Reflective Report

One of the tasks in the subject Arts in Education is to present a performance

incorporating the elements of music, movement and visual arts. In this task, we are required to
work in a group of three or four members to present the performance as one of the evaluation
for the assignment. Each group is given 5 minutes to conduct their performance. This task aims
to discover students’ creativity, create commitment among team members and build up
confidence to express themselves in a multiple of ways. Hence, my group decided to present a
performance themed as “occupation”. This performance is targeted for students in Year 1 as
outlined in their textbook of standard content and learning for the topic “When I Grow Up”.

First and foremost, during the discussion session in planning the performance, I noticed
that each of us is lack of ideas. We took a lot of time and struggle to decide what kind of
performance that we should present. Such kind of problem has actually become a norm to us
every time we are preparing for AIE activities. The issue is we were not raised and brought up in
an environment with creative arts implementation. We could hardly find any related sources of
our experienced during childhood that we can use to prepare for the performance. In other
words, our experiences growing up in creative arts environment is too narrow as we are more
used to the traditional classroom. Hence, I realized that we should have the initiatives to explore
and find out more about creative arts teaching in class, so that the future generation will not face
the same problem as we did. Even though we were not brought up in rich creative arts
environment, we should not let our mind stick to the traditional classroom method. We are the
one who should make the change.

Furthermore, during the performance, we used a lot of visual arts and movement
elements. We also made a few props to assist our performance. Props are one of the visual art
components which help in enhancing children’s artistic development and nurture an
appreciation for beauty in their world (Isbell & Raines, 2013). At the same time, encouraging
children to create their own arts also help to them to express themselves and their world.
According to Fox and Diffily (2000), “Children’s art has value in and of itself”(p. 5). There are
quite a lot of props that we prepared for the performance. The props we produced include the
camera, hammer, saw, sprayer and some clothes. When we were presenting the performance,
there is actually a situation where one of our members failed to grab one of the props prepared.
This problem happened due to the stacked props which we failed to organize well. As a result,
such situation mentioned took place and some time is wasted before proceeding with the
performance. From what happened, I learnt that in preparing for a performance each group
members must help one another to ensure that everything is organized well. More consideration
and preparation should be focused so that any confusion and errors can be reduced.

Other than that, we also used a famous Hindi song entitled, “Zoobi Doobi“. After
performing, we realized that the song is catchy and attractive to gain students’ attention. This
can be observed from the audience’s reaction as they watch our performance. According to
Rauscher (1995), many authors have concluded that music can enhance the intellectual
development of children, stimulate brain function, and produce gains in test scores. However,
this song is not beneficially meaningful in content. Students might love the rhythms of the music,
but at the end of the lesson students do not get much from the song they listen to. This happen
because, the song selected is using tamil language which is not their target language. Hence,
instead of using a readymade song, we can actually create our own song. We can create the
lyrics and music to be used in classroom. It is not just a matter of how good a song is, but it is
also a matter of how beneficial it is for students especially in language development.

In conclusion, from the performance that we had done, as a teacher trainer we should
explore more on how to incorporate creative arts in teaching, able to manage and organize the
teaching aids used, and also learn to create our own music to be used in the lesson. These are
important to trigger the creativity of children to explore and express themselves in a fun and
beneficial way as well as learning, generally in English language learning. Hence, educators
specifically English language teachers should grab the opportunity to change the traditional way
used in the classroom by implementing the creative arts to grab students attention and develop
their potential in learning without limit.

References:

Fox, J. E., & Diffily, D. (2000). Integrating the visual arts: Building your children’s knowledge,
skills and confidence. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 29(1), 3-10

Isbell, R. T, & Raines, S. C. (2013). Creativity and the Arts with Young Children. United States
of America: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Rauscher, F. (1995). Does music make you smarter? PTA Today, 20(5), 8-9.