Teaching Art I

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 4. Quality education
• 5. Gender equality
• 11. Sustainable cities and communities
• 12. Responsible consumption and production
• 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

Objectives

Teaching Art I is an introduction to art education: to ideas, materials, and practices of visual arts; and to topics, issues, and cultures of art education. The course offers a framework for students to approach art education in primary and pre-K schools, and offers opportunities to experiment and develop teaching-learning strategies within the field of visual arts. Teaching Art I encourages students to be creative and sensitive to the social and cultural contexts, and to become familiar with current experiences in art education at schools.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes for Early Childhood Education (MEI)

• Show sensibility towards the expression of visual languages. (LO1)
• Employ visual art techniques with accuracy. (LO2)
• Employ visual arts' ressources  for teaching-learning processes. (LO3)
• Communicate knowledge, ideas, methodologies, issues, and solutions clearly and within the frame of early-childhood education. (LO9, LO8)
• Assume different responsabilities in working both in individual and collective endeavors, and is able to assess the outcomes.

Learning outcomes for Primary School Teaching (MEP)

• Show sensibility towards the expression of visual and audiovisual languages. (LO1)
• Know the principles of visual literacy and the language of images. (LO4)
• Employ audiovisual ressources for teaching-learning. (LO7, LO8)
• Structure educational situations to foster creativity and the expression through the arts. (LO6)
• Employ visual art techniques with accuracy. (LO2)

Competencies

General skills

• Establish systemic connections between fields of knowledge.
• Know about, respect and promote basic rights of individuals.

Specific skills

• Acquire basic notions of the construction of knowledge in order to integrate them into educational activities that promote meaningful learning processes.
• Design and plan learning environments and sequences that enable development of the curriculum through adaptation of materials and promotion of play.
• Design, plan and assess teaching proposals for different areas of the curriculum, consistent with theories of learning and encouraging cooperative work.
• Develop and adapt educational resources for different curricular purposes, using information and communication technology as basic tools for learning.
• Develop processes for assessment of learning, individually and in groups, through techniques and strategies of teaching observation and documentation.
• Encourage artistic and creative expression, through didactic proposals to stimulate creativity and sensitivity to artistic discourse and forms.
• Identify and understand the key elements and the general characteristics of child development for educational interventions that address the special needs of this stage.
• Integrate and promote overall practices based on the principles of educational psychology, methodology and education and on a positive relationship with adults and peers in a way that is consistent with theories of learning at this stage.
• Manage learning spaces in contexts of diversity and inclusion, taking into account the needs arising from disorders and learning difficulties, in order to establish appropriate guidelines for intervention in collaboration with other services, professionals and families.

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.
• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.
• Students have developed the learning skills necessary to undertake further studies with a high degree of independent learning.

Core skills

• Be a critical thinker before knowledge in all its dimensions. Show intellectual, cultural and scientific curiosity and a commitment to professional rigour and quality.

Content

Unit 1. Principles of art education in school contexts

• Mapping the field of art education
• How the arts can contribute to education

Unit 2. Key aspects o teaching and learning in art education

• Children's artistic development
• Arts and the creative process: ways of doing, telling and knowing
• Visual literacy
• Contemporary art practices as an educational ressource

Unit 3. Teaching and learning with/through visual arts

• Exploring visual culture and image-making processes
• Exploring artists' ideas, materials and processes
• Exploring the built environment as a place of learning

Evaluation

Students' assessment develops along with the teaching-learning activities proposed in class. The course provides opportunities for students to explore and integrate theory and practice, through diverse tasks and exercises:

• Task on visual culture: 40%
• Task on image-making processes: 30%
• Task on places of learning: 30%

Methodology

Teaching Art I provides practical opportunities for students to integrate theory and practice, through hands-on activities, and students', visiting artists/professionals', and professor's presentations. Attendance and participation is key since the course promotes and understands that the collective experience and co-creation with art's materials, ideas and practices is critical to teaching and learning. Students will work both individually and in cooperative groups, and are meant to prepare in advance the proposed readings/videos/ressources that will be discussed in class sessions.

Bibliography

Key references

• Berger, J. (2008). Ways of Seeing. Penguin Classics.
• Eisner, Elliot W (2002). The Arts and the Creation of the Mind. Yale University Press.
• Ewald, W., Lightfoot, A. (2001). I Wanna Take Me a Picture: Teaching Photography and Writing to Children. Beacon Press.
• Hurwitz, A. (2012). Children and their art: methods for the elementary school. Wadsworth.
• Meiselas, S. (2020). Eyes Open: 23 photographic projects for curious kids. Aperture.

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.