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The Art of the Matter: The development and extension of ways of knowing in the arts

Funding year: 
2005
Duration:
2 years
Organisation: 
University of Waikato
Sector: 
School sector
Project start date: 
February 2005
Project end date: 
February 2007
Principal investigator(s): 
Assoc. Professor. Deborah Fraser
Research team members: 
Clare Henderson and Graham Price
Research partners: 
Wilf Malcom Institute of Educational Research; teachers from six Waikato-based schools: Fiona Bevege, Gay Gilbert, Andrea Goodman, Olive Jones, Amanda Klemick, Shona McRae, Francis Pye, Lisa Rose, Kelly Thompson, and Shirley Tyson

Project Description

The Art of the Matter project focused on learning and teaching in the Arts, and investigated how children develop their ideas and related skills in each of the Arts’ disciplines (dance, drama, music, and visual art) in the primary school. It also scrutinised the nature of any “ritual patterns” (Efl and, 2002; Nuthall, 2001) of teaching that support or constrain Arts education, and, by doing so, considered pedagogical processes that deepen children’s experience and understanding in the Arts. As a major outcome, the project sought to further knowledge of how generalist teachers can enhance and extend children’s learning in the Arts.

The project comprised a team of 10 generalist primary school teacher-researchers working alongside three university-researchers over a period of two years in eight schools, with children across the Years 0–6 age range. The project was also informed by the expertise of two consultants: Dr Viv Aitken (drama education) and Sue Cheesman (dance education).

Project Outputs

2011

Publications

Fraser, D., & Price, G. (2011). Learning as a shared social endeavour. Journal of Artistic and Creative Education, 5 (1), 4-29.

2009

Publications

Fraser, D., Henderson, C., Price, G., Aitken, V., Cheesman, S., Bevege, F., Klemick, A., Rose, L., & Tyson, S. (2009). Examining and disrupting rituals of practice in the primary classroom. Education 3-13, 37 (2). 105-119

2006

Publications

Fraser, D., Henderson C., Price, G., Bevege, F., Bush, T., Gilbert, G., Goodman, A., Klemick, A., Pye, F., Rose, L., & Tyson, S. (2006). Getting to the art of the matter. Education Review, 11 (5), 11.

Presentations, conferences and workshops

Henderson, C. (2006). Exploring children's development of ideas in music and dance through joint school/university research. Paper presented at the Dialogues and Differences Conference, Melbourne, April 2006.

Henderson, C., Bevege, F., & Tyson, S. (2006). Investigating non-verbal ways of knowing through collaborative school/university action research in music and dance. Symposium presented at the annual conference of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE), Rotorua, 5-8 December 2006

Fraser, D., Henderson C., Price, G., Bevege, F., Bush, T., Gilbert, G., Goodman, A., Klemick, A., Pye, F., Rose, L., & Tyson, S. (2006). Getting to the art of the matter. Education Review, 11 (5), 11.

Dunn, N. (2006). Tauriko school take part in study. Creative Focus, 1, 11.

Fraser, D. (2006). The art and challenge of collaborative research. Paper presented at the annual conference of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE), Rotorua, 5-8 December 2006.

Fraser, D. (2006). Exploring children's development of ideas in the arts through joint school/university research. Paper presented at the Dialogues and Differences Conference, Melbourne, April 2006.

Price, G. (2006). Researching idea development of ideas in the teaching of the arts by generalist primary teachers: Visual arts case studies. Paper presented at the Dialogues and Differences Conference, Melbourne, April 2006.

Price, G., Klemick, A., & Gilbert, G. (2006). The arts on a spirit level: Finding the balance between intuition and planned intervention in developing students' ideas. Symposium presented at the annual conference of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE), Rotorua, 5-8 December 2006.

2005

Presentations, conferences and workshops

Jones, O. (2005). Children, dance and creativity. Paper presented at the Teacher Research Symposium, University of Waikato, Hamilton, November 2005.

Fraser, D., Henderson, C., & Price, G. (2005). The Art of the matter: Researching children's learning in art, music, drama and dance. Proceedings of the Imagination and Education Conference, Vancouver, Canada, July 2005. 

Tyson, S. (2005). The art of the matter: The learning journey of a teacher-researcher in the arts. Paper presented at the Teacher Research Symposium, University of Waikato, Hamilton, 2005.