Art Curriculum
My thoughts about devising an art curriculum.
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Free CPD Professional Development training videos for art teachers
Since I retired from education in 2024, I have released most of my art teacher training sessions as free videos for teacher development. Hopefully they will serve as support and guidance for art teachers in Key Stages 1-3, I wish… Continue reading
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Impressionism
Misinformation about the Impressionist movement on the internet is rife. Even art education resource providers are guilty, lumping Van Gogh and Seurat into the Impressionist movement when they were nothing of the kind. Four young men Impressionism was developed by… Continue reading
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Hokusai: the great wave & the secret of immortality
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1831 by Hokusai is one of the most iconic images in the world. But it’s important to understand that this Japanese print was not simply a picture of a wave, but a highly symbolic work… Continue reading
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Is Starry Night a religious painting?
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh is a hugely symbolic painting which represented his feelings about the afterlife. He wrote to his brother Theo that he had a “tremendous need for, shall I say the word—for religion—so I go outside… Continue reading
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Four types of play that help us be more creative
Play is a profound way to learn and is inherent to our species. We can formulate play activities, engineer them in ways that facilitate particular experiences. In other words, we can teach it. #creativitycanbetaught 1. Conceptual Blending Combine or juxtapose… Continue reading
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Art Assessment
When it comes to inspection, inspectors are looking to see that a school’s assessment system supports the pupils’ journeys through the curriculum. Inspectors do not need to see quantities of data, spreadsheets, graphs and charts on how children are performing.… Continue reading
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Fine Motor Skills in Art
When we think of pupils making progress in art, we tend to think of pupils developing their skills or abilities in separate domains such as drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking and so on. Certainly, that’s the way most school progression maps… Continue reading
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A Potted History of Art Pedagogy
‘Pedagogy, most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as an academic discipline, is… Continue reading
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Art is dead. Long live AI
Art is dead. Surely, artists are redundant now that we can just pop a few prompts into an AI engine and get a stunning piece of art? Artificial Intelligence software can produce new images based on a set of parameters… Continue reading
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Creative Choice
Some teachers believe that we need to master skills before we can be creative. They say that creativity cannot be properly realised without the skill to express it. So, they might narrow the creative activity to focus on mastering a… Continue reading
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You CAN teach creativity
By Paul Carney http://www.paulcarneyarts.com Some very knowledgeable people say ‘you can’t teach creativity’. You can. As a creative teacher, I teach people how to be creative all the time. I can teach you the historical processes by which inventions and… Continue reading
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Developing imagination in learners
Imagination is the foundation of all inventiveness and innovation. It is uniquely human, and with it, we have been able to think, design, conceive, construct and develop our whole human society. Imagination is a powerful tool for learning and with… Continue reading
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Artistic development in Children
By Paul Carney This blog post contains extracts from an essay by Anna Kindler – Art in early Childhood “One man may sketch something with his pen on half a sheet of paper in one day, or may cut it… Continue reading
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Sequencing learning in art and design? Don’t ask the DfE!
Schools all over England are being judged by Ofsted on their ability to sequence learning and progression in the subject, despite the fact that the national curriculum for art and design in England isn’t properly sequenced and it’s progression of… Continue reading
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Art and Design Process
Making art is a complex, diverse process that can take many forms and be shaped by a wide range of factors. I’ve attempted to outline the main ones in a series of graphic organisers that could help teachers plan activities… Continue reading
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Copying the ‘masters’.
“The artist must imitate one of three objects: things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be.” Aristotle 4th century BCE Aristotle’s Poetics Copying, mimesis, or iteration,… Continue reading
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Creativity Myths
Creativity arises naturally as a result of knowing more The most knowledgeable people aren’t necessarily the most creative. In fact, it’s often the naive newcomer with a fresh pair of eyes that makes a breakthrough. Increasing knowledge means increasing awareness… Continue reading
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The problem with Cognitive Load Theory for general learning
This article is my own summary interpretation of the paper; Cognitive Load Theory, what does it mean for learning designers? By Walkergrove 2014. Cognitive Load Theory is a well researched, well proven and generally unchallenged practice of instruction that demonstrates… Continue reading
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Knowledge first, then skills, then creativity?
Knowledge first. Then skills. Then creativity? This makes no sense to me. What knowledge do you refer to? Which skills and what form of creativity? There are around 17 different knowledge types according but these are more commonly related to… Continue reading
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Are you teaching art all wrong?
Ok I accept this may be a fairly contentious blog post and that not everyone will agree with me, but here’s my two penneth worth. Outcome driven artMost of the art in schools I see is outcome driven. In Primary… Continue reading
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The Art of Questions
This article appeared in NSEAD’s AD Magazine January 2016 When planning and delivering lesson content teachers are continually striving for a balance between ensuring their pupils achieve the intended learning objectives and maintaining their motivation. We can’t place enjoyment above… Continue reading
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Have your students got the G Factor?
What do the scientists say really affects a person’s intelligence? Continue reading
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Key Stage 3 Art, Craft and Design Progression
Key Stage 3 Art & Design Progression Much of what we define as progress is smoke and mirrors. You can’t always demonstrate progression, because more often than not, it isn’t tangible. Often, I’ve spent two hours wrestling with an idea… Continue reading
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Developing different approaches to Art
Develop more interesting and exciting approaches to making and teaching art Continue reading
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Ten tips for improving the quality of your Art & Design teaching
Ten tips for improving the quality of your Art & Design teaching It’s very easy to get lost in the frantic world of teaching. You get caught up in the day to day and sometimes you forget what is at… Continue reading
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The Negative Impact of Assessment
Assessment can do as much harm as it can good. Avoid the minefields of negativity to develop truly positive assessment strategies. Continue reading
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Progression in Art & Design using revised Blooms
Revised Blooms Learning Objectives for Art & Design that facilitate progression. Continue reading
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Does anyone know of an artist who does . . . ?
Good art teaching comes from the development of planning that opens minds, it doesn’t direct outcomes. Continue reading
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Idea Mining
Idea Mining – This art lesson involves applying the objective or purpose of the idea to different thinking strands, to facilitate the more complex production of ideas. Continue reading
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Looking at Contemporary Art
Ways of Looking Ways of Looking by Ossian Ward is an excellent introduction into contemporary art. He has developed a way of looking art that he calls TABULA where T is time, A is association, B is background, U is… Continue reading
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If you want to improve boys learning, learn what it’s like to be a boy
A lot has been written about boy’s learning that I agree with; lack of self-esteem, poor motivation, weak presentation/organisation skills, female dominated schools and inability to concentrate for long periods of time etc. I passionately believe that the way lessons… Continue reading
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Baseline Assessments in Art & Design
You can’t measure progress until you know your student’s general ability in the areas of: Skills, Knowledge & Creativity. I developed a simple exercise to do this that takes about an hour to do and I would do it at… Continue reading
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