Justify the place of foundation subjects (expressive arts) in the curriculum and demonstrate knowledge, understanding and pedagogy in foundation subjects.
All foundation subjects are paramount to a child's education, and throughout my time depicting foundation one subjects: art, music, drama, physical education and design and technology, I consequently found how integral they are to the national curriculum in order to engage pupils in their learning. It is imminent that the teacher may be biased depending on their preferred subject, which may affect their enthusiasm and effort when it comes to teaching, however I feel it is crucial to allow equal opportunity to all students by providing them with the most engaging and interactive lessons across the board and any avoid negative connotations the teacher may imply through their response and cooperation when teaching. Despite these foundation one subjects not being assessed through end of year SATS, I believe they teach vital skills and enable the mind of our young people to be opened to other routes in education as you can elude and inject your own interpretations of art forms into pedagogical practices.
Art allows individuals to openly explore ideologies surrounding everyday life, in terms of the looking into colour, line, shape, tone, texture, pattern etc. In a school environment there are a multitude of different personalities and backgrounds, some will have never had the opportunity to explore the concept of art, so it is important to provide them with that knowledge. From the mixing of blue and yellow to form green, to the artwork itself shown in the classroom or in the flesh through gallery trips. Art exemplifies what is being taught to visual learners and those who respond more fluently when able to make connections and use their creative minds. “All children are born artists; the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” — Pablo Picasso.
Art does not only teach obvious topic areas such as printing, painting, sculpting, drawing etc it also teaches the children to be observant and self-reflective when revisiting and reviewing. Those who study the arts can learn to think creatively helping them solve problems by thinking outside the box and realising that there may be more than one right answer, allowing them to take risks. It also creates a sense of achievement for those who may struggle with more academic core subjects, they may thrive in the arts. (R.Barnes, 2015) Art thrives on its multiplicity of viewpoints and its unwillingness to be governed by any hard and fast rules.
Drama is an extremely expressive subject, which I believe is vital to every child's learning.
It allows an increase in self-esteem and social skills as pupils are interacting with others, including new people they may not have communicated with before, expanding on their confidence levels. As well as this they are able to develop identification of moods of others through body language and facial expressions, building on their empathy for those who feel less enthusiastic, simultaneously intriguing those students into cooperation. (D.Farmer, 2015) Dramatic activity is already a natural part of most children’s lives before they start school in the form of make-believe play, enabling them to make sense of their own identity by exploring meaningful fictional situations that have parallels in the real world.
PE motivates students due to high energy encouraged in fun, group activities, not only projecting enjoyment but also team work. PE is often dismissed by many teachers as it involved a lot of preparation, in terms of setting up activities which need equipment or supervision. However, this is an extremely negative way to look at PE, as once pupils find a passion for PE it is unlikely to dwindle. Sparking an interest for a child in a certain sporting activity can encourage a life long hobby.
With pressure to succeed, PE can often take a backseat in terms of priorities and (UKEdChat, 2015) explores the consequences of this as…. For some children, academic work can leave them feeling deflated of confidence and not as good as their fellow pupils. Sometimes this can lead to poor behaviour, lack of effort and a whole range of other things that are a detriment to their school life. But P.E can offer these children an opportunity to shine and show their talent, boosting their self-esteem, showing that they are good at something and that if they try hard they can achieve, which hopefully and most often, will boost their other work. Even those children who really struggle with fine motor skills and sport, can get a massive confidence boost from P.E. To conclude there are no positive outcomes to neglecting PE where the pupils are concerned.
Music is often taken for granted, everyone who has access to music listens to it regularly through TV, radio, advertisements, performers, on phones, laptops etc due to the technological revolution it is subconsciously constantly on our minds, if we are not listening to it, no doubt we are probably thinking about it or hymning a song stuck in our heads. We don’t wholly realise the extent to what impact of good it has on our everyday lives, it can uplift and change your mood or just compliment it and that is a spectacular thing. Teaching children about the ingredients to forming music does not only help them with understanding things like the name of instruments and what they’re used for in terms of rhythm, pitch, tone, intonation etc but also helps them mentally which (NAofME) explored in their article surrounding the benefits of music in schools. They highlighted aspects such as the following which I found most salient….
(NAofME) ‘Musical training helps develop language and reasoning: Students who have early musical training will develop the areas of the brain related to language and reasoning. The left side of the brain is better developed with music, and songs can help imprint information on young minds.’ Which links to skills such as memory which is a transferable life skill. Students who practice music can have better auditory attention, and pick out predictable patterns from surrounding noise, also recognising these patterns helps in core subjects such as maths.
DT taught features such as mechanisms, cooking, textiles and electronics, children are able to become competent practitioners as it can provide the motivation and context in a modern manufacturing nation. Children are naturally creative and love to design and make as it is a fundamental human activity as it provides rich opportunities for the development of personal skills e.g. co-ordination, confidence, perseverance and positive attitudes to learning. (TDATA) Design and Technology is often one of a child’s favourite subjects. Children like making decisions for themselves and doing practical work. They love creating products that are tangible and they feel exceedingly proud to have done so.
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of creativity, including research sources and ideas to inform understanding into teaching and learning.
It is profound how creative teaching is as a whole, every aspect can be a tool for expanding a child's horizons. Good experiences often shape a child's opinion of the subject, solely based on their initial enjoyment. When I think about creativity, I think inventiveness, imagination, innovation, originality and individuality.
The reasons why pupils choose to study a subject or put effort in depends on how useful they think the subject will be to them – its task value (Eccles (Parsons), et al. 1983). The value of a subject has three components: the importance of doing well in the subject, the inherent enjoyment from engaging in the subject and its utility value – how important it is for a future goal, for example a specific job. Creativity spurs from the child not being frightened to be wrong. When children grow up they tend to lose that creative capacity as we are taught from young that being wrong is a negative thing and the national education systems stigmatise mistakes. All children are born as creative little beings and we as a society are educating people out of their creative capacities. In fact, we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it or “we get educated out of it” because we are too focused on the subject hierarchy, focussing on core subjects and dismissing the importance of foundation subjects in the curriculum.
It is essential to learning that we adopt a more creative approach to the primary curriculum and place creative teaching and learning at the heart of our practice. Government documents encourage a more flexible stance (DfES,2003), by HMI reports which highlight the significant achievements in creative schools (OfSTED,2003) and by involvement in creative partnerships of all kinds, teachers are increasingly finding more innovative ways forward. Yet there is a danger that the development of creativity is viewed as merely as the latest bandwagon or yet another thing to add to schools’ lists of priorities.
In a world dominated by technological innovations, creativity is a critical component; human skills and people’s powers of creativity and imagination are key resources in a knowledge driven economy (Robinson. K, 2001,).
If we are constantly putting obstacles in the way of expressiveness, the motivation to engage in creative behaviour is easily extinguished. We need to want creative power, talent and skill and sometimes we lack or fail to do so on a regular basis in an environment with constant pressure of exams in core subjects, there tend to be too few opportunities for curiosity available. However creativity and artistry can be applied to all subjects, thus preventing us from lacking creativity across the board. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, p.11) Yet we have all experienced schools that fail to teach the pleasure and excitement to be found in science or mathematics for example, or who let routines, timetables and subject boundaries distract from our capacity for curiosity, for enquiry and for creativity itself.
Learning involves asking questions, exploring options and generating and appraising ideas as you take risks and imaginatively think your way forwards and make new or innovative connections. We should be advocating creativity not restricting it as subsequently we are preventing these young people from reaching their full potential.
Reflection upon reading into creativity, justification for the arts and the practical making process and identify the implications for your professional practice and approaches to supporting children in their learning in both your chosen subject area and with reference to supporting creative development.
Through my studies I’ve acquired the knowledge that to teach creatively and promote creativity through your planning you will build in choice and autonomy, relevance, and purpose in an environment of possibility. My reading has enabled me to explore each core subject in more depth and why taking risks creatively is so important in my professional practice.
I chose art as my core subject due to the influence of my stimulus. The practical process began with a lot of research and experimenting, I wanted the process to express my initial ideas but also highlight how I manipulated those concepts to form my journey, in intricate detail, identifying step by step how I got from A to B. Also, I wanted to reinforce the importance of my gallery trip and how that enthused my risk taking and development.
For example, EB Feldman, defending arts education and argued that it should not be about creating artists but about something broader. He suggests arts education can imbue in young people a sense of the satisfaction that comes from working to create something, the ability to use and understand language effectively. It is defended as a means of supporting the rest of the school curriculum and if children are more confident and comfortable in learning the atmosphere can then promote creative thought.
Furthermore, the arts are central to the idea of education being about inculcating a love of learning, of acquiring knowledge. It is no accident that the arts are traditionally connected with the idea of being educated and supporting creative development will only establish interest and enjoyment within the classroom.