A Guide to Teaching Art
Introduction
The
purpose of this guide is to help and assist those admirable and brave
individuals who try to teach art to young people with limited experience
or who are just beginning their art teaching career. It might even be
a useful reminder for the more experienced art teacher too! This guide
aims to set out my own approach to HOW to teach art in school and HOW
to put together a programme of study for your classroom.
Too often in education the responsibility for teaching art falls upon the shoulders of people who have limited knowledge of art or of teaching art. Primary School teachers are expected to be master of all trades and deliver the whole gamut of a child's education. Secondary art teachers are expected to be able to deliver a huge range of skills such as ceramics, printmaking, textiles, computer aided art work, 3D Sculpture, drawing and painting.
In addition to this art is often squeezed from the curriculum as endless new initiatives are delivered from central government and the teacher simply cannot keep up.
In the Secondary or senior phase of education in the UK Art education is usually taught in an allocated amount of hours per week. Usually this amounts to about one or two hours per week. In the Primary School, 'specialist' co-ordinator's help to deliver art education in what can usually (though not always) be described as 'best fit' meaning that art is taught as and when it can be.
It is usual therefor to devise a programme of study that encompasses a whole year, or if possible; Key Stage. Since art projects usually take a long time to complete, it is usual to devise a scheme of work for each UK half term or term.
In more rigid subjects such as Maths for example, each unit of work builds on the one before it and/or the previous learning. The progression of students through a Key Stage is secure and teachers know and understand what is to be taught.
In art however, this is not usually the case. Art teachers often prefer to teach intuitively and it is common to see each art teacher, within a department develop their own schemes of work, with little or no unity and progression.
This is a major flaw in my opinion. I truly believe that the Department Head should have a strong structure that makes clear the learning that is to take place over the year and the Key Stage. The individual teacher can be free to adapt this learning into whatever project framework they wish, but the learning objectives should be consistent.
Developing your own Units of Work
It is fairly straight forward to come up with an idea for an Art & Design project. The TV and the Web are full of ideas. You can put a vase of flowers onto a table and ask the students to paint them. You can get the students to copy Van Gogh's Sunflower, and hey presto, you have an art project.
However, what is important is to understand WHAT you are trying to teach and WHAT the fundamental skills are that underpin ART & Design if you are to teach it effectively.
In its most simplistic terms, I believe that teaching Art is teaching a balance of these areas:
SEEING in Art: Developing the artists eye.
DOING Art: Developing skills & techniques in Art.
CREATIVITY: Fostering & nurturing creativity.
KNOWING ART: The knowledge and understanding of art.
Teaching Art also involves:
PLANNING: So that you can devise your own art Schemes of Work.
DIFFERENTIATION: Planning and teaching art for MAT students and/or less able.
The art teacher should plan and deliver exercises that provide opportunities for the students to make progress in these areas. You shouldn't try to cover all four areas in every piece of work, but rather aim to provide a balance of these areas over a school year.
The following pages set out in more detail how to teach each of these skills. It will help you to understand how to put together art projects so that you know WHAT you are trying to achieve for your students.
