GrowinG Future innovators - ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative ...

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181 Charman (2005:6)
182 Diamantopoulou (2007:1)
“Get the Message” project
(2010). Photographers:
Judith Brocklehurst and
Georgie Manly, courtesy of
Camden Arts Centre, UK.
#4
PEDAGOGIES
Growing future Innovators: a scoping study
Contemporary arts institutions can
develop innovative and art-integrated
approaches to teaching and learning
that energize and expand curricula…
by devising novel resources and
interesting project collaborations that
interpret, amplify and exceed classroom
agendas and in sophisticated ways.
Learning theory and pedagogical knowledge
is now a specialism of many arts education
curators 181 who, in collaboration with
artists, teachers and young people, are
pioneering new ways of teaching and
learning that embody twenty-first century
learning principles. Just as there has been
a recognizable shift from the educator as
‘the bearer of content’ to ‘educator as the
facilitator of learning’, Adrian Alexander from
SoundHouse sees firsthand that young people
want teachers to take new approaches:
Kids want to learn in different ways. They
want to learn in the here and now. They
want to learn in their own time frame.
They want to learn in groups. They want
to learn socially. And the processes that
SoundHouse are engaged with allow that
discussion to happen; the focus groups,
the kids who have got to come up with
a concept, work it, socialize, evaluate
it, constantly research, use and assign
different tasks, manage their own learning.
All those things create engagement…
In partnership with contemporary art
institutions, pedagogical innovations can be
developed that address broad curriculum
goals and whole-of-school priorities.
“It’s not to say that there aren’t traditional
teaching methods that stand the test of time
and are the most efficient ways of doing
things,” says Adrian Alexander, “but, opening
up the spectrum of ways of expression
and creativity, if that’s what we describe as
innovative, I’d say let’s go for it.”
In this spirit, Tate Britain’s program The Ideas
Factory worked to develop new, effective
pedagogies for delivering the National
Literacy Strategy Framework by facilitating “a
multi-sensory and multimodal engagement
with literacy through the arts.” 182 The
program had been running for several years
before a formal research component was
introduced in 2005-06 and published as The
Tate Britain Ideas Factory Action Research
Project (2007). The study asked “how can
working in collaboration with artists and
writers in schools and the gallery help with
children’s literacy development, particularly
those children who have English as an
additional language?” Over 300 primary
students from grades 3 & 4 were involved