Arts Education at Creative Secondary School
Foreword
At Creative Secondary School, we teach three curriculums: the MYP, the HKDSE and the IBDP. We aim to merge the best of local and international educational ideas through these three systems.
The visual arts are a fundamental part of a student’s all-rounded personal growth and development as the arts help us to explore, shape and communicate our sense of identity and individuality.
Through six years of arts education, the students explore different cultural and historical perspectives, various skills, media and techniques, and are encouraged to challenge their own creative and cultural expectations, with emphasis on conveying feelings, experiences and ideas through their art.
Key Features of Our Visual Arts Education
Learning Approach: Creative Cycle
The core of our approach is the creative cycle. Each unit or project addresses four interconnected areas: knowledge and understanding, developing skills, thinking creatively and responding. In this methodology, research, process, product and evaluation are seen to be of equal importance, and each area is connected and builds on the others.
Students use research and inquiry skills to investigate and interpret the selected pieces, applying aspects of critical theory and methodologies to the works examined and presenting their findings as a personal and critically reflective analysis.
Units can start at any point within this creative cycle; a skill, a researched theme or even a reflection of previous artwork, and within the unit all areas will at some point be covered. This approach aims to encourage the students to function as artists, develop their curiosity and become effective inquirers and creative problem-solvers.
Progressive Programme
We have a progressive programme where students are able to demonstrate their
understanding at increasing levels of sophistication and independence. In the junior years, a teacher-led approach is most common. Projects are often technique-focused, where the teacher will introduce a particular skill or media such as Chinese Ink painting, a set theme like portraiture and an artist to respond to.
As the student progresses through the school, they begin to make more decisions, such as selecting their own artists or media. By the senior years, the approach becomes student-led, with individual students choosing their own themes and investigations, selecting techniques. The teacher takes the role of facilitator, with the aforementioned creative cycle guiding the student.
Through this progression, the students learn to become independent learners, confident and experimental art-makers, and find their own voice as an artist.
