Initial Ideas for Artefact:

The artefact will be a guide for use by teachers who wish to further encourage student to experiment with processes and materials within their work. It will be aimed at GCSE level student as my finding through conducting my inquiry have shown that if students are prepared correctly at GCSE for the work load and standards expected of them at A-level then the transition will be a smooth one. I think one of the main reasons why students in our borough struggle with A-level, not only in art but subject wide is because none of our secondary schools teach A-level, so the students cannot see on a daily basis what is expected of you at this level of study. This also allows them to be lulled into the idea that yr11 is the end of school because if they choose to go on to study A-level they will have to move schools. I believe this can give them an arrogant attitude, thinking that they are at the top of the pecking order. In many cases I think it would be beneficial for them to have older students to keep them in check. By the time you get to the end of your A-level career the students are that little bit older and have a more mature approach to their studies, and realise that yes this is the end of this stage but are only at the beginning of their lives and the next stages are determined by how successfully this stage is completed.

 I have found through investigating two other schools which do teach A-level, that the yr11 students have a much more mature approach to their learning and that their work tend to be more adventurous because they have the older years to inspire them and push them to create more interesting work. Unfortunately I do not anticipate being able to change local government’s opinion on this subject thus I am creating this artefact to try and better prepare GCSE students who might not be able to benefit from A-level students influences, for the standard of work that is expected of them at A-level. Experimentation in your work is considered a key a key factor at both stages; it is one of the assessment objectives and to gain a top grade. Candidates must demonstrate that they have experimented with ‘a wide range of appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, by recognising and exploiting emerging possibilities. Develop skills proficiently, by recognising, reviewing and refining potential ideas as work in progresses.’ AQA GCE Art and Design Specification 2009/2010 Version 2.3. Thus the aim of this artefact will be to demonstrate to teachers how active experimentation with processes and materials improves a student’s work. To do this I propose a project aimed at GCSE students while they are creating their personal portfolio, the focus of the project will be on the exploration of the many different routes to a personal response to the brief rather than the emphasis being on the aesthetic quality of the final outcome. The project will also be presented to the students in a slightly different way to how I have seen other art teachers introduce a new project topic in that it will initiate with a brief with a problem that has to be solved or issues that they have to address and whilst doing so they have to meet certain criteria which the brief has laid out. To be most effective for their studies I believe that the project should be completed early in yr10 so that they learn as early on in the course as possible the magnitude of work that is expected of you and have the ability to work independently. Whilst conducting my inquiry through gathering information from my three chosen art departments I observed that teachers want to encourage their students to branch out and explore their own creative direction but given too much freedom and the students can quickly become overwhelmed being unsure which direction to choose causing their work to become stagnant and often resorting in them following another student rather then exploring an area which they are interested in. Every students studying a different thing does make the teachers role more challenging as they have to keep on top of lots of different areas of study and require a very broad subject knowledge in order to be able to advise all of the students, but this I believe is key to being a good art teacher an area which teacher B has shown great strength in. By presenting the students with a project such as this it encourages them to work independently and explore their own interests whilst also giving them parameters to work within so that the students know that their work is heading in the right direction, also giving the gifted and talented (G&T) students the opportunity to push theses boundaries and really experiment with processes and materials. I believe that by completing a project like this at the start of the GCSE course the students will not only learn the structure that future projects should take but give them the confidence to work independently.

The form of the artefact will be a book, the introduction outlining in brief what I have mentioned here, why I am creating this book and what I hope to achieve by doing this. Chapter 1 will be the project brief, the brief that I write will be quite specific outlining how I as a teacher would present the project to my students and what would be my starting point but I will also outline how it could be altered to accommodate different school’s needs. As the inquiry has shown art departments nation wide have different budgetary restrictions and this does have an effect on the type of work that their students make as a result schools may wish to adapt the brief to try and encourage students to experiment with processes which other schools might not be able to consider. Teachers might also wish to adapt the brief to better suit their preferred discipline, as I am a sculptor a lot of my suggested areas for experimentation will be three dimensional ones. A drawer and painter might have some different ideas. This project will also try to encourage teachers to have more lessons where individual skills are taught and this should be worked into the brief’s timetable so that we are not only asking the students to work independently but equipping them with the tool to do so and build on these skills.

The second chapter will focus on work that I have seen within the three schools involved in the inquiry where I have felt the student has experimented with a variety of processes or used materials in an unconventional way. It shall also look at practitioners who have incorporated theses elements into their work successfully and what impact this has had on their work. All of these will act as inspiration and starting points for the teachers to give to the students.

The final chapter will summarise what I would expect from my students in the allocated time frame.