Unit rationale, description and aim
Preservice teachers will develop the specialist pedagogical knowledge and professional judgement required to teach Visual Arts effectively across Years 7–10. Visual Arts is a curriculum area that supports students’ creative, critical and cultural understanding through structured practices including making and responding. This unit responds to contemporary curriculum and professional expectations by foregrounding pedagogical content knowledge, inclusive practice and ethical decision-making, including the responsible and professional use of generative artificial intelligence in Visual Arts education.
The unit supports preservice teachers to interpret the structure and intent of the Australian Curriculum for Visual Arts and relevant local curriculum documentation, with particular attention to cross-curriculum priorities, general capabilities, and literacy and numeracy demands. Preservice teachers will critically examine evidence-informed pedagogical approaches for junior secondary Visual Arts, including explicit instruction, studio and inquiry-based pedagogies, visual analysis and critique, culturally responsive practice, and assessment for learning. Assessment, feedback and monitoring practices are examined as integral components of purposeful planning and responsive instruction in Years 7–10 classrooms.
The aim of this unit is to enable preservice teachers to design coherent, curriculum-aligned Visual Arts units and teaching resources that integrate making and responding, support diverse learners, and demonstrate professional responsibility and practice.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from 糖心原创 with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Describe the structure, intent and key features of...
Learning Outcome 01
Apply evidence-informed approaches to teaching and...
Learning Outcome 02
Analyse artworks and texts, pedagogical models and...
Learning Outcome 03
Design coherent unit sequences in Visual Arts that...
Learning Outcome 04
Evaluate assessment strategies and feedback practi...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
Topics will include:
- Reflecting on prior experiences of teaching and learning in Years 7-10 Visual Arts
- Australian Curriculum for Visual Arts, including Cross Curriculum Priorities, General Capabilities and local curriculum documentation
- Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) for Visual Arts, including making and responding pedagogical frameworks and the role of studio- and inquiry-based learning, visual literacy, visual thinking strategies and culturally responsive pedagogy
- Designing units of work and related summative assessments for Visual Arts
- Teaching strategies and approaches for Years 7–10 Visual Arts, including learning through making, artist models and exemplars, explicit instruction of skills and techniques, visual analysis and critique, and reflection
- Strategies for monitoring and differentiating student learning in Visual Arts, including observations, process documentation, feedback and conferencing
- Classroom verbal and non-verbal communication for Visual Arts, including the Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) model, descriptive questioning, scaffolding, visual thinking strategies, thick-aloud modelling, metacognitive reflection and guided critique
- Ethical and professional resource selection and development for Visual Arts, including the use of generative AI in making and responding and implications for how audiences interpret artworks and engage with digitally mediated visual culture
- Roles and professional responsibilities of a contemporary teacher of Visual Arts, including student safety and wellbeing in physical and digital environments, including generative AI in contemporary Visual Arts practice and making, including questions of authorship, originality, copyright, visual culture, and ethical image production
Assessment strategy and rationale
Assessment in this unit is designed to be authentic, developmental and aligned with the unit learning outcomes, enabling preservice teachers to demonstrate their capacity to plan, justify and evaluate professional practice in Years 7–10 Visual Arts contexts. It reflects the core professional work of Visual Arts teachers, including curriculum interpretation, unit planning, assessment design and resource development. This is grounded in a hurdle task that considers personal learning and development across the Visual Arts curriculum. Both tasks emphasise reflective practice, assessment literacy and ethical engagement with digital technologies, including generative artificial intelligence.
Task 1 requires preservice teachers to design a coherent Visual Arts unit of work aligned with curriculum requirements and a clearly articulated summative assessment. This task assesses preservice teachers’ ability to apply pedagogical content knowledge, explicit instruction, differentiation and inclusive practices, and to justify curriculum, pedagogical and assessment decisions using relevant scholarly and policy evidence. Task 2 requires preservice teachers to develop and critically analyse a folio of teaching resources, demonstrating integration of making and responding, inclusive practice, ethical resource selection and curriculum alignment.
To pass this unit, students need to complete the hurdle task, both graded assessment tasks and achieve a combined result of 50% overall.
Overview of assessments
Hurdle Task: In Class Students will complete a k...
Hurdle Task: In Class
Students will complete a knowledge and skills audit based on their jurisdictional documentation to identify personal strengths and five (5) areas for development in teaching junior secondary Visual Arts.
Pass/Fail
Assessment Task 1: Planning a Unit of Work Stude...
Assessment Task 1: Planning a Unit of Work
Students will design a coherent Year 7–10 Visual Arts unit of work that aligns with curriculum requirements and leads to a selected summative assessment task. Apply evidence of informed approaches to
1)?develop?Visual Arts content and skills,?
(2)?incorporate explicit instruction,?differentiation?and inclusive practices, and?
(3)?justify curriculum, pedagogical and assessment decisions using relevant scholarly and policy evidence.
50%
Assessment Task 2: Worked Examples Folio Student...
Assessment Task 2: Worked Examples Folio
Students will select an assessment task with criteria for Visual Arts and self-construct two example student responses that represent two plausible student levels of achievement across making and responding. Your worked example may include annotated developmental work, planning materials, artist statements or partial visual responses where appropriate. This should not include completed artworks. Use the assessment criteria to articulate your professional judgements of the worked examples and provide potential feedback with reference to curriculum expectations and evidence of learning in making and responding. Provide a critical explanation of how your worked examples, assessment judgement and feedback would support student development, differentiation and inclusive participation in Years 7–10 Visual Arts.
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Preservice teachers will engage in structured learning experiences that emphasise professional thinking about Visual Arts pedagogical practice. Teaching strategies are designed to develop preservice teachers’ capacity to analyse curriculum, pedagogy and assessment through examination of exemplars, case studies, unit plans, assessment tasks and classroom scenarios drawn from Years 7–10 Visual Arts contexts.
Teaching will model evidence?informed approaches to Visual Arts education, including explicit instruction, pedagogical content knowledge for making and responding, visual analysis, critique and culturally responsive pedagogy. Preservice teachers will analyse pedagogical frameworks such as studio?based learning, inquiry approaches and visual thinking strategies to understand how these practices support student learning in junior secondary classrooms. Ethical and professional considerations, including the use of digital technologies and generative artificial intelligence, will be examined through guided discussion and critical reflection.
The teaching strategy explicitly supports diverse preservice teachers, recognising variation in prior arts experiences, cultural backgrounds and confidence across different Visual Arts media. Learning experiences incorporate scaffolded tasks, clear expectations, multiple modes of engagement and opportunities for peer learning and reflection. These approaches align with professional standards to support preservice teachers to develop inclusive, reflective and professional pedagogical practice.
Representative texts and references
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). Australian Curriculum: The Arts, Version 9.0. https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
New South Wales Education Standards Authority. (2024). Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus (2024). NSW Curriculum. https://curriculum.nsw.edu.au/learning-areas/creative-arts/creative-arts-k-6-2024/overview
Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority. Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 in Queensland (ACiQ) - QCAA. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/aciq/version-9
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (n.d.). Victorian Curriculum: The Arts, Version 2.0. Victorian Curriculum F–10. https://f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au/overview/aboutVictorian Curriculum F–10+1Victorian Curriculum+1
Recommended references?
C.M.S. Gigante (2025). Pedagogical Innovation: Integrating New Technologies in Visual Arts Education In Lower Secondary School, INTED2025 Proceedings, pp. 251-255. https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2025.0109
Cronenberg, S. (Ed.). (2025). Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Arts and Arts Integrated Learning for Middle Level Education (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003562047
Evans, C. M., & Taylor, C. S. (2025). Culturally Responsive Assessment in Classrooms and Large-Scale Contexts?: Theory, Research, and Practice. (1st ed.). Taylor & Francis Group.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., Darling-Hammond, L., & Krone, C. R. (2019). Nurturing Nature: How Brain Development Is Inherently Social and Emotional, and What This Means for Education. Educational Psychologist, 54(3), 185–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2019.1633924
Gross, K. M. (2021). Inclusive Artmaking in High School Visual Arts Classes. Studies in Art Education, 62(2), 162–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2021.1896251
Mernick, A. (2021). Critical Arts Pedagogy: Nurturing Critical Consciousness and Self-Actualization Through Art Education. Art Education, 74(5), 19–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2021.1928468
Tomljenovi?, Z., & Tatalovi? Vorkapi?, S. (2020). Constructivism in Visual Arts Classes. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 10(4), 13–32. https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.913