St Lucia will introduce a new Visual Arts curriculum in 2019 for Grades K – 9 to capture new understandings in art education and in response to research which found that students at the lower secondary school level had received minimal exposure to the subject in their first six grades.
The syllabus was developed after studying art curricula from various countries, including the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and others. Its approach draws on ‘Studio Habits of Mind’ advocated by Harvard University Project Zero which examines art education in terms of the development of learners’ artistic dispositions. The syllabus considers the development of 21st Century skills through its approaches to art education.
The Implementation process has involved: distributing copies of the syllabus to selected pilot schools classes/ teachers for comments/feedback and revising and reformatting the syllabus based on feedback; distributing the syllabus for grades 7-9 to all secondary school teachers for a more standardized approach to teaching the visual arts at lower secondary level; Training teachers to equip them with skills, knowledge and ideas for teaching and assessing the new program. Next steps will involve monitoring and evaluation the delivery of art education as well as work to support the development of creativity, innovation, problem solving skills and entrepreneurship and as a tool to create more expressive students and drawing on the therapeutic values of art in the management of behaviors and emotions.
TVET Unit
Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations
St Lucia
