Page 1383 - SUBSEC October 2017_Neat

authentic art creation during instruction and assessment (see details in the syllabus in Appendix
III).

24. All of the teachers who responded in the online survey indicated that the Aims adequately
described the anticipated educational results while 93 per cent of them felt that the General Objectives
adequately reflected the goals of the syllabus, and that the knowledge and skills covered in the syllabus
were appropriate for students at the secondary level. The remaining seven per cent who were in
disagreement did not provide any suggestions for improvement. The Review Committee reviewed the
Aims and General Objectives and after much deliberation agreed that Aim 1, “provide a variety of
experiences and skills in the field of the visual arts” and Aim 5, “provide opportunity for informed decision-
making through the development of skills in critical thinking, problem solving, research and
communication”, needed to be refined. The Review Committee arrived at a consensus and re-wrote Aim
1 to read “provide a variety of experiences and skills in traditional and contemporary visual arts”. The
word creativity was also added to Aim 5 which now reads “provide opportunity for informed decision-
making through the development of skills in creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, research and
communication”. The Committee also added a new Aim, which reads to “foster the use of technology in
art production” based on the emphasis now being placed on the use of technology in Art Production.

25. The General Objectives were also reviewed and refined after extensive discussions. The stem of
the General Objectives, which deviated from the requirements for CSEC® syllabuses was re-written to
read “on completion of the syllabus, students should”. This resulted in the need to refine almost all the
General Objectives. A General Objective, which reads to “foster the use of technology in art production”;
was also written and included to support the Aim focusing on technology that was added to the syllabus.
Some of the other proposed changes to the General Objectives are presented on Table 5 (see Appendix
III for details).

TABLE 5
PROPOSED CHANGES TO GENERAL OBJECTIVES
# EXISTING SYLLABUS PROPSED CHANGES
On completion of the syllabus, students On completion of the syllabus, students should:
should develop
1. the ability to perceive, understand and demonstrate the ability to express concepts and

express concepts and feelings in Two- feelings in Two-Dimensional and Three-
Dimensional and Three Dimensional Dimensional Expressive Forms;
Expressive Forms;

2. the ability to record ideas from direct develop an awareness of how to record ideas
observation and personal experience; from direct observation and personal experience;

3. the ability to communicate by using know how to communicate art concepts using
appropriate materials and technologies in appropriate materials and technologies in a
a disciplined way; disciplined way;

4. the ability to experiment, innovate and engage in experimentation and innovation, using
use intuition and imagination in producing intuition and imagination in the production of
works of art; works of art;

26. Eighty-seven per cent of the respondents in the online survey also agreed that the Specific
Objectives were clearly stated. The remaining respondents in the online survey did not agree that the
objectives were clearly stated; but they did not suggest any changes that could be used to improve the
specificity with which the Specific Objectives were stated. The focus group respondents also felt that the
Specific Objectives needed to be reviewed as they were not specific enough to provide quality guidance
for teaching the Syllabus and preparing for the examination. After extensive discussion, to improve the

11