Mentoring Teachers as Artists in Communities of Practice: Immersive Models of Professional Learning in the Arts

The issue of confidence, and teachers' capacity to deliver arts education has been the subject of much debate over recent decades, particularly in the case of the primary generalist. This paper reports on research that examined the impact of a two-day professional learning workshop involving the immersion of the participants in arts practice with a follow up mentoring program. A team of arts educators (practitioner/researchers) examined complementary models of professional development across drama, the visual arts and music. The visual arts/drama model was based at the University of Melbourne and serviced by arts education academics and artists, and the music model involved an external provider. The project embodied many of the attributes of professional learning supported by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, extending the model through the provision of embodied learning workshops and post workshop mentoring via a number of methods. These models of professional learning took place over a period of 15 months, with teachers working with practising artists and arts educators in studios and their own classrooms. The dialogic relationships established between teachers, artists and arts educators promoted increased confidence and teacher efficacy in the take up of the arts, amongst other more specific artform related outcomes.