art - nz's national education monitoring...

national education monitoring report 2

artassessment results

1995

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CHAPTER 2 5ASSESSING ART

Art Permeates our LivesThroughout history people have expressed their understandings of the worldthrough art. Art permeates society and culture. It is part of our daily lives andexperience. It has the potential to enrich and inform. Art education is con-cerned with learning skills and knowledge that enable us to understand andparticipate in this lasting field of human activity and enterprise.

Art and the National CurriculumArt education represents part of a balanced curriculum for all New Zealandschool students. It is that part of the curriculum which offers opportunitiesfor developing abilities of personal and social expression through a range ofvisual media, forms and techniques. An art education is also concerned withdeveloping an appreciation and understanding of the art of others, the waysart works are looked at, valued and thought about.

An art education enables people to understand how to make art works, how art worksare made, and the circumstances they arise from.An art education can help students to organise and give meaning to their experiencesin imaginative ways. It can encourage the growth of individual expression.An art education provides students with important knowledge about the society theylive in, and about the ways in which cultural and artistic influences shape their envi-ronment. It helps students to make informed and intelligent decisions about art andart works, and thereby contribute positively to their own and others’ lives.

New Zealand Art Education Syllabus, 1989Skills and Knowledge

Making art works requires skills of selecting, organising and using materialsalong with those necessary for creating and forming images that help expressand represent the ideas and intentions of the student. Appreciating and under-standing the works of other artists requires knowledge of how they work,their purposes, the influence of their environment on their work, and theirwork on the environment. It also involves a growing ability to see, commentand respond.

Framework for National Monitoring Assessment of Students’ Art Skills and KnowledgeNational monitoring task frameworks are developed by the project’s curricu-lum advisory panels. These frameworks have two key purposes. They providea valuable guideline structure for the development and selection of tasks, andthey bring into focus those important dimensions of the learning domain thatare arguably the basis for valid analyses of students’ understandings, skills andknowledge

The frameworks are organising tools which interrelate main ideas, processesand attitudes with reference to important learning outcomes. They are in-tended to be flexible and broad enough to encourage and enable the develop-ment of tasks that lead to meaningful descriptions of what students know andcan do.

The art framework has a central organising theme supported by three interre-lated aspects.

The central organising theme, “art that students make and see”, is consistentwith New Zealand’s official art curriculum and sets the broad context for tasks

The aim of art education is to enable students to learn to make art worksand to develop an understanding of the actions and relationships of art incultures and society. New Zealand Art Education Syllabus, 1989

The content aspect elaborates on the two key categories of subject matter foran art education: making and responding.

The processes aspect lists the areas of knowledge and skill that students couldbe expected to demonstrate while engaged with content. It is accepted thatknowledge and skills for art may interrelate with other learning areas.

6 NEMP Report 2: Art 1995

CONTENT ASPECT

MAKING, including

• generating, exploring, clarifying andselecting ideas and experiences

• using a range of sources ofinformation

• selecting and using form, media,techniques and processes; 2D, 3D,multimedia

• adapting and refining technicalprocesses and ways of working withtools and materials

• experimenting with and testingideas and processes.

• evaluating and reviewing work inprogress

• expressing preferred personal/cultural styles

• care and conservation of materials• using safe procedures

PROCESSES ASPECT

KNOWLEDGE, including

• context (personal, social,cultural, historical)

• aesthetics• content and style• technical procedures

SKILLS, including• perception• reflection• expression• production

MOTIVATION ASPECT

• Interest and enthusiasm• Willingness to explore and

take risks• Satisfaction and self-confidence• Open-mindedness

The motivation aspect of the framework directs attention to the importanceof having information about students’ art interests, attitudes, confidence andinvolvement, both within and beyond the school setting. Educational researchand practice confirm the impact of student motivation on achievement andlearning outcomes.

ART FRAMEWORK ORGANISING THEME: ART THAT STUDENTS MAKE AND SEE

The Choice of Art Tasks for National MonitoringThe choice of art tasks for national monitoring is guided by a number of educa-tional and practical considerations. Uppermost in any decisions relating to thechoice or administration of a task is the central consideration of validity and theeffect that a whole range of decisions can have on this prime attribute. So tasksare chosen because they provide a good representation of important dimensionsof an art education, but also because they meet a number of requirements to dowith their administration and presentation. For example:

Consistency Each task with its associated materials needs to be structured to ensure a highlevel of consistency in the way it is presented by specially trained teacher admin-istrators to students of wide ranging backgrounds and abilities, and in diversesettings throughout New Zealand.

Span the range Tasks need to span the expected range of capabilities of year 4 and 8 studentsand to allow the most able students to show the extent of their abilities whilealso giving the least able the opportunity to show what they can do.

Practical, accessible Materials for art making tasks need to be sufficiently portable, economical, safeand within the handling capabilities of students. The visual items for respondingtasks (reproductions of artists’ works, photographs, etc.) need to depict imagesand contexts that are accessible (within the range of) to students.

Timing The time needed for completing an individual task has to be balanced against thetotal time available for all of the assessment tasks without denying students suffi-cient opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities.

Motivating Each task needs to be capable of sustaining the attention and effort of students ifthey are to produce responses that truly indicate what they know and can do.Since neither the student nor the school receives immediate or specific feedbackon performance, the motivational potential of the assessment is critical.

RESPONDING, including

• describing content, form, style,symbols, images

• identifying media, processes andprocedures

• expressing, reflecting and valuingpersonal responses evoked by anartist’s work

• considering artists’ intentions,values, beliefs and feelings

• analysing and interpretingrelationships among form, content,purpose

• recognising personal and culturalsymbols

• investigating personal, social,cultural, historical contexts of art

• recognising personal bias andpreferences when judging art work

• considering the influence, meaningand value of an artist’s work

• conserving and caring for works of art

Chapter 2: Assessing art 7

Unbiased Tasks need to avoid unnecessary bias on the grounds of gender, culture orsocial background while accepting that it is appropriate to have tasks thatreflect the interests of particular groups within the community.

National Monitoring Art Assessment Tasks and SurveyTwelve art tasks were administered at both the Year 4 and 8 levels. Each stu-dent also completed an interview questionnaire which investigated their in-terests, attitudes and involvement in art activity. Seven of the tasks werehands-on making activities, four involved responding to art works, and onetask required students to classify and identify the sequence of steps in relatedart making processes.

NEMP ART TASKS

MAKING ART

Independent MINUTES

Pencil Drawing 10 Years 8 and 4

Crayon Drawing 25 Years 8 and 4

Painting 45 Years 8 and 4

Collage 30 Year 8 modified for year 4

Print Making 30 Years 8 and 4 Link task

Clay Modelling 40 Years 8 and 4 Link task

RESPONDING TO ART WORKS

InterviewSculptures Year 8 modified for year 4

Art in Social Contexts Years 8 and 4

Paintings Year 8 modified for year 4 Link task

Team

Paintings 20 Year 8 modified for year 4

Art Making Processes 20 Year 8 modified for year 4

Task procedures, materials and content were substantially the same for theYear 4 and 8 tasks, although there was a modification to the context of onemaking task, and stimulus items were changed between Year 4 and 8 in threeof the responding tasks.

Students worked independently in all of the making tasks. Three of the re-sponding tasks were administered in one-to-one interviews, and the fourthresponding task was done collaboratively by a team of 4 students. The classifi-cation task was also done in a team setting. The supplies and stimulus materi-als were consistent for each task.

The time allowed for working on each making task was standardised. Stu-dents were not expected to produce finished work within the time available,and consequently the marking did not use completion as a criterion. The timerequired for the responding tasks varied from student to student in the one toone approach, depending on the extent to which they were able to commentand elaborate. Each student had the same opportunity to make their responses.The responding tasks administered in the team setting were completed withina flexible time frame.

Link TasksSome tasks administered in the first cycle of national monitoring will be usedagain in the second cycle, four years later. This will provide a basis for com-parison of performance over time. Although first cycle results for link tasksare given in this report, more detailed descriptions are not given because thatcould bias the results obtained in 1999.


The Marking SchemeThe work produced by students’ in their individual and team responses wasassessed within a scheme of specially designed marking rubrics which wereformulated by professionals. The rubrics used for each task specify key at-tributes to be evaluated in a piece of work or response. Following detailedconsideration of the work in respect of the attributes, a global rating is givento reflect an overall judgement.

The marking scheme not only gives necessary definition to the marking proc-ess, but equally provides the basis for analysing and reporting results. Forexample, when a student’s drawing is being evaluated and scored, the markeris following a standard set of specifications that direct attention to key ele-ments that were sought in the task, and for which the task itself providedsufficient scope. It follows, also, that in reporting the combined results ofstudent work on a particular task, it should be possible to illuminate thoseresults by giving descriptive details of the criteria that were applied in themarking of that task.

In national monitoring it is insufficient to simply rely on the intuitive, idiosyn-cratic or holistic judgements of the individual marker, regardless of profes-sional experience and expertise. Rather, each piece of work needs to be markedin a way that balances the important judgements of experienced professionalswith methods that ensure the best possible consistency from one marker toanother. The marking scheme is developed to achieve this balance.

task by task reporting National monitoring assessment is reported task by task so that results can beunderstood in relation to what the students were asked to do. Examples ofstudent work are given to illustrate the type and range of responses and capa-bilities, and to show work that typically represents standards of performancein relation to the marking scheme.

attributes and qualities Student work in each task was marked according to a set of key attributeswhich represented specific qualities sought in the work. Each attribute wasscored on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 given to a weak performance and 4 to a verystrong performance. There were no predetermined allocations of numbers ofratings that should be awarded to any of the 4 points of the scale. Rather, eachmark was given to represent the level of performance in relation to particularqualities within the attribute.

global ratings Once the key attributes had been marked, a global rating on a scale of 1 to 6was assigned to each piece of work, with 1 representing the lowest mark and6 the highest. This “summing up” rating represents a carefully considered over-all judgment of the work following the detailed evaluation and scoring of keyattributes.

exemplars A selection of exemplars has been chosen for inclusion in this report to helpshow the range of responses in relation to the marking scheme and what wasasked of the students. The examples also illustrate the attributes of individualworks in relation to the overall mark each one was given on the six pointglobal rating scale. Examples have been chosen as representative of worksthat were given high, middle range, and low marks. The commentaries pro-vided with each of the exemplars in the middle range give short descriptionsthe features, impressions and merits observed in the work. They indicate someof the characteristics typical of works in this range. The characteristics ofworks in the upper and lower ranges can be observed in the pictures them-selves and considered in relation to those with commentaries.

CHAPTER 3 9MAKING ART

Six of the eleven art assessment tasks involved students in making art works.The making tasks covered processes of observational pencil drawing, creativeexpressive picture making using pastel and crayon in one task and paint inanother, collage picture construction, print making and clay modelling. Stu-dents were required to demonstrate their skills in using particular media andtechniques to produce individual expressive statements relevant to the con-texts given in the tasks. Each student worked independently on two of thesetasks.

This chapter presents the assessment results in the following order:

• the four released tasks attempted by year 4 and 8 students: pencildrawing, pastel and crayon drawing, painting, collage.

• the two link tasks attempted by year 4 and 8 students: print makingand clay model.

The information provided for each released task includes:

• full description of the task;

• graph showing the distribution of marks given on the six point globalrating scale for students’ art works;

• table showing the attributes and qualities that were used for markingpurposes;

• table showing the mean (average) marks given for each attribute (4point scale) and for the mean global rating (6 point scale).

• examples of students’ work selected from the top, middle and lowerranges on the marking scale. The commentaries provided with each ofthe middle range exemplars give short descriptions of the features, im-pressions and merits observed in those works.

Full task descriptions are not provided for the two link tasks.

Averaged across all of the tasks, the mean score on the 6 point global scale foryear 4 students was 2.4 compared to 3.1 for year 8 students, which indicatesan overall development of skills in the four year period. The largest gap in themean global ratings occurred in the triceratops pencil drawing where the dif-ference between years 4 and 8 was 0.9. The smallest gap occurred in the claymodel task where the difference was 0.3.


What the student sees

Top down view: the head hangs over one corner; the tailover the opposite corner.

Chapter 3: Making Art Works 11

Description Instructions

Approach: Level: Time:

Resources:

Key attributes (1 low – 4 high) Qualities Mean scoreyear 4 year 8

Global Rating (1 low – 6 high)

Triceratops Pencil Drawing

Independent task Year 8 & year 4 10 minutes

(each student) one model triceratops (15 cm long), polystyrene block, 4B pencil,

one piece of B4 cartridge drawing paper, drawing base board .

The model triceratops was positioned on awhite block of polystyrene at the centre ofthe student’s table. The student wasinstructed to make a pencil drawing of thetriceratops standing on block, just as theysaw it in front of them. The models wereplaced so that all students would view themfrom the same angle. They were given theopportunity to handle and examine themodel before commencing the drawing. (A few students deviated from theseinstructions.)

It is important that you do not touch thetriceratops while you are making yourdrawing.

Make sure it is left in the same position allthe time.

Try to make your drawing of the triceratopsas real as possible. Just as you see it.

It’s a good idea to start with very light lines,then make them clearer when you aresatisfied with the way you have drawnthem.

You don’t need to use a rubber.

Just change your lines if you need to.

You have 10 minutes, and I want you to spend all ofthe ten minutes on your drawing, so that it’s as goodas you can make it. I will let you know when youhave 5 minutes left.

Students were not penalised forincomplete drawings

main features main body part and features observed and recorded; different parts appropriately shaped and in reasonable proportions.

1.7 2.5

3-dimensional quality appropriate placement and size of near and far legs, horns, &c; use of shading.

1.6 2.4

detail fine detail of features observed and included; appropriate tonal marking(texture, pattern and line).

1.7 2.3

expressiveness lifelike quality; confident treatment;enriched through subtle individual interpretation.

1.8 2.4

2.2 3.3

year 8

year 4

654321lowest mark Ratings highest mark

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Global ratings: Triceratops pencil drawing

23

4

43

19

25

36

8

23

17

1 10


66 per cent of year 4 students’work was given low ratings of 1 or2 compared to 23 per cent of year8 students. At the high end, 1% ofyear 4 students’s work was rated 5or 6 compared to 18% at year 8.


This form has a tilt to the head andthe legs behind one another. Thereis a reasonable sense of proportionand movement, and some indicationsof texture. The fact that the line isgiven more emphasis in certain partsof the drawing than others enablesthe potential life-like quality of thisanimal. There is a believable senseabout this drawing. It is not a sort ofcardboard cut out.

In terms of the three dimensionalquality the artist has shown a strictprofile rather than the three-quarterview that was presented in the testsituation. A strong silhouette hasbeen given which accounts for mostof the major features, but it is pre-sented side on to us. The effect ofputting line of equal weight heavilyaround all features means that the im-age looks flatter rather than three di-mensional, and anything of texture ispossibly overdone in the sense thatthey were trying to draw every singlescale. There are some suggestionsof attempts at lighter and darkertones which if pursued might havesubdued some of the textural marks,and given the object more roundnessor three-dimensional quality.

This is a lively and expressive crea-ture. There is a wide variety of markmaking in the textures and spikiness.Not so much emphasis is given to ac-curacy but there is a believable senseof walking movement. You can seethe far legs right through the body,so the artist has drawn with a senseof understanding but has made thebody semi-transparent in the process.The frill behind the horns shows anattempt at getting a three-dimen-sional quality to the drawing. The art-ist has gone to the extent of includingteeth that were not an observed fact.This work marks highly on expressive-ness and on the handling of texture.

Triceratops exemplars mid range


There is a believable sense of a 3 di-mensional form in this drawing. Thereare legs in front of one another, anda roundness obtained by some initialshading attempts. There is a littleawkwardness with accuracy of pro-portion. The spinal column is ren-dered with texture but very little elseis given that kind of treatment. Thetail is heavy and out of proportion tothe rest of the body and the artist hasskewed the position of the creatureto do a profile rather than attemptingto deal with the three-quarter viewthat was presented in the task.

This is a drawing that accounts for allthe parts but in the process has dis-torted the proportions. The lengthfrom the front leg to the head hasbeen greatly exaggerated, so it is al-most as though the head has beendrawn as separate from the rest ofthe body. The three-quarter head withtwo horns and only one eye visiblehas been handled well, and the wayin which the line varies around theedges, even though there is not muchin the way of textural mark, begins toindicate the sort of frilled, harder bodyparts in relation to the softer bodyparts. The line in some places is quiteassured and accurate, down to therendering of toe nails, but the atten-

Triceratops exemplars

Some very tentative shading is shownon a form that has been well-definedin its external features. There aresome problems with proportion. It isnot as elongated as it should be, andthe student has made no attempt toposition the two far legs which wouldhave been visible, so we have a pro-file body with a slightly inclined head.The horns break the outer edge ofthe skull and indicate the struggle thestudent has had with trying to marrythe flat drawing profile view to theinformation that was in front of them.


Triceratops exemplars lower range


high range Triceratops exemplars


INTERESTING WORK

A few responses to this task were highly individualised and moved outside the more typical viewpoint seen in amajority of students’ paintings.

This unique attempt at rendering a forestis expressed through a strong sense of feel-ing rather than descriptive visual repre-sentation. The mark making in thispainting is very gestural and highly re-sponsive to paint, to the point that we canfeel its wetness and a sense of entangle-ment. The scraping through to colour thatwas previously painted gives an effect ofa penetrating glow along with a wholefeeling that there is something beyond thistangle. There is a suggestion of waterfallthrough the slashing, tangled and dribbledmarks. The gestures that cross over thewaterfall that are slashed into the formseem to be an attempt to keep the water-fall enclosed between two heavy textures.So although details are limited and the

forms are not necessarily pleasant, this painting is strongly expressive of a forest which is very effectively com-municated by texture. There is a magical feel somewhat akin to the prince trying to rescue Sleeping Beautythrough the thorns. It is a forest that is dense and hostile, and incredibly difficult to penetrate.

This is a painting that has handled the en-vironment in the compositional traditionof 19th Century landscape artists. A vari-ety of forms are presented, and there is apleasing continuity running from left toright. There is a foreground that gives tex-ture information where the paint has beenscratched through. All of the colours inthis painting have been mixed with care,using a range of greens through to brown.Possibly the one thing that is missing is astrong use of pigment. Everything feels alittle bit washed out, although in part theeffect of softness is appropriate to the style.There is a very pleasant sense of being inthe bush with water whisping past us andthe ferns. The painter is quite assuredwithin the style and treatment given.




Resources:



Imaginary Forest Painting

Independent Year 8 & year 4 45 minutes

(each student) 3 paint brushes (round no.16; flat no. 8; flat no. 6); stick of white chalk;6 colours of acrylic paint in 6 hole palette (white, yellow, yellow ochre, Bordeaux red,cobalt blue, deep purple);

mixing tray; water; brush drying sponge; sheet of A2 manilla brown paper, rough side up.

Before painting, the student watched a 3 minutestimulus video recording which contained a spokenscript and forest sounds (birds, running water, etc.)supported by photographic images of forest trees,the forest carpet and a variety of colourful forestplants and fungi. The script and visual images com-bined to give a strong sense of mood, atmosphereand a certain mystery.

The video recording was supported by instructionsfrom the teacher administrator:

In this activity, you will be painting your own imaginary forest.

We are going to watch a video of a journey through a forest. Thevideo is to give you ideas for your own forest.

Look carefully at the video so that you get good ideas of colours,shapes and textures that will be useful to you when you come topaint your forest.

Your imaginary forest should have all sorts of plants and crea-tures not even seen on the video.

Listen carefully to the story. It is to help you to go into your ownimaginary forest.

Video recording played.

In front of you, you will find some chalk for planning your paint-ing, and a palette with six colours of paint.

These are the only colours we have available, but you can mixyour own colours using these paints.

Ask for more paint if you need it.

You may use fingers, sponge or any of the brushes to paint with.The sponge is also for cleaning your brush when you change thecolour of paint you are using.

relevant image; development of mood; diversity of object and symbolsexpressiveness (preserving coherence); sense of movement where appropriate (eg running water)

originality, avoidance of cliche.1.9 2.4

composition arrangement of objects in space, balance and depth; positive/negative balance;coherence.

1.8 2.3

detail finer features included; appropriate use of texture, pattern, tonal effect.1.7 2.1

use of media appropriate use of tools; choice and mixing of colours; control of paint,confidence.

1.8 2.4

2.4 3.2

56% of year 4 students workswere given low ratings of 1 or 2compared to 23% of year 8 stu-dents. Very few paintings achievedhigh ratings.



year 8

year 4


Global ratings: Imaginary forest painting

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41

19

34

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In this open spacious forest the markmaking is somewhat underpainted.There is an attempt at inhabiting theforest slightly. The sense of tree formis there in the vertical trunks and thevariety of attempts to render differ-ent kinds of foliage. There is use offingers, rotating sponges and brushdabbing. The painting is consistentin that it is airy and spacious andsomewhat tentative. What seems tobe missing is a rich commitment topigment and perhaps thecompositional arrangement of thingsother than the flanking trees in thecentral foreground.

Only one recipe has been used forgreen in this painting, and it is usedall over. The snarly and tufty toppedtree forms are interesting. What ismissing is a sense of density and for-est. This is a careful painting of acouple of trees and a foreground riverthat seems to disappear on us. Thearea of painting that might have suc-ceeded in giving the sense of forestis yet to come and there is not anyreal indication from the student as tohow that would be resolved. The col-our range used so far is quite lim-ited.

Here are three very similar trunks withsome sense of vines. There are somestereotype birds and a string of sky.There is a series of intervals betweeneach trunk which vary the effect ofshape and size and this adds to asense of forest depth rather than toa sense of regimentation. Socompositionally this painting is wellworked out. The background hasbeen painted by filling in between thetrunks with pale colour (it is notunpainted paper) so the entire sur-face has been painted. What is miss-ing is a sense of anything beyond thetrunks, so there isn’t really a believ-able sense of forest and recessionof space. It is largely through thewhite bird forms across the front ofthe trees that any sense of space isachieved.


This painting is fairly limited in its sym-bol forms, its lollipop trees and sunin the right hand corner, and yet it iswell painted in the sense that thepaint has actually been used to com-municate area, and there has beencolour mixing going on. The spaceis filled and when you look closely atthe main symbols of person, a pondwith fish in it and creatures at the side,it is seen that they are fairly schematic.They are line drawings in paint. It isthe background having been at-tended to so fully that turns this froma drawing into a painting.

This is quite a strong compositionwith a footbridge over the river, andalthough the symbols are not well de-veloped, the artist has managed tocompose a picture that goes acrossan entire page to fill the space andgive a sense of involvement. It ismore the sense of the river comingdown towards us that the student hasevoked. The tree forms are fairlystereotypical with strong rectangu-lar trunks and triangles or circles ontop. There has been some attemptat shading and texture. Probablywhat is most inventive here is themixing of the range of browns withthe intent of showing form throughlight and dark. An image has beenchosen that evokes bush and asense of walking across waterways.

This is a painting that within the timeavailable is relatively complete andwell composed. There are some nicetextural effects in the foliage, and avariety of tree forms. However, vari-ety doesn’t always make for forest,and the strong central tree with itsyellow and red blobs has a way ofdominating the picture by both posi-tion and colour. The fern forms arerepeated shapes. There is a believ-able sense of space with the waterdiverting behind the trees that are fur-ther back. The effect is to give a senseof the river receding away from us. Thechallenge for this artist would havebeen to have completed work and ex-aggerate some of the textural informa-tion hinted at in one colour.

Mid range Imaginary forest exemplars


Imaginary forest exemplars lower range


high range Imaginary forest exemplars


In this activity you are going to draw a picture of a make-believe creature called a firebird.

This is not an ordinary picture of ordinary things. It is apicture that comes from your imagination. An exciting, brightand colourful picture, using your own ideas and all of yourimagination.

You have crayons and pastels to work with. Try to use themso that the colours and shapes are really strong, bright andexciting.

You will need to think which colours will make yhour firebirdbright and exciting. You can mix your own special blend ofcolours on the paper by using different crayons and pastelsover the top of each other. Use both the pastels and crayonsfor your picture.

Now let’s think about the first bird. This is a time for think-ing about your own ideas and getting ready to use your im-agination.

Think of your firebird being a huge creature that lives in thenight sky among the spakling stars and planets.

Think about the shape of its body. Will it be round and fat,or long and sleek, or streamlined?

What shape will its wings be? And what will its feathers looklike? Think specially about the bright colours and patternsof its feathers, and its wide wings as it swoops, glides anddrifts through the twinklking darkness.

What about its eyes? Are they going to be wide and round, ornarrow and penetrating? Will those eyes be alert or sleepy?Will they be bright and eager, or dull and tired?

Will it have a beak? Would the beak be long, sharp andpointed, or short and blunt. Would it be straight or curved?Long, or stubby?

And what are its legs and its claws or talons like as it swoopsand dives brightly through the darkness. Do its claws helpit to reach out and grab stars to stuff into its mouth?

Think about your beautifully bright and powerful fire bird.Fire birds are very patient. They wait - and then - when ashooting star appears - they zoom across the darkness -SNATCH with their talons and beak - and gobble up the fierystars, sparkles, flashes, flames and all.

You’ve been thinking hard about your own special firebirdand what it could look like. No one has every seen a realfire bird, so no one could ever say that your drawing is rightor wrong. It is entirely up to your own imagination to showwhat it could be like.

To start, make your fire bird as big as you can, so that it fillsthe paper. Once you have drawn the bird, you can add thesmaller bits and the decorations.

You will have to work quickly to do as much as you can in20 minutes.

You can start now - but remember: bright, exciting colours,and a big and beautiful firebird.

Firebird video script




Resources:



Firebird Pastel and Crayon Drawing

Independent task Year 4 & year 8 25 minutes

(each) 12 oil pastels; 12 large soft crayons; 1 sheet of B3 grey sugar paper; drawing board.

Before starting the drawing, the student watched a 3minute stimulus video recording which contained aspoken script accompanied by continuously moving,brightly coloured spirals and musical sound effects.The reader did not appear on the screen, and thespiralling colour images gave no suggestion of formthat might resemble the subject of the drawing — afirebird! The script included the following instruc-tions on the opposite page.

expressiveness image appropriate to task (bird, FIREbird, catching stars, etc.);strength, vitality, colour, movement, dynamism, imagination, avoidance of cliche.

2.2 2.6

composition appropriate use of background; giving a context;arrangement of images; balance.

2.1 2.6

detail finer features included; use of line, texture, pattern, colour blends.2.1 2.5

use of media technical control of media; exploiting a range of mark making. 2.0 2.4

2.7 3.4

42% of year 4 students’ work wasgiven ratings of 1 or 2 comparedwith 18% of year 8 students. At thehigh end, 5% of year 4 students re-ceived ratings of 5 or 6 comparedto 16% of year 8 students.

The smallest difference was in themid range, with 52% of year 4 stu-dents and 66% of year 8 studentsreceiving ratings of 3 or 4.

Apart from reminding students of the time available,the teacher administering the task did not give anyfurther instructions.

year 8

year 4


% o

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Global ratings: Firebird pastel and crayon drawing

7 30

35

15

37 37

15

29

5

15

1



An attempt at a magical bird form, inthe sense that it is non-standard.There is a sense of heat haze aroundthe bird itself where colours havespilled out beyond the boundary ofthe bird. The bird is located in spacethrough stars and blackness. Thepastel is not particularly assured orcontrolled and colour mixing is ten-tative. Rainbow coloured stripes areused to suggest a sense of magic, butthe tail and the wing seem to separateout from the rest of the body with aconsequent loss of unity. It is asthough each part has been thought ofseparately.

A believable bird, decoratively attiredwith blue plumage-like stars out theback of its tail. The eye form and thegeneral shape of the round head tendto give it a very conventional feel andthe little chicken feet echo an Easteregg kind of chicken. The stereotypestars and moon floating in a purplesky feel equally predictable. There isno interaction between the bird andthe stars. The feet don’t feel in any-way powerful. The most careful ren-dering and blending has gone on inthe wing form, although everythinghas been somewhat halted by beingoutlined in black. This tidy drawinglacks qualities of occasion and dy-namic movement.

A very imaginative bird shape pre-sented as something of a monstercreature with spines and multiple tails,multiple spiny wings, and specialisedmouth parts. The forms fragment intoa series of parts. The background inits strongly contrasting black and yel-lows further tends to break up thedrawing with a consequent loss of thesense of integration. The one thingthat starts to link the whole body isthe use of pink all over. This con-necting colour starts to make the pic-ture look like one bird. This firebird isalmost incoherent except as a flat de-sign. It does carve up the drawingspace into an interesting series ofshapes, but it is so carved up that asense of order is lost.

Firebird exemplars mid range


A rather symmetrical quiet bird, witheach part of the body decoratively di-vided into a separate colour bands.There is a sense of solid control inthe use of pastel media. While theimage may suggest something ofpower it is not so well developed interms of its expressiveness andmovement. There is no attempt atcolour blending, and the compositionhas very limited central organisation.

Firebird exemplars

A tentative use of pastel, with noreal pressure applied to give solidrichness to the colour. Decorativedevices of zigzags, spirals and twirlshave been used to fill in the form.It is essentially a rendering of a birdthat is somewhat magical butdoesn’t give the feeling of poweror a sense of movement or con-text. Rather, the opportunity hasbeen used to explore decorativespace filling within a simple birdform.

This is reminiscent of a number ofworks with its strong symmetrical, al-most “gang-patch” symbolism. It is anaerial view looking down. The tripleoutlining around the outside draws ourattention to the edges of the bird butleaves the middle feeling empty andweakened. There is an attempt to de-fine different parts of the body with dif-ferent textures, and although there arevery powerful wing forms that almostlook reptilian, the bird is considerablymuch weakened when we come to theshape of the head and the overall bodyform. It impresses as something akinto a passive, soft flower rather thansome kind of devouring Venus flytrap.So although we have an exciting senseof energy at the edges, this dissipatesas we look to into the centre. Thewhole thing is arranged symmetrically,but this symmetry doesn’t render asense of dynamism.


Firebird exemplars lower range


high range Firebird exemplars




Resources:



(whole insect) Insect Collage

Independent task Year 4 only 30 minutes

Three A3 size black and white photographic pictures of complete insects.

Each student: set of A5 papers (grease proof, tissue, grey, cartridge, copied hessian,

copied newspaper); scissors, glue stick, sheet of A3 manilla.

The teacher administrator gave the followinginstructions:

In front of you, you will find a range of papers and a piece ofbrown manilla paper to use as a background sheet.

You are to make a make-believe or fantasy picture of an insect,using the different papers.

To help you get started, we have some insect photos that will giveyou some great ideas. These pictures are to help you think ofshapes and textures, so that you can invent your own insect.

Try to use your papers in interesting ways. Try to show interest-ing shapes and forms. And choose papers because of the tex-tures or patterns they have.

expressiveness image relevant to the task; expressiveness, fantasy, imagination.2.3 (2.7)

composition unity; balance, but not necessarily symmetry.2.3 (2.7)

detail finer features included; variety of shapes; use of textural and tonal contrast(e.g. torn/cut, textured/plain, light/dark, narrow wide, delicate/bold). 2.3 (2.7)

use of media edge quality; use of overlap, overlay, folding, crushing,3 dimensionality. 2.2 (2.6)

2.9 (3.4)

By cutting, tearing, overlapping and arranging the papers, youare going to build up a picture of an insect - a picture of theinsect’s whole body.

Make your insect as big as you can for the piece of brown paper.Don’t make too many of the pieces too little, or they will take toolong to stick down.

Arrange the papers where you would like them to be for yourpicture. About 10 minutes before the end of this activity, I willgive you a glue stick, so that you can glue the pieces of paperonto the brown piece to finish off your picture.

The ratings given to year 4 stu-dents’ collage pictures werespread across the full range of lowto high with 59% marked in themiddle range of 3 or 4.

Instructions


year 8 (head)

year 4 (whole)


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Global ratings: Insect collage

11

22

40

19

7 1


A profile insect with sort of hairylegs, wings and antennae. The eyehas been given life with the subtleplacement of a small white trianglewithin the black square. There isn’ta sense of the legs being thought-fully shaped. It seems importantthat there were three of them (rep-resenting a half viewpoint ?) and thatthey have something happening onthem other than being plain edged,straight lines. But the decision touse tissue paper on the legs meansmuch of the effect is lost. We arenot easily aware when tissue over-lays the white as we are when itoverlays the textured papers.

A relatively conventional insect form:a double-winged dragonfly! Niceuse of the textured newsprint forantennae. The body tends to fallapart a little because those blackand white contrasts are perhaps toostrong for the rest of the body, whichis rather delicately represented.Parts tend to disappear against thatextreme contrast, and instead thefocus has become a very carefullycut flower in the foreground. Thestudent is starting to work towardsmaking a picture of an insect ap-proaching a flower rather than stay-ing on and refining the insect itself.

A coherent and nicely balanced im-age with each part of the body givenits own separate textures. The hes-sian textures are used to give a kindof hairy legged quality and the an-tennae are given the same treat-ment. The central form of the insectis a repeated series of lozenges. Itis a convincing if not overly devel-oped collage. The student has re-ally only made use of three of thepapers that were available, and haskept them in separate parts.

Insect collage exemplars mid range


This insect is somewhat humanoid.It has arms, legs with block feet,eyes, nose and a large belly but-ton. Its head piece can be readlike a mask. This, then, is the de-velopment of schema from a per-son into an insect. It is areasonably successful attempt inthose terms. It doesn’t hold to-gether well mainly because eachpart has been given its own sepa-rate paper colour . Thus there is atendency for it to fall apart into itscomponents rather than read as awhole. There is some success increating some of the shapes.

A very simple potatoey bug shapewith two little wings stuck on top,three little legs stuck below, multi-ple eye forms, a mouth, and a sting-ing tail. No real attempt has beenmade to shape the body or legs.The black square eyes arranged ina repeated layout tend to dominatethe whole picture. You lose thedelicate wings since they are notsufficiently contrasted with thebackground. There has been astrong preference for textured sur-faces so when the few plain sur-faces are used, like the black, theyhave an overly dominant effect.There is no use of the white paperfor contrast or shaping.

A very simple 8 legged insect form.A sort of potato shaped body witha head form attached, but no at-tempt to integrate the feelers withbody or to give them any detail. Aswith the antennae, the legs give anappearance of being stuck on asan after thought, although an at-tempt has been made to extendthe meaning of the legs by addingsmall pointed segments at theends. There is some attempt atstriping the body but these are sim-ple rectangles applied in a pat-terned fashion. Because there isinsufficient contrast, and major ef-fect in providing decoration islargely lost.

Insect collage exemplars


Insect collage exemplars lower range


high range Insect collage exemplars




Resources:



Insect Head Collage

Independent task Year 8 only 30 minutes

Set of A3 black and white photographic images of insect heads. Each student: set of A5 papers

(grease proof, tissue, grey, cartridge, copied hessian, copied newspaper); scissors, glue stick,

sheet of A3 manilla.

The teacher administrator gave the following instruc-tions:

In front of you, you will find a selection of papersand a piece of brown manilla paper to use as a back-ground sheet.

You are going to make a make-believe or fantasy col-lage picture of an insect’s head using the differentpapers.

To help you get started, we have some insect photo-graphs to give you some ideas, and to help you thinkabout your picture. (Show the photographs) Thesephotographs will help you think of shapes and tex-tures, and parts of the head.

Try to use your papers in interesting ways. Try toshow interesting shapes and forms. Choose papersbecause the textures or patterns you will want toshow.

Make your picture of the insect’s whole head by cut-ting, tearing, overlapping and arranging the papers.

Make your insect head as big as you can on the pieceof brown paper. Don’t make a lot of very small piecesor they will take too long to stick down.

Arrange the papers where you would like them tobe for your picture. About 10 minutes before theend of this activity, I will give you a glue stick, so thatyou can glue the pieces of paper onto the brownpiece to finish off your picture.

expressiveness image relevant to the task; expressiveness, fantasy, imagination.(2.3) 2.7

composition unity; balance, but not necessarily symmetry.(2.3) 2.7

detail finer features included; variety of shapes; use of textural and tonal contrast(e.g. torn/cut, textured/plain, light/dark, narrow wide, delicate/bold).

(2.3) 2.7

use of media edge quality; use of overlap, overlay, folding, crushing,3 dimensionality.

(2.2) 2.6

(2.9) 3.4

Most of the year 8 pictures weremarked in the middle range (62%)with about the same numbersgiven low ratings (20%) and highratings (18%).

Instructions

year 8 (head)

year 4 (whole)


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Global ratings: Insect head collage

2

18

35

16

27

2



A symmetrical head form with mouthparts, eyes and antennae. Use hasbeen made of all of the papers. Themouth parts lose their effect by be-ing very pale in contrast with all otherparts of the insect. When the differ-ent parts are added together thereisn’t a sense of a unified creature butrather one of separate bits whichdon’t tie together particularly well.Compositionally there is such strictsymmetry that it is hard to feel this asbeing alive, or expressive. Some ofthe forms themselves lack resolution.The blobby sorts of ears, with theirsharp little particles seem to be ran-domly placed rather than tied to-gether. In a compositional sense thedetails don’t link with the whole.

There is a rather lovely use of the tex-tured pointy-shaped pieces, but theyare placed onto a brown backgroundsheet of similar colour. The absenceof contrast between the pasting sur-face and the object itself means thatthe arms or mouth parts disappearinto the background. The parts of thebody with distinctive contrasts are upin the antennae area, and they com-pete strongly for the attention of theviewer. If this contrasting techniquehad been used with other parts wemight have sensed more coherencein this image, but each part remainsseparate. There is a feeling in thecutting of curves that they are roughlyfaceted. There has been no attemptto cut careful curves.

This image is highly individualised butpossibly very cliched. It has a sort of“busy bee” feel about it. It has a cir-cular head with two symmetrical ra-diating wings and two little sun-likeantennae. It is something of a whim-sical image; quite simple and reflect-ing an unsophisticated pictorialresponse.

Insect head exemplars mid range


This is an inventive side view of aninsect with some lovely danglingmouth parts and a notched, articu-lated neck. There are some spinyparts on the head. A different pieceof paper tends to be used for everyfeature, thereby denying a sense ofunity within the whole design. Someedges feel random. Leaving angularstraight cut edges rather than shap-ing them to deliberately flow from onepart of the insect into the other, sug-gests that the artist is thinking of eachpart separately.

This is an example of a student mak-ing a clear, distinct form. There aretwo large spiral eyes but the cuttingand construction techniques have notshown the spiralling to useful effect.The student has managed to obtaincontrast by balancing darker, texturedand plain papers.

There are some very interestingshapes in this insect head, and itshows the potential to be a reason-ably imaginative piece of work. Whatthe image lacks is something hold-ing it all together. With so much ofthe background colouration still re-maining, the interior parts of the in-sect head dissolve on us, and we endup with three or four colours of pa-per that float in seemingly connectedfashion but never quite resolve into asolid form. It is almost as if the stu-dent needed to use another overallcolour underneath those forms andto treat them like a decorative sur-face on top of a whole head form.The strong curved nature is quite at-tractive. The shapes are carefully cutand rendered. There is quite a de-gree of skill in the cutting and shap-ing.

Insect head exemplars


Insect head exemplars lower range


high range Insect head exemplars




year 8

year 4


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Global ratings: Printmaking

19

6

51

2824

45

6

16

0 4 0 1



expressiveness image effectively tells a story appropriate to the task; conveys movement;imagination.

1.7 2.2

composition arrangement of objects in space, balance and depth; relationship of figureand pose to setting.

1.7 2.2

detail finer features included; appropriate use of tonal marking,texture, pattern.

1.7 2.1

use of media technical control of process; exploiting a range of mark making. 1.7 2.42.1 2.9

The task was presented to students throughthe medium of a video recording whichgave step by step instructions on proce-dure and technique, and the context forthe image that they were asked to create.Students who had no previous experienceof the particular process showed that theywere able to carry out the procedures af-ter watching the instructional video. Sincemost students made more than one imagefrom their printing block from, they se-lected their best copy to give to the teacheradministrator.

Clay Model link task


Each student worked with stand-ard sized blocks of clay. The claywas particularly suitable for mod-elling. The teacher administratorexplained to the student the con-text for the images they were tocreate. At the conclusion of thetask the student’s model was re-corded on video film for markingpurposes. The model was placedon a small turntable which ena-bled a 360o filming.

51% of year 4 students’ clay modelsand 60% of year 8 students’ modelswere marked in the middle range of3 or 4.

The majority of year 4 students (70%)were given low ratings compared with34% of year 8 students. Overall, moststudents’ works at year 4 and year 8 wererated on the lower 3 points of the scale.

Print Making link task




expressiveness model appropriate to task; tells a story; sense of movement;interaction and arrangement of parts; imagination.

2.2 2.5

3 dimensionality roundness - figures rounded rather than flat; major parts “modelled” (eg.beyond spheres or cylinders); qualities present when viewed from all directions.

2.2 2.5

detail appropriate features added to the figures; appropriate decoration and texture. 2.1 2.3

structure strength; joins. 2.1 2.42.7 3.1

year 8

year 4

654321

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Global ratings: Clay model

116

33

22

38 37

13

23

49

13

lRatings highest mark

The five responding tasks required students to examine, consider and discusspictures of processes, painting, sculptures and traditional Maori and PacificIsland art forms. Four of the five tasks were intended to investigate students’abilities to observe, think, question, evaluate, explain and discuss art and artworks in informed ways. Three of these tasks were administered in one-to-oneinterviews, and one was done as a team exercise.

All of the examples used in the tasks were works by New Zealand artists orartifacts representative of cultures which are an important part of New Zea-land society.

A fifth responding task had a distinctly different purpose: working as a team,students were required to identify separate print making processes then se-quence the steps within each of those processes.

This chapter presents the assessment results in the following order:

Two Sculptures

Art in Social Contexts

Two Paintings (link task)

Choosing a Picture

Print Making Processes

The information provided for each released task includes:

• full description of the task;• graph showing the distribution of marks given on the six point

global rating scale for students’ art works;

• table showing the attributes and qualities that were used formarking purposes;

• table showing the mean (average) marks given for each attribute(4 point scale) and for the mean global rating (6 point scale).

Full task descriptions are not provided for the link task.

Results of the three interview tasks which involved observation and discus-sion of art works showed that students were more confident in their responsesto paintings and sculptures than they were in talking about art in social con-texts. However, the differences between year 4 and 8 in the mean global rat-ings were very small, particularly in the sculpture and paintings tasks.

CHAPTER 4 41RESPONDING TO ART


Year 8 sculpture

Year 4 sculptureYear 8 and year 4 sculpture

Chapter 4: Responding to Art 43





Resources:

Two Sculptures

One to One Interview Year 4 and year 8

Video recording of two sculptures; colour photographs of each sculpture

The student viewed a short video record-ing of two sculptures in public places. Thestudent viewed the first sculpture and re-sponded to interview questions on thatsculpture before seeing the second sculp-ture and responding to associated ques-tions. Colour photographs of thesculptures were used to support discus-sion after viewing the video (see oppositepage).

The teacher administrator asked a se-quence of questions to investigate the stu-dent’s knowledge, understandings andideas about each sculpture in turn, thenthe two sculptures in relation to each other.Prompts (in italics) were given only whenit was considered necessary to seek orencourage clarification from the student.

The following questions were asked:

1 I would like you to describe what yousaw in the video. This picture of thesculpture will help you.(Give the student the photo)

2 What do you think this sculpture isabout?What is the purpose of the sculpture?Why do you think the artist made thesculpture in this way?What is the artist trying to say withthis sculpture?

3 Why do you think this sculpture has beenput in a public place?Why do you think the place was chosenfor the sculpture?

4 How does the sculpture make you feel?Do you like it? Can you explain why?

Questions relating the two sculptures.

There is a very similar distributionof ratings across the 6 point scalefor both year 4 and 8 students.Although one sculpture waschanged between year 4 and 8,the task procedure was the same.



description identification of images; detail of description; art making information(use of colour, dimensionality, etc.) 2.2 2.4

responsiveness sense of engagement; curiosity; confidence; feelings, empathy.2.2 2.3

interpretation accounting for detail; narrative - tells a story; relevant use of art vocabulary;fluency of ideas; backing opinions with reasons; use of metaphor. 2.0 2.4

2.8 3.1

year 8

year 4


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Global ratings: Two sculptures

9

33 33

19

5 18

25

33

21

94

5 I would like you to explain any similari-ties between the two sculptures — arethere any ways in which they are similar?Are there any other ways in which theyare similar?

6 Could you now explain the importantdifferences between the two sculptures.Are there any other important differ-ences that you notice?

7 We haven’t got a title for the sculptures.I would like you to think of a title or aname for each one.What name or title would you give toeach sculpture?

8 Which of the two sculptures do you likemost?Why do you like that one most?Are there any other reasons why youlike that one most?

Although the assessment procedures, in-terview questions and marking schemewere the same for years 4 and 8, the stimu-lus pictures of sculptures differed. Accord-ingly, the results should be read separately.





Resources:


Art in Social Contexts

One to One Interview Year 4 & year 8

Colour photographs of Maori and Pacific Island art used in social contexts:

Description & instructions

The student was shown one picture orpair of pictures (Maori cloaks) at a time,followed by a sequence of interview ques-tions to investigate their knowledge,understandings and ideas about eachitem. Prompts (in italics) were given onlywhen it was considered necessary to seekor encourage clarification from the stu-dent.

The following questions were asked:

I am going to show you some pictures of things that peoplemake and use, and ask you some questions about them. Thepictures will show some Maori, Cook Island, Tongan and Sa-moan people. I’ll show you one picture at a time.

1 Have you seen these before?Where did you see them?

2 Try to describe to me what you see (happening) in this pic-ture.Describe the things you see in the picture.

Do you know what they are called?

3 Who do you think would make these?How do you think they are made? What are they made

from?

Do you think they would be easy or hard to make? Why?

How do people learn to make them? Why would they want

to learn to make them?

4 Do you know what these are used for?Who would use them?

When would they be used?

Are they still used nowadays?

What are they used for nowadays?

5 We have lots of choices about the things we use. Why mightsomeone choose to use these?Who might like to have one of these?

Why do you think they would like to have one of these?

Year 4

In none of the pictures was more than 1 per cent of students rated as knowledgeable.

Year 8Only two pictures had more than 2 per cent of students rated as knowledgeable about them:picture 1: 8%; pictures 2 & 3: 10%

Year 4 picture setPictures 1 & 2 Maori cloaksPicture 3 tivaevae (bedspread)Picture 4 toga (fine mats)Picture 5 skirts

Year 8 picture setpicture 1 kete (Maori woven basket)pictures 2 & 3 Maori cloakspicture 4 tivaevae (bedspread)

picture 5 hatspicture 6 toga (fine mats)picture 7 skirts

Although the assessment procedures, in-terview questions and marking schemewere the same, the number of stimulus pic-tures differed from year 4 to year 8. Ac-cordingly, the results should be readseparately.


description identification of images; detail of description; art making information(relevance of colour, significance of dimensions, use of pattern, etc.) 0.2 1.1


interpretation cultural dimensions of value, purpose, possession and use.0.5 1.2






Resources:

link task Two Paintings

One to One Interview Year 4 & year 8

Photographic reproductions of two paintings by New Zealand artists.

There is a very similar distributionof ratings across the 6 point scalefor both year 4 and 8 students. Al-though one sculpture waschanged between year 4 and 8,the task procedure was the same.

The change of paintings between years 4and 8 needs to be taken into accountwhen considering this information.

Two Paintings has been selected as a link task, soprocedural details are not included in this report.The teacher administrator asked a sequence of ques-tions to investigate the student’s knowledge,understandings and ideas about each painting inturn, then the two paintings in relation to each other.Prompts were given only when it was considerednecessary to seek or encourage clarification fromthe student.



description identification of images; detail of description; art making information(use of colour, dimensionality, etc.) 2.3 2.4


interpretation accounting for detail; narrative - tells a story; relevant use of art vocabulary;fluency of ideas; backing opinions with reasons; use of metaphor. 2.1 2.2

2.9 3.0

lowest mark Ratings highest mark

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Global ratings: Two paintings

Year 8

Year 4

654321

6

26

35

24

81

8

28

36

22

5 1





Resources:



Choosing a Picture

Team Task Year 4 & year 8

Photographic reproductions of six paintings by New Zealand artists.

The teacher administrator gave the following instruc-tions:

Imagine that your team has been given a special jobto do.

Your class has asked you to choose one picture for avery special place in the classroom. Working together,you will have to make your choice from 6 pictureswhich have been made by New Zealand artists.

By the end of the activity, your team will need to tryto agree on one of the pictures.

You will need to have good reasons for choosingthe picture, so that you can explain your choice tothe rest of the class.

First of all I want you to work in pairs. I am going togive 3 pictures to each pair.

In your pairs, look at each picture and talk about it.Describe what you like about the picture, and de-scribe anything that you do not like. Try to havegood reasons to explain what you like or don’t like.

Do that now. Working in pairs.

Give first 3 pictures to students 1 and 2; give oth-

ers to students 3 and 4

Art Observations and reasoning include appropriate comments on colour, shape,form, images, composition, narrative, mood, etc. 1.7 1.9

Preference Preferences are justified in relation to personal experiences, their observationsof the world around them, intuitive reaction, subjective inclinations, etc. 1.9 2.0

After no more than 5 minutes.

Now I want each pair to decide on one picture -the picture you like most - then get ready to tellthe rest of your team which picture you have cho-sen, and your reasons. Keep working in your ownpairs until I tell you to work with the other pair.

Now I would like you all to sit together. Showeach picture to the group, telling what you likeabout each one, and anything you don’t like. Afterthat, tell the others which picture you like most,and give your reasons.

After sufficient time display all 6 pictures.

This time I want all four of you to work togetherwith the pictures.

I want your whole group to choose one picturefor the classroom.

You need to think of the reasons for choosing thatparticular picture. I also want you to think up aname for the picture.

Do that now.

After sufficient time:

You’ve chosen a picture, and given it a name.

Now I want your group to tell me what you wouldtell the class. Explain why you have chosen thisparticular picture, and the name you would giveto it.

The stimulus pictures differed from year 4to year 8, although the assessment proce-dures, interview questions and markingscheme were the same. Accordingly, theresults should be read separately.






Resources:

The number of stimulus photographs dif-fered from Year 4 to Year 8, a l thoughthe assessment procedures, interviewquestions and marking scheme were thesame.

The teacher administrator assembled theset of photographs in numeric order be-ginning at 1 to standardise the “jumbling”of the pictures. The students were able toreview and alter their selections and ar-rangements of the pictures at any stageduring the task, but the teacher was not toprompt such actions.

The teacher administrator gave the follow-ing instructions:

This activity is about print making processesused by some artists. I am going to give you aset of photographs which show children mak-ing art prints. The photos show different waysor processes for making prints. They showhow the children started off, how they madetheir print, and how they finished off.

Each person in the group is to do one set ofpictures each.

When each of you have put your pictures inorder, everyone in the group should check theorder.

Do that, then I will tell you what to do next.

This is number 2 then number 3 on yourActivity Card.

Time allowed for students to ar-

range pictures in sequence, and

cross check within the group.

Now I want each person to explain to the oth-ers in the group what is happening in the setof pictures, so that you are describing howthe print was made.

This is number 4 on your Activity Card.

At the conclusion, on the teacher

record sheet write the order in

which the photographs were ar-

ranged.

Print Making Processes

Team Task Year 4 and year 8

Activity card of summarising instructions;

set of randomly numbered photographs showing steps in 4 different print making processes:

year 4: 21 photographs year 8: 29 photographs.

Year 894% of year 8 teams placed the 29 photographs intothe sets with at most 1 or 2 photographs incorrectlyplaced. For these teams the percentage of photo-graphs which has been ordered correctly within thesets was calculated. This percentage ranged from 29to 55% with a mean of 45%. Correct placement re-quired quite fine discriminations among steps in thefour print making processes, and the relatively lowlevel of success suggests that the students may nothave had experience with all four print making proc-esses.

Description & Instructions

Year 484% of year 4 teams placed the 21 photographs intofour sets, with at most one or two photographs notcorrectly placed. For these teams the percentage ofphotographs which had been ordered correctly withinthe sets was calculated. This percentage ranged from30 to 76%, with a mean of 57%. Year 4 students had 8less photographs to sort and place in order than theyear 8 students. This was intended to remove some ofthe finer distinctions and make the ordering task easier.The results suggest this goal was achieved.

You will see that the photographs are all mixedup, so the first thing for your group to do isto sort them into the different ways that thechildren made their pictures.

I want you to sort these photographs into setsof pictures. Each set should show the sameprint-making process.

When you have done that, I will tell you whatto do next.

This is number 1 on your Activity Card.

If the group does not come up

with 4 sets of pictures, tell them

that there are 4 different sets and

that they should go back and try

to find pictures belonging to the

4 different sets.

Now that you have put the photographs into 4sets, I would like you to try to arrange eachset of pictures into a line. Each line of pic-tures should be put into the order which showshow the print was made — rom the first thingthat was done through to the last thing.

The change in the number of photographs between years 4 and 8needs to be taken into account when considering this information.

Results for grouping photographs % of teamsyear 4 year 8

Number of photographs grouped 21 29

Grouped all sets of pictures correctly according to the processes. 45% 76%

Grouped the sets of pictures with only 1 or 2 pictures out of place. 35% 14%Correctly grouped all sets of pictures, but did not order one set

because the group size was 3 students. 7% 4%

Made major errors in grouping the sets of pictures according to processes. 13% 6%

48 NEMP Report 2: Art 199548 CHAPTER 5ART SURVEY & STUDENT TASK RATINGS

Attitudes and MotivationThe national monitoring assessment programme recognises the impact of attitu-dinal and motivational factors on student achievement in individual assessmenttasks. The project is also interested in finding out and reporting on how studentsregard the learning area in general. Students’ attitudes, interests and liking for asubject have a strong bearing on progress and learning outcomes. They are influ-enced and shaped by the quality and style of curriculum delivery, the choice ofcontent and the suitability of resources. It is also known that the expectations ofsignificant people in students’ lives, the life opportunities and experiences theyhave, and the extent to which they have feelings of personal success and efficacyare important influences on their achievements.

Art Survey

YEAR 4 STUDENT RESPONSES TO ART SURVEY QUESTIONS

How much do you like doing art at school? 83% 12% 4% 1%

How much do you think you learn about art at school? heaps quite a lot some very little42% 40% 16% 2%

Would you like to do more or less art at school? more about same less79% 18% 3%

How often does your class do really good things in art? lots sometimes never45% 53% 2%

How good do you think you are in art? 38% 54% 6% 2%How much do you like doing art in your own time, when not at school? 60% 27% 6% 7%

Do you do some really good things in art in your own time when not at school?lots some never39% 54% 7%

Do you want to keep learning about art when you grow up? yes maybe no65% 28% 7%

Do you think you would make a good artist when you grow up? yes maybe no33% 53% 14%

A high percentage of year 4 students have a strong liking for doing art at school,and a similarly high number would like to do more. They are divided in theirviews about the frequency with which they do really good things in art at schoolor in their own time. Very few students do not wish to continue learning about artas they grow older, and a relatively small percentage don’t think they would makea good artist when they grow up.

Accepting that young children’s ideas and impressions are closely related in timewith their experiences, the survey does show that year 4 students are eager andmotivated to do art, and that they have positive view of their own abilities.

The national monitoring art survey sought information from students about theircurriculum preferences and their perceptions of personal application, achieve-ment and potential. They were also asked about their involvement in art relatedactivities both within and beyond the programmes offered in the classroom orschool. The survey was administered in a one-to-one interview setting, with somequestions requiring short written answers and others a spoken response. In allcurriculum areas there are numerous research questions that could be asked wheninvestigating student attitudes and engagement. In national monitoring it hasbeen necessary to focus on a few key questions that give an overall impression ofhow students regard a learning area in relation to themselves.

Chapter6: Performance of Subgroups 49

YEAR 8 STUDENT RESPONSES TO ART SURVEY QUESTIONS

How much do you like doing art at school? 65% 26% 7% 2%How do you like art compared with other subjects? 48% 39% 9% 4%

How much do you think you learn about art at school? heaps quite a lot some very little

21% 55% 20% 4%

Would you like to do more or less art at school? more about same less

63% 33% 4%

How often does your class do really good things in art? lots quite often sometimes never

14% 40% 41% 5%

How good do you think you are in art? 18% 63% 14% 5%

How proud are you of your best work in art? 58% 35% 6% 1%

How much of your own time do you like to spend learning about art,doing art, talking about art? heaps medium very little

27% 53% 20%

Have you done some really good art things in your own timewhen not at school? yes, lots yes, quite a lot yes, some no, never

22% 32% 40% 6%

Do you want to keep studying art as you get older? yes probably maybe no,never

30% 33% 32% 5%

Do you think you would make a good artist? yes probably maybe no,never

6% 27% 48% 19%

Year 8 student’s ratings of art education show some differences emerging whencompared to year 4 ratings. The percentage of students who like doing art atschool remains high, with only 2% selecting the lowest rating on a four pointscale, and art enjoys a generally high preference in relation to other school sub-jects. A third of students are happy to continue doing about the same amount ofart at school, while almost two thirds would like to have more. Only 14% say theydo lots of really good things in art at school compared with 45% at year 4.

Self-ratings of ability in art are generally positive, with 81% rating themselves atone of the top two points on the four point scale, and 93% marking one of the toptwo points when asked how proud they are of their best work. Overall, a reason-ably high number indicate that they want to keep studying art as they get older,with about one third being tentative and 5% saying they do not wish to pursuethe study of art. About one third are positive about their prospects of becominggood artists, almost half are undecided, and close to one fifth have no such confi-dence.

The survey shows that compared to year 4, year 8 students are becoming morediscerning in their judgements about art education and their own abilities, but alarge majority nonetheless have a positive view of the subject and their own per-formance.

50 CHAPTER 6 PERFORMANCE OF SUBGROUPS

Although national monitoring has been designed primarily to present an over-all national picture of student achievement, there is some provision for report-ing on performance differences among subgroups of the sample. Ninedemographic variables are available for creating subgroups, with students di-vided into two or three subgroups on each variable, as detailed in Chapter1(p4).

The analyses of the relative performance of subgroups used an overall scorefor each task, created by adding scores for the most important components ofthe task.

Where only two subgroups were compared, differences in task performancebetween the two subgroups were checked for statistical significance using t-tests. Where three subgroups were compared, one way analysis of variancewas used to check for statistically significant differences among the three sub-groups.

Because the number of students included in each analysis was quite large (ap-proximately 450), the statistical tests were quite sensitive to small differences.To reduce the likelihood of attention being drawn to unimportant differences,the critical level for statisticial difference was set at p = 01 (so that differencesthis large or larger among the subgroups would not be expected by chance inmore than one percent of cases).

Details of statistically significant results are presented below.

GenderResults achieved by male and female students were compared.

For year 8 students, there was a statistically significant difference betweenboys and girls on one art making task and four questions on the Year 8 Art

Survey (p49). Girls performed better on the Media attribute of the Insect

Head collage task (p35)In the Year 8 Art Survey (p49), girls were more posi-tive about art as a school subject and as an area of involvement in their owntime (questions 1,2,4 and 9).

For year 4 students, there were statistically significant differences betweenboys and girls on three art making tasks and two questions of the Year 4 Art

Survey (p48). Boys scored higher than girls on the global score and all at-tributes for the Triceratops Observational Drawing (p11). It appears thatdrawing a dinosaur was more attractive to boys and their prior knowledge oftriceratops may have been greater. In contrast, boys scored lower than girls onthe detail and media attributes of the Print Making task (p40), and on thedetail attribute of the Clay Model task (p40). In responding to the Year 4 Art

Survey (p48), boys were less positive than girls on questions 7 and 8 aboutengaging in art activities in their own time.

ZoneResults achieved by students from Auckland, the rest of the North Island, andthe South Island were compared.

For year 8 students, there were statistically significant differences among thethree subgroups on two art making tasks and one question of the Year 8 Art

Survey(p49). Students from the South Island scored lower than the other twogroups in all cases. These differences occurred on the global score and allattributes of the Firebird task (p27), the expressiveness, detail, and strengthattributes of the Clay Model task (p40), and question 11 about continuing tostudy art on the Year 8 Art Survey (p49).

For year 4 students, there were statistically significant differences among thethree subgroups on only one task, the Two Paintings task (45) . Students fromthe South Island scored higher than students from the other zones on theglobal score, and on the description and interpretation attributes.

Chapter6: Performance of Subgroups 51

Community SizeResults were compared for students living in communities containing over100,000 people (main centres), communities containing 10,000 to 100,000people (provincial cities), and communities containing less than 10,000 peo-ple (rural areas).

The only statistically significant differences were for students responding tothe Year 4 Art Survey (p48). On two questions related to involvement in artactivities in their own time (questions 7 and 8), year 4 students from the maincentres indicated greater involvement than their counterparts from provincialcities or rural areas.

School SizeResults were compared from students in larger, medium sized, and small schools(exact definitions were given in Chapter 1, p4).

The only statistically significant difference occurred for students respondingto question 8 in the Year 8 Art Survey (p49). Students from the larger schoolswere less inclined to want to “do more art” at school.

School TypeResults were compared for year 8 students attending full primary schools andyear 8 students attending intermediate schools.

Statistically significant differences were found on one art making task, oneresponding to art task, and one question of the Year 8 Art Survey (p49). Stu-dents attending intermediate schools scored higher on the strength attributeof the Clay Model task (p40), lower on the global score and the descriptionand responsiveness attributes of the Two Sculptures task (p43), and lower onthe question “How often does your class do really good things in art?” in theYear 8 Art Survey (p49).

Socio-Economic IndexSchools are categorized by the Ministry of Education based on census data forthe census mesh blocks where children attending the schools live. The SESindex takes into account household income levels, categories of employment,and the ethnic mix in the census mesh blocks. The SES index used ten subdi-visions, each containing ten percent of schools (deciles 1 to 10). For our pur-poses, the bottow three deciles (1-3) formed the low SES group, the middlefour deciles (4-7) formed the medium SES group, and the top three deciles (8-10) formed the high SES group.

Results were compared for students attending schools in each of these threeSES groups.

For year 8 students, there were statistically significant differences among thethree subgroups on two tasks. Students from high SES schools scored higherthan students from other schools on the global score and description attributeof the Two Sculptures task (p43). Students from low SES schools scored lowerthan students from other schools on the Print Making Processes team task(p47).

Only one statistically significant difference was found for year 4 students. Stu-dents from low SES schools scored lower than students from other schools onthe Printmaking Processes team task (p47).

University of Otago

The Educational Assessment Research Unit

National monitoring provides a “snapshot” of what New Zealand children can do at two levels in primary and intermediate schools: ages 8–9 and ages 12–13.

The main purposes for national monitoring are:

• to meet public accountability and information requirements by identifying and reporting patterns and trends in educational performance

• to provide high quality, detailed information which policy makers, curriculum planners and educators can use to debate and review educational practices and resourcing.

Throughout history people have expressed their understandings of the world through art. Art permeates society and culture. It is part of our daily lives and experience. It has the potential to enrich and inform. Art education is concerned with learning skills and knowledge that enable us to understand and participate in this lasting field of human activity and enterprise.

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ISSN 1174–0000ISBN 1–877182–01–X

Front crayon and pastel drawing is a ‘firebird’

art - nz's national education monitoring...

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