Revised introduction

I started to write the first draft of my inquiry a couple of weeks ago then following reading Mark’s blog i thought I would write a summery of the inquiry to give to the participants so that they fully understood what they were agreeing to be involved in but as I wrote it I found myself writing another draft of the introduction. I think this draft is more concise and more importantly is within the word count, I think it also outlines the inquiry enough to also use as information for the participants.

Working title: ‘Does active experimentation with processes and materials give a developing artist a firmer understanding of their professional practice? How can this concept be developed to enhance the teaching of the subject?’

This inquiry will take the form of an in depth investigation into the study and teaching of art at key stage 4 and 5, comparing three contrasting art departments and identifying their different practices and constraints which are put upon them. The participant’s roll as either as a current student or an art teacher will be to answer a questionnaire, be involved in interviews conducted by me and be a part of observed lessons. As the period of time during which I will be collecting the information will be relatively short (collection time will run from the beginning of the michilmas term to two weeks into the second half of that term) the participants’ involvement will not be extensive which means that their studies or jobs should not too disrupted. The inquiry will mainly be qualitive based on my observations from the information collected the opinions of the students involved and what I have learnt from the previous modules and previous two years at my current school.

My main aim is to investigate how students experiment with processes and materials and how this impacts the work that they make. To complete the inquiry an in depth investigation will be conducted upon three contrasting art departments. The three schools differ in location, pupil demographics and departmental budgets one of the schools is the secondary school which I currently work in thus this department will act as the base from which my comparisons are drawn. By looking into the children’s experiences and comparing and contrasting the different teaching styles both within the department and between the schools I believe I will have a strong overview of how the subject should be successfully taught.

Through this investigation my inquiry plans to address the following question: What further measures can be implemented in the classroom to further encourage students to experiment with a variety of processes and materials? How do art students manage the transition from the study of GCSE to A-level? What constraints are put on art departments by both the school and outside influences and how might these constraints influence the work made by their students? How do art teachers and their support staff help to foster creativity? Finally with talks of the government changing the curriculum to the English baccalaureate (E-bac) what is the future for this subject?

Upon completion of this inquiry a document will be made outlining my findings and explaining how the information gathered can be translated into a teaching and learning environment. This document will act as an aid for student teachers and newly qualified teacher (NQT) who wish to expand their knowledge of teaching the subject and as a guide for how creativity and methods of experimentation can be encouraged in the classroom.  

This line of inquiry has been chosen as not only is it relevant to the work that I am doing now in a secondary school art department but I am also hoping that it will help me to gain a place on a graduate teacher training course.