Using assessment to nurture knowledge‐rich creativity

Revisiting the Conceptual Domain: Educational Knowledge and the Visual Arts

“…Although Cunliffe (2005Cunliffe ( , 2008Cunliffe ( , 2011 has identified several knowledge issues associated with art education, more work is needed if knowledge is to be structured and shared in ways that support pedagogic rights. Boden (2011) maintains that knowledge is fundamental in processes leading to transformational creativity as 'producing something that is surprising, intelligible, and of lasting cultural significance requires extensive understanding of a knowledge domain' (Cunliffe 2011, 5).…”

“…He argues: 'It's not the knowledge-based curriculum that's at fault, but the relegation of procedural and contextual knowledge. ' Cunliffe's (2008) argument is more complex. He traces how a rift was opened between knowledge and creativity with the Romantics' rejection of Enlightenment rationalism, which was widened by Modernist artists who sought creative expression in the non-intellectual, primary processes of the unconscious and the (superficial) emulation of primitive art from non-Western traditions.…”

“…I maintain that in order to counter the knowledge dilution that occurs with this recontextualisation process, art educators need to design curricula and assessment systems with access to knowledge as the central organising factor. We must identify the basic knowledge of our practice; the technical and cognitive processes that need to be assimilated in long-term memory (Willingham 2009) in order for developing learners to engage with secondary-process decision-making and problem-solving (Cunliffe 2008). We need to recognise the potency of threshold concepts (Erickson 2007;Meyer & Land 2003) that provide perspective and enable learners to process and organise their thoughts and experiences (Winch 2013).…”

Representing and practising meaningful differences in a well‐structured but complex art curriculum

“…This journey of discovery is guided by the two axes of knowledge of figure 4, which enables a sustained and sophisticated encounter with the 'Other' (Peters et al 2008: 28). Exposure to such a variety of art enables students to build insight, while they also benefit from the well-structured use of heuristics to mediate each form of knowledge to include incorporating interventions to scaffold the deliberate use of meta-cognition (Cunliffe 2007(Cunliffe , 2008. To achieve this aim, each scheme of work requires at least 12 hours of contact time, so that quality of learning takes place across all facets of procedural and declarative knowledge.…”