‘Over the next decade Australia should aspire to improve outcomes for all young Australians to become second to none amongst the world’s best school systems’. Shape of the Australian Curriculum – A world class curriculum – Competing in the global economy on knowledge and innovation 1

Shape of the Australian Curriculum The Arts: draft Shape Paper 2

Sensory, cognitive, affective: to perceive, imagine, creative, feel To be ‘taught distinctly’ with a recognition of their ‘connectedness’ Introduction of the stands of generating, realising and responding that purportedly lead to ‘aesthetic knowledge’ 3 Rationale /definition for the Arts

A psychologistic view of the arts that reduces the value of the arts to the psychology and feeling of the student Reductive – retreats to an outdated modernist view of creativity in the arts Shows no interest in the outcomes of practice–ie art objects and how these create mental demands on students 4 Rationalefor The Arts

The Artforms/Definitions: Dance Drama Music Visual Arts Media Arts Core Extension Specialised learning (from Year 9-12 in one or more of the artforms). 5

Definitions of the artforms 6 Incoherent Inconsistent Are not sufficient to function as a basis for artistic practice and development in the visual arts (with the strands)

Organisation of the Arts Curriculum The Strands Generating Realizing Responding Are intended to regulate commonality and comparability in language and structure across the Arts ‘primary organisers’ ‘experiences’ ‘interconnected processes’ ‘may occur simultaneously’ 7

The Strands Generating: an impulse… using the elements of the artforms, imagining, designing Realizing: managing the materials, instruments and media to communicate to an audience Responding: apprehending and comprehending THESE STRANDS CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR DEVELOPMENT N THE 8

The Strands Provide NO answer to the concept of development in the visual arts/other artforms 9

Arts learning K-12 The strands (purportedly) provide the organisational principles from which to identify development in each of the artforms in each stage of schooling – K-2 – Years 3-8 – Years 9-10 – Years

Is not sufficient to function as a basis for practice in artmaking and critical/historical studies Provides no account of how understanding, actions and judgement are developed and intentionally employed in the visual arts Provides no basis for conceptual development, relational thinking or the development of artistic understanding at any stage of schooling Belies the importance of knowledge of the domains of art in education 11 Visual Arts Learning

Does not assist in how content could be selected at any stage of schooling: no sense of a developmental sequence Does not anticipate how assessment could be negotiated, except in the most superficial or banal of ways Makes it difficult for teachers to intervene because psychology and ‘processes’ are disengaged from a social context 12 Visual Arts Learning

Cognitive development Learning is not simply a matter of more ‘experience’ Learning can be explained as a shift towards an increase in reflective autonomy as students develop an increasingly coherent point of view about art in artmaking, art criticism and art history 13

14 Proposal of 2 hours per week for the Arts K-8 (omitted from the Shape Paper) Thus, for Visual Arts roughly: – 25 minutes per week K-8 – 13.5 hours per year K-8 – Or 150 hours over K-8 – No provision for maintaining the Mandatory Visual Arts 100 hour course is Years 7-8 Time

What would you and your students miss out on were this proposal accepted? What is missing from ACARAs draft Shape Paper? 15

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The draft Shape Paper should be rejected – on the grounds that it fails ACARAs own principles and guidelines for the development of the (Australian Curriculum Shape of the Australian Curriculum, p.8). 19

The draft Shape Paper does not: Make clear what is to be taught, what students should learn and offers no direction on knowledge, understanding, skills and values that can be expected as a consequence of learning Assume high standards of students Identify a concept of development in the visual arts or other artforms. Thus it is unable to propose meaningful learning at each developmental stage of schooling – from foundational learning to how expertise is developed Provide understanding of the traditions/histories/practices in the Visual Arts/other arts or future trajectories in the Visual Arts that are likely to be part of students’ futures. 20

The draft Shape Paper does not: Capitalise on current time arrangements or acknowledge the time required for deep learning to take place in a practice (time is not declared in the final document) Account for the complexity of ideas that form the body of knowledge in the visual arts (due to its preoccupation with process) Provide consistency with other learning areas Value professional subject knowledge Provide a base from which teachers can systematically analyse and reflect on their teaching practice. 21