating art into the curriculum, recommending that lessons
must be interwoven and offer children with the opportunity to acquire art
concepts and skills, connect art across disciplines, and respond to
experiences through art. Additionally, I believe art should be created and
responded to at an individual, small group and whole group level, as this
approach lends itself to individual and shared learning.
In an early childhood kindergarten classroom intentional teaching experiences
for art also need to be carefully thought out. Early childhood educators must
decide on the spaces, resources and materials, interactions and teaching
strategies that will be used for an arts experience. They may take place within
the kindergarten room or in the outside environment, giving children the
freedom to create larger and messier artworks. When planning creative
experiences educators must consider childrens attention spans and individual
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differences, as well as their access to space, resources and materials, as
these elements have the potential to make the experience a success or a
failure (Mayesky, 2006). Terrni (2000) discuss the importance of providing
children with a range of natural and non-natural collage materials as this
offers children exciting creative opportunities. Furthermore, educators should
also advise the staff within the kindergarten room on the outcome of the
activity, as they will help to monitor interactions between peers and educators
to understand the deep learning that is occurring through the experience.
In a primary school classroom setting educators should carefully design and
implement an integrated approach to art teaching and learning, as many
schools only put aside one or two sessions a week dedicated to arts subjects,
which is often run by a specialist teacher. For me, even if I was to teach at a
school with a specialist arts teacher I would still attempt to create integrated
units of work that incorporate elements of the arts curriculum, as arts are an
intrinsic aspect of human life (Emery, 1998) that children interact with on a
daily basis and in most cases thoroughly enjoy. The abundance of technology
within urban and regional classrooms also provides educators and students
with access to art resources such as images, sounds and video clips, where
students can create and upload art they have created either individually or
with a group. Furthermore, students can use computers to respond to their
own, or other peoples work. This provides students with the opportunity to
respond to pieces of old and contemporary art, which may have some
influence on the art that they then create themselves.
Conclusion
Based on my own personal teaching, learning and arts experiences, I believe
art is an area within the curriculum that all teachers should embrace, as art
has the potential to engage children in meaningful learning experiences. I look
forward to creatively implementing areas of dance, drama, media, music and
visual communications into a variety of other subject areas such as science,
history, geography, mathematics and English.


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