Course Outline

EDU115 Creative Expression and Play through the Arts

Course Coordinator:Marguerite Westacott (mwestaco@usc.edu.au) School:School of Education and Tertiary Access

2024Semester 2

UniSC Sunshine Coast

Blended learning Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online.

Online

Online You can do this course without coming onto campus.

Please go to usc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.

What is this course about?

Description

This course will develop understanding of the Arts as a language—a way children both access and represent knowledge. You will examine how the Arts support communication, creativity and problem solving. You will consider the importance of the Arts for supporting children’s knowledge construction, play, needs, interests, development and learning. Your role as a curriculum decision-maker who uses skills and approaches responsive to children’s ways of knowing, and knowledge of curriculum documents connected to the Arts will be explored

How will this course be delivered?

Activity Hours Beginning Week Frequency
Blended learning
Learning materials – Learning materials offer options/opportunities for learner choice. You will engage and interact with an array of asynchronous materials and activities accessed through Canvas modules, course readings and required texts. 2hrs Week 1 9 times
Tutorial/Workshop 1 – A blended learning approach is used to deliver this course, including a mix of interactive tutorials/workshops, and synchronous and asynchronous materials and activities accessed through Canvas. Additional modalities may support learning in this course. 2hrs Week 1 10 times
Online
Learning materials – Learning materials offer options/opportunities for learner choice. You will engage and interact with an array of asynchronous materials and activities accessed through Canvas modules, course readings and required texts. 2hrs Week 1 9 times
Tutorial/Workshop 1 – Online only. The scheduled tutorials/workshops involve synchronous technology-enabled learning and teaching experiences via Zoom. A mix of synchronous and asynchronous materials and activities accessed through Canvas support the online tutorials/workshops. Additional modalities may support learning in this course. 2hrs Week 1 10 times

Course Topics

  • The importance of play, imagination and creativity in learning
  • Teacher as curriculum decision maker
  • Curriculum documents: Early Years learning Framework (EYLF); Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline (QKLG); Australian Curriculum: The Arts (F-2) and arts subjects – visual arts, music, dance, drama and media arts
  • Developing children’s knowledge, skills, techniques, processes and dispositions to enable them to:
    • create, present and reflect on the Arts and technologies with confidence, skill, enjoyment and aesthetic awareness
    • express ideas, feelings and experiences through symbols, techniques, technologies and processes appropriate to the early years in each of the five strands of the Arts outlined in the ACARA curriculum documents
  • Communicating with an intended audience through the forms and processes of the Arts
  • Developing personal confidence and competencies through personal engagement with creative and media arts

What level is this course?

100 Level (Introductory)

Engaging with discipline knowledge and skills at foundational level, broad application of knowledge and skills in familiar contexts and with support. Limited or no prerequisites. Normally, associated with the first full-time study year of an undergraduate program.

What is the unit value of this course?

12 units

How does this course contribute to my learning?

Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... Graduate Qualities Mapping Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... Professional Standard Mapping * Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership
1 Demonstrate an understanding of the Arts as a language and expressive medium for communicating ideas, feelings, diverse needs and interests Ethical
Engaged
1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 4.2
2 Demonstrate a variety of techniques and methodologies for fostering self-expression, creativity and communication through the Arts Knowledgeable
1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 4.2
3 Interpret and implement arts learning experiences within a range of curriculum frameworks and settings for young children aged birth to 8 years Creative and critical thinker
1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 4.2
4 Demonstrate and describe pedagogical approaches for planning, implementing, making judgements and reporting on children's learning in the Arts Empowered
1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 4.2
5 Demonstrate an ability to use and apply effective communication strategies in a variety of contexts to produce and present quality and professional work. Engaged

                                    

* Competencies by Professional Body

CODE COMPETENCY
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership
1.2 Understand how students learn: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching.
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds: Demonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation: Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students.
3.3 Use teaching strategies: Include a range of teaching strategies.
3.4 Select and use resources: Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.
4.2 Manage classroom activities: Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions

Am I eligible to enrol in this course?

Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.

Pre-requisites

Enrolled in Program ED011 or ED303 or ED101

Co-requisites

Not applicable

Anti-requisites

EDU335 and EDU235

Specific assumed prior knowledge and skills (where applicable)

Not applicable

How am I going to be assessed?

Grading Scale

Standard Grading (GRD)

High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL).

Details of early feedback on progress

Formative feedback and peer feedback will be provided prior to the final submission date. It is essential therefore that you maintain your folio each week, keeping it up to date, so that you are able to critique the quality and content of your own folio and the folios of your peers.

Assessment tasks

Delivery mode Task No. Assessment Product Individual or Group Weighting % What is the duration / length? When should I submit? Where should I submit it?
All 1 Portfolio Individual 50%
2000 words or equivalent + relevant artefacts
Week 8 Online Submission
All 2 Artefact - Creative Group 50%
5-minute video + 1 A4 page parent support handout (or equivalent format e.g Sway resource); 
2-minute photo story inclusive of two peer responses (2000-word equivalent)
Week 10 Online Submission
All - Assessment Task 1:Reflective and Expressive Folio
Goal:
The goal of this task is to demonstrate your developing knowledge of the Arts and your active engagement in ongoing reflection on the Arts as an expressive medium for communicating ideas, feelings, diverse needs and interests.
Product: Portfolio
Format:
* Please refer to the Canvas site for this course for more detail. * Develop and share your folio with your peers across the semester.

This task invites you to build a reflective and expressive folio to show your understanding and exploration of the Arts as a language. Your folio requires you to attend to three aspects in a recurring way across the semester:

1.	Reflection on your developing knowledge about the Arts, creativity and play in young children’s education, linked to your professional dialogue with the textbook/s, scholarly reading and research. 

2.	The collection and presentation of inspirational images which illustrate the kinds of aesthetic invitations, open-ended challenges, provocations and learning environments that support children’s authentic engagement with the Arts. 

3.	Demonstration of your engagement with the Arts in your own life. This will involve 'arts-making' – your learning by being an artist – and 'arts-responding' – your learning by being an audience and engaging in reflection and review processes of your own art-making and/or art traditions and artworks of notable artists influencing your art-making adventures. 

Use your folio to demonstrate your developing visual literacy and information literacy skills and dispositions. Use it to communicate that you value the skills, time and effort needed to produce, represent and communicate knowledge. Your folio is a way of sharing your developing understandings and your application of arts knowledge, skills and processes.
Criteria:
No. Learning Outcome assessed
1
​Identification of pedagogical approaches that value and support authentic arts education, creative expression and play in the early years
1 2 4
2
Discussion, and evidence of experimentation with a variety of ideas, techniques, methodologies, and aesthetic invitations/materials
1 2 3 4
3
Written and visual communication skills and academic literacies including English expression, grammar, spelling, punctuation, APA referencing conventions​, visual examples, resources and artefacts
5
All - Assessment Task 2:Multimedia Artefacts + peer responses
Goal:
The goal of this task is to create an audio-visual resource that invites and facilitates authentic learning in the Arts; and one that evidences related reflection and review.
Product: Artefact - Creative
Format:
* Please refer to the Canvas site for this course for more detail. *This is a group task, so form a group early in the semester.

This group assessment involves the creation of two multimedia artefacts: – one audio-visual resource collectively created by your group (+ a single page parent handout or equivalent), – and one photo-story with voice-over created by you as an individual. 

Creative artefact 1 – audio-visual resource (5 minute video) (group task)

Working collaboratively, your small group will create an audio-visual resource offering child-centred invitations for meaningful arts learning. Your resource will be aimed at children in the early years and focused on providing aesthetic and authentic learning invitations and open-ended challenges for children to use the Arts to make meaning about themselves and/or their world. In the creation of your resource you will be applying the philosophies, theories and concepts discussed throughout the course. 

Accompanying the audio-visual resource will be a single A4 page handout (or equivalent support) for parents. 

These two resources (video + parent handout) will be shared with your peers who will engage with the invitations they contain, and in processes of review.

Creative artefact 2 – photo story evidence and reflection with voice-over (2 minutes) (individual task)

Additionally, you will provide a separate individual 2-minute photo story with voice-over to evidence your contribution over time to this group task. Your photo story will serve as a visual work diary/record of your participation in team meetings, planning, researching, resourcing, development and production of the group audio-visual resource and handout. Use your photo-story to highlight the roles you played and to reflect on the skills you developed as well as the peer to peer learning and teaching you enabled and/or experienced.
Criteria:
No. Learning Outcome assessed
1
Implementation of a variety of techniques, pedagogies & methodologies for fostering aesthetic responses, self-expression and communication (embedded in a created audio-visual resource aimed at authentic learning in the Arts)
1 2 4
2
Demonstration of knowledge about the Arts/’media arts’ as a language and an expressive medium for representing and communicating authentic ideas, feelings, ways of knowing and interests
1 2 3 4 5
3
Oral/visual/digital communication skills incl multimodal storytelling, English expression, pace, genre, narrative structure, sequencing, format, message, aesthetics, codes/conventions, technical/symbolic elements, media forms, images, sound, text...
5

Directed study hours

A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.

What resources do I need to undertake this course?

Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.

Prescribed text(s) or course reader

Please note that you need to have regular access to the resource(s) listed below. Resources may be required or recommended.

Required? Author Year Title Edition Publisher
Required Deb Curtis, Margie Carter 2014 Designs for Living and Learning, Second Edition Revised/Second Redleaf Press
Required Judith Dinham, Beryl Chalk 2018 It's Arts Play n/a Oxford University Press

Specific requirements

Students are responsible for suitable and protective clothing for tutorials as required. To support personal arts-making and assessment: personal art materials and supplies such as a visual art diary, 2B or graphite pencils, black markers with different tip sizes, coloured pencils or textas, paints and paint brushes, glue and scissors, as well as a device that can record video, audio and take still images.

How are risks managed in this course?

Health and safety risks for this course have been assessed as low. It is your responsibility to review course material, search online, discuss with lecturers and peers and understand the health and safety risks associated with your specific course of study and to familiarise yourself with the University’s general health and safety principles by reviewing the online induction training for students, and following the instructions of the University staff.

What administrative information is relevant to this course?

Assessment: Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation.  It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline.  This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.

Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person.  You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.

In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin.  This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.

Assessment: Additional Requirements

Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment

Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying:

The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%
The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale
You have not failed an assessment task in the course due to academic misconduct

Assessment: Submission penalties

All assessment extension requests must be made prior to the assessment submission deadline using the online EDU115  Extension Request Form. 

Evidence must be provided and be in one of the recognized forms as per clause 7.9.2 of the USC Assessment Policies and Procedures document.

Late submission of assessment tasks may be penalised at the following maximum rate: 
- 5% (of the assessment task's identified value) per day for the first two days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. 
- 10% (of the assessment task's identified value) for the third day - 20% (of the assessment task's identified value) for the fourth day and subsequent days up to and including seven days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. 
- A result of zero is awarded for an assessment task submitted after seven days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. Weekdays and weekends are included in the calculation of days late. 

To request an extension you must contact your course coordinator to negotiate an outcome.

SafeUniSC

UniSC is committed to a culture of respect and providing a safe and supportive environment for all members of our community. For immediate assistance on campus contact SafeUniSC by phone: 07 5430 1168 or using the SafeZone app. For general enquires contact the SafeUniSC team by phone 07 5456 3864 or email safe@usc.edu.au.

The SafeUniSC Specialist Service is a Student Wellbeing service that provides free and confidential support to students who may have experienced or observed behaviour that could cause fear, offence or trauma. To contact the service call 07 5430 1226 or email studentwellbeing@usc.edu.au.

Study help

For help with course-specific advice, for example what information to include in your assessment, you should first contact your tutor, then your course coordinator, if needed.

If you require additional assistance, the Learning Advisers are trained professionals who are ready to help you develop a wide range of academic skills. Visit the Learning Advisers web page for more information, or contact Student Central for further assistance: +61 7 5430 2890 or studentcentral@usc.edu.au.

Wellbeing Services

Student Wellbeing provide free and confidential counselling on a wide range of personal, academic, social and psychological matters, to foster positive mental health and wellbeing for your academic success.

To book a confidential appointment go to Student Hub, email studentwellbeing@usc.edu.au or call 07 5430 1226.

AccessAbility Services

Ability Advisers ensure equal access to all aspects of university life. If your studies are affected by a disability, learning disorder mental health issue, injury or illness, or you are a primary carer for someone with a disability or who is considered frail and aged, AccessAbility Services can provide access to appropriate reasonable adjustments and practical advice about the support and facilities available to you throughout the University.

To book a confidential appointment go to Student Hub, email AccessAbility@usc.edu.au or call 07 5430 2890.

Links to relevant University policy and procedures

For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:

  • Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs
  • Review of Assessment and Final Grades
  • Supplementary Assessment
  • Central Examinations
  • Deferred Examinations
  • Student Conduct
  • Students with a Disability

For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching

Student Charter

UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.

General Enquiries

  • In person:
    • UniSC Sunshine Coast - Student Central, Ground Floor, Building C, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs
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