Pre-Service Visual Arts Education in an Australian Context

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The role of the artist as concept and practice is one way that mobilises the formation of knowledge in the visual arts. The development and design of authentic visual arts curriculum in the primary school setting addresses the role of the artist as discourse of the field. This paper reports on a Visual Arts Education pre-service primary teacher program. Pedagogical approaches toward developing knowledge and understanding in art teaching are grounded in modelling the conceptual and practical dimensions of artists’ practice. Pre-service teachers are inculcated into mapping the conventions, strategies and procedures of art practice and draw on this research to develop Visual Arts learning activities for children. The development of representational knowledge and skills in children involves consideration of the intentions of artists and how they develop relationships with audiences, subject matter and properties of artworks. This conceptual ‘tool kit’ represents a framework for generating and structuring explanations of visual arts content and provides pre-service teachers a means for sequencing learning in Visual Arts curriculum towards the development intellectual autonomy.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy; Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity

Paper: Pre-service Visual Arts Education in an Australian Context

I am a Lecturer in Professional and Educational studies in the School of Education at ACU National. I develop and implement teacher education units within graduate and post-graduate primary and secondary programs. My research interests are formulated around the discourse structures that assemble the conditions of knowledge and practice in education.

Dr Karen Maras is a lecturer in Visual Arts Education in the School of Education NSW, ACU National. She specialises in teaching curriculum design, assessment and evaluation in art education in teacher education courses. Karen has also worked in curriculum development at state level after a 12 year period of teaching in the secondary school context. After completing a Masters of Art Education at University of New South Wales, Karen’s further work at doctoral level focuses on the cognitive dimensions of aesthetic understanding and critical development in art. She investigates the nature of children’s beliefs about pictures in art and how these can be mapped in the reasons children give for picture meaning and value.