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
Examine evidence-informed approaches to teaching a...
Learning Outcome 02
Critically analyse artworks and texts, pedagogical...
Learning Outcome 03
Design coherent unit sequences in Visual Arts that...
Learning Outcome 04
Appraise 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, think-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: Skills Audit Complete a knowledge a...
Hurdle Task: Skills Audit
Complete a knowledge and skills audit based on your 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 Desig...
Assessment Task 1: Planning a Unit of Work
Design a coherent Year 7–10 Visual Arts unit of work that aligns with curriculum requirements and leads to a selected summative assessment task. Integrate evidence informed approaches to (1) develop Visual Arts content and skills, (2) incorporate explicit instruction, differentiation and inclusive practices, and (3) critique the curriculum, pedagogical and assessment decisions using relevant scholarly and policy evidence.
50%
Assessment Task 2: Worked Examples Folio Select ...
Assessment Task 2: Worked Examples Folio
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.
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Level
In connection to the learning outcomes, on successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following industry specific knowledge based on the :
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO4
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO3
Relating toOrganise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2
Relating toUse curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2
Relating toDemonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of, and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2
Relating toKnow and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toImplement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toSet learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2
Relating toPlan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2
Relating toInclude a range of teaching strategies.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toIdentify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDescribe strategies that support students’ wellbeing and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toDemonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3, LO4
Relating toDemonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO4
Relating toDemonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO5
Relating toDemonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO5
Relating toDemonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO5
Relating toDemonstrate an understanding of the role of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in identifying professional learning needs.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toUnderstand the relevant and appropriate sources of professional learning for teachers.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toSeek and apply constructive feedback from supervisors and teachers to improve teaching practices.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO4
Relating toDemonstrate an understanding of the rationale for continued professional learning and the implications for improved student learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toUnderstand the role of external professionals and community representatives in broadening teachers’ professional knowledge and practice.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) Core Content
On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following industry specific knowledge based on the AITSL Core Content:
Relating toThe difference in the process of knowledge acquisition in the brain of a novice vs the brain of an expert. This should be taught with reference to the development of mental models and schemas.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toThe most effective teaching practices to reduce cognitive overload, including explicit instruction, scaffolding, and clearly structured content that connects new information to prior learning.?
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toHow to develop and use worked examples for students who are unfamiliar with a subject, followed by more challenging problem-solving activities as students become more familiar with the knowledge of a subject.?
Relevant learningLO2, LO3
Relating toThe key features of coherent and deliberate planning and sequencing of tasks and lessons including curriculum-aligned learning objectives, clear descriptions of how students will show evidence of mastery, the common progression of learning in a subject area and the critical curriculum knowledge needed for students to progress.?
Relevant learningLO2
Relating toHow to plan a sequence of lessons that incorporate spacing and retrieval practice, build upon each other, meet students where they are in their learning and help students retrieve past learning and consolidate it in long-term memory.?
Relevant learningLO2
Relating toHow to explicitly model new skills and content through ‘worked examples’ that clearly demonstrate how to complete the task, followed by a progressive removal of scaffolding as students become more proficient.
Relevant learningLO3
Relating toHow to pitch an introductory lesson at an appropriate level, before starting a new unit of work, by identifying where a student is in their learning through assessing what they know, or think they know.?
Relevant learningLO2
Relating toHow to design summative assessment to assess students against a standard or benchmark to gain an understanding of the level of mastery attained.?
Relevant learningLO2, LO4
Relating toHow to produce and use developmental rubrics with criteria tailored to the specific task and/or work samples so that students understand what is expected.?
Relevant learningLO2
Relating toHow to explicitly deliver reading and writing instruction through discipline and discipline-specific curriculum and pedagogical studies as outlined in standard 4.2.
Relevant learningLO2, LO3
Relating toThe research that shows numeracy is a fundamental component of learning, discourse, and critique across all areas of the curriculum and improves students’ understanding of and engagement with material within and beyond the mathematics curriculum.??
Relevant learningLO2
Relating toThe research evidence that shows the relationship between effective pedagogical practices and increased positive behaviour including why specific practices are particularly effective in preventing undesired behaviour.?
Relevant learningLO3
Relating toThe content covered in the Australian Curriculum Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority across stages and subjects.??
Relevant learningLO1, LO2
Relating toExplicitly teach the concept of cultural safety and explore practical examples of what it can look like in a classroom context.?
Relevant learningLO2, LO3
Representative texts and references
Recommended texts and documents
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). Australian Curriculum: The Arts, Version 9.0.
New South Wales Education Standards Authority. (2024). Creative Arts K–6 Syllabus (2024). NSW Curriculum.
Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority. Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 in Queensland (ACiQ) - QCAA.
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (n.d.). Victorian Curriculum: The Arts, Version 2.0. Victorian Curriculum F–10.
Recommended references
Cronenberg, S. (Ed.). (2025). Multidisciplinary perspectives on arts and arts integrated learning for middle level education. Routledge.
Evans, C. M., & Taylor, C. S. (Eds.). (2025). Culturally responsive assessment in classrooms and large-scale contexts: Theory, research, and practice. Routledge.
Freedman, K. (2025). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press.
Gigante, C. M. S. (2025). Pedagogical innovation: Integrating new technologies in visual arts education in lower secondary school. In INTED2025 Proceedings (pp. 251–255). IATED.
Groenendijk, T., Kárpáti, A., & Haanstra, F. (2020). Self-assessment in art education through a visual rubric. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 39(1), 153–175.
Gross, K. M. (2021). Inclusive artmaking in high school visual arts classes. Studies in Art Education, 62(2), 162–177.
Hellman, A., & Karlsson H?iki?, T. (2024). Visual strategies in (visual arts) education: A critical perspective on reading and making images. Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education, 8(1), 39–52.
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.
Lin, Y.-J. (2025). Curious encounters with AI: A diffractive understanding of art education practices in an era with generative AI. Visual Arts Research, 51(1), 123–135.
Mernick, A. (2021). Critical arts pedagogy: Nurturing critical consciousness and self-actualization through art education. Art Education, 74(5), 19–24.
Tomljenovi?, Z., & Tatalovi? Vorkapi?, S. (2020). Constructivism in visual arts classes. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 10(4), 13–32.