Art, Imagination and Meaning Making

Singapore University of Social Sciences

Art, Imagination and Meaning Making (ECE308)

Synopsis

ECE308 builds on the notion that many young children are visual thinkers and multimodal learners with rich imagination. Hence, visual arts techniques and media provide tools for their communication, thinking, sense-making and learning. Approaches to school art education are discussed, along with these various perspectives on the importance of art-making in young children’s lives: cognitive, perceptual, developmental and psychodynamic. The course has an emphasis on process-oriented art making and will provide opportunities for students to work with a range of art media and techniques to complement what they have learned in the earlier curriculum courses.

Level: 3
Credit Units: 5
Presentation Pattern: -

Topics

Theories of art education (cognitive, developmental, perceptual and psychodynamic)
Product-oriented versus process-oriented teaching approaches
Societal values and visual culture
Repositioning visual arts in early childhood education
Selection and use of art materials to suit children’s interests and needs
Selection of art content
Facilitating children’s creative process and documenting learning
Responding to works of art
Encouraging children to talk about their creative process
Museums and galleries as resource
Working with artists
Involving families

Learning Outcome

Use strategies to promote children’s process-oriented learning in artmaking
Discuss the various theories of art education
Examine a centre’s general approach to art education
Develop artmaking activities to meaningfully integrate the visual arts into a typical thematic curriculum or enquiry project
Demonstrate confidence in using a variety of art media
Set up an arts learning corner
Observe, assess and facilitate a child’s art creation process