Abstract:

The sudden disruption of regular classes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to Emergency Remote Teaching in Higher Education brought into focus the challenges and the opportunities to offer high-quality educational experiences (e.g., Azorìn, 2020). The pandemic experience facilitated the imagination of new possibilities to develop meaningful experiences for learners, even in the arts that are traditionally considered too experimental and hands-on to be offered online. Arts subjects are considered the most important ones in difficult times for empowering children to overcome emotionally difficult situations, build children’s resilience, enhance understanding of others, and encourage engagement and participation, leading to the development of sustainable societies (Väkevä, Westerlund & Ilmola-Sheppard, 2017). Therefore, there is a need for digital transformation in Higher Education Institutions in the arts courses that are addressed to in-service and pre-service educators through digital modes of learning, and the integration of various new and emergent technologies.

This presentation focuses on a European-funded project titled “Critical ARts Education for Sustainable Societies” (CARE/SS). The project is situated within the growing demands of supporting the development of key competencies in arts education to ensure quality teaching and open access to quality arts education training through online and blended courses. It aims to offer useful guidance into how education systems across Europe can improve to provide educators and young Europeans with the skills required for our future societies to coexist in peace and respect. The presentation focuses on the first work package of CARE/SS, which proposes a transformative pedagogical framework for online and blended learning for arts education and contemporary developments in the arts that are characterised by the experiential/ practical component of these fields and the creative production of messages that are socially negotiated and culturally formed. The proposed framework is based on Laurillard’s Conversational Framework (2013) and proposes modifications to address the needs of the Arts Education fields. The framework was selected for various reasons. Firstly, it is considered student oriented since it has been developed to guide and explore the best way to support the learners’ needs and learning, and gives great emphasis on feedback. Additionally, it provides the grounds to develop a learning environment that encourages student participation and engagement that leads to student-student interaction and students-instructor interaction, taking into consideration technology integration and the absence of constant face-to-face teaching and learning.

References:
[1] Azorìn, C. (2020). Beyond COVID-19 supernova. Is another education coming? Journal of Professional Capital and Community. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-05-2020-0019
[2] Laurillard, D. (2013). Rethinking university teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies Routledge. New York.
[3] Väkevä, L., Westerlund, H., & Ilmola-Sheppard, L. (2017). Social Innovations in Music Education: Creating Institutional Resilience for Increasing Social Justice. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 16(3).

Keywords:

Online learning, blended learning, arts education, teachers, preservice teachers.