Arts in Education
Written by Charmaine Cheong Shen May, Edited by Rifqi Faisal, Researched by Ellysha Najwa and Managed by Edwin Goh.
It is understood that in the status quo, pursuing the arts as a career path is severely misunderstood and discouraged. The neglect for the arts is evident all around us: barely receiving sufficient financial support from the government, underappreciated by many who view it as a waste of time or discouraged by parents who fear that their children will become the starving artist caricature we see tragically portrayed in the media.
Perhaps it is important to take a step back and ask ourselves: why?
As a society, why have we all developed apathy or fear towards a subject that brings us colours and excitement to our everyday lives, that provides many with variation that keeps us from falling into monotony?
For many of us, our interests come from the education we receive. With the lack of exposure to art that students face, it is no wonder why so many fail to grasp the importance of art. If the arts can be implemented at an earlier level in primary or secondary schools, we could be looking at a reborn, world-class art culture and industry from Malaysia.
How does art contribute to education?
Art Enhances Creativity and Critical Intellectual Skills.
Creativity, in this day and age, is a priceless commodity as one of the top five skills employers prize for the 21st century, and the inclusion of art in education accessible to all would result in leaps and bounds of innovation. Students who receive an arts-rich education perform better on assessments of creativity than those who receive little or no arts education. Studies have found that art has helped to boost confidence, especially among young people, as its practice can assist with developing cognitive skills in processing and analyzing information.
Reflective, abstract and critical thinking that is engaged in visual art can result in cognitive development that is vital for students at the upper secondary level that are about to take the step into tertiary education. In a world where students are constantly faced with a sea of information, they must learn to determine which pieces of information are trustworthy and relevant to a particular topic.
Art Encourages positive habits, behaviors and attitudes.
Students who participate in the arts develop leadership skills, which include decision-making, strategy building, planning and reflection. The presence of such skills set the foundations needed for a strong sense of identity while managing to work well with others and learn from them, all coming together to create a cohesive work environment.
Learning arts means a student could find themselves being interested in a musical instrument, expressing themselves through painting, learning to dance. New skills such as these motivate students to practice to improve over a prolonged period of time, be persistent and patient, all of which are important for children’s growth and improvement
In the performing art division, teamwork is further encouraged due to the many collaborative projects seen in theatre/group performances. Working together teaches students to understand and accept differences, celebrate diversity, articulate their intentions, receive and offer constructive criticism and listen actively to others’ ideas.
Art Encourages Student Engagement.
Art subjects often require a hands-on approach that works to constantly provoke thought and results in immediate rewards, alongside providing many opportunities for students to demonstrate their skills. The arts enable students to grow in confidence that increases participation in class and enjoying the process of learning now that it has become diversified.
Art Enriches the Learning of Other Subjects.
Integrating art education into other learning subjects would improve a students’ overall learning process. Though it may not seem like it, the arts play a big role in developing a child’s mathematical skills as they learn how to assess measurements, number manipulation, and proportional thinking. Students also learn to notice patterns (musical rhythms and dance patterns), spatial and geometric relationships (visual art patterns) and three dimensional skills (assessing a model from multiple angles). It has been proven that students who study the arts, especially music, outperform their non-arts peers in mathematical assessments.
How does art education look like in the current syllabus?
The current position of arts education in the Malaysian education system is as accessible as it gets. In primary, the only access to arts education is music and Pendidikan Seni Visual (PSV). In some cases, tari teater will be accessible. However, all these subjects only teach students the complete basics of the subjects and do not necessarily allow further development of artistry in their respective forms.
In public secondary schools, options are wider as electives have a much more fuller library. An example of this is Muzik, Seni Halus, Reka Bentuk, Komunikasi Visual, Tari dan Teater. This makes it easier to believe that arts education isn’t an issue but let’s dissect this and break it down.
The issue? People don’t know enough about these electives and are not picked up to begin with.
As public schools lack conversation on art electives that are accessible to students in Form 4 and Form 5, students aren’t able to fully understand these subjects and choose them to study. Furthermore, most of the time these subjects aren’t given discussion because schools do not have the necessary teachers and classes to teach it.
Hence, they disallow students to partake in it. Most — if not all — public schools also fear that these students aren’t able to ace these exams so even if there were classes and teachers, often schools disacknowledge it and prevent students from taking such subjects.
Apart from that, schools also face an issue in regards to student-teacher mentality when talked about arts education. Because a lot of teachers and parents believe that arts is not seen as a viable and lucrative career path in life, they unfairly distribute resources to science stream classes. Extra classes, special programs and general attention are given towards science stream classes and the same can’t be said for art stream classes.
This narrative doesn’t only exist in the minds of teachers but also students. The unfair distribution has caused a lot of art stream classes to falter academically and socially, often resulting in students being left to their own devices or just lack care in the classes. This has led the majority of students to then believe that students who come from art stream classes are lesser and aren’t up to par to students who come from science stream classes.
In the discussion on whether there are public schools which are exclusively for the arts; yes there are! Although, it is very exclusive. These schools are only available in Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Perak, Sabah and Sarawak.
These schools have a slightly wider range of art subjects offered upfront such as Seni Tari and Seni Reka Bentuk which is comparatively better for students to be able to access these subjects than they are in normal SMKs. Still, it is only accessible if you are within the proximity of these schools and/or have the financial capacity to move towards these schools.
Bettering Art Education.
You may be thinking: alright, I’m interested, but what does a quality arts education look like? What should be the things I start asking and looking out for?
First and foremost, in order for an arts education to exist, it needs the interest of its students. To do so, the stereotypes and misconceptions that ‘art will lead to nothing but a dead-end career’ must come to an end in order for teachers, parents and students to realise the enormous potential within an arts education.
In aliran perdana and SSeM, there are digital art-based subjects established. However, students may not be exposed to digital arts much to encourage them to take up these subjects. The MOE could assist these students by providing free laptops and softwares considering that digital arts will require students to have laptops with good processors. Softwares for creating and editing content may incur high cost and may not be affordable to students.
According to Doug Israel, there is no one way for a quality arts programme to be built, though a clear sign of a successful one would include hallways filled with documentation on students’ art and performances, events that offer a platform for musical or theatrical performances and a varied range of offered art courses. To achieve all of the above, several elements can be considered by governments and schools for implementation as a first step towards an enriched arts culture.
It is of utmost importance that the arts are recognised and treated like any other subject with establish rigorous standards that would have to be met in order to ensure quality education. Regardless of the art discipline that a student chooses (music, visual art, dance, theatre, etc), coursework should be aligned with learning standards or goals that identify the skills and knowledge that students should acquire.
Across the ocean in the United States, some school districts have adopted local standards or curriculum guides, such as the Blueprints for Teaching and Learning in the Arts developed in New York City. The Common Core State Standards have been adopted by the great majority of states, allowing many local education districts to align their arts instruction to these standards in hopes of providing a well-rounded arts education to their students. The presence of well-trained professionals will cultivate and sustain a school community that values arts education and weaves into application beyond a classroom setting.
School leadership and room for professional development play large roles when it comes to building the pillars of a quality arts education. School principals and leaders have the power to make the arts a priority in the curriculum and to devote space and funding to the arts.
The latter is especially important as it is seen that students perform better when taught in proper arts spaces that allows them to optimise their movement or meet the requirements of their art discipline such as space, configuration, acoustics, and equipment. Inadequate facilities can lead to substandard instruction, ill-equipped lessons and present considerable safety concerns while outdated equipment could risk students falling behind others.
Traditional arts materials should be enhanced with up-to-date technology and software, which allow for greater exploration of art forms and providing support for career areas such as architecture, digital photography, and graphic design.
With the establishment of quality art education in place, the government can further assist the growth of an art culture in Malaysia and its students by creating nationalised art clubs that unlike normal clubs, they would be more structured and students will receive professional guidance and insights into the industry through seminars and workshops. This would greatly assist with ensuring the education system and its students are ready to develop artistic talents that meet industrial demand.
RESOURCES:
- Ponijan, A. S., Mat, M. F., & Leong, S. N. (2019). The visual arts education crisis in Malaysia: Placement of students into the arts curricular stream at the upper secondary level in Malaysian secondary schools. Journal of Visual Art and Design, 11(2), 79–92. https://doi.org/10.5614/j.vad.2019.11.2.1
- https://libertyclassicalacademy.org/importance-arts-education/
- https://www.noodle.com/articles/what-does-quality-arts-education-look-like-2
- https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/main1997/1999486r.pdf
- https://www.moe.gov.my/en/statistik-menu/statistik-bilangan-sekolah-murid-guru
