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The Challenges Students Face With Having Physical Disabilities in The Art Classroom
This essay explores the literature surrounding the Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Additional Educational Needs (AEN) that students with physical disabilities experience in the art classroom. It begin by looking at the context and history surrounding SEN and Physical disabilities within the Irish educational system, exploring key concepts like inclusion and differentiation. It then focus its attention in particular, on the space of the art room and how the environment has been seen as a difficult learning environment due to its vast physicality and lack of differentiated resources for SEN /AEN. As art in Secondary schools is a highly practical subject, materials and tools is another factor that students with physical difficulties may face. It looks at the many changes and accommodations the Irish educational system has made to overcome these physical difficulties students face when trying to work with art/craft materials and tools. Lastly, this essay investigates the crucial strategies and planning needed when accommodating students with physical disabilities, making their schooling experience as inclusive as possible. There are many educational initiatives and schemes that consider strategic planning and alternative methodologies, which in turn, helps teachers to educationally cater to the students individual physical needs. This is a significant part in the development of students with physical disabilities and helps students to achieve a fulfillful education in art, just in an alternative way.
Curriculum and Assessment surrounding
Art Education in Ireland
This paper explores the Curriculum and Assessment surrounding Art Education in Ireland, and discusses the fundamental values and objectives of an Art teacher in today's world. First there is an insight into my own core principles and criteria of teaching Art and assessing students work. I discuss my own personal experiences of good and bad practices of assessment and elaborate on why I use different methods of formative assessment when teaching my students at both Junior cycle and Senior Cycle Art . It then delves deeper into what ways these assessment practices and methods are in conformity with the impact of the Arts within education, and discuss its place in the curriculum. It will look at the significance of the Arts to children, and what it means to their development as a young person navigating life. Lastly, it examines the challenges and issues regarding assessment practices that an Art teacher may encounter. The new Junior Cert Curriculum has been a huge learning curve for Art teachers across Ireland and the new Classroom Based Assessment (CBA) notebooks have highlighted issues when correcting students' work.
