Culti vating Voice s through Choice s
Mrs. Angelina Chia
Art Coordinator, Tampines North Primary School
Students trying different ways of mixing colours.
A
lthough students in my classes were actively
participating in the lesson activities, I noticed that
they were actively passive. They were actively waiting
for and following instructions. When asked to generate
their own ideas and think deeper about what they
wanted to say through their artistic expressions, I was
often met with looks of bewilderment. Even during
art discussions, I was asking all the questions. When I
asked if they had any questions or any what ifs, there
was usually silence. I was exasperated. I wondered if I
was silencing them and stifling their curiosity with my
‘well-planned’ lessons.
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Implementing changes
After
attending
the
NAEA
conference in Seattle, I thought
perhaps if I implemented the
choice-based methodology and
designed my classroom to facilitate
for less structured lessons, I could
encourage self-directed exploration,
engender development of personal
ideas and increase engagement.
When I embarked on the change with
two classes of Primary 2s, I thought
it was simply about rearranging the
physical set-up, but as the weeks
passed, I realized that was not
enough to foster the dispositions
and habits I had envisioned.
Although students were excited
about the opportunity to access
materials of their choice, they had
no idea how to manage this new
freedom. Upon reflection, I learnt
that I cannot separate choice from
teaching artistic behaviour (TAB).
TAB is a curriculum that “offers a
clear philosophy and structure to
develop students’ artistic minds
through choice” (Douglas & Jaquith,
2018). This pedagogy is premised on
three major principles:
1. What do artists do?
Considering where and how
artists get their ideas and
express them as well as their
work behaviours.
2. The child is the artist.
Placing the child in control of
their artmaking processes.
3. The art room is the child’s
studio.
Designing
the
environment
to provide access to choices
and support construction of
knowledge.
The
goal
of
a
TAB-Choice
curriculum is to help students
reach independence. Therefore, I
sat down with the students and had
them talk about where they thought
artists could get their ideas for
their artmaking and I was amazed
by their depth of thought.
With that data, I designed the task
– Landscape Collage. Referencing
Lim Cheng Hoe’s Singapore River,
I had my students create their
own creative interpretations after
giving them a brief introduction
to some watercolour techniques.
After putting specific classroom
routines in place, I started giving my
students access first to a range of
five materials and added material
progressively until they had full
access to a variety. In addition to
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