Podcasting is now being used frequently in the higher education sector. Although research has been conducted into the use of podcasting in teaching business, engineering, sciences and languages, little has been done on its use in arts learning. This paper reports on a study that investigated the effectiveness of using podcasts to learn music and visual arts in a teacher-education institution. A total of 128 Year-One to Year-Four students completed a survey and 24 students attended focus-group interviews and gave their feedback on the effectiveness of using podcasts in learning. Generally speaking, the students found the podcasts useful and viewed podcasting as a method which could be used to supplement faceto-face teaching. Results of the study indicated that demonstration of procedures or skills was the most effective type of podcast while reproduction of lecture materials was the least effective. The students suggested that the teachers needed to increase the relevance of the podcast content to what was taught during lessons. The paper concludes with a discussion of the production of effective podcasts and directions for future studies.
This article reports on the development and validation of a rubric for assessing students’ written responses to artworks. Since the implementation of the Hong Kong New Senior Secondary Curriculum in 2009, art educators have seen responding to artworks as increasingly important. In this context, the Art Criticism Assessment Rubric (ACAR) was developed. On the basis of Feldman's and Geahigan's theories of art criticism, eight evaluation criteria were identified. The inter‐rater reliability (IRR) of the ACAR was examined. A preliminary IRR test was conducted and an excellent intra‐class correlation coefficient (ICC) value of .91 was obtained. For the main study, six independent raters, who were divided into three groups of two, were trained and invited to rate 87 art criticism essays written by students from eight secondary schools. Most dimensions of the ACAR achieved good ICC values. The results show that the ACAR is an acceptable rubric for providing a reliable assessment of students’ written responses to artworks. However, two dimensions, Originality and Balanced Views and Application of Aesthetic and Contextual Knowledge, obtained poor ICC values. This may be owing to the lack of consensus on the definition of originality and the raters' unfamiliarity with the concept of aesthetic knowledge. The researchers suggest that dimension‐specific samples rated from high to low scores should be provided in raters’ training.
This paper reports on a recent hermeneutic phenomenological study aimed at understanding the experiences of special school teachers in Hong Kong, and specifically visual arts teachers tasked with teaching students with intellectual disabilities. Illustrating the use of a phenomenological research method, the paper outlines the methodology and procedure followed in respect of determining the source of data, conducting phenomenological interviews, and formulating themes. The themes that emerged from the interviews were examined in conjunction with the stories told by the teachers. The special school visual arts teachers who participated in this study have strong emotional and personal connections with their students. In relation to performing their teaching role, the teachers had experienced problems of various kinds, with many of these problems unique to the special school settings. In an effort to tackle these problems and improve their teaching, these teachers engaged in reflection and explored a variety of ways to enhance their students' learning. Despite the practical learning problems their students experience, the teachers maintained that studying visual arts is beneficial to their students' whole-person development. The paper concludes with a critical reflection on the nature of teaching visual arts to students with intellectual disabilities.
This article reports on three cases of primary and secondary schoolteachers investigating their pupils' experiences of art from a phenomenological perspective. Using the three cases as illustrations, the article discusses how these teachers, having limited knowledge of research and
aesthetics, selected study topics, determined the scope and method of data collection, conducted conversational interviews and interpreted the data collected. The article reveals the ways in which small-scale phenomenological studies can be carried out in a school context, with the ultimate
aim of improving teachers' own practices. The article concludes with an analysis of phenomenological studies as a form of professional reflective practice.
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