Supporting Students’ Key Competences In Visual Art Classes: The Benefits Of Planning

Preliminary questionnaire

A web-based questionnaire was designed and a stratified random sampling method was used to contact as many teachers as possible. The questionnaire was sent out to every basic school headmaster for distributing to the teachers that teach art at the second level of basic school. A total of 478 school heads were contacted. We do not have a way of knowing how many heads of schools forwarded the survey to the teachers. 77 answers were received from the teachers. The questionnaire consisted of eleven questions, both closed-ended and open-ended questions that directed teachers to open up about their attitudes and understandings about supporting key competences in art classes, their planning methods and classroom activities that support different key competences.

The data from the survey was analyzed with the NVivo program, which was used to form themes and codes of qualitative data. The statements were looked at individually and categorised into themes. Possible interconnections of different themes were also identified.

Action research cycle

The action research cycles were conducted by the first author of the paper and the second and third author served as critical friends to the first author. The role of a critical friend was to balance the factor of teacher-researchers’ subjectivity and to give a second opinion to the work (cf. McNiff & Whitehead, 2011). This paper presents the first cycle of an ongoing action research. The first cycle was implemented within a full course of 35 academic hours of art lessons, which were held with two sets of 5th grade classes, altogether 48 students.

The cycle focused on three different key competences listed in the National Curriculum (2014). Social competence, entrepreneurial competence and self-management competence were chosen for the first cycle. The permission of the school head to conduct the research was asked. Parents for the selected classed were asked for informed consent for their child’s participation in the research. Also, permission to publish student artworks as a representation of the research was collected from the parents. This was done in the opt-in method to make sure that the parent had got the information and given his/her consent. Participation in the research was voluntary. The research does not constitute medical research and consequently does not require ethics review in the Estonian context. Qualitative data, such as reflections from the research diary, classroom action recordings, student artwork and art journal entries, were collected. In Table 2 . different data collection types, collection methods and operational aspects for the first cycle are shown.

Data collected from the classroom were prepared for analysing by transcribing the field notes and grouping the data collected from student artworks and art journals into thematic groups, based on assignments and competences it reflected. A general sense of the material was formed and analysed during the process as well as after each study cycle. This was followed by the coding and forming of major and minor themes. Also, possible interconnections between different themes were looked for.

Art teachers’ experiences of teaching key competences

The sense of constant change that teachers have reported to feel (Smilan, 2016; Smilan & Miraglia, 2009) is also apparent in the answers to teacher survey. The two following statements illustrate the whirlwind of choices and responsibilities that the teachers face:

“The educational system is changing constantly, and someone somewhere always seems to be smarter than the subject teacher.”

“It is difficult that such a large part is left for the teacher to invent. There is a shortage of teaching materials. Sometimes inventing is fun, but it just takes so much time.”

The question that reflected the teachers’ attitudes towards implementing key competence support in practice the most was the question of how teachers take key competences into consideration during the planning of their teaching. The most common view (N= 26) was that supporting key competences is such a natural part of art education that the teachers do not feel a need to concentrate on planning the integration of competences in lesson planning. Therefore, they have recognized situations where key competences have emerged during the learning process and valued these occasions, but this notion is received in hindsight and not through an intentional process. A group of teachers, who are mostly those who answered that “key competences come as a natural part” (N=16) also express that supporting key competences is so much rooted in choosing the overall teaching approach and in alternating the learning methods. This leads to the teachers’ viewpoint that they are supporting key competences even when they have not thought of it explicitly. Another subgroup of teachers (N=13) see themselves supporting students’ key competences implicitly in most cases and find that the connection between subject specific skills and competences are to be made in the moment, during the lesson. This was recognized as the place when it could be determined what kind of general skills, knowledge or attitudes are being supported in the lesson.

There was also a set of teachers (N=13) who expressed that supporting students’ key competences should be done through integration with other subjects as it is strongly insisted on from the heads of schools. Only nine individuals stated explicitly that they do not factor key competences in during the lesson planning in any way at all. On eight occasions teachers gave such vague answers that it was not possible to determine their view on the teaching of key competences. The vagueness may be an indication that the notion of key competences is obscure to these teachers.

In a few cases, teachers (N=7) who expressed that they explicitly focus on supporting key competences and factor key competences in during lesson planning, also stated that they usually choose one or two key competences to focus upon and remain focused on the same competences. Value competence, and social and digital competences were mentioned the most. This kind of approach can lead teachers to come up with their own take of art education, where they focus on their prior knowledge and competences that they value the most. The following quotations reflect how these teachers support a certain set of key competences more intentionally than others:

“I do take all of the key competences into consideration in some way, some more than others. Some come more naturally to artistic practice, some to students’ self-reflection and some in evaluations. I have mostly planned activities around the cultural and value competence and social competence. These are very much related to different cultural occasions, folk traditions and social questions. Also, digital competence is being supported when the activity demands something extra than the use of a personal device.”

“I do not integrate all of the competences intentionally, but I have explicitly supported social and self-management competences in my lessons, as I see that students struggle with these the most.”

The popularity of certain key competences may be associated with the conciseness of the description of these competences in the national curriculum and other supporting documents providing teachers a better understanding and more confidence to implement these competences. Regarding competences with a more complex description and an intertwined nature, such as self-management competence and learning to learn competence for example, could evoke a more hesitant expression from the teachers. Some teachers could also lack the vocabulary and skill necessary for formulating a view of their contribution to each competence. The number of answers (N=8) that gave vague answers may indicate a lack in confidence in how to support key competence. This notion is also supported by previous research in Estonian teacher awareness about key competences (Aus, Malleus & Kikas, 2016), which shows that the teachers’ understanding of each competence substantially.

Action research cycle

Based on the results of the survey an explicit focus on planning to support students’ key competences was set to the action research cycle. Three from eight key competences stated in the National Curriculum (2014) were chosen for the cycle. Social competence, entrepreneurial competence and self-management competence were first chosen as the literature (Allemand, Steiger, & Fend, 2015; Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1987; Smilan, 2016; Wang, 2009) showed a good connection with age specific developmental aspects of the 5th grade students. The planning started before the school year and entailed working with literature and discussions with the critical friends.

Social competence consists of knowledge and skills required to interact and relate with others effectively and satisfactorily (Salavera, Usán & Jarie, 2017). The National Curriculum (2014) describes social competence as “the ability to become self-actualized, to function as an aware and conscientious citizen and to support the democratic development of society; to know and follow values and standards in society and the rules of various environments; to engage in cooperation with other people; to accept interpersonal differences and take them into account in interacting with people”. In this cycle cooperation skills and interpersonal differences, in particular, were taken into focus. Research has shown that promoting autonomy, class discussions, and teachers’ emotional support contributes to better social competence as well as helps to avert behavioural problems and support positive school adjustment (Wang, 2009). Therefore, support on students’ autonomous decision-making and regular discussions were planned as an integral part of the students’ learning process.

According to the definition and recommendations provided by the European Commission (2018), entrepreneurial competence is the ability of an individual to translate ideas into practice and the ability to plan and manage projects, which include creativity, innovation, sense of initiative and risk-taking. The National Curriculum (2014) also accentuates the importance of setting one’s own goals, to show responsibility for results and to react flexibly in terms of change. Jůvová, Čech and Duda (2017) stress that these crucial skills are teachable and should be integrated into educational subjects at all levels, starting from the primary level. Teachers are advised to take the role of a counsellor and activity coordinator. Activities are meant to support students’ autonomy and teamwork, responsibility, self-reflection and the ability to flexibly respond to problems (Jůvová, Čech & Duda, 2017). This led to the decision to include an individual project based on the individual art goal to the learning process. Also, self-reflective assignments and time-management support were intentionally planned to the study units, for example, in the students’ process planning as a landscape task (Figure 2 .).

A certain overlapping can be recognized with the entrepreneurial competence and self-management competence, as self-management techniques include self-monitoring, self-recording, self-evaluation, goal setting, and self-reinforcement (Mooney et al. 2005). Jones and Davenport (1996) highlighted the process journal as a core instructional practice that helps to retain self-regulative behaviours in art studies. A process journal (also called portfolio) is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits students’ effort, progress and self-reflection (Paulson, Paulson & Meyer, 1991). Getting a variety of feedback, from the teacher as well as from fellow students is also important for supporting the ability to evaluate oneself (Jones & Davenport, 1996). From this, a decision to use art journals was made. This allows not only to collect the work, but also encourage students to plan and evaluate their progress. A principle of integrating the possibilities for the students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses in the journals and to talk about it was identified as one of the key aspects of supporting self-management.

For children, visual art is not only the representation of objects, but also the expression of understandings and feelings about the objects. Children at the age between nine and twelve are beginning to deal with abstract concepts, such as emotions and relationships between people and objects. They also form a more complex representation of space. This is illustrated by moving away from a single base line, which usually is the bottom of the paper, to the use of a plane and beginning to deal with questions of three-dimensional representation and interrelationships between objects. Prior to this age children have little understanding of maps, as two-dimensional configurations and cartographic symbols are hard to read for children before the age of eleven or twelve. To support this sense of map comprehension and spatial awareness, assignments in creating their own maps are suggested as beneficial. (Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1987; Vygotsky, 2004) This resulted in the plan to use a landscape as a reoccurring topic of art class.

The pre-planning phase resulted in four larger study units that would take up the whole art course of the year, but also allow flexibility and changes within the process. Table 3 . reflects the process and the focus points of the planning phase, as well as the main themes for the four study units that emanate from the competence descriptions (cf. National Curriculum for the basic school, 2014) and the supporting strategies.

Based on the main foci that emanated from the abovementioned theoretical sources, five principles were formed to create a basis for supporting students’ collaboration skills, entrepreneurial competence and self-management skills and carrying out the lessons. These were:

• Providing a possibility for the student to set an individual goal in art and carry it out.

• Providing room for discussions and choice between methods and art materials.

• Providing a possibility for working on a similar task individually and collaboratively (in this case the landscape).

• Having a possibility to self-evaluate oneself regularly through different methods (such as a questionnaire, personal art journal, discussion, grading oneself, giving feedback for the future etc).

• Talking as explicitly as possible about the different competences and aims for the lessons and with the teacher taking the role of a supporter and activity coordinator.

The physical space of the art classroom was set up differently from an auditorium-type classroom setting that the students were used to. The art classroom was set up for work in groups of four and the art materials were laced on open shelves for the students to use. This enabled the students to move around more freely and to access the materials they needed. Students’ artworks were exhibited on the walls and discussions could be held in front of the works. Therefore, the classroom setting supported the objectives of the study process.

Working with individual art journals was new for the students, as was the possibility to set a larger individual goal in art. The students appeared to embrace the opportunity to work on their journals. The journals could be kept in school or taken home and in many cases the journal became a place where the students also sketched in their spare time. Figure 1 . shows examples of students work done as an addition to the lesson assignments in their art journals. These works reflect their interests, emotions and show signs of self-encouragement.

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Collecting the planning, sketching and in few cases also the final artworks in the journal provided the students from an entrepreneurial competence aspect the possibility to plan and determine their own progress in art. Giving the planning process an artistic outlet, in this case using a landscape format to plan their way towards the individual goal in art, was also a new idea for the students, but was well received. Figure 2 . shows a part of the individual art goal planning process from four different art journals. This assignment guided students to split a bigger process towards the goal into smaller steps and to reflect upon the difficulties that could emerge from the process, as well as different sources that could help and support them in their work. Setting a more specific goal than “ I just want to learn how to draw! ” was hard for some students at first, but with the help of questions such as “ What does a nice drawing for you look like? ” and “ From what could you tell that someone can draw? ” they also reached a more specific goal. It was also important to stress to the students that sketching is a way of practice and making mistakes is a normal part of learning.

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Figure 3 . shows four student artworks on the assignment “My personal city map”. From the representational aspects the task challenges students’ map comprehension skill and dealt with the question of how to express distances and interrelationships between objects (Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1987; Vygotsky, 2004). In case of the self-management competence, the learning unit gave students the opportunity to, first, think of the places that are meaningful for them personally and the places that they visit the most. Therefore, providing an opportunity to analyse what the places are where they spend their days and which places have influenced them the most. From the social competence aspect, the personal city map task sparked a lively exchange of meaningful places between desk mates. This was not in any way disturbing to the task, but rather vivified the students’ scope and bond with each other. In the progress of the course, a growing exchange of opinions and experiences between the classmates emerged.

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A stronger sense of authorship and personal connection was apparent by the end of the study cycle. Figure 4 . illustrates artworks that were the result of the work with an individual art goal. The students’ goals varied from the wish to master different art materials to expressing individual interests or combining different art media. A change towards a deeper self-reflection and independents was recognized by the teacher-researcher, which reflected a meaningful connection with the art process and self-discovery. In the beginning of the course, questions that sought information could be heard from the students, for example the question “ Can I make the grass purple? ” and a surprising relief when free choice was given to the students. The search for confirmation subsided considerably by the end of the course. Self-reflection could be recognized in student remarks such as “ This was too difficult of a goal for me and I had to change it a little. ” and “ Using art journals helped me plan my steps and see my progress in art. ” Likewise, a growth in self-assurance when talking about their work in front of the classroom could be detected in the course of time.

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The process was mostly focused on two-dimensional artworks, even though a few groups chose to explore also the possibilities of a three-dimensional landscape. As a point for improvement, students could be guided to take even more risks and have courage to explore different art materials and media. Since this is an ongoing action research, in the following cycles more focus is directed towards having choice as an integral part of the lessons and supporting students to analyse their risk-taking in art.

The intention to support key competence had an impact in directing the planning and overall objectives and methods of the learning process. Social competence was supported by promoting autonomy and regular class discussions about the work and the process. The role of the teacher-researcher was more of a supportive bystander and a coach, providing the students with an opportunity to take the lead in their learning and make more decisions. Art journals were used to support the entrepreneurial competence through giving the means to organize one’s work and process remarks in one place. An individual goal setting assignment was designed to give even more ownership to the learner and enable them to plan a larger artistic process. Self-management was supported through the task of investigating one’s emotions and ways of expression. Integrating the possibilities for the students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses in the journals was a means to support self-reflection. The regular discussions gave an opportunity to express worries and accomplishment, providing the students with an emotional outlet as well as a means for feedback.