Implementation of the Grade Four Saskatchewan Arts Education Curriculum: An Action Research Study

Melanie Little

When an urban elementary school became an implementation site for the province's new Arts Education curriculum, the school's itinerant music teacher, Melanie Little, was approached by several staff members interested in working with her in planning an Arts Education program for their students. A group of interested teachers began holding "Arts Ed. afternoons" every Thursday, in which they would brainstorm ideas and plan lessons to be either team-taught or taught by a single teacher to an integrated group of students in Grades 2-7.

In the following year, the stimulation provided by the Thursday Arts Ed. afternoons led Little and two colleagues to adopt an action-research approach to their teaching of Music, Visual Art, Drama and Dance. They saw the research as a vehicle by which they could study the Arts Education curriculum document in more detail and examine the broader realm of their teaching practice. As Little expressed it, "In actuality, there is no one correct method of implementing the Saskatchewan Arts Education curriculum. Teachers work in their own classrooms, with itinerant specialist teachers, and with each other to test out ideas between the covers of the curriculum document. By taking risks in trying out new ideas, they determine the methods which work best for them in teaching this new curriculum."

Working collaboratively in an action-oriented research approach, the teachers had several objectives:

1. to document one situation in which the implementation of the curriculum was accomplished successfully in an innovative way,
2. to take a critical look at the Arts Education curriculum document,
3. to acquire insights into the teaching of the arts, and
4. to share their insights from the project with other teachers and administrators who are teaching the arts with the assistance of the new curriculum guide.

Little reviewed the literature to find background information on the history of the Saskatchewan Arts Education curriculum, the history of the action research process, some Canadian and American approaches to Arts Education, and recent Saskatchewan research in the Arts Education arena. She also acted as team leader for the project, calling meetings, conducting interviews, collecting data, and keeping everyone informed and on track.

The three teachers met at the beginning of the 1995-96 year to plan monthly themes, set a schedule for teaching, and agree on a letter of parental permission allowing students to participate in the research project. Subsequently, they met once a month to plan, observe the result of the actions arising from their plan, reflect on the results, and make revisions to the plan. This pattern of planning, executing, and evaluating constituted the action research spiral that structured their project.

The focus of the research was the Grade 4 Arts Education program as it was implemented in two classrooms of students in a Grade 3/4 split, one an English class and the other a French immersion class. The composition of the two classrooms was noticeably different in terms of student mobility, socioeconomic status, and the percentage of students with Aboriginal ancestry. Lessons in the four areas of the Arts were planned for both classrooms by individual teachers according to the monthly themes and the foundational objectives of the Arts Education curriculum. At times the teachers team-taught to the combined 3/4 English and French group for an entire afternoon.

Data was collected through weekly reflective journals kept by the teachers, records from the teachers' monthly meetings, journals in which students responded to questions about their Arts Education experiences at three different points in the school year, and the transcription of a final interview between the three teacher researchers at the end of the year. A matrix listing all the foundational objectives for Grade 4 was constructed and cross-referenced with the dates of the weekly Arts Education lessons recorded in the teachers' journals. Upon analysis, the matrix showed which strands of the Arts Education curriculum had been more or less frequently taught, and which foundational objectives had been heavily favoured or ignored.

In assessing the curriculum document as a guide to their teaching of Arts Education, the teachers focussed on the foundational objectives as the key aspect of the curriculum that gave them direction as to what they should be teaching. Unfortunately, it was the parameters of these foundational objectives in which the teachers identified many concerns. The teachers felt that 33 foundational objectives were too many to teach effectively in a school year of 31 weeks. Even though several objectives were often taught in a lesson, in-depth coverage and reinforcement of most of them was practically impossible. They also found that the objectives assumed students were bringing a previous base of Arts Education experiences on which the Grade 4 objectives had been built. Since many students had not had these requisite experiences, the objectives could not be addressed.

A range of insights into the teaching of Arts Education were acquired, including the following:

1. Improved Relationships within the School
   The co-operative manner in which the three teacher-researchers taught Arts Education had two important 'trickle-down' effects on school life. The separation of students by language of instruction had created tensions between the two student groups that were mitigated by integrating them for Arts Education classes. Also, the teachers experienced close, collegial relationships through their co-operative approach to action research and the teaching of Arts Education that resulted in strong personal and professional ties.
2. The Importance of Good Teacher Organization in Arts Education
   Although organization is needed to teach any subject area, Arts Education appears to require greater organization and attention to detail to ensure success. Teachers must be organized in physical space, classroom procedures, and their own minds. Generally speaking, whenever the teacher-researchers gave a lesson a second time to the second class, it was modified to provide a better learning opportunity for the students.
3. Emphasis on the Creative/Productive Component
   Although Arts Education is intended to have cultural, historical, critical and responsive components, the teachers found their activities were very performance or production based. One reason for this emphasis was the powerful public relations link that the creative/productive component provides to parents and other stakeholders. When there is a dispXlay of pictures, a play, or Christmas program to show the school community, it gives credibility to the Arts Education program.
4. The Need for Cumulative Exposure to Arts Education
   Students develop attitudes and skills in the areas of Arts Education through cumulative exposure to them. If the necessary groundwork has not been developed in previous years, the gaps must be remedied before the curriculum can be delivered as intended. A system-wide approach to Arts Education, including high quality teaching in this area in the primary grades, is necessary to ensure students have experienced success in Dance, Music, Drama and Visual Arts and are willing to take risks in arts activities.
5. The Benefits of Collaborating to Implement
   Collaboration was the larger framework in which the three teacher-researchers worked, creating a team in which each teacher had an equal voice. It was agreed that collaborating had motivated the teachers to heighten their efforts in planning and instruction and diminished the insular qualities of teaching. Moreover, collaboration allowed each teacher to use her strengths in teaching Arts Education, acknowledge her limitations, and grow professionally at a comfortable pace. Students reaped the benefits of the talents of several teachers.
   
   The researchers concluded that the broad aim of the Arts Education curriculum, which is to "enable students to understand and value arts expressions throughout life," cannot be assessed without a long-term study into the value students have for the arts after Arts Education has ceased. They were confident, however, that in the short term, students appreciate Arts Education as a valuable part of their present. In order to enhance the development of Arts Education, the researchers made a number of recommendations to curriculum developers, school systems, and teachers, as well as recommendations for future research.