The Didactics of Artistic Education.

The term didactics is defined etymologically and historically as “the act of teaching, a Greek
word from which “didaskein” is derived, which means to teach, instruct, educate.”
(Carrasco, 2004) A term that refers us, according to its meanings, to the action, to the
practical event of teaching towards a desired objective, a concept that has the purpose within
the framework of teaching of producing reactions in an individual, and as Carrasco (2004)
says, “seek its improvement and generate an immediate manifestation in learning.”

From the artistic perspective, didactics can be conceived as a means to achieve learning
from everyday experiences lived by the child in his immediate context, which can be
constituted by his home and all the spaces of the school where practices are generated from
the different artistic languages such as plastic arts, music, theater, dance, literature and body
expression. All these languages seek to ensure that students participate in the proposals,
experience art, strengthen the development of creativity, listening, respect, tolerance,
strengthening perception, sensitivity, divergent thinking and the sense of belonging. by its
context and by the artistic cultural values of its environment.

Hence the importance that it must have for the teacher, knowing the didactics of the area he
teaches and preparing for that act of teaching-learning, because depending on his ability and
the strategies he implements in the classroom, the result that will be productive or not will
be productive. obtain and the learning capacity that it can achieve in its students. This
exercise of teaching and instructing favors a dynamic, proactive relationship between
teacher-student, which becomes a means for the proposals or experiences that arise from
didactics to become a vehicle that unites, enhances and enriches that magical and enriching
act of teaching.
In the area of Art Education, didactics also becomes a practical experience, which combines
the theory of art with specific actions, which favors the enjoyment and recognition of the
characteristics of other cultures, in addition to the construction of their identity and the
reaffirmation of their personality, through the identification and expression of their personal
tastes.

The artistic also favors the discovery of the possibilities and limitations of each being, the
strengthening of confidence and security in oneself to express one's own points of view
freely, the ability to make decisions, to give up the turn to listen with patience, to recognize
and welcome, to express attitudes of solidarity and free expression without coercion of their
feelings and appreciations.

Didactics also takes up elements such as image, imagination and creativity to promote
practical learning in artistic education. In the words of Viadel (2003), referring to the
contribution of the Russian pedagogue Vygotsky (1996) in his work Imagination and art in
childhood, he says:

Didactics defends the use of imagination as a necessary element for comprehensive

training and advocates art teaching based on artistic experiences introduced as early
as possible, not forced or induced by the adult. He also states in the same text that
imagination is key to artistic knowledge and appropriate for the reproduction of free
aesthetic experiences. (page 197)

All these didactic elements proposed by the MEN for the area are taken by the proposal that
wants to show the Mascaritas Didacticas strategy, because it seeks to implement, from
representation, artistic exploration and play, the development of skills in the children of the
San Miguel Educational Institution. Luis Gonzaga, from the first grade, and encourage the
playful encounter with the masks, thereby promoting the search for a balance between the
cognitive elements and the sensitive and expressive aspect of the boy and girl.

Didactic strategy for artistic education.

Currently, the teaching of different areas has been transformed thanks to advances in
research carried out by various professionals in education and other fields, who reflect on
the teacher's work and the way students learn. That is why many teachers incorporate into
their pedagogical practice teaching strategies that guarantee good processes both in student
training and in teaching-learning processes.

The concept of teaching strategy has been defined by various pedagogues, including the
Professor of teaching and educational innovation at the University of Barcelona, Saturnino
de la Torre, who defines the concept of teaching strategy “based on these components:
theoretical perspective, purpose or goal. pursued, adaptive nature, contextual reality, people
involved, organizational aspects, functionality and effectiveness.” In accordance with the
above, Saturnino complements by saying that,

We use the term strategy with preference because it best responds to an interactive
and ecosystemic approach. Social, educational, and creative reality are not linear,
rigid, or static, but, on the contrary, are characterized by being complex, adaptive,
changing, interactive, indebted to sociocultural environments and contexts. That is
why the concept of strategy best responds to our purposes, understood as an adaptive
procedure or set of them by which we sequentially organize the action to achieve the
desired purpose or goal.

The conception of the term didactic strategy takes on countless forms, activities and
purposes, in accordance with the characteristics of the context for which it is designed, since
the educational reality is complex in that it responds to a diversity of needs according to the
population with which it is addressed. is worked on, the areas that are taught, the
characteristics of the place where it could be applied, the cultural heritage of the population,
among other dimensions that must be taken into account when producing or building a
strategy.

On the other hand, there are authors who have defined the concept of strategy applied to
didactics, directing their attention to the achievements and achievements that a student can
obtain after interacting with the strategy, they argue that "instructional strategies are a set of
procedures that a “student acquires and uses intentionally with the objective of significantly
learning to solve problems in response to academic demands.” DÍAZ,"F" and"others"
(2002)."

In accordance with the above Cammaroto, A., Martins, F. and Palella, S. (2003), comment
that

Didactic strategies involve a teaching-learning process, with or without the absence

of the teacher, because the instruction is carried out with the use of instructional
means or interpersonal relationships, ensuring that the student achieves certain
previously defined competencies based on behaviors. initials.

The above invites us to reflect on the importance of the teacher in mediating the student's
learning processes, since with the amount of educational media to which today's students
have access, they could satisfy their academic needs through reading and exercises proposed
by various books, interactive virtual programs and one's own experience, guided only
through those resources that are presented as teaching strategies to become enlightened in
some area.

Didactic resources as mediators of learning and the development of skills.

To define what a teaching resource is, the contributions of Milagros Sierras Gómez have
been investigated, who in her text Design of teaching media and resources, describes the
concept as “those instruments that on the one hand help trainers in their task of teaching and
on the other hand On the other hand, they make it easier for students to achieve learning
objectives." So books, albums, acrylic and electronic boards, video beams, computers and
different virtual programs and applications could be examples of media or resources. virtual.

Sierras also concisely determines the different functions presented by teaching resources,
proposed for different purposes and made with various materials:

Provide information. Virtually all media explicitly provide information: books,

videos, computer programs.

Guide students' learning and instruct as a textbook does, for example.

Exercise skills, train. For example: a computer program that requires a certain
psychomotor response from its users.
 Motivate, awaken and maintain interest. Good teaching material should always be
motivating for students.

Assess your knowledge and skills, as questions in textbooks or computer programs

do.

In accordance with Sierras' contributions, the arguments of the mathematician P. have been
found. Adam (1956) in favor of resource utilization. The first comes from motivation: "the
child's interest in the knowledge he receives is in direct proportion to the active part that he
himself takes in its acquisition": the second enters into the construction of knowledge:
"Action is not only a vital need of the child (...), but from the epistemological point of view
it is essential in the formation of thought itself".

With which the author makes known the importance of autonomy in the learning process
and how a teaching resource can enhance the autonomous work of the individual, which so
favors the individual's meta-cognition processes.

In the case of artistic education, it has been found that in various educational institutions in
the country, artistic textbooks from different publishers are implemented as the main
educational resource to teach the area. In most of the texts, the predominant artistic language
can be seen to be the plastic language, that is, the activities carried out by the students are
aimed at guiding the learning of certain techniques of plastic art and the history of art with
its different authors. This is the case of Editorial Ediarte who, with their series 'artistic
creation', propose a resource that 'includes grades from the first of primary school to the
ninth of secondary school. And from its emphasis on visual arts it facilitates the thought
processes in this disciplinary field.” It is then necessary to investigate and design other
teaching resources that can serve as a means to delve deeper into other artistic languages
such as dance, music and/or theater.

Playful-didactic resources in childhood.

In the market there is a variety of elements that allow children to interact with cultural
knowledge and lead them to develop different skills for their daily performance. We can
mention among them toys, board games, albums, children's books, nature and imagination.
In some way all these objects help children understand their external reality. The school has
taken some of these elements to implement them didactically, so that with their use, children
acquire some knowledge, understand concepts in a more concrete way and strengthen skills
that they will require throughout their lives.

In early childhood education, the teacher generally has a set of recreational resources such
as lotteries, puzzles, costumes, dolls, bows, movies, fold-out books, albums, mobile books,
among others; that make the encounter between knowledge and the child more striking and
promote the development of different dimensions of the being. Playing with these elements
has always been fundamental in childhood, in the words of Vygotsky, “Games are the
child's living school, they educate him physically and spiritually. Its importance is enormous
in forging the character and worldview of future man.” (Vygotsky, 1996). Play is an
intrinsic characteristic of human beings that is most evident in childhood as it becomes the
way to establish and interpret their relationship with the world.

Thanks to the imagination, the child can give countless meanings to the situations he
experiences and the objects he perceives: suddenly a simple box, seen by a child, can be
converted, using the imagination, into a spaceship or a TV. Vygotsky (1996) illustrates this
childhood characteristic in his work Imagination and Art in Childhood:

The child, who sees a train for the first time, dramatizes its representation, pretends
to be a locomotive, hits, whistles, trying to copy what he sees and experiences
enormous satisfaction in doing so. (…)Adopting with his body, as much as possible,
the position of the wheel, he tirelessly waved his arms with his hands bent like the
shovels attached to the wheel to remove the earth. Despite the fatigue that this
gymnastic exercise brought him, the child continued doing it throughout the walk
through the city and did not stop doing it at home and in the yard." In this example,
the child used his own body to mimic a perceived object. motivated by the
impression generated by the moving train. (p.86)
This imaginative capacity leads the child to create stories, to compose songs, to generate
movements that represent an object or a situation, it leads him to find a game at any time
and place. Huizinga (1938) defines play as

An action, a free occupation, which takes place within certain temporal and spatial
limits, according to absolutely obligatory, although freely accepted rules, an action
that has an end in itself and is accompanied by a feeling of tension and joy and the
awareness of - be otherwise - than in ordinary life. (p.45)

The “being otherwise” that Huizinga speaks of implies an imaginative process that is often
accompanied by playful resources; One of them is the costume or mask since they allow the
child's appearance to be modified and incorporate gestures, postures, voices, situations that
will make it easier for them to enter an alternate reality and generate a moment of play and
enjoyment.

artistic competitions

The competencies, as stated in document 16 on the pedagogical guidelines for the Artistic
area of the MEN (2010), are defined as: “the ability of the individual to respond with
different degrees of effectiveness to a problem in reality, putting into motion different
cognitive, non-cognitive and environmental resources. Competence involves the use of
conceptual, procedural and attitudinal knowledge. Likewise, it articulates innate capabilities
(such as acquiring a language) and acquired capabilities (such as knowledge).” (p. 24)

The MEN (2010), in its desire to seek the comprehensive development of its children and
young people, proposes that the Artistic Area from its objectives, as stated in document 16
of the Curricular Guidelines, aims at comprehensive training based on the development of
competencies. that from aesthetic appreciation, the sensitive, the communicative, they
develop articulated and comprehensive cognitive skills that enrich the communicative,
mathematical, scientific and coexistence processes that must be experienced at school.
Along these lines, in the Primary School, Art Education also seeks to strengthen the area's
own competencies such as sensitivity, aesthetic appreciation and communication,
emphasizing the processes of reception, creation and socialization, based on play and
progressively in linking the student to the practices of different artistic languages (MEN,
2010, p.85).

All these experiences will always be integrated and articulated to the other fields of
knowledge through that essential playful element that motivates the child to confront and
experiment within the different learning environments.

Aesthetic sensitivity

Sensitivity can be understood as man's ability to relate to the real world. It is an aptitude or
ability of the body that allows you to feel, enjoy, perceive, delight and above all,
contemplate the external world, touch it, listen to it and be amazed by it. This is one of the
competencies that the school must strengthen in all areas of knowledge, because learning
comes precisely through the senses, since they are the first ones that allow us to perceive,
transform and communicate with that real world that provides it with all kinds of stimuli.

Aesthetic sensitivity is defined by the MEN (2010) as “a competence that is based on a type
of human disposition evident in affecting oneself and others that involves a process
motivated by objects made by human beings in cultural and artistic production. ”. (p.26).

This sensitive experience involves both the information perceived with the senses and the
reaction it provokes in the body of the person who perceives it. The sensitivity competence
makes the child who is in front of the artistic production, value the cultural expressions of
his environment, awaken the senses, observe, transform, assimilate, categorize and
symbolize all those stimuli that he perceives, shape them in a creative and artistic to
sensations and perceptions.
This sensitive process proposed by the MEN is strengthened in the Didactic Mascaritas
proposal, because it favors perception through playing with the masks. Playful encounters
where the visual, tactile, olfactory experience and evocation activate the sensitive
experience, benefit the development of memory in all its areas, managing to positively affect
the subject who interacts with them; to the extent of generating reactions, evocations,
emotions and impressions that can allow the child to fantasize, criticize, and propose new
playful experiences that motivate meaningful learning. An evident learning not only from
the proposed area, but also from other areas, where artistic education becomes transversal,
since its experiences and competencies permeate the other processes, favor the discovery,
the construction and transformation of knowledge, the development of critical-reflective
thinking and the ability to live and interact with others proactively.

Perception, the product of that sensory interaction, where the senses are the protagonists that
lead the child in the first instance to capture shapes, colors, textures, smells, flavors,
movements, positions among others, allows him or her to then begin to define them, classify
them, represent them. , symbolize them and resolve and intervene situations in context, carry
out analysis through the data that has been initially perceived, create new proposals from
what was observed and relate them with elements of the various cultures and their artistic
manifestations. Within the sensitive and perceptive, memory and knowledge, they help us
remember smells and situations that may not be repeated again or may never be felt directly,
going to the past and the future at the same time.

When the child is born, he is totally perceptive; he presents difficulties in controlling

perceptions, due to ignorance of the stimuli that provoke him, a situation that improves with
the passage of time; because he has the ability to recognize his mother, discriminate light
from darkness, differentiate visual stimuli, follow the movement of various objects with his
eyes and recognize some colors.

Visual perception is an element of vital importance to identify, recognize, process and

interpret the information that comes through our eyes about everything that makes up the
surrounding world.
The performance indicators generated by the MEN (2010) that show progress in the
development of the aesthetic sensitivity competence are:

Aesthetic sensitivity .

- I enjoy interacting with the artistic works and exercises done in class.
- I discover the communicative possibilities that allow me to enrich my
expressive qualities and modify the nature of the technique in the search for
my own expression.
- I relate and explore expressive forms with emotional or anecdotal projections
of my own or those from my environment.
- I use awareness exercises as a way to analyze, understand and refine my
perception.

The communication:

Communication is one of the basic competencies of the artistic area that prepares the student
for perception, for the aesthetic appreciation of an artistic product with its characteristics, for
the gestural or verbal communication that the subject establishes with the observed object,
with the act. represented or with the music produced or sung. Communication also refers to
'doing', as proposed by the MEN (2010): bound communication that, in addition to carrying
a visually readable message, can be played with, as it contains a variety of masks with which
the child can cover his or her face, and represent different characters. This product has a
playful and educational character, which invites the child to play representation, creation
and socialization, issues that are so important in children's education.

The idea of making a book-object with masks arises from the 'care-book', a playful and fun
book. Illustrated by the Italian Colombo Mateo Rivano, it consists of 20 bound masks, and
includes a poster that is part of the story. The work, which upon opening reveals its playful
nature and which is a magnificent gift for adults and children, brings together friendly and
monstrous representations of beings from other worlds, captured on its pages through a wide
diversity of drawing and illustration techniques such as They are collage, ink, watercolor,
marker and paint. (silhouette editions)

The masks.

Behind the mask there is a vast history that runs through cultures and rituals and that
configures it as a symbolic element with great background. For Jonstone (1990):

A mask is a device for expelling the personality out of the body and allowing a spirit
to take possession of it. (…) In its original culture nothing had more power than the
mask. It was used as an oracle, judge, arbitrator. (..) In some cultures, the dead were
reincarnated in masks. (…) in our culture we do not know much about masks, partly
because the church considers them something pagan and tries to suppress them
whenever possible, but also because our culture is hostile to trance states. (p. 141-
142)

In this way, it is possible to glimpse the way in which the mask was conceived at some
point, which, like a costume, gives the subject who puts it on a determining characteristic in
his attitude and invites him to take actions related to the appearance. of the mask or the suit.
It is a way of understanding how the objects we use shape us, give us an identity or a way of
presenting ourselves to others.

Luján Marrazzi, A. (2009) in his article The evolution of masks and their social
contribution, explains how the meaning of masks for human beings has been configured
over time and finds how various tribes give this element a spiritual meaning in accordance
with the contributions from Jonstone who also mentions the mask as a sacred element:

The masks (…) became a fundamental element of two religious beliefs: animism and
totemism. That is to say, on the one hand they believed that everything around them
had a spirit, soul or anima. And the mask became a kind of animated fetish, through
which man could dominate spirits and exercise powerful magic. On the other hand,
some tribes adopted a totem, which was usually an animal, and worshiped it with
large masks to take care of them. The Egyptians also used masks for their religious
 celebrations. The best known example is the representation of the death and
resurrection of Osiris.

Later the mask became part of the theater, according to the text, the mask was conceived as
a “central element of Greek tragedy first and comedy later; These were made with vine
leaves with which the representatives of Dionisius covered their faces, to represent stories
from their own mythology: their myths” (Oliva, 2010). During the course of history, masks
were made from different materials and used for ceremonial purposes and stage
performances, just as in classical antiquity.

Currently, the mask has been associated with costumes and actors and used in carnivals and
other cultural ceremonies to such a degree that its production has also become more
technical, seeking to allow actors to get closer in their physical resemblance to the character
they are representing. Furthermore, this has become part of an actor's makeup and a prop
resource, which exercises in the actor the ability to transform into the character he wants to
imitate to such an extent that he forgets who he is and adopts the personality of the character
imposed in the mask. .

In children, the mask acquires a different connotation than in ancient Greece; it becomes a
playful tool that allows them to express their feelings more easily than if they had their face
uncovered. According to Cervera (2006):

Masks become an instrument of disinhibition, since many children are capable of doing
behind the mask what they do not dare to do with their faces uncovered, and according
to him, they are also:

• Motif of play and fantasy, due to the variety that the same actor can play by
changing masks, with it and without it.
• Solution to the difficulties offered by the representation of animals, monstrous
beings, misers, witches..., always difficult to characterize.
• Opportunity to exercise in plastics with the construction of masks. The
interdisciplinary nature of dramatization and theater is thus highlighted.
• Resource to eliminate personal characteristics of the actors who, thanks to the
 masks, can appear forming uniform choruses or impersonal groups.
• Transforming element of the actor. Thanks to the mask, a male role can be
played more easily by a girl and vice versa.

The fundamental thing about all the above expressed by Cervera is that the mask is a playful
instrument that will always enable play, imagination and creativity in the classroom, because
it allows the child to transform and characterize the character they want, hiding behind The
mask also gives it that air of mystery and play, explicit in the incipient signs of play, which
can be evident in the child from his first months of life and throughout his childhood; which
makes it easier to enter the classroom and classes because it is a well-known and easy-to-
manipulate object.

The mask as a recreational educational resource.

In role-playing, in dramatization, in school events where the personification of a character is

present, the mask plays a great role because it can assume a character, introject it and
appropriate gestures, attitudes and behaviors typical of the object it represents. . It also
allows, through the representation and management of bodily expression, to promote the
development of the ability to appreciate and use language in all its manifestations, as a
means for the student to express himself in an artistic and aesthetic way or simply to act and
represents experiences lived in everyday life.

Dramatization and/or representation in the classroom with the mask also allows
collaborative work and communication that does not necessarily, as has been said in other
sections of this theoretical framework, require words to communicate a situation.
Drama is essentially interaction, language is not only a functional instrument, but
also a form of social behavior and in drama the student develops his communication
skills within a broader framework, getting closer to the communicative situations
that occur. out of the classroom. (Barroso and Fontecha)

In this way, promoting the representation of characters through masks entails the exercise of
teamwork, the game as a tool to help meet others, assertive communication, cooperation,
autonomy, rapid integration into the environment. group, the loss of fear of playing a role or
acting in public. All of this provokes and invites the child to motivate and encourage the
cognitive and logical work that takes place in the classroom.

There are other works where the mask is highlighted as an object of disinhibition and as an
element that could contribute to the construction of the being, since it allows the game with
different characters, defined by the traits and personality stereotypes that the mask contains.
This game, in addition to giving the possibility of generating various characters with defined
characteristics, promotes the creation of fictional stories and creative interaction with others
and with objects.

Matoso (1993) in her experience as a professional in the field of psychology has used masks
as a therapeutic tool, according to her “in the process of building the mask there are
significant stages that are linked to the construction-deconstruction of one's own image.”
(p.73) thus defining a direct relationship between the masks we put on or construct and self-
image. Matoso (1993) adds that the potential of masks is in their very flow, in the possibility
of connecting with a masked area (...) in that 'coming to life' the mask vivifies relegated,
weak or dead areas. This produces a resizing of the established body balance. The body
acquires power, strength, joy, faces and aspects that it did not have. (p. 73)

Matoso's work is enriching for the Mascaritas Didacticas project because it gives a new
dimension to the use of masks in the classroom; The mask as an element that favors
communication can become that product that expresses the tensions, the feelings, the goals
of the human being who uses it and who can suddenly face everything that is inside to
transform it or enhance it. The mask also “can be considered a particular means of
transportation with which one can (..) retrace an arduously traveled path, to begin another.”
(Matoso, 1993, p.74) The student will be able to dare to encounter 'the other' that is within
himself and try different voices, gestures, postures and movements, in order to express his
intentions, his history and their perception of reality.
The book-mask as an enabler of multiple image readings.

We live in a culture of images. The eyes are the ones who take the lead over the other senses
to move us through the world. The image has the power to influence the psychology of the
human being, leading him to make decisions in different areas of his life because the image
moves, evokes, provokes, confuses, guides, persuades, dissuades, impacts, teaches,
communicates.

The image, like the word, affects and configures man as an individual and society, since it
becomes a means of communication, used since the emergence of man, as stated by Maria
Carla Prette and Alfonso De Giorgis in their text Understanding the art and understanding
its language:

“Man began to use images to communicate with his fellow men since prehistoric
times, when he did not yet know writing. （ … ） In any case, they had a meaning,
they contained a store of thoughts, feelings and perceptions. Some of those images
have reached us and, in the distance of time, they allow us to know the sensitivity of
the person who made them; Sometimes they help us understand the way of thinking
and feeling at a time. （ … ） The language of the images is direct, rich and
powerful. As with all languages, it is necessary, however, to learn to know it,
otherwise, the image remains <<mute>> and communication is not carried out.” (P.
5）

That is why the school has used the image for didactic purposes. An example is the use of
images in teaching reading and writing, by associating words with the pictures that represent
them. It is also used to illustrate in a simple way all the processes and logics of nature,
because understanding is achieved when we manage to create mental images of things and
events. Hernando Sánchez Zuluaga in his text image a look to be constructed defines the
image as:

“argument from authority, evidence and demonstration. The image means presence,
support in sight, it tells a story, it advances in chronological orders, linear or not, it
 presents events in which action and movement become narration. The image by
default describes and does so in the closest way to reality, showing it, putting it in
the eyes of a viewer.” (Page 54)

The introduction of teaching resources to the classroom that promote the reading of images
generate positive results in the activation of different devices for learning, that is, they are
used for memorization, to capture the student's attention, to influence their motivation and
awaken their curiosity. Héctor Gerardo Sánchez Bedoya, master in educational
communication, argues in one of his articles that

“The appropriate use of the image produces messages that are easy to remember in
students compared to those that are transmitted verbally: photography, cinema,
television and the computer, among others, use the image as a means to transmit
messages, which applied under Appropriate pedagogical strategies in the classroom
enable teaching and learning in a more pleasant and meaningful way; Consequently,
the thought of the Italian semiologist Umberto Eco (1968) is valid when he proposes
that the image has become the means to conduct the education of people.”