Children Meaning-Making and the Arts

Children, Meaning-Making and the Arts is a new Australian text covering all of the diverse fields within arts education for the young child. Following in the footsteps of the influential work, The Arts in Early Childhood, Susan Wright and her new team of expert contributors provide a current introduction to theory and practice in arts education in early childhood.
Each chapter is dedicated to each of the strands in arts education - visual arts, music, dance, drama, and media. In conjunction, the introduction and concluding chapters analyse the importance of creativity within a young child’s development and the importance of arts as a collective experience, respectively.
Children, Meaning-Making and the Arts is an essential text for early childhood students and teachers. The various authors are advocates of how the arts offer highly relevant and significant forms of knowing, whilst exploring the place of the arts within the life of the young child, within the educational sphere, and within society.

Preface
Contributors

1. Ways of Knowing in the Arts – Susan Wright
2. The Visual Arts: Ways of Seeing – Felicity McArdle
3. Musical Children, Musical Lives, Musical Worlds – Margaret Barrett
4. Dance – Moving Beyond Steps to Ideas – Wendy Schiller and Jeff Meiners
5. Linking Drama Education and Dramatic Play in the Early Childhood Years. - Julie Dunn
6. Media - Cassandra Weddell
7. Museums and Young Children:  Partners in Learning About the World - Barbara Piscitelli, Katrina Weier, Michele Everett
8. Pedagogical Documentation in the Arts -  Lyn Bryant and Stephen Gallen
9. Arts Education as a Collective Experience - Susan Wright

Index

• Based on a socio-constructivist philosophy.
• Coverage of multiple intelligences, multiple modalities; mind/body interdependence; and how emotional and spiritual connections contribute to learning and understanding - through Gardner and other modern theorists. 
• Educational practices such as the documentation of learning processes, portfolio assessment and critical reflection are integrated throughout.
• Pedagogical features at the end of chapter include Questions and Activities and Further Readings assist the student with applying the content and theory presented and extending knowledge base.
• Case studies utilised in each chapter show students best practice.
• Children’s work samples presented to provide original source material for students.
• A special 8 page colour section that reproduces selected artwork, photos and samples for further study in their original state.