["On paper, the state requires dance instruction for students in
kindergarten through fifth grade. But the reform program setting that
ambitious goal has never been fully funded, and many schools offer dance
in just a few grades, if at all." - Todd Silberman, News and Observer,
May 24, 1998]
ARTS EDUCATION K-12
INTRODUCTION
- Development
- Arts education is a collective term that denotes learning and instruction
in four separately distinctive subject areas: dance, music, theatre
arts and visual arts. Therefore, the Arts Education Standard Course
of Study Frameworks and the Teacher Handbook - Arts Education K-12 were
developed by four committees representing each of these areas. Once
all documents were in draft form they were sent to selected representative
teachers across the state, school and central office administrators,
arts departments in higher education institutions, other area consultants
and administrators in the Department of Public Instruction, other state
agencies, state arts education organizations, and individuals who expressed
interest in providing input into the finished product. The resulting
feedback was carefully considered by the committees and changes were
made where they were deemed beneficial. Every effort was made to address
current education and curriculum issues.
- Purpose
- The purpose of these frameworks and the handbook is to suggest what
is comprised in the study of the four K-12 arts programs. They have
been generated to help teachers and curriculum specialists in each school
system develop classes or courses and instructional strategies using
them as a foundation.
- New Features
- Both the arts education frameworks and handbook are significantly
different from prior versions in the following regards:
- There is a strong emphasis on communicating, reading, writing
and, where plausible, math throughout each arts curriculum.
- Integration of learning both among the four arts areas and among
other subject areas is stressed.
- Since the ability to do critical and creative thinking as well
as complex problem solving and to use intuition are inherent parts
of the arts process, importance has been placed upon the development
of these abilities throughout the entire study in each arts area.
- There is a greater focus on knowing about, understanding and appreciating
a variety of world cultures and historic periods.
- The ability to use knowledge, skills and processes learned in
the arts and apply them to other disciplines and to life beyond
school is reinforced.
- Where appropriate in some arts areas, concepts such as conflict
resolution, teamwork, sensibility to and tolerance of others and
their views, heightened perceptual awareness, synthesis of ideas
to arrive at a logical deduction, and work force preparedness are
dealt with as integral aspects of the study.
- Basis
- The revisions are based on the current National Standards for Arts
Education developed by the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations.
These standards describe what every young American should know and be
able to do in the arts. The standards are the basis upon which a national
assessment is being developed as part of the National Assessment of
Educational Progress. In both the revised documents, the goal statements
for each arts area are directly correlated with the national standards.
Where applicable, the standards are noted by number in parenthesis under
each goal statement throughout the document. This will enable users
of this revision to see the relationship between it and the national
standards document. The National Standards for Arts Education may be
purchased from MENC Publications Sales, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston,
Virginia, 22091.
- Format
- The frameworks consist of goals in each arts area developed for the
K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 grade levels along
with suggested objectives.
- In the handbook, the same goals and objectives are further developed
so that conceptual, sequential and student development are readily apparent
for each goal. The goals and objectives are expanded through the addition
of focuses for each objective with accompanying implications
for learning and teaching in the adjacent column. No portion of
the handbook is written in courses, but rather contains suggested concepts
which may be assimilated into classes or courses designed by each school
or school system and taught at the various grade levels. Significant
effort has been made to ensure enough useful information has been provided
but, at the same time, to allow for flexibility with interpretations,
choices and methodologies by school personnel.
- Intent
- The intent of the National Standards for Arts Education along with
the frameworks and handbook is that a comprehensive understanding of
one or more of the arts be accomplished by each student throughout the
K-12 program. These documents describe a thirteen-year program in each
area which would result from effective instruction during each year
from Kindergarten to twelfth grade. The fact is that few students are
able to have such a consistent and comprehensive experience in any area.
It is more likely that individuals may be at different points along
this continuum. The documents for each arts area provide the means to
determine where students are and what studies they may need to pursue
to achieve an appropriate and quality arts education experience at any
given time throughout their tenure in public school.
- Philosophy
- The arts have been part of life from the very beginning. They
have described, defined, and deepened human experience. All people have
an abiding need for meaning-to connect time and space, experience and
event, body and spirit, intellect and emotion. We create art to make
these connections, to express the inexpressible. A society without the
arts is unimaginable.
The arts connect each new generation to those who have gone before,
equipping the newcomers in their own pursuit of the abiding questions:
Who am I? What must I do? Where am I going? Simultaneously, the arts
initiate change, challenging old perspectives from fresh angles of
vision, or offering original interpretations of familiar ideas. The
arts disciplines each provide their own unique ways of thinking. At
another level, the arts are society's gift to itself, linking hope
to memory, inspiring courage, enriching our celebrations, and making
our tragedies bearable. The arts are a source of enjoyment and delight,
providing the "Aha!" of discovery when we see ourselves
in a new way, grasp a deeper insight, or find our imaginations refreshed.
Every generation has been preoccupied with the arts because they bring
us face to face with ourselves, and with what we sense lies beyond.
- The arts are deeply embedded in our daily life, often so deeply
or subtly that we are unaware of their presence. The office manager
who has never studied painting may nevertheless select a living-room
picture with great care. A couple who would never think of taking in
a ballet are nonetheless avid square dancers. The arts are everywhere
in our lives, adding depth and dimension to the environment we live
in, shaping our experience daily. The arts are a powerful economic force
as well, from fashion, to the creativity and design that go into every
manufactured product, to architecture, to the performance and entertainment
arts that have grown into multibillion dollar industries. We cannot
escape the arts-nor would we want to.
- For all these reasons and many more, the arts have been an inseparable
part of the human journey; indeed, we depend on the arts to carry
us toward the fullness of our humanity. We value them for themselves,
and because we do, we believe knowing and practicing them is fundamental
to the healthy development of our children's minds and spirits. That
is why, in any civilization-ours included-the arts are inseparable from
the very meaning of the term ''education.'' We know from long experience
that no one can claim to be truly educated who lacks basic knowledge
and skills in the arts.
- If our civilization is to be both dynamic and nurturing, its success
will ultimately depend on how well we develop the capacities of our
children, not only to earn a living in our complex world, but to live
a life rich in meaning. To achieve this quality of life requires a vital
connection to the arts, which like any subject, demand discipline and
study.
- This document identifies what our children must know and be
able to do as a result of a comprehensive arts education. A mere
nodding acquaintance with the arts is not enough to sustain our children's
interest or involvement in them. The arts will help them discover who
they are, and what is even more important, who they can become.
- Benefits
- Arts education benefits both student and society. Involving the "whole
child" in the arts gradually teaches literacy while developing
intuition, sensitivity, reasoning, imagination, and dexterity. This
process requires not merely an active mind but a trained one. Arts education
helps students perceive and think in new ways. The arts also help provide
and extend meaning. Because so much of a child's education in the early
years is devoted to acquiring the skills of language and mathematics,
children gradually learn, unconsciously, that the "normal"
way to think is linear and sequential, that the pathway to understanding
moves from beginning to end, from cause to effect. In this early mode,
students trust those symbol systems (words, numbers, and abstract concepts)
that separate the person from their experiences.
- But the arts teach a different lesson by often starting in a different
place. The arts cultivate the senses which trust the unmediated
flash of insight as a legitimate source of knowledge. The arts connect
person and experience directly, building bridges between verbal and
nonverbal, logic and emotion-the better to gain an understanding of
the whole. Both approaches are powerful; both are necessary. To deny
students either is to disable them.
- An education in the arts benefits society because students
of the arts disciplines gain powerful tools for:
- understanding human experiences, both past and present;
- teamwork and collaboration;
- making decisions creatively when no prescribed answers exist;
- learning to adapt to and respect others' (diverse) ways of thinking,
working, and expressing themselves;
- learning problem recognition and problem solving, involving expressive,
analytical, and developmental tools to every human situation (this
is why we speak, for example, of the "art" of teaching
or the "art" of politics);
- understanding the influence of the arts and their power to create
and reflect cultures, the impact of design on our daily life, and
in the interdependence of work in the arts with the broader worlds
of ideas and action;
- developing the essential senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste,
touch, and kinesthetics as intellectual, emotional, physical, creative,
and expressive acts;
- analyzing nonverbal communication and making informed judgments
about cultural products and issues; and
- communicating effectively.
- In a world inundated with contradictory messages and meanings, arts
education helps young people explore, understand, accept, and use ambiguity
and subjectivity. In art as in life, there is often no clear or "right"
answer to questions that are nonetheless worth pursuing ("Should
the trees in this painting be a little darker shade of green?").
At the same time, arts in the classroom bring excitement and exhilaration
to the learning process. Study and competence reinforce each other;
students become increasingly interested in learning, add new dimensions
to what they already know, and want to learn even more. The joy of learning
becomes real, tangible, powerful!
- Value of the Arts
- Perhaps most important, the arts have intrinsic value. They
are worth learning for their own sake, providing benefits not available
through any other means. To read Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy,"
for example, is to know one kind of beauty, yet to hear it sung by a
great chorus as the majestic conclusion to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
is to experience beauty of an entirely different kind, an experience
that for many is sublime. Because these deeply felt experiences transcend
our daily reality, there is no substitute for the arts, which provide
bridges to things we can scarcely describe, but respond to deeply. In
the simplest terms, no education is complete without them.
- The arts also contribute to education beyond their intrinsic value.
Because each arts discipline appeals to different senses and expresses
itself through different media, each adds a special richness to the
learning environment. An education in the arts helps students learn
to identify, appreciate, and participate in the traditional art forms
of their own communities. As students imagine, create, and reflect,
they are developing both the verbal and nonverbal abilities necessary
for school progress. At the same time, the intellectual demands of the
arts help students develop problem-solving abilities and such critical
thinking skills as analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. Numerous
studies point toward a consistent and positive correlation between a
substantive education in the arts and student achievement in other subjects
and on standardized tests. A comprehensive, articulated arts education
program also engages students in a process that helps them develop the
self-esteem, self-discipline, cooperation, and self-motivation necessary
for success in life.
- Connections Between the Arts, Students, and the World
- If arts education is to serve its proper function, each student must
develop an understanding of such questions as these: What are the arts?
How do artists work and what tools do they use? How do traditional,
popular, and classical art forms influence one another? Why are the
arts important to me and my society? As students seek the answers to
these questions, they develop an understanding of the essence of each
arts discipline, and of the knowledge and skills that enliven it. This
does not imply that every student will acquire a common set of artistic
values. Ultimately, students are responsible for their own values.
- The affirmations below draw significant connections among the arts,
the lives of students, and the world at large:
- The arts have both intrinsic and instrumental value; that is,
they have worth in and of themselves and can be used to achieve
a multitude of purposes (e.g., to present issues and ideas, to teach
or persuade, to entertain, to design, plan, and beautify).
- The arts play a valued role in creating cultures and building
civilizations. Although each arts discipline makes its unique contributions
to culture, society, and the lives of individuals, their connections
to each other enable the arts disciplines to produce more than any
of them could produce alone.
- The arts are a way of knowing. Students grow in their ability
to comprehend their world when they learn the arts. As they create
dances, music, theatrical productions, and visual artworks, they
learn how to express themselves and how to communicate with others.
- The arts have value and significance for daily life. They provide
personal fulfillment, whether in vocational settings, avocational
pursuits, or leisure.
- Lifelong participation in the arts is a valuable part of a life
fully lived and should be cultivated.
- Appreciating the arts means understanding the interactions among
the various professions and roles involved in creating, performing,
studying, teaching, presenting, and supporting the arts, and in
appreciating their interdependent nature.
- Awakening to folk arts and their influence on other arts deepens
respect for one's own and for others' communities.
- Openness, respect for work, and contemplation when participating
in the arts as an observer or audience member are personal attitudes
that enhance enjoyment and ought to be developed.
- The arts enhance and sharpen one's abilities to inquire and express.
- Because the arts offer the continuing challenge of situations
in which there is no standard or approved answer, those who study
the arts become acquainted with many perspectives on the meaning
of "value."
- The modes of thinking and methods of the arts disciplines can
be used to illuminate situations in other disciplines that require
creative solutions.
- Attributes such as self-discipline, the collaborative spirit,
and perseverance, which are so necessary to the arts, can transfer
to the rest of life.
- The arts provide forms of nonverbal communication that can strengthen
the presentation of ideas and emotions.
- Each person has a responsibility to advance civilization. The
arts encourage taking this responsibility and provide skills and
perspectives for doing so.
- As students work at meeting artistic challenges, they are preparing
to make their own contributions to the nation's culture. The more students
live up to these high expectations, the more empowered our citizenry
will become. Helping students grow in the arts is one of the best possible
investments in the future of our country and civilization.
- Access
- All students deserve access to the rich education and understanding
that the arts provide, regardless of their background, talents, or disabilities.
In an increasingly technological environment overloaded with sensory
data, the ability to perceive, interpret, understand, and evaluate such
stimuli is critical. The arts help all students to develop multiple
capabilities for understanding and deciphering an image- and symbol-laden
world. Thus, the arts should be an integral part of the general education
for all students. In particular, students with disabilities, who are
often excluded from arts programs, can derive great benefit from them-and
for the same reasons that studying the arts benefits students who are
not disabled. As many teachers can testify, the arts can be a powerful
vehicle-sometimes the best vehicle-for reaching, motivating, and teaching
a given student. At the same time, there is a continuing need to make
sure that all students have access to the learning resources and opportunities
they need to succeed. Thus, as in any area of the curriculum, providing
a sound education in the arts will depend in great measure on creating
access to opportunities and resources.
- In this context, the idea that all education in the arts is just for
"the talented," and not for "regular students" or
those with disabilities, can be a stumbling block. The argument that
relegates the arts to the realm of passive experience for the majority,
or that says a lack of "real talent" disqualifies most people
from learning to draw, play an instrument, dance, or act, is quite simply
wrong. Clearly, students have different aptitudes and abilities in the
arts, but differences are not disqualifications. An analogy may be helpful.
We expect mathematical competence of all students because a knowledge
of mathematics is essential to shaping and advancing our society, economy,
and civilization. Yet no one ever advances the proposition that only
those who are mathematically ''talented'' enough to earn a living as
mathematicians should study long division or algebra. Neither, then,
should talent be a factor in determining the place or value of the arts
in an individual's basic education.
- Critical Elements
- Comprehensive arts education programs can make a difference because
they speak powerfully to two fundamental issues that pervade all of
education-quality and accountability. They help ensure that the study
of the arts is disciplined and well-focused, and that arts instruction
has a point of reference for assessing its results.
- The following concepts are critical to consider when implementing
an arts education program.
- Arts education is not a hit-or-miss effort but a sequenced,
comprehensive learning across four arts disciplines, each including
its own skills, knowledge, and techniques. These offer the student
a means of communication and modes of thought and action. Each discipline
also provides rich and complex points of view on the world and human
experience. Each offers analytical and theoretical perspectives,
a distinct history, varied interpretations, as well as innumerable
connections to all human activity.
- All basic subjects, including the arts, require more than mere "exposure."
They need focused time for sequential study, practice, and reflection.
While valuable, a once-a-month visit from an arts specialist, visits
to or from professional artists, or arts courses for the specially motivated
do not qualify as basic or adequate arts instruction. They certainly
cannot prepare all students in a comprehensive way. When children move
beyond the "exposure" level toward proficiency in an arts
discipline, the basic processes of creating, performing, producing,
thinking, perceiving, and responding in one context are utilized in
other curriculum areas. The child who learns reading through one or
more areas of the arts will also improve in reading in other subject
areas. Just so, the child who learns to see with an artist's eye, hear
with the musician's ear, dramatize the playwright's vision, or tell
a story with the body's movement has acquired a tool that can enrich
and enliven all learning, whether in the other arts, other subject areas
or beyond.
- Instruction in the arts must occur through a hands-on orientation
(i.e., students should be continually involved in the work, practice,
and study required for effective and creative engagement in all
four arts disciplines). The arts encompass an expressive, therapeutic
approach to learning whereby psychological/physiological needs of
the whole child are met. Content and process are emphasized for
each child since he or she is viewed as a unique individual.
- Students should learn about the diverse cultural and historical
heritages of the arts. Our culture is a rich mix of people and perspectives,
drawn from many cultures, traditions, and backgrounds. That diversity
provides students with a distinctive learning advantage: they can
juxtapose unique elements of their individual cultural traditions
with elements that have been embraced, incorporated, and transformed
into a shared culture. In the process, they learn that diverse
heritages are accessible to all. Our cultural diversity is a
vast resource for arts education, and should be used to help students
understand themselves and others. The visual, traditional, and performing
arts provide a variety of lenses for examining the cultures and
artistic contributions of our nation and others around the world.
- Significance to Education
- Students should learn that each art form has its own characteristics
and makes its distinctive contributions, that each has its own history
and heroes. Students need to learn the profound connections that bind
the arts to one another and to other core curriculum areas, as well
as the connections between particular artistic styles and the historical
development of the worlds cultures. Students also need to understand
that art is a powerful force in the everyday life of people around the
world, who design and make many of the objects they use and enjoy.
- It is therefore essential that those who construct arts curricula
attend to issues of ethnicity, national custom, tradition, and gender,
as well as to the artistic elements and aesthetic responses that transcend
and universalize such particulars. The polyrhythmic choreography
of Native American dancing, the incomparable vocal artistry of a Jessye
Norman, and the intricate calligraphy of Japanese and Arabic artists
are, after all, more than simply cultural artifacts; they are part of
the world's treasure house of expression and understanding. As such,
they belong to every human being and should be used to develop basic
knowledge and skills in the various arts disciplines.
- Arts education should promote interdisciplinary study; and integration
among and across the arts and other disciplines. Those connections
are of two kinds and should not be confused.
- Correlations, the first kind, show specific similarities
or differences. A simple example is the correlation between music and
mathematics. Clearly evident in the structure of both are such elements
as counting, intervals, and consistent numerical values. More complex
examples could involve studies based on such areas as aesthetics, sociology,
or historic periods, in which texts, interpretations, and analyses about
two or more art forms are compared and contrasted.
- The other kind, Integration, is different from correlation.
Instead of placing different subjects side by side to compare or contrast
them, integration uses the resources of two or more disciplines in ways
that are mutually reinforcing, often demonstrating an underlying unity.
A simple example of integration within the arts is using combinations
of visual effects and words to create a dramatic mood. At a more complex
level involving the study of history, other examples of integration
might be how American theatre in the period 1900-1975 reflected shifts
in the American social consciousness, or how the sacred and secular
music of African-Americans contributed to the civil rights movement.
- Because forging these kinds of connections is one of the things the
arts do best, they can and should be taught in ways that connect
them to each other and to other subjects. Significantly, building
connections in this way gives students the chance to understand wholes,
parts, and their relationships. The high school student of world history
who has learned something about the visual arts of Japan will understand
the politics of the Tokugawa shoguns far better than a classmate who
knows nothing of how the art of Japan reflects that country's core values.
But one point is basic. Correlation, integration, and similar approaches
to learning are first of all a matter of knowledge and competence within
each of the arts disciplines, which must be maintained in their full
integrity.
- Technology is a force not only in the economy but in the arts
as well. The use of technology in arts instruction is meaningful
only to the degree that it contributes to competence, and that
contribution comes through instruction and study. New technologies
make it possible to try out a host of possibilities and solutions,
and obtain information. Success should be measured by how well students
achieve artistic and intellectual objectives, not alone by how adept
they are in using a given arts technology. The use of technology
should increase their ability to synthesize, integrate, and construct
new meanings from a wealth of new resources and information so that
they understand the relationships among technical means, artistic
technique, and artistic goals.
- The development of the problem-recognition/problem-solving
and higher-order thinking skills necessary for success in life
and work should be taken seriously in arts education.
- A comprehensive arts education program should provide a foundation
for educational assessment on a student-by-student basis. One
of the substantial advantages offered by a comprehensive arts education
program is that it combats the uninformed idea that the arts are
an "academically soft" area of study. People unfamiliar
with the arts often mistakenly believe that excellence and quality
are merely matters of opinion ("I know what I like"),
and that one opinion is as good as another.
- The arts are cognitive, they have "academic" standing.
They say there is such a thing as achievement, that knowledge and skills
matter, and that mere willing participation is not the same thing as
education. They affirm that discipline and rigor are the road to achievement.
And they state emphatically that all these things can in some way be
measured-if not always on a numerical scale, then by informed critical
judgment. Although certain aspects of learning in the arts can be measured
adequately by traditional paper-and-pencil techniques or demonstrations,
many skills and abilities can be properly assessed only by using subtle,
complex, and nuanced methods and criteria that require a sophisticated
understanding. Assessment measures should incorporate these subtleties,
while at the same time making use of a broad range of performance tasks.
- What Students Should Know and Be Able to Do
- There are many routes to competence in the arts disciplines. Students
may work in different arts at different times. Their study may take
a variety of approaches. Their abilities may develop at different rates.
Competence means the ability to use an array of knowledge and skills.
Terms often used to describe these include creation, performance, production,
history, culture, perception, analysis, criticism, aesthetics, technology,
and appreciation. Competence demands capabilities with these elements
and understanding of their interdependence; implied also is the ability
to combine the content, perspectives, and techniques associated with
the various elements to achieve specific artistic and analytical goals.
Students work toward comprehensive competence from the very beginning,
preparing in the lower grades for deeper and more rigorous work each
succeeding year. As a result, the experience of the arts matures through
learning and the pride of accomplishment.
- Students should know and be able to do the following by the time they
have completed secondary school:
- They should be able to communicate at a basic level in the
four arts disciplines - dance, music, theatre arts, and visual
arts. This includes knowledge and skills in the use of the basic
vocabularies, materials, tools, techniques, and intellectual methods
of each arts discipline.
- They should be able to communicate proficiently in at least
one art form including the ability to define and solve artistic
problems with insight, reason, and technical proficiency.
- They should be able to develop and present basic analyses of
works of art from structural, historical, and cultural perspectives,
and from combinations of those perspectives. This includes the ability
to understand and evaluate work in the various arts disciplines.
- They should have an informed acquaintance with exemplary works
of art from a variety of cultures and historical periods, and
a basic understanding of historical development in the arts disciplines,
across the arts as a whole, and within cultures.
- They should be able to relate various types of arts knowledge
and skills within and across the arts disciplines. This includes
mixing and matching competencies and understandings in art-making,
history and culture, and analysis in any arts-related project.
- From developing these capabilities, students arrive at their own knowledge,
beliefs, and values for making personal and artistic decisions. In other
terms, they can arrive at a broad-based, well-grounded understanding
of the nature, value, and meaning of the arts as a part of their own
humanity. The following diagram suggests a course of study for arts
education.
SUGGESTED COURSE OF STUDY
K-2 |
3-5 |
6-8 |
9-12 |
Children's Dance |
Children's Dance |
Dance Education |
Dance I
Dance II |
General Music |
General Music |
General Music |
General Music
(1 elective course)
Instrumental Music
Winds
Percussion
Strings
Vocal Music |
Creative Drama |
Creative Drama |
Creative Drama |
Theatre Arts I
Theatre Arts II
Technical Theatre I
|
Visual Arts
(Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Fine Crafts) |
Visual Arts
(Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Fine Crafts) |
Visual Arts
(Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Fine Crafts) |
Visual Arts I
Visual Arts II
Visual Arts III |
- Relationship Between the Teacher Handbook and National Standards
- Every effort has been made to correlate the National Standards for
Arts Education with the Teacher Handbook - Arts Education K-12. In most
cases the curriculum goals have direct correlation with the national
standards. The handbook is correlated with the content and processes
specific to each of the arts and the National Assessment of Educational
Progress for arts education. The matrix at the end of this section visually
shows the relationship of the four arts areas, the assessment areas
of creating, performing, and responding, the content aspects of knowledge
and skills, and the format used for the Teacher Handbook - Arts Education
K-12.
- Content, which may be found under the Focus section of the
handbook, is comprised of two major components of learning expected
of students who participate in the study of the arts. First is knowledge
and understanding about the arts to include the personal, historical,
cultural and social contexts for works. Second is the area of perceptual,
technical, expressive, and intellectual/reflective skills. Both
these components are found in each arts discipline.
- The processes found under the Implications for Learning and
Teaching section of the handbook are comprised of three aspects: creating,
performing, and responding. The first, creating, refers to
generating original art. This may include, but should not be limited
to, the expression of a student's unique and personal ideas, feelings,
and responses. The second, performing and/or interpreting means
performing an existing work, a process that calls upon the interpretive
or re-creative skills of the student. The third, responding,
varies from that of an audience member to the interactive response between
a student and a particular medium. The response is usually a combination
of affective, cognitive, and physical behavior. Responding involves
a level of perceptual or observational skill; a description, analysis
or interpretation on the part of the respondent; and sometimes a judgment
or evaluation based on some criteria which may be self-constructed or
commonly held by a group or culture. Responding calls on higher order
thinking and is central to the creative process. Responses may be oral
and written or conveyed non-verbally or in the art forms themselves.
- As shown in the diagram, "performing" an existing work does
not apply to the visual arts, where reproducing an artist's work is
not central. Visual arts places a high value on first-hand, creative
expression. Theatre sees creating and performing as a combined act often
as a collaborative process among many people. For dance and music, the
processes of creation, performance, and critical evaluation of work,
while all present, often merge.
The relationship between content and processes exists at each
grade level and becomes more sophisticated as students progress from
kindergarten to the twelfth grade. By emphasizing this approach
throughout the teacher handbook, the new handbook and frameworks will
be compatible with both the standards and assessment being used nationally.
NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR ARTS EDUCATION
AND
TEACHER HANDBOOK - ARTS EDUCATION
MATRIX

Revised 1995 |
Arts Education |
|