Visual Arts - NCCA

The concept of balance permeates the curriculum,
with its carefully weighted emphasis on making on
the one hand and looking at and responding on the
other. Such a balance allows students to look within
and beyond, to absorb, to perceive, and to assimilate
concepts and skills, and by so doing to involve
themselves in expressive and receptive dialogue
with the world.
The visual arts curriculum provides structures through
which the students are encouraged to learn about
themselves and the world around them. It is organised
in six strands:
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drawing
paint and colour
print
clay
construction
fabrics and fibre.
Through the six strands, the student is offered the
opportunity to explore qualities and characteristics
of materials, find solutions to design problems,
communicate, reciprocate, and make sense of
experiences.
Strands
Drawing
The visual arts can be seen as a communication
system in its own right. Drawing is central to the
language of art. Mark-making is one of the first
outward presentations made by most young children.
The student who develops confidence in drawing and
gains an understanding that graphic representations
symbolise and convey meaning can enjoy the
multitude of uses of this strand. Drawing can be
employed as a means of expressing and recording
ideas, experiences, imaginings, observations, and
feelings. It may also be possible to interpret and use
such expression.
Paint and colour
Colour pervades the world of the student. Perception
is developed and broadened when the student learns
to focus on the nature and dimension of colour.
Discovering the spectrum of colours, the meaning and
symbolism to be found in colour, and the potential for
Guidelines Mild General Learning Disabilities / Visual Arts / PRIMARY
finding pleasure in responding to and using colour can
provide the student with essential lifelong skills. Paint
is an excellent medium for such investigation. It is a
catalyst for perceptual and conceptual learning.
Print
From footprints in the snow to photography to the
money that we use to the design on the breakfast
cereal box, printing encompasses the life of the
student on many levels. The breadth of learning that
can happen through this strand of the curriculum
is vast. The process of print-making allows for the
exploration of cause-and-effect, pattern, mass
production, understanding of positive and negative,
shape and line, and the creative potential of random
marks. A wide range of techniques can be used, such
as printing with found objects, relief prints, stencils,
rubbings, monoprints, making patterned prints for
wrapping paper, cards, and posters. (See the Primary
School Curriculum.)
Clay
Clay offers the student a range of possibilities. Its
malleable quality renders it ideal for the manipulation
of form and the exploration of texture. In clay the
student can find a springboard for creative expression
that can liberate him/her from the purely conceptual
aspects of the curriculum. This encourages greater
perceptual learning. Clay provides clear opportunities
for the student to learn about features of visual
arts that pertain to the functional aspect of art, the
expressive potential of art, and the importance of the
processes of designing and making art.
Construction
In learning about construction the student is the
architect of his/her own expression. Through this
strand the student learns how things are made, how
they balance, how things fit together, how things
support each other, and how the environment
is affected by architectural planning. He/she is
encouraged to become aware of how some things
enhance our environment while other things detract
from it. The student is facilitated to find personal
expression in constructing, inventing and manipulating
in 3D. The qualities, limitations and potential of a
variety of materials are explored. This strand is ideally
suited to group projects and collaborative learning,
and integrates extremely well with work in shape and
space in mathematics or with work in designing and
making in science.