As the change of season springs upon the northern hemisphere and falls upon the south, a flurry of transitions arrives. As referenced in David Bowie's seminal 1972 single “Changes” in our title, we have an opportunity to celebrate and “turn and face the strange.” Enter the last cohorts for the outgoing syllabus (last exams 2026) and the anticipation for the new Guide (first exams 2027) for the upcoming school year. Indeed, something is shifting afoot! 

While the upcoming changes in IB Visual Arts may unsettle and disrupt how, what, and when we guide our students through various ideas, concepts, techniques, and explorations, I (Shannon here!) feel myself waking up to the new Guide with my younger students in mind. While I know the days to prepare my current Grade 10 students for the next school year are numbered, I am already itching to pre-teach and weave relevant concepts into the weeks we have yet to share.

Whether or not you currently teach students in their final year of MYP, the second year of IGCSE, or another curriculum, this itch to activate knowledge of the new syllabus may be familiar! The burning question: What seeds can you plant NOW to explore and embed relevant ideas before you say goodbye to your pre-IB students? Here are a few ideas that could be workshopped with your Grade 10 or younger classes while you wrap your mind around everything in store with the new Guide.

Classroom as a Studio:

The new curriculum references the work of Heltand, Winner, Veenema, and Sheridan of the Studio Thinking Project (2013), focusing on their “Studio Structures”. From demonstrating art-making practices to engaging students in making work, from introducing opportunities for peer feedback and critiques to researching ideas from books, websites, and in-person gallery visits, and from sharing and exhibiting artwork with others, students can holistically engage in art-making practices in the ways inherent to practising artists. Which studio practices are familiar or embedded in your classrooms? Regardless if you’d like to recharge current approaches or want to explore new strategies/methodologies, here are some “Classroom as Studio” resources we’ve gathered relevant for all age levels:

• Studio Structures PDF: https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/studio_structures.pdf
• Eight Habits of Mind: https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/eight_habits_of_mind%20.pdf 

Inquiry Questions

The new Visual Arts curriculum follows an inquiry-based approach, with inquiry at the heart of the student experience. While, in principle, this underpins all of the IB Curriculum, the development of curiosity and the pursuit of asking questions is at the forefront of the task “Art-making Inquiries Portfolio.” As a part of this component, students will need to learn how to ask questions or generate statements to frame their artistic process, from developing new ideas to researching artists and from experimentation to critical reflection. If learning to ask questions is not yet part of your approach to teaching for lower grades, now is a good time to test this out! Here are a couple of ideas: 

1. Low-key Activity: An inquiry question from a predetermined list could guide a 2-3 day, open-ended visual journaling activity
2. Embed it: Spend a lesson with students generating possible inquiry questions at the start of a new artwork. Organise students into collaborative groups to start spinning ideas and conduct a class discussion to select a handful of relevant questions that students could respond to. At the end of the unit, reflect with students on their inquiry question selection and how it manifested in their work.

Relevant resources on our site:

Note on Seeds: As we tweak our Seed Bank collection to fit the goals of the new curriculum, you’ll see “Inquiry Questions” embedded at the bottom of each page. Above is a recent example of how we're pivoting.

Creative Strategies

As students investigate their questions and curiosities through inquiry, creative strategies offer practical and transformative ways to think through new ideas, organize their thoughts, and generate new possibilities. In other words, creative strategies are the vehicle for transforming inquiry into practice. You probably already utilize provocations in your classroom to set student thinking afire, some of which might be well-known and others that you’ve invented to meet the needs of or inspire your students. This is a good moment to take stock and reflect: what creative strategies do you embed to help students stimulate new ideas, get unstuck, or rework their ideas? Which of these could you scaffold to support your pre-IB students? What might these strategies look like when adapted for future IB students? 

Some favourites from our site to explore are…

Other provocations or creative strategies include:

• The Carry Over Method (from the Unstandardized Standard)
• Chance Operations (5 activities from MOMA)
• Unconventional materials (5 starting points from RevArt)
• A list of creative art strategies (from Art as Inquiry)

What now?

Give yourself time to adapt to the new curriculum and test one, two, or three of the above ideas. You don’t need to change your entire curriculum yet! Explore a new creative strategy with some 13-year-olds or engage Grade 9 students in a Sticky-Note Critique. Take note of what you’re already doing to introduce inquiry or innovative thinking or to emulate studio habits, and then pay a little bit more attention. What can you refine now or carry over into next year?

^References

^{Bowie, David. Changes. RCA, 1972. Retrieved from: https://lyrics.lyricfind.com/lyrics/david-bowie-changes. Transcript of lyrics.}

^{Escher, M.C. 1939-1940. Metamorphosis II (excerpt 3). Woodcut. Escher in Het Palais, Netherlands. Retrieved from: https://www.escherinhetpaleis.nl/story-of-escher/metamorphosis-i-ii-iii/?lang=en}