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Independent Research Project - Early Childhood Art Education

My Interest

For my independent research project, I wanted to look into early childhood art education. In my introduction at our first class together, I mentioned that I teach art to 0-5 years old on the weekend. The program was through the city of Surrey and called “Art Explorer”; there was no specific qualification as to who can be an art instructor/teacher but I took it on as I enjoy doing arts and crafts and want to be a teacher. The program structure was open for me to determine the art projects the children would do. All I needed to do was keep the cost of materials low for each project. I would be lying if I didn’t say that during my first class, I felt unprepared as an instructor. There was no theory or approach and direct experience I had teaching early childhood art education. Therefore, hopefully, through my research of early childhood art education, I will learn more about the history and approaches I can do in future practice and also reflect on my prior experience of teaching art to 0-5.

History 

Finding the history behind early childhood art education was harder than I assumed it would be. However, I found that there are three views/orientations/approaches that have influential to young childrens’ art education over the past 50 years: the child-centered (child as creator), subject-matter-centered (child as meaning maker), and society-centered (the child in a cultural context) (Zimmerman and Zimmerman, 2000). There is also the holistic approach to early childhood art education which is tied into Reggio Emilia approach.

For child-centered orientation is when the children’s interests and needs are the detiminer of the content and structure to the curriculum (Zimmerman and Zimmerman, 2000). The teacher is there as a facilitator and to support the children's expression. It is suggested by Gardner (1980) that when adults provide equipment and encouragement, the children’s natural art abilities will show (Zimmerman and Zimmerman, 2000). It is called the progressive approach in Twigg and Garvis (n.d.) article.

Teachers play a larger role with the subject-matter-centered orientation as they pick the content. Zimmerman and Zimmerman (2000) describe it to be “developing children’s capacities for art making, art criticism and appreciation through perceptual-conceptual inquiry ” (p.88) It is also known as DBAE, discipline-based art education which was developed by American art educator, Elliot Eisner (Twigg and Garvis, n.d.). DBAE viewed art as a discipline and  “subject worthy of study itself” (like the other subjects taught in the curriculum) instead of teaching art as a form of creative self-expression (Zimmerman and Zimmerman, 2000, p.89  & Twigg and Garvis, n.d.).

Society-centered orientation, also known as community-based art education (CBAE), links art to human and cultural experience. CBAE includes teachers, students, administrators, parents, community members and artists in the experience of art in a classroom or program (Zimmerman and Zimmerman, 2000). Vgotsky’s social-culrtual theory emphasizes the importance of social interactions with others and this art orientation supports his emphasis. It is stated that educators and psychologists “who advocate that children's drawings are influenced by models available in their culture, including popular culture, and that children often imitate the style of drawings they see around them”  (Zimmerman and Zimmerman, 2000, p. 90).

Reggio Emilia approach occurs in a full day setting with children aged three months to five years where children learn art through it being integrated into the whole school curriculum (Zimmerman and Zimmerman, 2000). The school community is involved in the classroom too. Twigg and Garvis mentioned it to be the most prominent approach amongst early childhood education and professionals as it ‘acknowledges art as a language and recognises children’s use of artistic media as integral to the cognitive/symbolic expression involved in learning” (p.195).

My Take on the Orientations

As I read the articles for my research, many start off with some sort of sentiment and questioning of what is the most effective way to teach art to early learners and the adult’s role. Reading about these three orientations, I feel like I might have partaking in a mix of them throughout my art education journey. As the teacher/instructor, I find the child-centered orientation only possible when there is a longer duration of time for my students to explore. I also think that there would need to be a strong student-teacher relationship where my students are comfortable with sharing their interest and I am familiar with them. With my art program being only an hour long and for 4 sessions, I believe it would be hard for me to approach it with a child-centered lens; and Reggio Emilia wouldn't be applicable for the program. I wouldn’t say my art education teaching is DBAE or CBAE either as I am not teaching my students the decilipine and only sometimes the parents help support their child’s artwork. How I come up with the art projects is that I google and pinterest art inspiration that focuses on fine-motor skills and can possibly engage the students. I would show an example whether it's the print out or my own creation.

This leads me to the next thing I was interested in researching: is it okay for children to copy/mimic the example? Someone told me once that when you show an example, students do not think or get creative therefore it's better to provide supplies and tell them what you would like to see. I think this approach would be hard for young students who might not find themselves to be creative or have had the opportunity to explore art at home. Upon my research, I read about Frances Derham who wrote a book called “Art for the child under seven.” Within McArdle and Piscitelli's article, they shared how Derham  had written a list of “don’t” messages. One of the rules regarding drawing from Derham is “don’t have copying in any form.”  This makes me wonder if copying can be seen more so with direct drawings where we ask students to follow us step by step. When I make an example, I purposely make it in a rush so it is not perfect when I am colouring and/or cutting. I then  provide my artwork as an example of what they can make with the supplies they are given. I do not enforce any requirements and let the students do what they want to do. I think my approach to providing an example is to have students be inspired, not imitate. One notable experience I had with a three year old student who I will call Chloe, was that they would add additional elements that I didn’t even think of adding. For example, when we did an under the sea scene with a paper rolled up fish, I included rocks and seaweed at the bottom of my seafloor. Chloe, she told her mom that she was going to draw coral; I was impressed how she knew what that was and how she was able to connect it to the sea. After that, for my four to five year old student class, I invited my students to draw coral to their seafloor too. Another time, we did a bunny and pipe cleaner whisker with beads (for a fine motor skill element); Chloe asked me for orange paper to cut so she can make a carrot! Of course, I provided her with the paper so she could include a carrot with her art work. My students would also inspire each other and I thought that was the cutest engagement. Kylie Rymanowicz from Michigan State University shares the reminder to focus on the process, not the product which is why I try to include fine motor skills such as cutting, gluing and grip hold. To  focus on the process, it is important to praise the effort as they create their artwork and so they will explore and continue to  put effort in their process rather than seeking approval for the final product (Rymanowicz, 2015)  Overall, I think having students see an example is helpful for a start of their creativity but one shouldn’t force a result to look identical.  

Materials

Reflecting on when we did the activity of brainstorming what comes to mind when we think about materials, it made me think about materials for early childhood art education. I think easy to clean materials is important as I think with creativity, a mess can happen. Working for the program, affordability was important. A tool I created with the material I had was gluing a pom pom to a clothespin for my students to use as dabbers; I was quite impressed with my creativity that day and the students enjoyed using them. While researching, I found the New Brunswick visual arts education grades K-2 curriculum made in 2014. There is a suggested supplies list with consumables and tools. The word consumable was not a word I would have connected to material but it makes sense. The curriculum lists a  variety of materials such as paint, crayon, markers, pipe cleaners etc. This would be important to expose students to so they can explore the possibilities of the materials and get creative, sort of like what we did with paper..

Checklist

In PDP, we are told to fill out a template for our lesson plan that states the curriculum, materials, teacher/students etc. However, many practicing teachers do not do this lengthy planning process daily, it is more so an overview or a weekly thought. Therefore, with my research done, I thought of making a checklist to have when planning art lessons for my students.

Art Lesson: _____________

Theme/Topic/Interest:

Skill/Competency:

Duration:

Display location:

Materials

Consumable:

Tools:

Rationale to the Checklist

Theme/Topic/Interest: this can be child-centered or relating to a story or another subject that they students can relate to or understand

Skill/Competency: this can be fine motor skills, language, number, social, emotional, identity related or using a new material and technique

Duration: to ensure students have adequate time to be creative and not feel rushed; it can take 1-2 day for drying glue or paint etc.

Display location: as mentioned by Zimmerman and Zimmerman, it is important to  “create a classroom environment that is aesthetically pleasing and inspires children's art making” I think displaying their own artwork to show that their work is worthy for everyone to see would be great.

Materials: I separated it to be two sections for consumable and tools so that I can check on the consumable materials if we have it in stock, and tools would be something I borrow and have to clean and prepare for the students.

References

McArdle, F., & Piscitelli, B. (2002). Early childhood art education: A palimpsest. Australian Art Education, 25(1), 11-15

New Brunswick Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2014). Visual Arts Education Grades K-2 Curriculum [Ebook]. Retrieved from https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/ed/pdf/K12/curric/Arts/VisualArts-GradeK-2.pdf

Rymanowicz, K. (2015). The art of creating: Why art is important for early childhood development [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the_art_of_creating_why_art_is_important_for_early_childhood_development

Twigg, D., & Garvis, S. Exploring Art in Early Childhood Education. The International Journal Of The Arts In Society, 5. Retrieved from https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/34998/65037_1.pdf?sequence=1

Zimmerman, E., & Zimmerman, L. (2000). Art Education and Early Childhood Education: The Young Child As Creator and Meaning Maker within a Community Context. Young Children, 55(6), 87–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42728610

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Self-Evaluation and Debriefing

When reading Schön's approach regarding reflecting on one’s internal experience (emotions, intentions, expectations of desired outcomes), it made me think of how I want my students to reflect and debrief their artwork. Aside from the students meeting the  arts instruction methodologies/criteria, I want to hear my student’s aim that they had defined for themselves. Art can be subjective and hard to interrupt without understanding the artist’s aim. Therefore, a part of  my evaluation process would be for  my students to either write or have a one-on-one conversation with me about their thoughts on these questions.

What was your goal for the art project/assignment? (to understand the student’s aim)

Did your finished product meet your goal? Why or why not? (understanding the student’s reflection)

What is your favourite part of your project? What is something you would like to improve on? (for students to rave and rant about what they made)

I can see my questions applying to a wide range of age groups and this gives me insight and understanding of how the student feels about their end product and how I would evaluate via their self-reflection and debriefing with me. I want to try to be objective and not compare my students against each other. For instance, a rave of my students could be that they finished it within 2 hours because they forgot about it; I wouldn’t have known this without the debrief and would be quite impressed by their end product that looked like someone who might have spent a week long on it. Whereas the opposite cna happen where a student said the finished product didn’t meet their goal and it took them a week long to do it. This student might be a perfectionist but from the looks of it, I think they did an amazing job and shouldn’t be hard on themselves. I don’t know if for all my classes’ art work, it would be marked this way, but maybe for more time consuming (3 + studio classes), these questions would be notable to hear students’ reflections.

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Unfortunately, I caught covid during week 11, I noticed after a couple of hours, my test stick shows grey fern like looks  Sean Alward work

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My painting for the Tradition and Emulation - Grade 5 Artistic Tourist Attraction: The Angkor Wat

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Tradition and Emulation

Grade 5 Artistic Tourist Attraction

Reflecting on the question of “What do you consider your home “territory” or sense of place within cultural traditions? What do you know most intimately or feel most connected with?” I think about Cambodia, that is my parent’s home “territory” and a place I have had the opportunity to visit three times. I feel connected to this country as it is the country’s cultural tradition that my parents have shared with me. When sharing about this country that many people are not familiar with, I mention how the Angkor Wat, one of the seven wonders of the world and the largest religious structure in the world, is there. For film lovers, I refer to it as a location filmed in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation which featured Angelina Jolie.

This had me thinking of an assignment where I can have my students answer the question. Or to simplify it for younger children to share a tourist attraction (somewhere you would take visitors to visit) from where their family is from. The big idea of “Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging.” is included in many of the elementary school age curriculum. I would allow my students to choose the style and medium of their choice. If computers are available, I would encourage them to look up art from native artists of where they want to create and use it as inspiration. To make it more cross-curricular, I would have them do research/inquiry about the  history of the place they are recreating through art. We could be going around the world within a gallery walk through this assignment. To be considerate of students who do not know of their family history, they can do a local place that they would take people who are visiting B.C. too.

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Side by side comparison 

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Ta aaaah - my final product ; I chose not to do the signature as it felt like commenting fraud even though we had permission to include it. I was very impressed with my final result and how it compared to the printed one.

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I forgot to do an initial start photo until someone mentioned they were doing progress photo with each shade they did. As you can see, I didn’t sketch much or did many numbers. I chose to go from light to dark as I found mixing the paint and laying it that way being more smooth. 

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I went to randomly select a picture from the middle of the pile and ended up getting my photo; it was a funny moment that many people witness. I then decided to just pick from the top of the pile and this was the image I would be painting. I loved how posterized this image was. It allowed me to work with the whole range of the black and white scale. 

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The grey scale became a bit of a blue scale... my group believe it was due to the paper

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I never heard of paper palettes! This was a cool material to use.

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Fantasy/Practical Lesson plan

Inspired by Yin Xiuzhen - https://art21.org/artist/yin-xiuzhen/

When looking at the Art21 artist page, I was most interested in exploring asian artists as I feel like growing up. The artists that my teachers were inspired by were white, male artists (like Van Gogh etc). I clicked on Yin Xiu Zhen and watched the 17 minute clip about her and her husband, Song Dong, who is also an artist who has a profile on Art21. Yin Xiuzhen was one of China's first female artists to gain recognition in the early 1990s (from Chambers Fine Art) . It was nice watching how their passion for art is weaved into their relationship as they have a collaborative project called the “Way of the Chopstick''. This project started in 2001 and is ongoing The artists believe that chopsticks serve as an ideal metaphor for family: neither one can function, creatively or as parents, without the other (http://www.chambersfineart.com/news/song-dong-yin-xiuzhen-the-way-of-chopsticks). She has another art series that I loved called “Portable City”(2001–ongoing). Yin creates miniature fabric versions of city skylines, housed within the suitcases  to explore the latent memories that used clothing can hold. I appreciate her eye for reusing and recycling items such as clothing.

For my restrictionless assignment plan, I want my students to create their “Way of the Utensil” art piece. This is inspired by what the artist does is set a theme and length and work independently and not tell each other how they are creating the chopsticks. Song says that “chopsticks are a pair of two… they exist independently. But they also work in tandem.” Everyone eats and uses a utensil whether it be a spoon, fork, chopstick, knife or hands.

For example, the artist used a several camera lens connected together to  symbolize chopsticks in 2002. In 2006, there was a beige chopstick with building structures that looks like a city being formed. I want my students to recycle items and create their utensils of their choice and find a classmate whose choice in utensils would work in tandem. For example, a fork and knife work in tandem when cutting meat. For those who chose hands, there would be a left and a right hand creation. I would have my students establish the sizes they want and they would work separately from their pairs. Therefore there would be two large studio spaces.  After the art display is done and created, I would love to have a potluck with my students where we bring food that would have us using different utensils and enjoy a meal together.

For the second time around, I would set the size limit to my students to be no more than half a  meter large/long (50cm) as it would be hard to store all the utensils in a realistic classroom space. I would probably set up random pairing for my students so that no one is left out - once they are paired, they can then decide which tandem utensil they want to make. Iit doesn't have to be done secretly as I am confident that my students will be creative in their own manners. (trust in the student’s process)  I would still want my students to use recycle material for the assignment, however if supplies allow and due to the smaller size, i would let them use new material to create their utensil (allowing for choice / no restriction).

Critique/ Revision After sharing my lesson plan with the group, I realized I didn’t attach my lesson to a specific grade or to the curriculum. I think this lesson plan would work for any high school grade level where starting in grade 8 art education, the big idea is “Creative growth requires patience, readiness to take risks, and willingness to try new approaches.” For grade 10, art studio, there is a big idea of “Visual arts offer unique ways of exploring our identity and sense of belonging.” I think with keeping these big ideas in mind, my lesson fits the curriculum.

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My fish from a group presentation activity - I recycled a box and did a tie dye design; i like how the box creases divides the fish into three sections.

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Object, Place and Action 

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Something I have thought about when documenting the reading notes is the quality of how it is documented writing and photograph wise. I thought about re-writing the group notes for documentation sake; but I see that there is a beauty in the “messiness.” With having 5-10 minutes to discuss what we captured from the readings, we chat and swiftly write out what we want to share with our professor and peers. Sometimes, I am the scribe for the group and I find my speed writing takes on its own form. For example, photographed is the word “less” that I wrote with a permanent bullet-tipped marker. I was shocked with how beautiful my s’ came to be! Regarding the poor documentation of photographing the notes, I rush myself to take a photo before I forget to document it which means I do not get the best angle. There is also the rush to take a photo fast so that others can also document it themselves. As we are midway through the class, I am rethinking to take a breather and to photograph the photos neater. However, there is something about being in that 5-10 minute moment and writing and sharing the groups’ learning, discovery, understanding, and questions with the readings that we do that is captured in “scribbles”

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Material Translation Assignment 2/2 photos

Seeing through the “lens” to look at the tree I drew from the first week of this class.