Approaches to Teaching

“Making and teaching art is a varied, complex and evolving practice.”1

In this section, we look at ways to approach teaching art to young people, and the philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of art education. The Approaches to Teaching pages are especially helpful to new teachers, but are interesting and relevant for anyone involved in the fine art of teaching art. 

We explore the kind of thinking and practical solutions that support a vital and dynamic teaching environment: the challenges of teaching students with a range of abilities and experience, managing the studio classroom, critiques and dialogues, art trips and activities.

Visual Arts Teachers are Innovators 

Unlike other areas of the curriculum, where content is often prescribed by the curriculum, visual arts teaching requires a greater degree of flexibility and spontaneity to allow for intuitive processes to take place. IB art teachers may refer to a structured lesson plan or unit to scaffold their teaching in year 1, but remain open to the unexpected connections that arise, the discovery of an artist, the delight of a surprise result, a re-purposing of a technique, an exhibition visit opportunity, and reshape their lessons to accommodate. 

As IB art teachers we most often engage in personalized teaching: we work with individuals rather than the group as a whole, especially as students begin to develop personal direction and their own visual language in year 2. There is no one-size -fits-all solution to studio teaching: In a typical studio classroom, students will all be working on different projects, using different art materials, solving different kinds of problems, exploring different artists.

 Sound like chaos? No! This is dynamic, productive, evolving studio learning. 

Explore relevant topics 

• Demonstrating techniques and tools in workshop sessions
• Setting up a studio classroom
• Critiques and Dialogues
• Visiting Artists, in school and out
• Exhibition Visits with students