Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School... The Arts

Drama, Visual Art, Music and Design

Martin Fautley, Jonathan Savage

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780415550444
• eBook ISBN: 9781136852725
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The school curriculum is a contested arena. There are competing pressures from those who advocate that it should be constructed on a subject specific basis, whereas at the other end of the continuum is the stance taken by this book, that learning, and especially learning in the arts, can transcend artificial boundaries between subjects. This book sets out a case for cross-curricular learning involving the arts in secondary schools.

Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School...The Arts argues for the development of a new, skilful pedagogy which embeds an authentic, cross-curricular approach to teaching and learning in the work of the individual teacher. Teachers are empowered to think about creative pedagogies, and pupils are able to engage in deep learning as a result.

Key features of the text include:

• theoretical examination of key issues
• curriculum planning materials and resources
• a wide range of case studies drawn from innovative practise
• frameworks for assessment and evaluation.

Part of the Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School series, this textbook breaks the boundaries between curriculum subjects and the arts. It is timely reading for all students on Initial Teacher Training courses as well as practising teachers looking to introduce cross-curricular themes in their own subjects.

CHAPTER 1
Introduction: the context for cross-curricular teaching and learning

Key objectives

This chapter will introduce a number of key themes for cross-curricular teaching and learning. By the end of this chapter you will have:

Defined what is meant by a cross-curricular approach to teaching and learning

Thought about knowledge, and considered what knowledge means in a variety of contexts

Reflected on the cross-curricular dimensions contained within the National Curriculum

Considered planning for learning

Begun to think about the role of assessment

Considered the key role of creativity

Reflected on the nature of self and identity

What is cross-curricular teaching and learning?

A cross-curricular approach to teaching is characterised by sensitivity towards, and a synthesis of, knowledge, skills and understandings from various subject areas. These inform an enriched pedagogy that promotes an approach to learning which embraces and explores this wider sensitivity through various methods.

(Savage 2011: 8–9)

This book is about cross-curricular approaches to teaching and learning in the arts. It does not stand alone. As part of a series of books on cross-curricularity in secondary education, it forms an integral part of a web of ideas drawn from the work of eight authors and teachers – each with their own subject allegiances and backgrounds – who have found cross-curricularity to be a vital, driving aspect of their work in recent years. This definition for a cross-curricular approach to teaching and learning is drawn from the generic title which forms the basis for this series of books (Savage 2011). Key words within this definition, such as sensitivity, refer to the ways in which teachers should approach the knowledge, skills and understanding inherent within every curriculum subject. Each curriculum subject is exemplified in curriculum documents but also has a historical legacy that is underpinned in various ways, not least in teachers’ and others’ conceptions about a particular subject and how it should be taught. Understanding this is a vital step that needs to be taken before moving into collaborative curriculum ventures. Cross-curricular approaches are about synthesising ideas, but this should not be done in a way that destroys the cherished ideas and ways of thinking that every subjectcontains. Rather, this definition for cross-curricularity encourages the development of an enriched pedagogy that a skilful teacher can adopt for the explicit purposes of enhancing teaching and learning. The new, enriched pedagogy of cross-curricular teaching will embrace and explore the teacher’s sensitivity towards, and synthesis of, the different knowledge, skills and understanding within curriculum subjects. In order for this to happen, there are at least two premises: first, teachers will need to understand their own intrinsic, and their subject’s, ‘subjectivities’; second, teachers will need to ensure that their subject knowledge is extended beyond their own subject areas. When this occurs, teachers will be in a position to develop a cross-curricular approach to learning that utilises a range of methods or techniques in line with the following principles and purposes.

What cross-curricular teaching and learning in the arts entails

A key question for educators is how to organise schools so that learning and teaching are most effective. New ways of teaching and learning, and new ways of knowing, are part of the constant technological revolution that is the constant backdrop against which twenty-first century young people will conduct their lives. This revolution in information, where the Internet means that a huge amount of information and content is available at the touch of a few keys has changed the way society thinks about knowledge, and, importantly, what it means to ‘know’. In this book we shall consider how cross-curricularity in the arts can be at the forefront of developments, and how such matters as personalisation, collaboration, and creativity can be nurtured in young people in schools, colleges and society generally. To do this we shall consider what learning and knowledge are, how they can best be fostered and developed, what the roles of the teacher are in this, and how best to develop the individual students towards their maximum potential. This sometimes involves asking some difficult questions, and we shall not shy away from doing this!

Let us begin by considering what cross-curricular teaching and learning in, and through, the arts entails. To do this we need to start by exploring the notion of curriculum, in order to understand how the current situation arose, and what it might mean to contemporary understandings of the way we organise learning and teaching. According to Bernstein,

Formal educational knowledge can be considered through three message systems: curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation. Curriculum defines what counts as valid knowledge, pedagogy defines what counts as a valid transmission of knowledge, and evaluation defines what counts as a valid realization of this knowledge …

(Bernstein 1971: 47)

This notion of ‘what counts as valid knowledge’ is an important one for us here. We shall, in the course of this book, consider the various aspects raised by Bernstein, of knowledge, of pedagogy, and of evaluation, which for our purposes in today’s climate we shall consider alongside assessment. However, to return to our discussion of curriculum, the ways in which it is organised vary from country to country, from region to region, and from school to school. We also that know that:

… curriculum is inextricably linked to social context. Broad historical, cultural, economic and political forces inter-relate to form and shape teaching and learning.

(Moon and Murphy 1999: 1)

What this means for us is that the way things are organised will be different according to time and place. Let us begin by considering some particular aspects which relate to you, the reader, with regard to this.

Reflective task

Part 1: What is your job title? Are you, for example, a ‘teacher of art’, or maybe ‘head of drama’? Is this all you do?

Part 2: What route did you take to get to this position? What qualifications did you take at school? What subject is your degree in?

How do these relate? Have you followed a linear pathway and career route, or have there been other things you have done along the way?

Historical note

In the UK, the National Curriculum was for many years seen as the defining feature of school curricular organisation, or according to some, a straitjacket for the containment and demarcation of knowledge. The original architects of the National Curriculum decided which subjects would be included – ten...

Table of contents

• Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning in …
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Abbreviations
• CHAPTER 1 Introduction: the context for cross-curricular teaching and learning
• CHAPTER 2 Artistic principles and purposes for cross-curricular teaching and learning
• CHAPTER 3 The pedagogy and practice of cross-curricular teaching and learning within and beyond the arts
• CHAPTER 4 The language of cross-curricular teaching and learning in the arts
• CHAPTER 5 The cross-curricular potential of technology within the arts
• CHAPTER 6 Artistic approaches to assessment
• CHAPTER 7 Looking forwards
• Bibliography
• Index