teaching hub
VCE UNIT 3
ART CREATIVE PRACTICE
Teaching is fundamentally about relationships, where we come to know our students as individual human beings.
In sharing our passion and understanding of a subject with students, we may need to use judgment and flexibility in how we present and transfer knowledge and share ideas. Whilst we live in a current climate of high stakes testing and the definition of ‘success’ being a contended topic; I feel that we can remain genuine and achieve long-term impact by focussing on a students’ intellectual curiosity and have the courage to address questions and content beyond the intended lesson plan if needed. The process of teaching and learning should extend beyond the classroom and structured academic success, therefore having an open mind when planning for classes may be vital in supporting each individuals’ potential as a student and as a creative practitioner.
bloom's taxonomy
Utilising Bloom’s Taxonomy can be a beneficial tool for teachers in planning and considering all levels of thinking that include higher-order thinking in lessons and planning unit curriculum content (Conklin, 2005). Bloom’s Taxonomy can be utilised by teachers to develop a line of questioning as a pedagogical tool. As art and design teachers, it is integral to note that ‘creating’ is the highest form of thinking and behaving in the taxonomy hierarchy due to its inductive nature, a more complex cognitive task than utilising deduction to evaluate (Conklin, 2005). Here are some useful resources in understanding Bloom’s Taxonomy and how to incorporate them into your classroom:
Wiggins & McTighe (2011) suggest using backward design as a useful process for establishing curricular priorities. The pedagogical approach of backward designing is designing from the end outcome with the aims of teaching for understanding and the transfer of learning, wherein big ideas and important understandings are referred to as ‘enduring understandings’ (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Many teachers may feel frustrated that they cannot look into their students’ brains to see what has been learnt, however with learning being covert in nature- Tyler (1949) argued that creating clear objectives of what teachers could clearly ‘see’ and hear’ would help with this. Furthermore, Tyler (1949) suggested that teachers focus on a student’s learning at the conclusion of an instructional sequence, rather than solely on the lesson’s content. This emphasises the benefits of a backwards design approach and the concept that knowledge brings us to the content itself.The backwards design strategy considers that certain knowledge is deemed important but is given lower priority in lessons, units, or courses, however knowledge and skills at this level are crucial for students to acquire, encompassing essential facts, concepts, principles, processes, strategies, and methods necessary for their future application (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011).
backwards design & uBd
“Our lessons, units & courses should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities....Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results… in short, the best designs derive backward from the learnings sought.”
(Bowen, 2017).
TEACHING STRATEGIES
The following questions embedded in the acronym W.H.E.R.E.T.O. can be used as a scaffolding teaching strategy when planning and delivering content using backward design: (Source: Sahinkaya, 2014).
Identifying Desired Results
In considering the goals for teaching a unit, Wiggins & McTighe (2011) provide a useful process for establishing curricular priorities. They suggest teachers ask the following questions as they progressively focus in on the most valuable content:
1. What should students hear, read, view, explore or otherwise encounter?
2. What knowledge and skills should students master? Sharpen your choices by considering what is “important to know and do” for your students. What facts, concepts and principles should they know? What processes, strategies and methods should they learn to use?
3. What are big ideas and important understandings should students retain? These choices are the “enduring understandings” that you want students to remember after they’ve forgotten the details of the course.
4. What will the students (not the teacher) be doing in this lesson, recalling and showing understanding (lower) or analysing and evaluating to create a product (higher)?
5. Will students be expected to respond with specific, known answers (lower) or will they be asked to generate original thought (higher)?
6. Have you created opportunities for the transfer of learning (Just because a student knows something doesn’t mean they understand it- how can they show what they know? How can they transfer this knowledge?)
visual arts teaching resources:
