As part of the Professional Master of Education, I undertook a action research project. This research project was born out of curricular advances in the Irish educational system that embrace a constructivist pedagogy which suggest that learners form knowledge through experience. The project was carried out in a coastal school in West Cork. The project sought to investigate how art-making from collected drift materials in the area could raise a group of 14-year-old students’ awareness about the correct disposal of waste. Students had the opportunity to be active citizens in their local area and create environmental art. The research advanced to examine the pedagogical strategies used to support students in creating art that communicated environmental messages. 
 
A body of qualitative data was gathered using a variety of research methods with a number of participants, including; students, other teachers, and myself, to accomplish triangulation and ascertain validity in this study. Students partook in a questionnaire at the beginning and the end of the project to decipher if their environmental knowledge had changed. Students answered written questions and oral questions in focus groups  to discover their thoughts on the project. Documentation of student work proved to be pivotal to track student progression in relation to pedagogy as well as my own teacher observations. The art teacher and green schools co-ordinator both participated in semi-structured interviews to gain research on their experiences of teaching about art, the environment or, art and the environment.  
 
The main findings that stemmed from this research are as follows:

• Providing students with sufficient time to experiment and a combination of teacher strategies, i.e., teacher demonstration, teacher questioning and discussion during reviews of artwork, enables discovery learning for students and hence, the skilful construction of 3D assemblage using forms.

• The method used and the time chosen to introduce contextual references influences students’ work profoundly.

• The teacher’s duty in managing and developing groups through the delegation of roles and responsibilities as well as the assignment of self or peer assessment to ensure tasks are completed is essential in creating collaborative work. 

• Students are extrinsically motivated by providing them with the opportunity to show their artwork in a public domain.  

 
In hindsight, data that discovered the impact of teaching strategies to create environmental artwork would have been beneficial to collect. Nonetheless, students were afforded the experience to communicate environmental messages in art form. 

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See the full research report at this link: