Latest Module Specifications
Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026
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Description Through this module, students will explore the nature and purpose of music, visual art, and drama education, specifically focusing on the Primary Curriculum (1999/2024) and current literature in the field. The critical role of arts and creativity in human development and well-being forms the foundation of the module. Students will actively examine the body as a means of creative (and artistic, musical and dramatic) expression and communication, integrating theory and practice. By engaging with various curricular strands and strand units, participants will enhance their confidence and competence in creating and teaching art, music, and drama. They will gain insights into how children create meaning in the arts and develop a critical understanding of both the practical and theoretical aspects of teaching at primary level. This module emphasises challenging, creative, and motivating learning experiences to equip students with the ability to foster emotionally and physically safe environments for children in diverse contexts. It aims to guide students toward appreciating well-being and instilling in children a lifelong interest in the arts, ultimately enriching their future teaching practices. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Demonstrate a growing personal competence and skill in music, art, and drama making, applying an understanding of the fundamental principles and practices of arts education. 2. Draw on a critical understanding of the principles that inform the primary arts education curriculum, using their working knowledge of strands of activity and concepts to plan, teach, and assess imaginative, innovative, and engaging activities that nurture children’s learning and creative skills in music, visual art, drama and digital technology. 3. Lead children’s learning in the arts cognisant of children’s diverse needs and learning processes, deepening their awareness of the expressive potential of these arts, leading towards the creation of a safe emotional and physical environment for all children. 4. Respond insightfully to works across artistic domains and to a range of other stimuli - from diverse historical, contemporary and cultural contexts - using an appropriate specialist vocabulary to consider both technical and affective dimensions. 5. Explore the role and significance of the body as a means of creative expression and artistic communication, including the integration of a range of ways in which children can represent sounds in symbols and gestures across strands of activity. 6. Demonstrate evidence of critical awareness and research in music, visual arts and drama education, showing how these fields contribute to individual and societal meaning-making, and develop active learners, thinkers and creators. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
Art Education The art course, workshop/lecture (24 hours) provides opportunities to develop a practical understanding for basic art and design skills.The focus of the course is to provide an experiential, open-ended approach to engagement with a broad range of media (both 2 and 3 dimensional and digital), and pedagogical approaches to teaching, to develop understanding of the principles underpinning the primary curriculum . Taking a process-focused approach to teaching and learning, students engage with weekly reflection on learning, mining the practical experience of art making for connection with and understanding of the art curriculum, the visual elements/concepts and principles in art. The pedagogical approaches include process-led, free exploration, play-based learning, collaborative learning through art making, focused observation and experiential use of stimuli to enter into imaginative and expressive contexts. Inquiry-based learning exploring the properties and origins of different materials, connect students' learning through art with wider issues of sustainability. A range of media are explored through, paint and colour, drawing, modelling clay and construction, print, digital media and fabric and fibre. Special emphasis is placed on Environmental Art and possibility for creating ephemeral art connecting with care of the environment, wellbeing, and ecology. Thematic approaches to creating art are explored with emphasis on making personal connections through art, developing a sense of self expression, communicating visually with the wider world, developing a visual vocabulary and it's importance in the primary school and classroom. Developing understanding of the components of a visual art lesson plan, with an emphasis on child as artist and progression in learning and connecting with the wider curriculum through meaningful integration. Emphasis on mathematics and art connections are highlighted through the concept/visual element of pattern, and the medium of print. Awareness for sustainability throughout the course with particular focus on global citizenship, sense of place, and inclusion celebrating different ways of seeing the world. Responding to the work of artists and connecting it to the lives of children, is an integral part of the course using Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) as a mechanism to respond to art as an aid to teaching children how to engage with art works. * An understanding of Curriculum Art in Primary Education * (1) The creative process in art making. The need for the child to be the artist (2) Children's art and how it develops -educational perspectives (3) Planning how to help school children respond and connect with a work of art (4) How to plan an art lesson: Suitable theme, stimuli, use of media, dialogic techniques; (5) Classroom management during an art lesson; (6) Integrating art with other curriculum areas; (7) Use of photography and digital media; (8) Display of 2D and 3D art work. Music Education The music education component of the course is provided through three main components 1. Developing a practical understanding of the Nine Musical Concepts of the Music Curriculum Throughout the 24 hours of mixed workshops/lectures students gain an understanding of the principles underpinning the primary music curriculum, and develop their understanding and use of the nine musical concepts, inc. the vocabulary associated with each. They critically engage with the idea of music expressed in the curriculum and the understanding of a spiral curriculum in music that it contains. They further their understanding of embodied learning and knowing and of recognising and observing children’s tacit knowledge in music through practical work with the nine musical concepts. They develop an understanding of how they can use a range of music materials to develop children’s ‘sense’ of these music concepts. 2. Developing a practical understanding of the Strand and Strand Units of the Music Curriculum Throughout the 24 hours of mixed workshops/lectures students gain an understanding of the principles underpinning the primary music curriculum, and develop specific pedagogical approaches to help them plan and teach the strands and strand units of the music curriculum. These include, but are not limited to, developing pedagogical knowledge on song-singing, exploring sounds, listening and responding to music (through various means), playing instruments, music literacy (including notation) and composing (to include improvising and creating, and talking about and recording compositions). 3. Planning the Music Lesson As they gain a more thorough understanding of the strands and concepts of the Primary Music Curriculum, students explore how to plan successful music lessons, and begin to integrate their learning on content, pedagogy and assessment. Drama Education The Drama Component of this integrated arts module will allow students to explore a variety of approaches to drama and theatre and to gain a practical understanding of the relationship between children’s make-believe play, drama and theatre. The significance of the body as a way of knowing will be empahsised. Reflection on personal experiences of play, drama and theatre as well as critical reflection on module readings will form a central part of the process. Process Drama, a particular form of drama which exploits drama’s unique value not only as an expressive art form but also as a learning medium, will be explored in detail on this module. Its holistic nature makes it particularly suited to the wide range of learning needs of children in the primary school. The module will interrogate the need to preserve the integrity of the artform of drama as well as exploring its affordances for curricular integration in the arts areas and beyond. s and practice of process drama and a focus on children’s natural tendency for make-believe play, which shares many characteristics with process drama and represents their first steps into the form. In subsequent sessions, we will explore and reflect upon issues of motivation, form and content as we engage with drama through a range of lectures, workshops and independent tasks. In the latter sessions of the module, we will examine various approaches to planning for classroom drama, in the light of its immense possibilities for integrated and creative work in schools. Students will be guided towards an understanding and appreciation of well-being and of experiences that can provide children with opportunities to develop a lifelong interest in the arts. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List Books:
Articles:
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Other Resources None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||