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| Project Details |
| Funding Scheme : | General Research Fund | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Number : | 18611320 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(English) : | Creating connections: A study of the impact and effectiveness of a visual arts teacher-curator pedagogy | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(Chinese) : | 創造聯繫：視藝教師作為策展人的教學果效及影響力研究 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(English) : | Dr Tam, Cheung On | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(Chinese) : | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Department : | Department of Cultural and Creative Arts | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Institution : | The Education University of Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||||||||
| E-mail Address : | cotam@eduhk.hk | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tel : | 29487066 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Co - Investigator(s) : |
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| Panel : | Humanities, Social Sciences | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject Area : | Education | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Exercise Year : | 2020 / 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Fund Approved : | 889,420 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Status : | Completed | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Completion Date : | 31-8-2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Objectives : |
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| Abstract as per original application (English/Chinese): |
Engaging students in art criticism and art making activities is the major work of visual arts teachers. With access to the free online resources provided by art museum websites and image-based electronic databases, teachers are now in a better position to make use of artworks in planning and delivering their curriculum. The following questions arise: Can art teachers assume the role of art museum curators and construct an online exhibition to facilitate student learning? How should teachers be prepared to adopt such a ‘teacher-curator’ pedagogy? Can the thematic approach and presentation of exhibitions broaden students’ horizons in considering artworks? Will learning through virtual exhibitions increase students’ motivation to learn and improve their skills in using online resources? What will be the effectiveness and impact of this way of conceptualising, organising and constructing visual arts learning opportunities?
The aim of the proposed study is to answer the above questions using a design-based research. Three primary and three secondary school teachers and their students (about 165) will be invited to participate. The first phase of the study will focus on the training of teacher participants in the teacher-curator pedagogy. The second phase is the implementation stage. With the support of the investigator, the teacher participants will develop two virtual exhibitions and relevant face-to-face, museum visit and online learning activities. The third phase is the evaluation stage. Data on the impact and effectiveness of the teacher-curator pedagogy will be collected through student and teacher questionnaires and interviews.
The study will be conducted in the particular cultural context of Hong Kong. Museum+, the new museum of visual culture, is scheduled to open in 2020, and the renovated Hong Kong Museum of Art will re-open in late 2019. Besides having state-of-the-art facilities, we would like to see members of our society become regular museum visitors and be culturally literate. By actively using artworks from museums to teach, the study will help to build up a critical audience for the cultural establishments in Hong Kong in the long term. Through the formulation of exhibition themes, the selection of connected artworks and the design of relevant learning activities, the study will enhance the autonomy and capacity of teachers. With a focus on using digital technology, the results of the study will contribute to developing an effective pedagogical practice in general and one that promotes online learning in visual arts in particular.
視覺藝術科教師的一項重要工作是讓學生評賞和創作藝術。透過利用藝術館和圖像資料庫提供的網絡資源，教師較以往可以更有效地運用藝術作品於課程設計及教學實踐。網絡科技的應用洐生以下的問題： 視藝教師能否以藝術展覽策展人的角度，為學生創造網上的虛擬展覽，促進他們學習？教師應該如何去準備這種「教師策展人」的教學？以主題展覽的模式展示藝術作品能否提升學生思考藝術的能力？虛擬展覽能否增加學生的學習動機和提升他們運用網絡資源的能力？「教師策展人」教學的概念、組織和建構方式，會對視覺藝術學習產生甚麼影響和效果？本研究計劃希望透過「設計為本」研究法探討以上的問題。三間中學和三間小學的教師和學生（約165人）將會被邀請參與本研究計劃。第一階段將會集中於訓練教師參與者運用「教師策展人」的教學策略。第二階段為教學試驗。教師參與者將會策劃兩個虛擬展覽，以及相關的面授、展覽參觀和網上學習活動。第三階段為教學評估。資料搜集將會以問卷調查和訪談的形式進行，用以分析有關教學方法的影響和效果。本研究將會於香港本地的文化情境下進行。以視覺文化為主的M＋展館已定於2020年開啟，而經過翻新的香港藝術館亦於2019年重新開放。除了具備各種完善的文化設施，我們希望社會大眾能夠具備欣賞藝術的文化素養以及成為展覽及文化活動的慣常參與者。透過積極地運用藝術館的展品進行教學，本研究將會有助培養具批判力的觀眾，長遠地促推香港的文化建設。透過策劃主題展覽、選取具連繫的藝術作品以及設計相關的學習活動，本研究將會有助提升教師的能力和自主性。透過應用數碼科技於教學，研究結果亦將會有助發展網上視覺藝術學習。 |
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| Realisation of objectives: | Objective 1: To examine the ways in which visual arts teachers assume the dual role of educator and curator at primary and secondary school levels. In the 2021-22 academic year, each participating teacher implemented the teacher-curator pedagogy in two 4–6-week unit plans. Three whole-day workshops were held in June 2021 to provide training for teachers to uptake the role of teacher-curator and develop unit plans using virtual exhibitions. The principal investigator provided 28 individual consultation sessions to guide and support the teachers in developing the virtual exhibitions. After each unit, review meetings were held for teachers to present their virtual exhibition plans, engage in group discussions, and reflect on the process. A Teacher-Curator Pedagogical Framework has been successfully created. Key actionable steps of the teacher-curator strategy were identified, including formulating thematic exhibition plans, creating virtual exhibitions with immersive design and learning activities, implementing the teaching units by leveraging the virtual exhibition's updatability, and evaluating student learning through feedback collection and artwork assessment. The findings of the project highlight the ways in which the Teacher-Curator Pedagogical Framework allowed for blending online and face-to-face learning, broadening students’ perspectives in evaluating artworks, and setting visual arts education on a path to embrace digital transformations. Objective 2: To investigate the ways in which teachers develop themes and design relevant teaching and learning activities to form a virtual exhibition. The project has successfully achieved its second objective by leveraging the evolving roles of museum curators and visual arts teachers, as well as the potential for crossover learning between schools and museums. To implement the teacher-curator pedagogy, the project developed a total of 18 thematic virtual exhibition plans, each with related learning activities realized on the Kunstmatrix online platform. The proposed teacher-curator pedagogy capitalizes on the convergence of curator and teacher roles, allowing teachers to create learning opportunities through the careful selection and arrangement of artworks in virtual exhibitions. By connecting school learning with museums through virtual exhibitions, the pedagogy enables teachers to design activities that bridge the structured school curriculum with experiential learning. This "crossover learning" approach allows students to engage with contemporary Hong Kong artworks in thematic, interpretive inquiries that transcend traditional art historical categories. To effectively implement this teacher-curator pedagogy, the project has identified several key strategies for teachers to adopt: (1) Leverage online and digital resources to curate a diverse collection of artworks across various time periods, genres, and cultural contexts for the virtual exhibitions, (2) Take advantage of the pedagogical affordances of the virtual exhibition format, such as 3D immersion, updatability, and accessibility, to deepen thematic learning, (3) Design multimodal, self-directed learning activities that integrate direct instruction or museum learning with online engagement, (4) Provide students opportunities to explore the virtual exhibition at their own pace, and facilitating art criticism, independent learning, and peer-to-peer exchange using multimedia and digital tools, (5) Develop virtual exhibitions as an interactive space where students can provide comments, feedback, share creative ideas, and reflect through the ease of digital media. By embracing these strategies, the project has successfully demonstrated how teacher-curators can effectively develop thematic teaching units with learning activities and leverage virtual exhibitions to enhance student learning and engagement with contemporary art. Objective 3: To evaluate the effectiveness and impact on student learning of the teacher-curator pedagogy. To achieve this objective, a robust mixed-methods research design that triangulated multiple data sources has been implemented. The qualitative component involved 12 classroom observations and 12 in-depth interviews (1-1.5 hours) with the teacher participants. These interviews delved into the teachers' perspectives on how the virtual exhibition format and their dual roles as educators and curators influenced different dimensions of student learning including within and beyond class engagement, development of art criticism skills, and enhancement of artmaking abilities. The teachers also submitted weekly reflective journals chronicling their observations on student learning throughout the teaching cycles. Additionally, all student artworks were collected as secondary data, allowing analysis of the pedagogy's impact on tangible learning outcomes. The qualitative data, such as observation transcripts and interview responses, underwent rigorous thematic analysis to identify key patterns and themes related to the impact on students' visual arts competencies. Complementing the qualitative insights, the project also gathered quantitative data through end-of-cycle student feedback questionnaires. These questionnaires assessed the students' perceptions of the virtual exhibition-based learning experience and its effectiveness in enhancing their learning experience such as understanding and appreciation of artistic principles. By triangulating the qualitative and quantitative findings, the results demonstrated that the teacher-curator approach had a positive influence on student learning. Students exhibited increased engagement, improved art criticism skills, and enhanced artmaking abilities. The virtual exhibition format with its thematic content, facilitated deeper exploration of artworks’ visual qualities and background, independent learning, and valuable peer-to-peer exchange. Through this comprehensive method of evaluation, the project conclusively achieved its objective of thoroughly assessing the effectiveness and impact of the teacher-curator pedagogy on student learning outcomes in the visual arts domain. Objective 4: To evaluate the effectiveness and impact on student learning facilitated by blended learning. To achieve the project's fourth objective, data was collected through two rounds of field work to examine the effectiveness and impact of virtual exhibitions on student learning. The primary data collection methods employed were student interviews and surveys. The qualitative part involved 48 students participating in 12 in-depth focus group interviews, which provided rich, nuanced insights into how the virtual exhibitions affected students' motivation, attitudes, face-to-face learning, and self-directed learning in art criticism and artmaking. These hour-long interviews also sought students' suggestions for enhancing the virtual exhibition platform. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed significant patterns and themes that positively influenced student learning. On the quantitative part, 575 questionnaires, with a response rate of 86.9%, were completed on paper during class time after the conclusion of each teaching unit. The surveys sought to measure the frequency and duration of students' virtual exhibition visits, their preferences for online tasks, the aspects of the exhibitions they found most appealing, and the ways in which virtual exhibitions enhanced their learning experience in visual arts. Open-ended questions were included in the questionnaires to capture any additional opinions or perspectives regarding virtual exhibitions. The surveys revealed that most students (77.9%) visited each virtual exhibition 1 to 6 times, with 67.8% spending up to 15 minutes and 28% spending 16 to 30 minutes on average per visit. Students reported the virtual exhibitions helped them learn more about the artworks and understand the background information in depth. Additionally, the survey found that 71.7% of students preferred to learn via the virtual exhibitions than their previous ways to learn visual arts. Results also indicated that students preferred 3D virtual environment, multimedia exhibits display, and exhibit introduction than the hyperlinks and extended learning activities. Most of the students indicated that the virtual exhibitions helped them learn more about the artworks and understand the background information in depth. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary of objectives addressed: |
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| Research Outcome | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Major findings and research outcome: | A pedagogical framework assuming the dual roles of teacher and curator was developed and tested through 12 virtual exhibition learning units in schools. The effectiveness and impact of this pedagogy on teaching and learning were assessed through thematic analysis. The teacher-curator role was assumed in 12 virtual exhibition teaching units, which included relevant learning activities. Data collection involved 575 questionnaires completed by 331 students, 12 video-recorded class observations, 12 individual interviews with teachers, and 12 focus group interviews with students. The findings of the study demonstrated the positive pedagogical value of using teacher-curated thematic virtual exhibitions in art classrooms. The pedagogy empowered teachers to leverage free online learning resources and realize the benefits of virtual exhibitions for facilitating teaching and learning. The 3D presentation of artworks and the interaction created through blended learning were particularly beneficial, especially with sufficient training on the concept of teacher-curator and appropriate IT support. The study also revealed that students developed a stronger desire to share their learned content and actively participate in group critiques. The use of virtual exhibitions enhanced student autonomy and self-motivation in personalized and peer-to-peer learning contexts. With data collected from class observations, interviews, and surveys with the teachers and student participants, the followings were observed: Impact on student learning: 1. Motivate students towards self-directed and active learning: The virtual exhibitions promoted self-paced, autonomous learning, encouraging students to take an active role in their education. 2. Stimulate artmaking ideas and skills: Exposure to diverse artworks inspired students and helped develop transferable artmaking skills, fostering creativity and new ideas. 3. Enhance students’ confidence through peer learning: Students gained confidence in sharing their ideas and interpretations, which expanded peer learning through active discussions and exchanges. Impact on visual arts teaching: 1. Build technological capacity through creating virtual exhibitions: Creating virtual exhibitions helped teachers enhance their IT skills to meet new digital teaching needs. 2. Make use of the enhanced presentation of virtual exhibitions: The 3D virtual exhibition format provided a more engaging and proactive learning experience compared to traditional methods. 3. Engage learners with deep interaction through the blending of online and face-to-face teaching: Combining online activities and museum questioning strategies with face-to-face learning activities deepened student engagement and learning experiences. 4. Facilitate teaching in themes and context through digital content curation: Aligning digital content with relevant themes improved teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and teaching quality by leveraging digital research and curation. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Potential for further development of the research and the proposed course of action: |
The study identified technological limitations in using virtual exhibitions for teaching, primarily due to the constraints of default platform settings. These limitations restricted teachers from creating tailored exhibitions. Students expressed a desire for more dynamic visual designs and additional features like multi-player avatars, animations, and live streaming. Therefore, further investigation and experimentation are necessary to explore more complex applications of virtual exhibitions that promote higher-order and collaborative learning. Future research could include utilizing virtual exhibitions as art portfolios for senior-level students’ public examination assessments or facilitating student-curated group exhibitions. To address these limitations and expand the educational potential of virtual exhibitions, future research may focus on the ways in which students assuming the roles of virtual exhibition curators and examine its impact on technology-mediated learning and community of learning. The research should aim to delve deeper into the potential of 3D virtual exhibition platforms by transforming them into co-learning hubs, with the potentials for students to curate Group Exhibitions and Individual Galleries (Similar to Vlogs/ E-Portfolios), and solo exhibitions. By integrating advanced features, the research may create an immersive learning experience, broaden art knowledge, enhance collaboration, and inspire creativity for students. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Layman's Summary of Completion Report: | Despite the availability of digital collections in museums and artwork image databases, visual arts teachers still face challenges in effectively utilizing these online resources and digital tools for curriculum planning and teaching. The study proposed a teacher-curator pedagogy, which sought to empower visual arts teachers by enabling them to take on the role of a "digital museum curator" and facilitate student learning through the utilization of virtual exhibitions. A design-based study was conducted to evaluate the pedagogy, involving six teachers and 331 students in Hong Kong during the 2021-22 academic year. Data were collected through interviews, observations, virtual exhibition designs, and video recordings of classroom teaching throughout the implementation phase. The findings of the study revealed improvements in visual art teaching including: (1) building technological capacity through creating virtual exhibitions, (2) making use of the enhanced presentation of virtual exhibitions, (3) engaging learners with deep interaction through the blending of online and face-to-face teaching, and (4) facilitating teaching in themes and context through digital content curation. The study also identified positive impacts on student learning, including: (1) motivating students towards self-directed and active learning, (2) stimulating artmaking ideas and skills, and (3) enhancing students’ confidence through peer learning. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Research Output | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Peer-reviewed journal publication(s) arising directly from this research project : (* denotes the corresponding author) |
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| Recognized international conference(s) in which paper(s) related to this research project was/were delivered : |
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| Other impact (e.g. award of patents or prizes, collaboration with other research institutions, technology transfer, etc.): |
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| SCREEN ID: SCRRM00542 |