Quality teaching frameworks and arts education: Seeking a compatible approach

ABSTRACT

As school education systems worldwide adopt standardized performance measures, teacher effectiveness frameworks have become more influential. This article draws on Australian mixed methods research that aimed to understand the processes behind quality arts pedagogy. Following an in-depth quantitative study, nine high-performing case study arts classes were selected, spanning dance, drama, media arts, music and visual arts.  The Quality Teaching Framework (QTF), based on authentic pedagogy, was used to observe and to analyse twenty-seven arts lessons, three per case study. This framework, trialled and validated in prior large-scale research, was adopted by the New South Wales public education system.  While the framework’s categories were useful in detecting aspects of quality arts pedagogy, we also observed shared practices that were absent from the QTF. The article focuses on these absences. To support the creation of original work, these classes included generative processes not adequately explained by the framework, which made no direct reference to creativity. This led the research team to: (1) question the extent to which generic standardized (GS) teaching frameworks explain the dynamics of arts classrooms, and (2) reflect on whether certain processes are not easily categorized within standardized measures and whether this can lead these processes to be undervalued.

KEYWORDS:

• Arts education
• creativity
• teacher effectiveness
• teacher evaluation frameworks
• authentic pedagogies

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all participating schools, the Australian Research Council and the Australia Council for the Arts for their assistance in this research. The research team for The role of arts education in academic motivation, engagement and achievement were Author, Author, Author, Author, Dr. Marianne Mansour, Dr. Arief Liem, Dr. David Sudmalis and Dr. Caitlin Munday.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/TPA6U.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For a critique of this position see Terhart (2011).

2. Francis Fukuyama’s (1992) infamously argued that liberal democracy will overtake all other systems of governance worldwide resulting in ‘the final form of human government’ (p.xi) and the end of history.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under Grant LP0989687.

Notes on contributors

Josephine Fleming

Dr Josephine Fleming lectures in youth and digital culture and reflective practice. Her academic research combines comparative and arts education, following a career as performer, director and teacher in the performing arts. Her current research investigates the responsiveness of Australian arts education to cultural diversity and digital technologies. She specializes in case study research using computer assisted qualitative data analysis.

Robyn Gibson

Dr Robyn Gibson is Deputy Head of School in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney where she lectures in Visual and Creative Arts Education. Her academic research – which utilizes interdisciplinary methodologies such as arts-informed inquiry and art/o/graphy concerns creativity and creative teaching; art as research/research as art particularly the connection between clothes and memory.

Michael Anderson

Dr Michael Anderson is Professor in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney. His research and teaching concentrates the role of creativity, the arts (particularly drama) and play have on learning. This work has evolved into a programme of research and publication that engages with arts classrooms directly. His recent publications explore how aesthetic education and research is changing learning in the 21st Century.

Andrew J. Martin

Dr Andrew J. Martin, is Scientia Professor and Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He specializes in motivation, engagement, achievement, and quantitative research methods. Although the bulk of his research focuses on motivation, engagement, and achievement, Andrew is also published in cognate areas such as academic resilience and academic buoyancy, adaptability, pedagogy, and teacher-student relationships. Andrew’s research also bridges other disciplines through assessing motivation and engagement in sport, music, and work.