Curriculum documentation guiding Victorian school and well as those of other states all stress the importance of engaging students in critical and creative thinking through exploration of technologies, forms and processes. This is achieved through direct engagement with two-dimensional, three-dimension and four-dimensional practices, histories, concepts and theories. The VELS approach to Visual Arts promotes opportunity for students in exploring, responding, creating and making which will prompt engagement in critical and creative thinking to enable students to better understand the world and themselves. The Conceptual Framework supports this too by exploring the relationship between the artist and the audience, challenging students to interpret what the artist was trying to show/communicate to the audience while simultaneously engaging in critical analysis. As a whole, the Conceptual Framework looks at evaluating and analyzing art by looking at the multi-directional connection between the artist, artwork and audience. SimilarlyWestern Australian Currilum Framework is structured on the blanket theory that in order for students to create original artworks that communicate ideas they need a well founded understanding of how the arts communicate ideas. Creating original art is guided through the joint efforts of interpreting the ideas of others, exploring art ideas, developing art ideas and presenting art ideas. VELS recognises the need of students to be educationally equipped for an economy in which innovation and creative use of technologies is constantly challenged in the production and visibility of art. ACARA addresses this issue by structuring curriculum that explores both traditional and new technologies in order to capitalize on the virtues of diverse media. NSW curriculum adapts well to what they refer to as Digital Revolution education, incorporating the use of laptops in visual art to allow students to undertake independent and collaborative research and publish their digital works through modern digital exhibition processes. VELS also appreciates the role that Visual Art, as well as the other dimension of Art, can play in nurturing cultural understanding and an appreciation of cultural diversity through the exhibition and interpretation of art culture. ACARA highlights that the evaluation, analysis and understanding of the personal and collective context for art making and responding in vital to be able to be an active member of the art and design world.
Sources for further exploration: http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/primary/creativearts/visarts/index.htm
http://www.curriculum.wa.edu.au/internet/Years_K10/Curriculum_Framework http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/arts/structure.html
http://search.curriculum.edu.au/texis/search/pdfhi.txt?query=Art&pr=www.acara.edu.au&prox=page&rorder=500&rprox=500&rdfreq=500&rwfreq=500&rlead=500&rdepth=0&sufs=0&order=r&cq=&id=4f7c01b3d