Curriculum Framework

Aims

1. To develop students’ perceptual abilities, with special emphasis on visual, aesthetic and arts experience;
2. To enable students to express personal feelings and thoughts through artistic presentations;
3. To develop students’ visual cognition, generic skills and metacognition through art making, appreciation and criticism;
4. To broaden students’ perspectives through exploration of the arts of diverse cultures; and
5. 5. To cultivate students’ emotions, personal refinement, morals and sense of commitment towards the nation and the world.

Learning Targets

For Visual Arts curriculum design, appropriate and assessable learning objectives and content, various curriculum organizations, diversified learning and teaching strategies, and methods of assessment should be provided. Learning activities should be designed in accordance with the Four Key Learning Targets, i.e. developing creativity and imagination, developing skills and processes, cultivating critical responses and understanding arts in context. Considerable efforts should be made to integrate art appreciation and criticism with art making to achieve the aims of Visual Arts curriculum.

1. Developing creativity and imagination

Through active participation in art appreciation, criticism and making, students will develop new and different ways to enhance their power of imagination, creative thinking and presentation skills. Students can use visual arts to express themes and topics related to themselves, their surroundings and the works of other artists.

2. Developing skills and processes

Students will learn to use visual language, different visual arts forms and a variety of materials and techniques for visual arts making. They will develop their skills in using verbal language to describe, analyse, communicate, and carry out a dialogue as well as develop a positive attitude for continual exploration and experimentation through the process of making, illustrating and presenting their artistic ideas.

3. Cultivating critical responses

As students learn to understand works of visual arts, they acquire the abilities to give critical, informed and intelligent responses based on a well-explored background of information about the artwork, the artist, and just as importantly, with reference to their own experience, training, culture and personal judgment.

4. Understanding arts in context

Students will learn to understand the meaning and value of works of visual arts

in their own and other contexts including the art historical, personal, social,

cultural, ideological and political.

Values and Attitudes

From an understanding of individuals to an understanding of society, nations and different ethnic groups, visual arts education assists students in attaining positive values and attitudes towards life. Learning in the visual arts enables students to:

1. Understand the relationship between the visual arts, society, and culture;
2. Experience and analyse the arts and culture of the motherland and different parts of the world;
3. Adopt an open-minded and respectful attitude towards different cultural viewpoints and the beliefs of various ethnic groups and countries;
4. Develop personal global views and theories; and
5. Cultivate national commitments as well as meaningful individual values.