ECA731 - Teaching Arts Education: Middle Years

Unit details

Year

2026 unit information

Enrolment modes:

Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Online^

Credit point(s):1
EFTSL value:0.125
Unit Chair:Trimester 1: To be advised
Cohort rule:

This unit is only for students enrolled in D303, E377, E762, E763, E765, E779

Prerequisite:

D303 students: must have passed 24 credit points of study at levels 1, 2 & 3 with a minimum WAM of 60%

Corequisite:

Nil

Incompatible with: Nil
Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - on-campus unit enrolment:

1 x 3-hour seminar per week for 9 weeks (weeks TBA)

Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - online unit enrolment:

1 x 3-hour online seminar per week

In-person attendance requirements:

Students who are completing professional experience (placements) are not required to attend lectures or scheduled synchronous sessions during their professional experience (placement).

For the most up-to-date advice regarding your professional experience (placement) please see here.

Typical study commitment:

Students will on average spend 150-hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit.

This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site.

Note:

^Dance or Drama are not available in online mode, Media is only available in online mode

** Arts discipline methodology specialisations are available for Campus and online study as follows:

  • visual arts – available at Burwood (Melbourne) or online
  • music - available at Burwood (Melbourne) or online
  • media - available online
  • dance – available at Burwood (Melbourne)
  • drama - available at Burwood (Melbourne)

E762 Internship students should not be enrolled in this unit.
Please contact Student Services to confirm your course map.

Content

This unit is designed to qualify you to teach in the field of secondary school arts education in one or two of the following discipline-specific art forms: Dance, Drama, Media, Music or Visual Arts/ Visual Communication and Design. You will learn how to empower secondary students to express and communicate their unique observations, ideas and meanings responsive to current issues, observations and experiences of and in the world. In this unit, you will encounter the secondary-level 7-10 arts curriculum, educational policies and specialist theoretical and practical skills and knowledge of relevance to student learning in one or two of the following specialised art forms in the Australian Curriculum: Dance, Drama, Media, Music, and/or Visual arts/(Visual Communication Design). You will be introduced to artform-specific practices, pedagogical strategies and arts-specific terminologies and literacies that will enable you to plan effective, safe, and embodied teaching and learning experiences of high relevance to middle-years and emerging senior secondary learners.

In seminars, you will learn organisational pedagogies that align with occupational health and safety guidelines and maintenance protocols for teaching the arts safely in schools. You will also select and responsively introduce diverse arts practices and cultural forms, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and perspectives, in culturally safe and respectful ways. You will extend skills and knowledge not necessarily mastered during your previous arts studies in Dance, Drama, Media, Music and Visual Arts/Visual Communication Design as you learn to adapt spaces, tools, instruments, equipment, materials and teaching strategies to ensure arts learning in your arts classroom is inclusive and accessible for all students. The unit also addresses how to teach with limited resources, as many schools may not have the arts-specific materials, instruments, tools, equipment, immersive technologies, and software that you may be used to applying in your discipline-specific artform practice. Assessment tasks are designed for you to demonstrate your ability to interpret the Australian Curriculum to plan what to teach and how and when to teach and assess levels 7-10 in alignment with your selected State or Territory context’s curriculum.

Learning outcomes

ULO These are the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can:

Alignment to Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs)

ULO1

Curriculum: Interpret and apply curriculum-aligned content from the Australian Arts Curriculum in your discipline-specific art form to plan and organize engaging and effective learning experiences for a selected level or band between 7-10

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

ULO2

Pedagogy: Select and adapt appropriate, arts-based pedagogies and evidence-based arts teaching strategies suitable for teaching and learning in an art form-specific area of the arts curriculum for a selected level or band between 7-10

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

ULO3

Assessment: Design formative and summative feedback and assessment strategies that check for understanding and consolidate learning and teaching in an artform-specific learning area for a selected level or band between 7-10

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

ULO4

Resourcing: Select safe and engaging, arts discipline-specific teaching and learning resources that can be used to enrich and support student learning in an arts discipline-specific learning area for a selected level or band between 7-10

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

ULO5

Evaluation: Develop an evaluation strategy for a learning and teaching sequence that will generate data to inform and improve subsequent learning and teaching in future arts-discipline-specific learning sequences for a selected level or band between 7-10

GLO4: Critical Thinking

Assessment

Assessment Description Student output Grading and weighting
(% total mark for unit)
Indicative due week
Assessment 1: Part 1: Portfolio for Arts Curriculum-Aligned Teaching and Learning in Discipline Specific Art Form: Levels 7-10 2500 words or equivalent  50% Week 5

Assessment 2: Part 2: Portfolio for Arts Curriculum-Aligned Teaching and Learning in Discipline Specific Art Form: Levels 7-10

2500 words or equivalent 50% Week 11

The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.

Learning resource

The texts and reading list for ECA731 can be found via the University Library.

Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list. Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.

Unit Fee Information

Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study and their study discipline, and your study load.

Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.

Estimate your fees

For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current Students website.