We know that learning the arts improves both student engagement and well-being. Students develop self-esteem, capacity to collaborate and share their emotions, all part of learning to  communicate and developing socialisation skills. 

The COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia forced families and teachers to rethink how children might learn, in new online contexts where the usual teacher/student and student/student relationships were disrupted by emergency remote learning and teaching. Our research was particularly concerned with approaches to teaching the arts online which enabled and facilitated connection and communication between students, and between teachers and students.

The whole family got involved

Anecdotally we heard about some innovative approaches adopted by primary teachers to engage students in online learning in the arts. In some cases whole families participated in the arts learning activity. While in some situations families had limited technology available at home some students took the opportunity to be fully engaged in an arts learning activity for most of a day, enjoying the opportunity to focus on something they loved without having to change what they were doing upon the ring of a bell.

Our research showed that teachers and parents had expressed hope that online arts learning could facilitate positive online learning experiences, particularly for those students who had encountered challenges in a face-to-face environment. Here is what we have found.

During the online learning periods music and visual arts were the most commonly studied artforms, dance and drama were next. Media arts was the least reported artform. For many students and teachers  online arts learning was an overwhelmingly negative experience. But, for some, the arts online experience was remarkably positive and social.

Sharing their work with others

Parents and teachers equally endorsed reasons children enjoyed activities with highest scores being for these reasons: sharing their work with other students; learning was fun and showing something they had made. 

Parents reported that students did not create something with other students, talk or send messages to other students while engaged in online arts learning activities. But, some teachers found their students did so. Both parents and teachers indicated students watched other students present their work. Parents and teachers reported examples of students exploring visual arts making techniques using materials around the home to create collages, paintings and puppets. Some students responded to dance and drama online learning activities by recording their own movement sequences and creating short drama scenes using imagined television interview scenarios. One activity involved students bringing their siblings and parents into the activity to self-tape a recreation of a moment from a movie for which they overlaid the recorded film soundtrack.

Recreating ET

One parent and their child particularly enjoyed recreating a classic moment from ET using family bicycles. Mobile phones were a useful device for students to record sounds in their own garden. Students then recorded themselves talking about the sounds using elements of music such as pitch, dynamics and texture. While students completed these tasks individually teachers found ways to share students’ work through online classes and gallery platforms. Students engaged with each other’s artworks through conversations in online classes.

The post-pandemic return to school and face-to-face teaching and learning saw both parents and teachers reporting that students were highly motivated to resume face-to-face arts learning. Students were keen to connect in person with their peers and teachers. They were motivated to collaborate on arts projects like music and drama. Students were actively seeking creativity in the classroom. The arts online did not necessarily create positive experiences for many students and teachers. But it did increase students’ recognition and eagerness to explore the arts in their classrooms. Many students had renewed enthusiasm upon returning to school. But some did not, and still may not have returned to school.

Through the emerging priorities program research into primary arts learning online we worked with teachers and artform researchers from across the country to develop digital exemplars of arts online learning activities that teachers can use with students in Years 1 and 2. Each activity scaffolds elements of the personal and social capability, one of the general capabilities in the Australian curriculum.

The museum of me

These digital exemplars recognise the complexity of teaching since the pandemic. They include ways to involve students who may be learning online with students who are in the classroom. Visual arts includes the museum of me where students collect, draw and talk about items that are important to them. The dance and music learning activities can be used separately or interconnected through the use of a song and dance movement from Ghana. The drama learning activities involve short scenarios in which students learn to observe and make characters and develop character status. The media arts activity uses the drama learning activity to explore how to use camera angles to represent character status.

The exemplars in each of the five art subjects: dance, drama, media arts, music and visual arts include links to online videos and downloadable lesson plans to assist teachers engage students through arts learning. How to give feedback is modelled for students across learning activities in each artform using three stems: One thing I appreciated – ; One thing I discovered -; One thing I am wondering -. For each artform the elements of the personal social capability and signature pedagogies are identified. The EPP Arts Learning Online digital resources are available online as a free resource. They provide 10 hours of online self-paced learning for teachers, pre-service teachers and interested parents and caregivers. The researchers are keen to receive feedback from people testing out the activities. The opportunities to provide feedback are embedded in the digital resource.

This research project was funded through the Commonwealth Department of Education Emerging Priorities Program.

Linda Lorenza is a senior lecturer in the CQUniversity School of Education and the Arts. She is Head of Course for the Bachelor of Theatre,  teaching theatre, acting and drama. Lorenza is a qualitative researcher and arts practitioner whose interests are in the performing arts, arts education, and applied arts in health and rehabilitation contexts. She is a chief investigator, with Don Carter, on the Emerging Priorities Program research into arts online learning.

Don Carter is an associate professor in the UTS School of International Studies and Education, he specialises in working with teachers to investigate innovative writing pedagogies to improve student performance and outcomes across the curriculum. Carter is a chief investigator, with Linda Lorenza, on the Emerging Priorities Program research into arts online learning.