Curriculum Framework Statement
In VELS curriculum, Visual Arts is divided into two components of ‘Creating and Making’ as well as ‘Exploring and Responding’. Art curriculum is conceptualized within strict framework of making an art and responding to it. ‘To make’ various technique and guidelines are given for teachers to comprehend their work but to respond to an artwork and exploring it is rather ambiguous. Visual Arts as a whole is the best medium that can be used to study global issues. In cultural pluralism world, people should be able to hold their own view or ethnic belief but always share one common goal as the harmonious being of earth. Artist and Art understand this well enough to work anywhere in the world and bring a universal meaning to their art. Visual Arts celebrate the diversity of individual and culture that existed from centuries to current and understand how the cultural mores affect the art. Arts is a subject that pick themes from anything that would eventually give meaning to nature, colour, religoun, life, death, war, peace or even abstract objects. Arts class should only not enhance creative thinking but also critical thinking. In VELS curriculum or AusVels, arts are seen as a good interweaving domain with other disciplines.
President Kennedy once quoted that Arts establish the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment. Therefore, Arts curriculum must be viewed with a higher order of understanding of what wanted to be attained from the curriculum. As a pre service teacher, the conceptual framework gives me a greater perspective on the role of an artist, his/her art work and subject matter plus the audience. It offers me a platform to plan my visual arts lesson plan more explicitly. Addition to that, it gives a more holistic understanding on visual arts education especially to pre service teacher with little background of visual arts knowledge. A comprehensive text of a visual arts curriculum made visual arts viewed as a rigid subject that requires operational laws and principles to execute in the classroom.