How do Expressive Arts relate to the four purposes of the new curriculum in Wales.



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“Children are not blank slates upon which we can slab methods and plans, but particular individuals who bring their lives with them into the classroom, who are not empty vessels, but bodies composed of memories, beliefs, values, and experiences unconsciously and consciously imbedded in their internal geography.” (Higgins,2012).
The expressive arts combine the visual arts, movement, drama, music, writing and other creative processes to build deep personal growth and community development. The early years of learning in an educational environment consist of exploratory play while using the arts. In school’s children have access to different learning areas that are already set up within the classroom for children to use and move around, these areas include, art, drama and dress up, areas to dance, a reading/storytelling space, and music area. The arts help encourages social, emotional, mental, and physical development. Expressive arts are the practice of using imagery, storytelling, dance, music, drama, poetry, writing, movement, dream work and visual arts in an integrated way to foster human growth, development, and healing. Expressive arts are based on the premises that each human being is inherently creative and infused with the gift of imagination. Expressive arts are holistic and is rooted in a humanistic perspective.

Donaldson has proposed that the new curriculum for Wales be developed based on four core purposes, so that children and young people develop as:

·         ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives. 

·         enterprising, creative contributors, ready to play a full part in life and work. 

·         ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world.

·         healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.

Expressive arts can be used to help encourage the four purposes, healthy, confident individuals is about building up mental and emotional well-being by developing confidence and empathy. “Through expressive arts educators gain essential information about a child’s true feelings that he or she would not otherwise reveal and are provided an avenue for learning about the child in a non-threatening way” (King & Schwabenlender, 1994, p. 13). Healthy, confident individuals is also about gaining knowledge on diet and exercise and how it effects physical and mental health. Expressive arts sessions can also relate to these, through using movement and dance. Ambitious, capable learners is about children building up a range of knowledge and having the skills to connect and apply the knowledge in different context and questioning and solving problems. This could be done through role play, imagination, dress up and drama to play out real life situations. Ethical, informed citizens is about children forming their own views, making choices, and acting upon them, and becoming a respectful, diverse member of society. Again, expressive arts such as drama, role play, and debates can help children to achieve this though having the opportunity to act out and discuss their feelings and opinions. Lastly, enterprising, creative contributors is to encourage children to create ideas and products, think creatively and problem solve, learn team working skills and express ideas through different media. Children can use expressive art in the form of creative writing, drama, art, and imagination to achieve these goals.

In Donaldson’s successful futures curriculum for Wales, expressive art is also one of six Areas of Learning and Experience, along with health and well-being, humanities, language, literacy and communication, mathematics and numeracy, and science and technology. There are many pieces of research that show Expressive art in education is very beneficial. For example, in Hong Kong, researchers carried out a 16-week study using expressive arts to discover the links of drama education to improved creativity, social skills, and overall self-worth (Hui & Lau, 2006, p. 34). The study used storytelling, dramatic play, and puppet making as its main ways of expression. The researchers stated that where the children had extra exposure to the arts, the children showed significant improvement on creative and cognitive tests in comparison to the children’s prior levels.


References
Higgins, H. J. (2012). Educating the emotional self: The role home plays in a child's method of communicating life stories in a classroom space. Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education, 40(5), 451-472.

Gov.wales. (2018). Welsh Government|New school curriculum. [online] Available at: http://gov.wales/topics/educationandskills/schoolshome/curriculuminwales/curriculum-for-wales-curriculum-for-life/?lang=en.

Hui, A., & Lau, S. (2006). Drama education: A touch of the creative mind and communicative expressive ability of elementary school children in Hong Kong. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 1(1), 34-40.

King, R. P., & Schwabenlender, S. A. (1994). Supportive therapies for EBD and at-risk

students: Rich, varied, and underused. Preventing School Failure, 38(2), 13-18.


Comments

  1. Chloe Gardner22 April 2018 at 11:35

    Hi Jo!
    This post has really made me think of drama as a form of expressive arts, something that I hadn’t considered previously. I agree that drama in primary education really can help children to achieve the four purposes of the curriculum.
    I recently read about a study that took place in 2012 and looked into the concept of drama being used to help children to understand literacy and, in particular, fiction books that they read in school. The study focussed on 10 primary school pupils who were under achieving at reading. The children were encouraged to use dramatic performance when reading to help engage in the stories, and 8 out of 10 were no longer classed as ‘under-achieving’ at the end of the 7-month programme. (Adomat, 2012)
    I think that this study links particularly to your ideas about two of Donaldson’s four purposes; ‘ambitious, capable learners’ and ‘enterprising, creative contributors’. Children who use drama when reading are learning to become ambitious and capable as they are seeing the story play out, meaning that they are able to see it in a real life context, promoting engagement. They are also learning to become enterprising, creative contributors as performance is a different form of expressive media that children can be creative through. (Donaldson, 2015)
    Can any of you think of any other specific expressive arts activities that allow children to meet Donaldson’s four purposes?

    References

    Adomat, D. (2012). Drama's Potential for Deepening Young Children's Understandings of Stories. Early Childhood Education Journal, 40(6), 343-350.

    Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Welsh Government.

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