Arts researchers have launched a new micro-credential for primary school educators, designed to build knowledge, skills, and capability to teach the arts online.
The digital course is free to teachers, nationwide, and is available via CQUniversity’s Be Different Platform.
A micro-credential is a specific package of learning which an individual can undertake at their own pace. This micro-credential is suitable for time-poor teachers who can jump in and out of the package according to their time schedules. It leads the teacher through the series of activities that can then be downloaded and used in the classroom.
Informed by research to fill a need
The micro-credential was created in response to a recent study of primary students’ arts learning online during COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia, and draws from feedback provided by primary teachers, parents, and students.
The Emerging Priorities Program: An examination of primary teacher, student and parent experiences of arts learning online during COVID-19 lockdowns study found that online arts learning helped children to develop social skills, self-confidence and communication.
The study was funded by the Australian government through the Emerging Priorities Program and was led by CQUniversity’s Dr Linda Lorenza and University of Technology Sydney’s Associate Professor Don Carter.
Research partners included Queensland University of Technology, University of Southern Queensland, Canberra University, the University of Melbourne and the University of South Australia.
“We had heard anecdotes of some innovative teaching occurring during the COVID lockdown period,” says Dr Lorenza.
“This study enabled us to explore what teachers and students were doing in the arts and what worked online.”
Dr Lorenza told EducationDaily that the motivation for the micro-credential course was to “share what we found in our study – that arts-learning activities help children to develop their social skills”.
“The arts are not competitive and there is not a pre-determined outcome,” she says.
“This allows the children to explore ideas and to experiment. Before they come to school, children are singing, dancing and making up stories and teachers need to feel confident, empowered and enable to build on that openness to learning.”
Helping young students engage with the arts
Dr Lorenza says the study was undertaken in three stages, with the final including development of best practice digital exemplars.
“The ten-hour micro credential includes arts learning activities for teachers of Year one and two students in dance, drama, media music and visual arts,” she says.
“These demonstrate where and how teachers can incorporate the personal social capability, in the learning process.”
Additional modules include School Refusal, The Arts Curriculum and Re-Engaging Students, the Signature Pedagogies and Personal and Social Capability.
Associate Professor Don Carter says the comprehensive course prioritised the range of skills and attributes found to build social capability of students.
“Responses to the survey highlighted the importance of students’ connections to their teacher and to other students,” he says..
“The personal social capability is one of the seven general capabilities in the Australian curriculum. These digital exemplars focus on how that capability can be nurtured in arts learning activities for primary-aged students.”
More information on the research project can be found on the EPP arts learning online study website.
Micro-credential course can also benefit families
While the micro-credential is intended for Australian teachers, the online course may also be of interest to pre-service teachers, parents, and carers of primary school children.
The content can also be adapted for an international context which Dr Lorenza says was embraced by overseas teachers after returning from an education conference at Trinity College Dublin.
“The micro-credential is available for anyone to access,” Dr Lorenza says.
“It will be of benefit to those seeking to enhance their pedagogical practices to specifically embrace the development of primary school aged students’ socialisation and self-management skills through enriching arts learning experiences.
“Irish teacher educators intend to access that resource and share it with their students as they approach a new arts curriculum for Irish primary schools.
“Australia is leading the way in arts curriculum and this resource is set to help many primary teachers worldwide.”
Nine short modules through five artforms
Dr Lorenza says the micro-credential contains nine short modules that lead teachers through learning activities for each of the five artforms.
“The learning activities model how to engage children through the art form, while nurturing their self-management and their social management. These are elements of the Personal Social Capability of the Australian Curriculum, one of seven general capabilities (skills, behaviours and dispositions),” she says.
While she says the arts are well-provided for in the Australian Curriculum, she adds that it comes down to the capacity of the teacher and the school to bring the arts into the classroom.
Arts education offer many benefits for young students, around social skills, self-confidence and communication skills of young students, says Dr Lorenza.
“The arts help children to explore and communicate ideas, develop positive and productive relationships, collaborate and empathise,” she told EducationDaily.
“For example, through creating a dance-learning activity, children learn about space, movement and telling a story through movement. In a music activity, children learn a song which can connect with the dance activity. A visual arts learning activity begins with individual art-making and brings children together through combining their individual artworks to make a larger artwork.”
