Expressive Arts and the Four Purposes

Hello Bloggers!



Today’s blog will be asking how can expressive arts sessions relate to the four purposes of the curriculum set out by Donaldson (2015)?

Firstly, what are the four purposes of the curriculum?
According to Donaldson (2015) the four purposes are ‘ambitious, capable learners that are ready to learn throughout their lives’, ‘enterprising, creative contributors that are ready to play a full part in life and work’, ethical, informed citizens that are ready to be citizens of Wales and the world’ and finally ‘healthy, confident individuals that are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society’.

Expressive Arts is one of the six areas of learning and experience recommended by Donaldson. Expressive Arts is a creative area, where children are encouraged to improve upon their talent and develop skills in art and performances. While developing these skills the expressive arts address ‘issues of personal and cultural identity’. Donaldson regards expressive arts as important to education as Smith (2013) argued that art improves educational outcomes, as they inspire and motivate children.

The expressive arts area of learning and experience will include activities such as; Art, Drama, Music, Dance, Film, Digital Media, Visual Arts and Design.

In the successful futures document, Donaldson makes links between expressive arts and all of the four purposes of the curriculum. Firstly, by exploring new experiences and challenging themselves to improve their performance this makes pupils ambitious, capable learners. However, not all pupils are willing to challenge themselves (Linsin, 2015). Linsin also argues that the key to motivating pupils to challenge themselves is inspiration which Smith suggests is a benefit of teaching expressive arts.

The second link that can be made between expressive arts and the four purposes of the curriculum is that children are able to express creativity in a number of ways during this area of learning and experience. They are also able to work collaboratively to create performances or pieces of art. This links to enterprising, creative contributors. An issue with this link is that it can be argued for example by Beaty (2018) that some children will be more creative than others however, Beaty’s study also suggests that people are creative in different ways. Therefore, by incorporating a variety of arts into the curriculum, it will suit a wider variety of pupil’s creative talents.

In terms of creating ethically informed citizens, the expressive arts address personal and cultural issues. According to Donaldson (2015) this allows children to understand their own culture and the cultures of others. Expressive arts will allow pupils to explore difficult issues which will make them more aware of the world around them. However, how will teachers bring together current personal and cultural issues through the expressive arts? In particular, how can teachers address pupil’s personal issues through expressive arts? Psychologists discuss the notion of creative therapy, which is using expressive arts to expressive feelings and emotions (Hobday and Ollier, 1999). Teachers can ask their pupils to show how they are feeling using dance or drama, this will allow the teacher to address the personal issues that their students are facing. Allowing children to express their feelings may make them feel better as they have shown without talking what issues they are experiencing, therefore this can be seen as a type of therapy for children.

Another link that can be made is that expressive arts allows children to express themselves freely and creatively. Pupil’s are also able to perform in front of peers which may improve confidence. However, confidence may be an issue when teaching expressive arts under the new curriculum as not every child in the classroom will be confident enough to perform in front of their peers. One way in which a teacher could work towards developing confidence in their classroom is through ‘silliness’. Harari (2008) suggests that children gain confidence in an environment that they are not taken seriously. In the initial expressive arts sessions, teachers could replicate this and allow the children to feel relaxed around one another. Donaldson (2015) highlights that children enjoy expressive arts and ‘gain personal satisfaction’ and work with others, therefore having positive affects on health.



At University, we were given the opportunity to teach a small group of year 4/5 students from a local primary school all about the Spring Equinox. The Spring Equinox is when the sun crosses the earths equator, there are two equinox every year in spring and autumn. We chose to teach the students about the spring equinox using role play, in pairs they modelled the sun cross the earths equator. This allowed the children to work collaboratively and gain confidence in a new environment with new people, this had an aspect of silliness to make the students feel at ease. By using role play, we were encouraging the students to be creative, they all performed to the rest of the group and contributed their own ideas. We then made Spring Equinox hats with the students, using natural materials that they had collected. The hats allowed each student to be creative and design their own unique hat that they would later model to the class on a spring equinox catwalk. In terms of the four purposes, the students were creative and contributed to the session, they also expressed confidence when performing the role play and taking part in the catwalk at the end. The session aimed to inform the student about something that happens in the world and by using natural material they were more informed about the world around them.

References
Beaty, R. (2018) 'Why are some people more creative than others?', Scientific American, 16/January. Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-are-some-people-more-creative-than-others/ (Accessed: 20.3.18).
Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Caerdydd: Llywodraeth Cenedlaethol Cymru.
Harari, M. D. (2008) Gaining children’s confidence – the judicious use of silliness. Australian family physician. Vol37(6). Pp.394-396.
Hobday, A. and K. Ollier. Creative Therapy with Children & Adolescents. Atascadero, CA: Impact Publishers, 1999.
Linsin, M. (2015) 'How to Motivate Unmotivated Students', Smart Classroom Management, 21/March. Available at: https://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2015/03/21/how-to-motivate-unmotivated-students/ (Accessed: 20.3.18).
Smith, D (2013) An independent report for the Welsh Government into Arts in Education in the Schools of Wales Arts Council of Wales.



Comments

  1. Unknown24 April 2018 at 03:39

    Once again great read there Kirstyn, i believe expressive arts has developed hugely over the past few years but it should be taught only in smaller classes. as they collaborate. A positive of collaboration is that learners are able to achieve a deeper understanding as they learn in small groups rather than working on their own. When learners work on their own they only have a small understanding but with others this understanding becomes clearer. (Johnson and Johnson)

    What do you think, should expressive arts be taught in smaller or larger groups?

    Reference list.
    Johnson, R. T., and Johnson, D. W. (1994). An overview of cooperative learning. In Thousand, J., Villa, A. & Nevin, A. (Eds.), Creativity and collaborative learning (p.2). Baltimore, Maryland; USA. Brookes Publishing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown24 April 2018 at 03:51

    Hi Rhys, thank you for your comment.

    I believe that expressive arts should be and can be taught in any size class. It is one of the six areas of learning and experience that can be taught alongside any subject. The aim of this area of learning and experience is to inspire and motivate children (Smith, 2013). I believe that regardless of class size, working in a group of any size children are able to be motivated and inspired by any number of their peers. One main area that expressive arts looks to improve is confidence (Donaldson, 2015) by working with a smaller class children may feel more confident, however, if children are in a positive environment and feel comfortable talking to and performing in front of their classmates, then the size of the class will not matter.

    Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Caerdydd: Llywodraeth Cenedlaethol Cymru.

    Smith, D (2013) An independent report for the Welsh Government into Arts in Education in the Schools of Wales Arts Council of Wales.

    ReplyDelete

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