Abstract and Rationale
This research project aims to address an important aspect of providing effective teaching and learning in primary school education. As we move away from more traditional methods of educational practice towards a more student-centred approach, it is important for the students to be focused, engaged and enjoying learning, so that it is a positive experience and they can become enthusiastic, independent, lifelong learners (Kindekens et al., 2103). In regular classrooms, this seems difficult to achieve for many students. Whereas, in a specialist Art's classroom, where the same students are engaged with Art making, focus, engagement and the resulting positive behaviour, seems to occur naturally. This research project aims to explore this notion and will be an inquiry into how the positive effects on student wellbeing of engaging with the Arts can be utilised in a primary school classroom context. A/r/tographic methodology will be used to explore and analyse the human experience of engaging with the Arts and the possibilities for implementing this to enhance student focus, engagement and wellbeing in the classroom. The rendering of contiguity will be particularly relevant to this research as it explores the spaces in between the Art making. Living Inquiry is also an important rendering, around which the research will be framed as it provides access to the complex relationships that exist between the Art form, the Art making, the Art maker and the space in which this occurs. The implications of this research project are significant to the context of Australian Primary School education, as the positive effects of implementing an Arts-based classroom practice afford students the ability to access much more effective learning and far greater social and emotional functioning. This will be beneficial to students, school communities and society as a whole.
Scope and Sequence
Significance
“A sustainable state of positive mood and attitude, resilience, and satisfaction with self, relationships and experiences at school. A student’s level of wellbeing is indicated by the degree to which the student demonstrates effective academic and social and emotional functioning and appropriate behavior at school” (Noble & Wyatt, 2008, p.21, as cited in Kindekens et al,. p.1982).
As is now well recognised in the field of education, focusing on the whole child is an extremely important basis for effective education. When student’s are at an optimal level of wellbeing, they are able to become responsible, self-directed learners that not only enjoy learning, but also achieve better academic outcomes.
Limitations
The parameters of the research will be limited to a primary classroom context as that is where the original observations that inform this project occurred. The possibilities for exploration of the considerations in regards to resources, physical space and time will be informed by this.
The similar age and backgrounds of the students in the observed Grade Three class will also be a limitation for the results of the research. Ideally, if ethics allowed, the research would be conducted with a broad range of students from varying backgrounds, cultures, ages and locations.
Timeframe limitations may also prevent the Art forms being explored as rigorously as would be desired.
In conducting the research for this project, I will explore the aims A/r/tographically, using some of the key tenants, particularly Contiguity and Living Inquiry to inform the research. The results will be analysed through the reverberations that arise from the research and will be framed through the metaphor of The Space Between the Ground and the Clouds. This represents the spaces between the Art Making, where the human experience occurs. That ineffable feeling that we are able to access through engagement with the Arts; completely focused and connected to something outside or within ourselves, simultaneous calm and elation. Access to that element of the human experience and its effects on student focus, engagement and positive behaviour is what this project aims to explore and analyse. The research will be conducted via experimentation with possible Art activities that could be implemented in a primary classroom context. It will be necessary to explore these in relation to the physical space and time in which the activities will occur, wether it is separate to or embedded within the regular learning space. These experimentations will be further explored and supported with literature around the effect of the Arts on student wellbeing. Due to time frame limitations, it will only be possible to focus on two of the Art forms, Visual Art and Dance.
‘The Space Between the Ground and the Clouds’
‘Living Inquiry’
During my recent placement, there were many students that struggled with behaviour, focus and anxiety in the classroom. However, when they were in their specialist art class and engaged in art making, these things improved dramatically. It left me wondering how this positive effect of engaging with The Arts could be transferred to the classroom.
Therefore, the aim for this inquiry will be to explore how The Arts can be used in the classroom to enhance student focus, engagement and wellbeing.
1) What is the literature to support this theory?
2) What would using The Arts to increase focus, engagement and wellbeing look like in the classroom?
3) How can The Arts be used to increase focus, engagement and wellbeing in the classroom, while still meeting the expectations of curriculum, parents, school and community?
The Aims
Artwork 1 - Each student painted their palm in a way that represented the Australian Aboriginal Flag and then placed their handprints on a whole school window mural for Reconciliation Week. The school is located on the land of the Bunorong People of the South-Eastern Kulin nation, so Bunorong was written as a stencil and the children’s handprints made up the form of the word once the stencil was taken away. The student’s loved the concept and also the sensory experience.
Artwork 2 - Students used Posca Pens to decorate leaves in a pattern inspired by a whole class reading of the book Birrarung Wilam, written by Aunty Joy Murphy and Andrew Kelly and illustrated by Lisa Kennedy. The students then wrote their hope statement for reconciliation on the back of the leaf.
Artwork 1
Artwork 2