UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANISATION

Regional Experts in Arts Education in the Pacific Nadi, Fiji 25 29 November 2002

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE VISUAL ARTS DISCIPLINE OF THE ARTS IN THE NEW ZEALAND CURRICULUM

Ann Brodie National Co-ordinator of the Visual Arts Ministry of Education New Zealand

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE VISUAL ART DISCIPLINE OF THE ARTS IN THE NEW ZEALAND CURRICULUM
Ann Brodie National Co-ordinator of the Visual Arts Ministry of Education New Zealand

Abstract
This paper presents an overview of New Zealands current process of implementing the new Arts Curriculum in the Visual Arts discipline and a particular focus on the nature of associated national planning and assessment resources. The implementation process involves a government funded Arts strategy, which includes regional and national contracts aimed to support teachers in primary and secondary schools in their teaching of The Arts. National resource and assessment tools have been developed over this first two-year implementation phase ie 2001 - 2002. The New Zealand Ministry of Education website, Te Kete Ipurangi (www.tki.org.nz) holds resource banks for each arts discipline comprising: The Arts Unwrapped learning examples, assessment tools; Arts Online online professional development including forum discussions, planning and assessment formats, pathways and case studies; National Exemplars for levels 1-5 of the curriculum. 1. The Arts Unwrapped is a site on Te Kete Ipurangi where considerable numbers of arts learning examples can be accessed and downloaded by teachers to assist them in their programmes. These examples are closely linked to the Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum document and with the National Exemplars. The Arts Online site builds on the material already available on The Arts Unwrapped site which is being used by many teachers to plan their arts lessons. Teachers can access planning, assessment and administrative resources, and obtain help and advice online. The site is particularly valuable to teachers in rural and remote areas where facilitators are unavailable. Exemplars are examples of student work that are annotated in order to illustrate student learning, achievement and quality in relation to curriculum levels. The purposes of exemplars are to provide teachers and students with examples of student work that show progression in selected areas of each curriculum. They provide reference points that help teachers and students make decisions about the quality of each students learning, achievement and progress. Exemplars highlight features of learning that teachers need to watch for, collect information about, and act on to support progress in learning. They provide information that will assist teachers and students to understand the next steps in teaching and learning in each curriculum area. CD-ROM, online and paper copy examples of National Exemplars and resource materials in the Visual Arts will be shared during this presentation.

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Introduction: A Brief History

The Visual Arts have had a strong presence in New Zealand schools since 1944 when visionary educator, Dr Clarence Beeby, recommended that all children should experience 1.5 hours of Arts and Crafts and of Music in their schooling. The fact that this recommendation was never formally gazetted was fortunately not known, and schools and teachers dutifully followed the recommendation. In association, the Tovey Scheme was developed to train Art and Craft Advisers who assisted primary teachers throughout the country. There are still Visual Arts Advisers based at the Colleges of Education and Schools of Education. They support teachers at primary and secondary schools throughout the country. In 1989 an Art Syllabus document Art Education: Junior Classes to Form 7, was published, along with supporting Guidelines and several videos. In 2000 the new curriculum document, The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, was launched. It includes four arts disciplines forms: Dance, Drama, Music and the Visual Arts, each separately described as a discrete learning area with their own literacy.

The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum

In comparison with the preceding Art Education Syllabus, the Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum document is more in-depth and complex. The most significant difference is that national achievement objectives are provided for each of eight levels of achievement. Teachers are thus given indications of the nature of the learning outcomes expected at each level of the curriculum. Students are required to: learn about diverse art forms from both within and beyond New Zealand developing an understanding of art forms in relation to the tangata whenua, to biculturalism in New Zealand, and to the multicultural nature of our society and its traditions.
The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, p.7

National Professional Development

New Zealand schools are currently undergoing a phase of national professional development in the four arts disciplines. Six regional facilitation contracts and two national contracts are involved. The national Pasifika Contract seeks to empower Pacific teachers to use their own cultural riches in teaching the arts, and the national Arts Online Contract is aimed especially to assist teachers in remote and rural schools. This contract can be accessed on line at www.tki.org.nz.

Books, Posters and Video Resources

Concurrently, resources have been provided for all schools, and more are under development. Resources distributed so far in the Visual Arts include five books with accompanying posters. This series is entitled Exploring the Visual Arts in Years 1-6. It includes books on Painting, Printmaking Design, Fabric and Fibre, and Sculpture. A Mori Visual Arts resource is being developed for Years 7 to 10 and in May 2003 development will commence for a resource on Time-based Art for curriculum levels 1 to 5. Copies of these resources are available from the 2

publishers: Learning Media, Box 3292 Wellington, New Zealand. Freefax 0800 800 570. Email: orders@learning media.co.nz

Online Resources
Te Kete Ipurangi, www.tki.org.nz, the Ministry of Educations website, includes, in a section entitled Unwrapping the Arts, 25 Visual Arts learning experiences for Levels 1 to 5 which can be accessed and downloaded by teachers to assist them with their programmes. These examples are closely linked to The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum document and with National Exemplars. They expand upon the learning examples provided in the curriculum document for each curriculum level. They illustrate teaching and learning activities that provide students with the opportunity to meet the national Achievement Objectives, at each level of the curriculum. Animated Animals an example of an Arts Unwrapped Unit The front page contains a brief description of the unit of work and provides a menu from which related components can be selected. These are: Achievement Objectives and Strands (curriculum links); Planning and Assessment; Teaching and Learning Material; Links (to other Essential Learning Areas and arts disciplines); Glossary; and Exemplars and Case Studies. The Planning and Assessment section suggests possible starting points, possible learning approaches and practical activities for students, with examples of student work done in response to the unit. For this particular learning example, a time-based animation unit, the examples of students responses to the tasks include an animation sequence which can be activated on screen. During 2003 an exemplar containing more examples of student responses to this unit will be available on a CD-ROM.

The Arts Online

This site builds upon the material available on the Arts Unwrapped site. Teachers can access planning assessment and administrative resources and obtain help and advice online. They can participate in live forums where visual arts issues are discussed. This particular part of the Te Kete Ipurangi site can be accessed on www.tki.org.nz/r/arts/artspd.

National Exemplars in the Visual Arts

During 2001 and 2002 National Exemplars have been under development for all seven Essential Learning Areas of the New Zealand Curriculum. CD-ROM, online and paper copy examples of National Exemplars and resource materials will be provided for all schools during 2003. A matrix is being developed separately for each Learning Area and for each discipline of The Arts Learning Area. The matrices function as a navigation tool. The visual arts the matrix contains key words from the national Achievement Objectives which identify stages of progression when related to student learning. This matrix can be applied to each of the separate forms of the visual

arts, i.e. painting, printmaking, drawing, design, photography, sculpture and time-based art. Each exemplar is clearly related to the matrix.

The National Exemplars are examples of student work that are annotated in order to illustrate: student learning achievement and quality in relation to curriculum levels. The purposes of exemplars are to: signal important features of student work to watch for, collect information about, and act on to support growth in learning provide information that will assist teachers and students to understand the next steps in teaching and learning in each curriculum provide students, teachers and parents with a basis for discussing important qualities, aspects or indicators of learning provide reference points that will support teachers professional judgements about the quality of their students work.

It anticipated that students will use exemplars to reflect on questions such as: What should I be learning? What will it look like when I show that I have learned it? How good is good enough? What does progress look like? How am I doing? It is anticipated that teachers will use exemplars as starters when groups of teachers share samples of their students work: to support a professional development programme for enhancing teachers knowledge of curriculum content to promote team or whole-school discussion about curriculum expectations and school achievement to complement and inform the development of local exemplars within a school. The national exemplar project includes student work from all eight learning areas of the New Zealand curriculum. There are separate exemplars for each of the four arts disciplines. The exemplars presently under development will have a use-by date. They will be replaced with fresh material to encourage schools to continue to evolve and refine their approaches to teaching and learning.

An example of a visual arts exemplar at Level 4

Killeen meets Siapo The full colour paper copy version of the exemplar is made up of one central A3 sheet backed by two A4 sheets. The front (A4) page identifies the applicable curriculum level, the particular form of art making and the links to the matrix. It includes links to the curriculum, consisting of a list of the Level 4 Achievement Objectives and the Learning Intentions identified for this particular learning experience. A short description of the learning sequence follows. This contains photographs of the students work at key points in the learning process. The final section is entitled Where to next. This assists teachers to plan for appropriate further learning. The central A3 sheet has an image of the final work of a selected exemplar student. Around the work there are explanations or indicators of the qualities in the work. These are related to the key words of the matrix at Level 4. The back A4 sheet of the exemplar, displays four separate downloadable student responses to the exemplar unit, Killeen meets Siapo.

The present round of national professional development in the visual arts is part of a five-year government strategy to empower teachers to be able to implement The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum throughout the nation.