What good are the arts?


Week One Lecture
What I gained from this lecture:

An understanding of the relevance of the arts

Being introduced to lecture one with an activity related to ‘What good are the arts’ reiterated to me the purpose of the unit. It allowed me to critically reflect on last semester’s subject material and further, appropriate resources. By the end of the activity it was again clear to me the importance of Creative Arts. I recalled on Sir Ken Robinson (2006) for inspiration in this task. He challenged the education system in a way that others haven’t, claiming that all children have tremendous talent, but the education system squanders them (Robinson, 2006).  "In classrooms all over the world attention to the arts is not on the same level as attention paid to literacy. Sir Ken Robinson (2010) believed that “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it as the same status” (Robinson, 2006).  The Creative Arts allows children to openly explore old and new concepts through developing, creating and reflecting, which are that processes that provide students with the tool for higher order thinking (video). This development of the mind is beneficial to all KLAs

The activity completed in this lecture was beneficial not only to my learning,but can also be adapted into my future classroom. It provides students with a basic structure using core elements of the arts, yet is open to interpretation and can be manipulated according to prior knowledge of various individuals working collaboratively.  The task involved taking a broad concept, such as; ‘What good are the arts’ and using a single or a range of techniques within the arts (such as songs, poems, sculptures, still images) to portray the concept in small groups. Working in small groups is important as it lowers anxiety and allows many ideas to be brainstormed and then developed. Once content has been decided, a performance takes place. A result of this demonstrates a broad scope of prior knowledge on the topic and different representations of this knowledge.


Reference List:

Robinson, K. (2006). Schools kill Creativity. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

The Arts Define US. (2010). Can you define the Arts?. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V46fIWZUZQg