K - 2 Dance Diaries

Values and Attitudes in the Creative Arts

The arts exist within a framework of values. These are highly significant to students’ development of knowledge, understanding and skills in the artforms. Over time, these values contribute to the ways in which students develop interpretations, explanations and meanings about their own and others’ work in the artforms that have a personal, social and cultural relevance. They also assist students to understand and utilise the artforms as symbolic forms of communication. Teachers, parents and people in the wider community can be significant role models for students in how they value the arts. 

Teachers, parents and students can:

• value and appreciate opportunities to experience and engage in visual arts, music, drama and dance through learning experiences in making, performing, composing, listening to and appreciating.
• value and appreciate opportunities for students to take on the roles of artists, performers, composers, makers and audiences or viewers in their own experiences.
• value the different people they know who are engaged in and contribute to the visual arts, music, drama, and dance including themselves, teachers, families, friends and other members of their communities.
• value the different kinds of novel, innovative, original and creative works that are made in visual arts, music, drama and dance.
• recognise how the artforms employ a wide range of traditional and contemporary technologies that contribute to how they are made, performed and interpreted.
• recognise how the world provides an endless source of concepts, ideas and issues that can be explored in visual arts, music, drama and dance.
• value the opportunities that visual arts, music, drama and dance provide for the development of students’ reflective thought and action in making, performing, composing, listening to and appreciating.
• value the opportunities visual arts, music, drama and dance offer for self-expression, sensory experience, intuition, imagination and the sharing of meanings and how these can enrich and enhance the quality of students’ lives.
• value and appreciate how the visual arts, music, drama and dance function as different symbol systems that communicate messages and meanings.
• recognise the value of the arts in different times and cultural contexts and consider the influence of cultural and spiritual values, continuity of traditions, ethnic origins, gender, social issues, locations and changing technologies on making, performing and appreciating in visual arts, music, drama and dance.
• respect the views of various social and cultural groups, people with different religious and belief systems and people with disabilities.
• recognise that experiences in the arts of Aboriginal peoples contribute to students’ understanding of Australian society and to the reconciliation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
• recognise and value the contribution of female and male artists, performers, composers, actors, choreographers, designers.
• recognise how they can contribute to cultural life in Australia and respond as critical consumers of artistic and cultural activities through their participation in visual arts, music, drama and dance during their schooling and in post-school settings.

(source: Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus (2006) PDF)

Dancers of the Week:

Stay tuned for next week’s ‘K - 2 Dance Diaries’ article.  

Nicola Jackson
Kinder to Year 2 RFF Teacher