Case Study

Introduction to Clinical Practice, Semester 1 - April 2020

Learning Area: Visual Art
Class or Year: Year 7

CONTEXT

Domain: Technical skills - Pottery
Strand: ‘Visual Arts Practices’ & ‘Present and Perform’
Capabilities:  

  • Experiment with materials, techniques, technologies and processes in a range of art forms to express ideas, concepts and themes in artworks (VCAVAV035)

  • Develop skills in planning and designing art works and documenting artistic practice (VCAVAV036)

  • Create and display artworks, describing how ideas are expressed to an audience (VCAVAP037)

What is the activity the students are undertaking?

This is a multi-lesson practical task where students will create a contemporary tea-pot with animalistic features. They will begin by collecting images of animals in their visual diary and exploring their form, texture and colour. Students will then use these elements and influences to generate ideas for their own teapot, using annotations as they go. Students will then learn a variety of hand-building techniques for working with clay, including kneading (also known as wedging), pinch-pottery, coil building, incising, modelling, and joining. Students will visually document the process and techniques explored in their visual diaries. Upon construction of the teapot, students will apply underglazes and glazes to the surface of the pot. By the completion of this task, students will have learnt and demonstrated basic technical skills required for pottery and ceramics, as well as how to find relevant inspiration and generate ideas.

 
Which taxonomy did you select and why?

This task is a multi-lesson development of a skill, where students’ will follow examples of techniques led by the teacher, and then apply them to their own work. I have chosen to use Dreyfus' Model of Skill Acquisition. This taxonomy focuses on how learners gain new skills through formal instruction and practice. It assumes that through repeated practice by following procedures or examples, the learner will eventually become more experienced in the skill and will no longer rely on the help of an instructor. (Dreyfus, 2004.)

 
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Identification of ZAD and ZPD 

Evidence collected:

  • The evidence to identify the student’s ZAD was collected through the presentation of the task, where the teacher introduced the students to the material and asked about their previous knowledge or experience working with it. None of the students had used clay prior to this lesson. 

  • The evidence to identify the student’s ZPD was collected at the conclusion of the task, including their completed clay tea-pot, visual diary, and observations throughout the multiple lessons.

How did you analyse the evidence collected or described to justify the identified ZAD and ZPD?

  • Prior to this task, the student had no previous experience in using clay, but had knowledge on what it was and how it worked.

  • By completion of this task, the student presented a clay teapot similar to one they had designed in their visual diary.

  • The student did not take photographs of their work throughout the process of creation or write annotation as they were going, but photographed their completed teapot and wrote about the process afterwards.

  • Their design included 3 different elements resembling animalistic features.

  • Their teapot included 2 different elements resembling animalistic features. The student did not manage their time properly in order to complete the teapot to the full requirements of the task.

  • The student demonstrated hand building skills such as wedging, pinch-potting, coil building, joining and incising.

  • The student was not able to recognise structural issues on their own, such as unevenness around the bottom and sides of the form, as well as their handle and spout being too thin, resulting in cracking in the kiln. 

  • The student did not accurately spray and wrap their work in between use, resulting in the clay drying out in between lessons.

  • The student cleaned and packed away tools properly, but was very slow and did not take initiative on their own. The student had to be instructed by the teacher on what to clean.

The student can do 4 out of 7 of the requirements for the Proficient construct level, indication the student’s ZPD.

Learning goal statement:

Students will partake in a secondary clay task in the second semester of the year. To progress, the student will need to:

  • Photograph their work throughout the process of creation, and include reflective annotations and critical evaluations in their visual diary; 

  • Manage their time to complete the full requirements of the task;

  • Independently recognise and solve structural issues; and

  • Take initiative to clean and pack away tools quickly and efficiently.

This will allow them to move to Proficient or Expert construct levels.

Teaching Strategies:

Constructivism is the philosophy that learning occurs through play and experience. Vygotsky (1986) argues that no two people experience the same event the same. Their perception is influenced by the social, cultural and physical environment and their pre-existing schema knowledge. By sharing different perceptions of the same experience, learners expand their understanding of that experience. Similarly, cognitive apprenticeship utilises an instructor who demonstrates how to perform a task, before providing advice or scaffolding to assist the learner as they perform the task on their own. (Woolfolk & Margetts, 2013.)

Visual art education lends itself very easily to constructivism and cognitive apprenticeship. In Constructivist curriculum, the instructor changes from being the authority over the concepts to the facilitator of exploration. (Perkins, 1992.) In the Visual art classroom, the teacher provides demonstrations and examples that students then apply to their own work, while the teacher offers assistance and advice to each student individually throughout the lesson. A key feature of constructivism is the learner and instructor relationship, where the instructor’s guidance determines the learners own objectives and tasks. (Prater, 2001.) The student-student and student-teacher relationships strengthen as they each offer advice and collectively share experiences and knowledge on the topic. The more experience they have, the more knowledge they learn. 

I will support the student to reach their ZPD through a range of constructivist and cognitive apprenticeship strategies. I will provide cognitively guided instructions and demonstrations, initiate class discussions, experimentation, and encourage student to student inquiry while they construct their clay forms. I will need to provide guidance and reminders during the beginning of the task, but as the student gains more experience through the help of her peers and their own experimentation, the student will be able to successfully complete the task on their own.