Bachelor of Arts

Fairy tales have long been part of people's lives before they made their way to children's nurseries as storybooks. From oral folk tales to illustrated books. they have provided entertainment and fantasy to listeners and readers. This paper studies and analyses images from fairy tales: vital components many children have been raised with. It also uncovers the extent of influence they have on Singapore children's drawings of prevalent fairy tale motifs.

The analyses of the images are supported by parallel arguments based on literary criticism of plot origins. stylistics and characterisation and are applied across the variety of images shown. I have, in a previous study, based these principles for analysis and also applied their relevance to consumer advertising. Although the later half of this study focuses on children's interpretations and drawings, the earlier analysis is simultaneously discussed with the findings in Chapter 4 to provide a coherent and holistic argument that fairy tale images carry with and within them several meanings and interpretations from children's visual expressions. Inherently, this provides insights to a child's aesthetic experiences: how and what they are influenced by, especially notions of character polarity, gender- biased passivity and rivalry.

As the majority of fairy tales in the English language are imports from the West, cultural implications cannot be ignored, in both visual and literary aspects. In interviews with the twelve subjects, I will uncover dominant cultural influences and relevance from their visual and spoken responses. In an age of increased information technologies, influences and exposure can also stem from other sources; this is also acknowledged and discussed.

Both analyses of images in Chapter 2 and the findings in Chapter 4 are then concluded in Chapter 5 where I will discuss implications of existing trends and suggest recommendations and alternatives.

Design education in Singapore is presently suffering from a lack of attention. In spite of the Ministry's new curriculum recommendations, the situation in schools reflects that design is still widely under recognised as a powerful pedagogical instrument for the cognitive development of students. Teachers are generally poorly trained and guided, and time allocation to the subject is minimal. This paper will search in history to look for strong guidelines as to the pedagogical potential of design. It will focus on the educational model of the Bauhaus, and will attempt to adapt some of its components to the specific situation of the Singapore schools. It will also provide an example of what could become a teachers' guide for the teaching of design at the Lower Secondary level in Singapore.

Students often attempt to excel academically in art at the expense of learning. They approach learning in a superficial or "shallow" manner which does not result in meaningful learning. There exists a pressing need for in-depth learning or "deep learning" in art. With deep learning, students would learn more by emphasizing the process of making art rather than being preoccupied with the end-product. Deep learning aids in the growth and development of students by means of intrinsic motivation, inducing in learners the ''want" to learn. Eisner supports this by saying that one of the most important contributions that schools can make to a person's development is "the disposition to continue to learn throughout life" (Eisner, 2002).

If art wants to continue to have a role in education through the 2ld century then it has to engage with learners and their approach towards learning in art. In Singapore, there are no known researches conducted on art learning among primary school students. This lack of research m l d account for the declining interest in art learning among students. Notably, these students are fresh graduates from primary school entering secondary school. These students form apathetic attitudes towards art that gradually wanes into dislike and ignorance. Students' profound misunderstandings about art lead them to be extrinsically motivated in their approach towards learning art.

The intention of this study is to review the learning of art among primary school students in Singapore. It will consider the unique context of Singapore's education system and introduce and analyse some important concepts and ideas from art education and educational psychology. This study will be supplemented by quantitative and qualitative research on art learners in primary school. The research seeks to uncover learners' art experiences in school, learners' concept of artistic learning, the learning they have acquired and their types of interest in art. With the analysis, this study makes known the ways in which learning is acquired by primary school students and the issues and implications for art learning in Singapore. The objective is to construct a framework which would help stimulate and support artistic learning by means of deep learning among primary school students in Singapore.

As art educators, we all have our own preconceptions about art. But if we are not willing to change them, we cannot expect art education to improve. This study aims to examine how Singapore art teachers can create a nurturing environment in the art classroom. This is done so by understanding how they view the meaning of art, and the nature of their art teaching. In aid of this primarily qualitative study, a survey was conducted, with the intention of gaining an overview of its findings. Given the limited timeframe within which this research was carried out, the findings are derived from survey responses of only ten secondary school art teachers, each of whom were randomly selected from different local public schools.

Results suggest that the teachers tend to rely heavily on studio-centred art instruction. Results also indicate that the teachers view art more in the personal context than in a broader context where art is seen in relation to the self and to others as well. This can be seen to correlate with the need for them to adopt a more individualised approach to their art teaching.

This study results from an interest to inquire as to whether Singapore students enjoy their local art lessons. It also seeks to find out about the students' conceptions of the visual arts. Hence an investigation of Lower Secondary students' views towards art and art lessons in Singapore was conducted through a comparative study of three specific programmes in three Singapore schools. The three programmes are namely,

1) The General Art Programme (GAP)
2) The Gifted Education Programme (GEP)
3) The Art Elective Programme IAEP)

The findings revealed that the majority of the three programmes that were surveyed had a sound and wide understanding of art and its significance. Most of them also had a positive regard for art due to personal interests and the teacher's direct influence. The results showed that the teacher's role as a receptive guide is crucial in motivating the students' art making experience. This affirms the teacher's role of being a direct and powerful influence in motivating all kinds of learners.

As perceptions and attitudes of people change over time, the findings reflect the current views (2002) and attitudes of Lower Secondary students' perceptions amongst the GAP, AEP and GEP since the implementation of the new art syllabus in schools. This comparative study also reflected the different effectiveness and successes of each programme. It also affirms the importance of the learner centred and constructivist theories in understanding the learners' disposition and in building a conducive teaching and learning environment in an art classroom.

This paper is about the influence of the Pioneer artists (focussing particularly on Liu Kang) and the Nanyang Style on the development of art and art education in Singapore. In light of this, various issues including who the Pioneer artists are and what is Nanyang Style will be discussed in the course of the paper. Special attention will be focussed on Liu Kang's influence and contribution to the development of art and art education in Singapore. Following that there will be a discussion on Liu Kang's views on the art and art education in Singapore today.

The objectives of this paper are three-fold. Firstly, the aim of this paper is to find out how and to what extent Liu Kang influenced the art and art education in Singapore. Secondly, the purpose of the paper, particularly Chapter 5, is to highlight the urgent need to address some important issues related to art and art education in Singapore. Finally, the paper serves as a catalyst for further research in the area of art and art education in Singapore. This could include the study of the other Pioneer artists who have been the key players in establishing the art and art education in Singapore. The research may be extended to include the study of the role of the Second Generation artists and the present generation artists in the art and art education in Singapore.

The making of good art lessons consists of many factors. Eisner (2002, pg. 46) mentions that 'Two of the most important factors affecting students' experiences in the classroom are the quality of teaching they encounter and the quality of the curriculum provided." Although there is no doubt that the curriculum or the syllabus plays an important role in determining the quality of the learning, inevitably, it is the actual lesson execution which is crucial. For it is the teacher who "sets the stage by providing the proper mood and by controlling the conditions under which the art experience takes place", having absolute control over the learning environment (Johnson, 1965, pg. 68). This is also reinforced by Matthews,

"Yet however much government hacks tinker around with the curriculum, to make it sound more up-to-date, such definitions can only be provisional and are not central to education. What is more important is that caregivers and teachers learn what are the experiences within the supposed discipline or subject area (be it 'art' or anything else); in terms of experiences and processes, which actually promote development" (2003, pg. 36).

This research aims to obtain insight into the teaching of art, investigating the kind and quality of classroom talk in the teaching of art, as talk is a tool that all teachers would have to use in the classroom, regardless of styles of learning. Through analysis of transcripts of art lessons, I will analyse different types of classroom talk and discuss their educational implications with regards to primary school children's art development. It is hoped that this research will contribute towards improving the quality of teaching of art, by enhancing understandings about the depth and quality of learning.

An emergent awareness of the failure of transmission models of education has been accompanied by a surge of interest in new advances made about the nature of intelligence and its development. With a heightened awareness that education has to involve more than merely the acquisition of information, the government initiated directives that school culture and learning environment should drive at promoting creativity, innovation, independent thinking and life-long learning (MOE, 2000). And so, pressured by such directives, a new art syllabus was implemented, in which the number of prescribed themes were reduced and a 'developmental approach to the teaching of art was advocated' (Ang, 2003).

This study suggests however, that the 'developmental' approach adopted in lower secondary art education in secondary schools in the context of Singapore, is not always an authentic one. Where many aspects of the Singapore art curriculum are task-based and skills oriented, an authentic developmental approach is not simply concerned with formal qualities, rather with the representational, creative and expressive logics of art practice which underpin these formal structures. By surveying what several psychologists and intellectuals have discovered about the principles that govern human development and the cultivation of creativity, in particular, studies that suggest principles at work in the development of both artistic, cognitive and emotional domains in children, this essay argues that the key underlying principles of traditional early childhood education - individualism, free play, 'developmentalism', and the child-centred curriculum - are absent in the traditional subject-centred and teacher-directed approaches of secondary art education in Singapore. While realising an authentic developmental curriculum may prove to be an arduous task and may not in itself dictate the optimal course for art education, an understanding of its theories and an examination of practices can direct us towards one.

The concept of a Renaissance City is not a new one. The idea of transforming Singapore into a regional arts centre was conceived almost 20 years ago. However, there were not many initiatives to push the arts into the lives of Singaporeans. Until the completion of the Esplanade this year, and all its publicity and grandeur, together with the influx of foreign artists into Singapore to perform, the general public are now able to appreciate the arts in a whole new way. But the concept of becoming a Renaissance City in Singapore might still be foreign to many. Though the government is eager to pour more funding into the arts, many Singaporeans are still having the art-for- entertainment-only mentality. This could have been the result of Singapore's educational system, which had programmed its citizens with a mindset that is technically biased.

This academic exercise investigates whether Singapore is ready to be a Renaissance City, not only whether Singapore has the infrastructure to be one, but whether Singaporeans are ready or receptive towards becoming a Renaissance City and whether or not Singaporeans even know that the country is striving towards becoming a regional arts centre. It will also discuss how the educational system in Singapore might contribute to the building and development of the City itself and how this very educational system might have implanted certain mindsets that might have been unfavourable to the concept.

Science has long been used in art and so, this study takes an inquiring stand as to whether science process skills can be applied to the teaching and learning of art. From this standpoint, the study has proven that science process skills can be applied to teaching art at the primary level and students can learn art theory and art history by applying this method. It also hopes that such a study can stimulate more research in the interdisciplinary studies and provide avenues for new and creative teaching methods in the teaching and learning of art.

Sculpture in Singapore has always been perceived as playing a secondary role to painting. This academic exercise will investigate this situation in the context of the secondary art teachers' perceptions of contemporary sculpture in Singapore.

The study will focus on several aspects of sculpture in the local context, such as the development of sculpture and its practices, the teachers' breadth of knowledge on local sculptors and their work, their teaching practices and the constraints faced in teaching sculpture. It will discuss also their awareness of the changes that have taken place in the contemporary art scene. My research revealed that within the constraints of time and space, teachers seemed to focus more on the materials and technical approach, which leads to a neglect of the importance of meaning and ideas in art making. Furthermore, this lack of awareness on the part of the teachers resulted in students being under exposed to three-dimensional artworks. With the government's greater recognition and support for the arts, there is a need for attention to be focused on educating our future arts audience on the ways and means to appreciate art, in particular sculpture. Only then, the public's level of appreciation in sculpture will be raised, and eventually the interest and understanding with regard to three-dimensional works will grow.

There is a lack of research in Singapore about art education. This Academic Exercise is a research study, which inquires into students' perceptions about art and their art lessons. The intention is to illuminate some aspects of art education in Singapore in order to aid its improvement. The study traces the development of art education within the larger educational context of Singapore and discusses the recent implementation of the new art syllabuses which signal promising changes. This sets the platform for the investigation of how students perceive art and art education today.

To collate students' opinion, a survey was administered to 356 lower-secondary students in a local neighbourhood school. The school was chosen because it adopted the new art syllabus in its art programmes. The findings revealed that nearly half the students were disinterested and dissatisfied with their current art lessons and thought that art, as a subject, was unimportant. However, many of them were able to give clear explanations of what they thought art was. This disparity was analysed and it was discovered that a major factor contributing to students' disaffection with art and art lessons, was their teachers' methods and attitudes. The findings suggested ways in which art education might be improved by encouraging teachers to become not only more knowledgeable about art, but also to adopt a learner-centred approach to teaching.

Teachers' perceptions of art education have powerful influences on the decisions of practice. However, little such research has been conducted in Singapore. Hence, this study intends to provide some perspective on primary school teachers' perceptions of art education and issues of art teaching. Due to time constraints, the study was conducted in one Singapore primary school. This investigation was guided by a research specialisation termed phenomenography.

The results revealed that respondents perceived developing self-expression, creativity and aesthetic appreciation as the value of art education. Such information, as one part of a larger mosaic, has relevance to the current reassessment of educational priorities in the light of Singapore's transition to a knowledge-based economy and the government's greater recognition and support for the arts. It has important implications for improving primary teachers' professional practice in art, and is potentially useful. both to the revision of the primary art curriculum and in facilitating the planning of appropriate programmes to prepare teachers for the curriculum changes.

Traditional theories on children's development in art describe development in terms of a progression through universal sequential stages. For an example, an oversimplified interaction of Piaget's early theory has tended to create the impression that development is an orderly, stage-like progression from primitive early stages to increasingly superior ones as the child matures. Piaget's idea is that 'the child's mental life marches forward in one direction toward greater logical heights. The march is composed of qualitatively distinct and invariantly ordered stages' [Thelen and Smith, 1998, p. 211. The assumption being that growth is a linear, unfolding process that naturally moves towards a predetermined goal.

Moreover, in its most diluted form, this predictable stage-like model is assumed to be universal; that is to say, development is assumed to move through the same sequences of stages to arrive at the same endpoint, regardless of the society in which one is brought up [Duncum, 1999; Lowenfeld and Brittain, 1987; Piaget and Inhelder, 1969].

Such traditional theories' concern has been with the common, in other words the universal, characteristics in children drawings. For this reason the theories seem inherently inappropriate for distinguishing among children's unique abilities, except most broadly in terms of their overall stage of development. Hence, I do not believe that children's development can be measured in such a systematic and predetermined way and I doubt the paradigm of a universal stage theory that assumes that children go through the same sequence of development thus arriving at a same endpoint - producing similar works . This so-called similar endpoint has raised questions on the measurement of creativity and individuality in children's development among recent theorists [Atkinson, 2002; Brent Wilson, 1985; 1997; Matthews, 2003, in press].

In fact, though based on patterns, I believe children's development is a dynamic process, constantly in a state of flux according to a multiplicity of conditions available at any given moment. Other writers too have also noticed this l i e Atkinson [2002], Barnes [2002], Wilson [2000], Matthews [1999], Kindler [1970], Horovitz, Lewis and Luca [l9731 and Horovitz [1976]. However earlier theorists failed to account for this individuality in children's art development. Hence, through this paper, I am proposing that it is totally unrealistic to categorise children's development with Piaget's universal 'stage' theory. As I feel it is impractical to look at the similarities in children's pictorial representation into drawing conclusions that children go through the same sequences of development thus arriving at a similar endpoint. I hope to provide evidence that each child's journey through development, though passing through a sequence which has universal characteristics, is nevertheless a unique journey. I will then move on to talk about the implications of my findings to art education, in order to assist teachers and caregivers to understand and motivate children's individual development in art.