And so we get closer and closer to the end of the blog posts, with this being our second last study unit to blog about...

Life has been hectic, with all the assignments and tests from all the different subjects, if I'm honest, the blogging seemed like a waste of time to me at the beginning, but it has really helped me to understand the work covered by this subject, and to really focus on it in more detail, so even with all the other work, I'm rather working on this right now, which shows me especially, that wasn't such a bad idea after all... so let's get into it now, and look at study unit 4.

Arts Integration in the Foundation Phase:

1. Some people might say that arts integration is a waste of time in Foundation Phase education. Please explain how you would respond to such a statement by explaining your view on arts integration in the Foundation Phase.

Arts integration in the Foundation Phase promotes teaching and learning strategies which address outcomes in various subjects at the same time, while encouraging learners to demonstrate their understanding of the concepts and skills through the arts. Arts integration promotes active engagement in teaching and learning activities, experiential learning, authentic learning activities, collaborative learning, problem-solving skills, and reflection. 

2. Which aspects of study unit 4 did you find the most interesting and challenging?

I found it interesting how many values there are to arts integration, and I find it to sound challenging to make sure the integration is completely 50/50 with one subject to the other...

2.1 What did you find interesting? Please explain why.

I found it very interesting how many different values there are to arts integration in the Foundation Phase. It can access a learners prior knowledge, contribute towards higher motivation levels among learners, support academic achievement and socialisation amongst learners. Arts integration has even shown an improved result with mathematic performance as well as decreased disciplinary challenges. It is fun, fosters collaboration and connection and promotes learners innate curiosity, creativity and imaginative abilities. There are many more reasons, and I'm not going to go and name all of them now, but I find that arts integration can merely be described as a good thing and I would definitely want to add it to my classroom.

2.2 What did you find challenging? Please explain why.

I found that it could be challenging to be sure that there is a seamless integration of the two or more subjects, like music and visual arts; music and language; music and maths; music and life skills) and that both the subjects must be experienced and engaged with at the same time within the activity. This is challenging in my eyes, because of how important it is to make sure the learners experience with the subjects have to be absolutely equal at all times. Even to engage them so much that it activates their prior knowledge, this sounds easy, but sometimes things aren't necessarily what they seem.