COURSE NUMBER : SC 110

COURSE TITLE : TEACHING OF ARTS IN ELEMENTARY GRADES

WEEK 3

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOME

 Provide an elementary school art teaching guide designed to foster an art experiences
that stimulates visual awareness, personal expression, self-evaluation , and ease of use
of art media

STUDENTS LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Familiarize yourself with how and why visual art has been taught in the Philippines in
the past decades
2. Gain cursory knowledge of the arguments in favor of having art subjects in the
curriculum
3. Become familiar with the issues facing Art Education in the country today

LEARNING CONTENT: TEACHING OF ARTS IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES

A. INTRODUCTION
As future teachers in the field, you are expected to have a competent
grasp of the various skills required to produce works of visual art in a variety of
contexts and with a variety of materials. This text meant to guide the learning of how
to teach to others-particularly –children – what you already know.

B. LESSON CONTENT

A short History of Art Education in the Philippines

Santiago (2013) defines Art Education in the country as being comprised of three
distinct periods:

1. The Experimental Period ( 1915-1935 )- During this time, Art Education was
primarily drawing ( It was literally called “ Drawing” in the curriculum ), where the
students learned via imitation, and the instructional methods were “dull” and
authoritarian. Early attempts were made to correlate drawing with other subjects,
such as English, industrial works, and language.
2. The New Movement ( 1935-1950 ) – Vicente Dizon is credited by Santiago with
starting the New Movement in Art education, characterized by a growing
understanding of a desired philosophy for teaching art not only in the elementary
grades, but also in high school and college, and an increasing practicality in the
teaching of art.
3. The Newer Movement ( 1950-present )- It was in 1950 that “Drawing” became “ Art
Education” and when Pablo Victoria, an art professor at the then Philippine Normal
College, pioneered integrating art with other subjects in the curriculum. His 1959
book, Art in the Elementary School, clarifies and elaborates on the role of both
teachers and learners in art education.

Benefits of Art Education

1. Working in the arts helps learners develop creative problem-solving skills.

2. Teaching through the arts can present difficult concepts visually, making them more
easy to understand.
3. Art instructions help children with the development of motor skills, language skills,
social skills, decision-making, risk-taking, and inventiveness.
4. Visual arts teach learners about color, layout, perspective, and balance: all
techniques that are necessary in presentations (visual, digital) of academic work.
5. Integrating art with other disciplines reaches students who might not otherwise be
engaged in classwork.
6. Art experiences boost critical thinking, teaching students to take the time to be
more careful and thorough in how they observe the world.
7. The arts provide challenges for learners at all levels.
8. Art education connects students with their own culture as well as with the wider
world.
9. Young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days
each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for
academic achievement, to participate in a Math and Science fair, or to win an award
for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate (Health, Soep, and
Roach 1998).
10. Greater arts education leads to fewer disciplinary infractions and higher attendance,
graduation rates, and test scores (Missouri Alliance for At Education 2010)
 ISSUES IN THE PHILIPPINE ART EDUCATION

Problems in Artistic Values

1. Teacher Issues It should come no surprise that teaching as a whole is not the
carrier of choice for a majority of Filipinos, with many of its
practitioners a victim of the ‘’mag-teacher ka na lang! mentality
in the culture. Alongside this, art educators in the country face a
number of self-esteem issues, expressed through statements like
“I’m not talented enough to be a real artist” or “ There’s no
money in the arts, so I teach in order to make a living. Perhaps
the biggest, most immediate issue when it comes to art
educators is the lack of good training. Teachers by training are
specialists, but upon being deployed in the field – often due to
economic reasons – they are often called upon to teach subjects
outside their specialization, leading to half-baked (“hilaw”)
teaching. Anecdotal evidence abounds teachers who had teach
art despite of having zero exposure to art activities since
childhood.

2. Art as a Subject Perhaps because of its initial, utilitarian roots as “ drawing” art in
the curriculum is still often viewed as a “subject” rather than an
avenue for self-expressions. This results in a teaching of art that
is overly academic. Focusing on facts about art rather than on the
practice and creation of art.
3. Student Discipline Many students struggle with motivation issue due to an
unnecessarily vicious cycle of criticism family, peers, and ill-
equipped teachers, thereby limiting their willingness to invest
the hours needed to master the skills needed to create art.

Another issue is noted by many teachers is the lack of student

respect toward art materials. Wastefulness, neglecting to store
materials properly, and a lack of a general sense of order and
cleanliness both while after working are all sources of great
frustration for art educators nationwide.
4. Art as a Luxury The popular public view on art in the country is that it is a luxury
–“pangmayaman lang yan”-nice to have, but nonessential to the
average working Filipino. Art is considered the privilege of the
elite –those who do not have to actually work for a living and can
therefore devote the time, energy, and money needed to
participate in artistic endeavors. Consequently, art is among the
lowest subjects in terms of priority when it comes to issues of
budget, time, resource allocation, etc.
Materials, Resources, and Workspaces

1. Limited Materials Due to lack of adequate support, art materials are scarce in the
average classroom, with art educators relying on the students
themselves to provide the necessary art supplies the class
requires.
2. Workspaces Related to the previous problem, many schools have no
dedicated space for art classes, let alone extracurricular artistic
pursuits. Students must make do with regular classrooms ill-
suited for the purpose. As a result, some forms of artistic
expression simply cannot be explored, particularly those that
require more than one class meeting (e.g, painting on canvas,
sculpture carving, etc.), as they raise issues concerning cleanup,
storage, maintaining the integrity of unfinished student work,
and so on.
3. Management Issues Related to the lack of student respect for art materials and
spaces, there is also a severe lack of awareness as to how to
manage and organize an art class in order to maximize learning
and ensure student’s safety. This is especially important during
art activities that involve sharp objects, like carving and
sculpture.

C. TEACHING-LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1. Reflect on your Art subject back in your elementary years. What was good about it?
What could have been better? Which issues among those discussed above did you
witness?
2. Did your being exposed to Art in your elementary and maybe high school education
influence your desire to pursue a career in Art Education today? If yes, what was it
about your early experiences with art that influenced you? If no, what experiences
outside of the art classroom inspired you to pursue Art Education now?

D. ANALYSIS

Imagine you have the freedom to teach Art in whatever way you wish to a fourth grade class,
but you have only three months to teach, and the only art materials you have access to are
those commonly found in an educational supply store. What would you teach and in what
sequence? What strategies and activities would you use to teach?

F. ASSESSMENT

Imagine having a student with great artistic talent but does not have the support of his or her
family since they believe that his or her artistic pursuits are a waste of time and money. How
would you convince them otherwise?