I thought that it would be interesting and informative to write this article about the process of painting a wall mural but first of all I would like to talk about a few factors and experiences. The job of a wall mural painter (not a service, which a lot of websites think) which I specialise in I find to be highly understated, underappreciated and undervalued. It is expected to paint a wall mural in a day by some people I've spoken too, it sometimes leaves me flabbergasted to think that my talent which I've built-up for nearly 30 years of my life could result in a whole wall hand-painted with a beautiful unique scene in the same time it would take to go to a painting & decorating store, buy a tub of magnolia paint and blanket paint the walls with a roller which requires little in the way of skill or talent and further-more be offered a similar price.
Then we have the situation of people wanting the mural painting carried out on a voluntary basis. Now, please don't get me wrong, I believe every artist should pay their dues in some respect and it would be good work experience to carry this out as college or university project but this is your job, your profession, your livelihood no-less. Let me ask this question to those that ask you to work on a voluntary basis, if your car broke down would you ask for it to be repaired free of charge? No, this goes for every situation in life, us muralist's do not do this for "the love of painting", we do it because it is our profession, our bread and butter, our day job to pay our bills. I'm sure that many other professional mural painters out there that read this article will be nodding in agreement with my previous paragraph's above.
Anyway, now I have those negative experiences off my chest let's get back to my advice on painting a wall mural which I am going to keep as a beginners guide. This is what I believe to be the most essential steps to creating a wall mural in the easiest, hassle-free way. Step 1 Develop your ideas on paper or on a computer using graphics software, I tend to devise most of my plans through the computer as I can easily print out a scale overlay grid onto my design. I doesn't matter what software you use to create your plans, I would choose Photoshop or GIMP the majority of the time but it really doesn't matter as the task in-hand to get from a design idea/concept which you are happy to carry on further.
Please pay special attention of the following aspects of the planning your mural painting; 1. This is the most crucial part of mural painting, make sure your plans are exactly as you would like the final design to look. 2. Some people will choose to draw a design freehand but I would strongly advise against this for something like a person, animal or character. These type of things have to be pixel perfect and I would always use a scale grid for 100% accuracy. 3. Liaise fully with your client until they are 100% satisfied with your final design. Remember this is their wall and your final design should represent a near identical rendition of what will be painted. Step 2 Now that you have liaised with your client and they are happy with your design plans it is time to approach the wall or walls. The first thing to do is always make sure the wall or surface is in a good condition for you to carry out your work. If you feel that the wall is not ready for you to work on then you may want to discuss carrying out any repair duties at a small fee. Maybe you will be faced with filling some holes and smoothing the surface where there was once screws/nails. Be upfront and let your client know if you are unhappy with the wall surface which you are about to commence your work on.
Now you want to draw a grid across the area that you're working which is in-scale to your design plan, although this is quite a boring aspect of the overall process this is extremely important to get right and spot-on with measurements. Remember not all walls are perfectly straight so you have to work with these imperfections to a certain degree but what is essential is that your grid lines on a horizontal and vertical axis are perfect. I have a 1200mm spirit measure stick which I use for this type of task which is invaluable to me, the average size I would draw my grid is (6" x 6") but this can vary depending on the space, shape and image complexity, remember a (6"x 6") can easily be modified even finer if needed. Finally use masking tape to cover other walls, skirting boards and then cover the floors just in-case the worst happens. Personally I am very careful with my client's floors and carpets and I would lay newspaper, polythene sheets and decorators dust sheets on top. These are the following steps I would take summarised;
1. Discuss any concerns of the wall which I discussed above.
2. Draw your scale grid making sure to be 100% accurate using a spirit measure.
3. Mask the near-by area and cover the floor and carpets thoroughly with polythene, newspaper and decorators dust sheets.
Step 3 So now your mural design has been finalised and your client is satisfied and your wall is gridded accurately and masked accordingly it is finally time to draw your mural. Sometimes it can feel a relief to finally put your pencil to the wall but from my experience, thorough and precise planning is always the best policy.
Never take shortcuts because in the end something will/could go wrong. Draw your design lightly on the wall, keeping to your guide. One tip that I would say is to draw a section or object and then stand back and observe what you have drawn. When you are satisfied draw your lines bolder, you should also be aware of smudging your pencil and guide lines with your hand so work from one side to the other depending on which hand your draw with. Now that you have your design drawn out nicely and it's very clear and accurate it is time to erase all your pencil and guide lines. I would strongly advise this step as painting over pencil lines can prove very tricky, they are very resilient those pencil lines! Now it's time to start painting your mural.
As this is my first guide to mural painting I am going to describe something relatively easy to paint, something which you would typically see in a school, hospital or children's bedroom - please don't miss-interpret what I mean here by saying easy, something bright and colourful like a cartoon or character with block colours rather than a realistic scene with highly detailed depth and shading. Note - This example is for a relatively simple mural painting, I will create guides to more complicated wall mural paintings in the future. I use acrylic odourless paints which I mix beforehand to create the correct colour variant which I will keep them in containers, I use small plastic decorators paint kettles with lids which you can buy in many sizes, use water to thin the paint if it feels "stodgy", get the consistency right as you don't want to be thinning the paint much at all.
Most importantly of all is to mix more than enough of the colour you require, too much is never a bad thing. Paint the areas now which have the most of a certain colour, if your mural has more blue than any other colour then paint the blue first, wait for your paint to dry then apply another coat of paint. When you are satisfied with the coverage do the same with your next colour. Now this part can be tricky, you need to outline all the colours with a black (or outline colour of choice). Make sure to have a steady hand, a small brush with good resistance and your paint is not too thick, which is why I spoke of adding a little bit of water to your paint above. To finish your work use an acrylic matte varnish which will act as an invisible layer of protection. This is the short step-by-step guide of the paragraphs I spoke about it more detail above;
1. Draw your design, when satisfied draw your outlines bolder.
2. Erase all pencil and guidelines thoroughly.
3. Mix your paints to the correct colours and keep in containers with lids, making sure to mix enough paint.
4. Paint the areas with the most colour first and apply 2 coats or more to fully cover.
5. Outline your work with a strong/bold colour, be accurate and use a quality firm brush.
6. Coat the wall with acrylic matt varnish to give that hidden layer of protection.
Final Thoughts Now your mural should be complete and your client is over-the-moon with joy, you are happy and now it's time to move on to your next exciting job which could be a totally different experience all together with a whole new set of challenges to test your artistic capabilities.
Being a Muralist, Artist, Interior Painter... whatever they like to call us (don't ask me who "they" are), is an extremely rewarding and often challenging career option and I'm not going to lie when I say this but, you're going to have to be extremely persistent and outgoing if you want to build a long lasting career. In the future I would like to talk more extensively about the trials and tribulations of gaining a career as a full-time muralist, more specifically speaking about my personal experiences, education gained and the advertising and networking processors involved. I would also like to talk in greater detail with regards to the actual tools that I use, the storage containers, paints, brushes and much more, there is a surprising amount of content to write here which I think would prove fascinating to share.
This article which is now knee-deep on to the fourth page of my writing software (no free plugs or advertising here) is only just scratching the surface on what I wanted to share as a muralist and only covers the very basics of my daily process. If you made it this far then thanks for sticking with me and all I can say to you if you are just starting a career as a Muralist is keep pushing and working hard and eventually your opportunity's will arise... nobody said it was going to be easy, but persevere!
Saturday, 30 June 2018
Don't Just Wear Jewelry, Wear Art!
Since humans first started wearing clothing and using tools, we've taken interest in adorning ourselves with jewelry. Back in its beginnings, jewels were created with just about any material that one could find. From bone to stone and skins to semi-precious materials, our culture has always been interested in the beauty of jewelry regardless of the simplicity in its composition or manufacturing. As our culture evolved and our species became more competitive, jewelry has become more important to enhancing how we view ourselves as well as how we'd like others to see us. Fast-forward through the years where industrialization and modernization have helped shaped the tools and materials available to us to create and craft truly artful pieces of jewelry. Throughout the years, wearing jewelry became more than simply something one did as haphazardly as how we'd brush our hair or iron our clothing. Indeed, the addition of jewelry to our wardrobe is intended to enhance our everyday styles and improve our self-confidence.
It's meant as an accessory to our personalities and as an embellishment to our standard outfits. Some pieces of jewelry can even tell a story in and of themselves without the wearer ever having to say a word! But one thing has stayed steadfast since the advent of jewelry. As a culture and species, we've always worn jewelry as an artistic expression of oneself. The difference now is that we have more options available to us in terms of the artistry of our jewelry. Master craftsmen spend lifetimes creating art that is meant to be worn in the form of adornment. No longer are we just simply wearing jewelry - we're wearing art! Two types of artistic jewelry are beaded jewelry and fused glass jewelry. Both require more than a simple molded printout copy of a blueprint.
In fact, the artistry involved with beaded and fused glass jewelry ensures that no two pieces can ever be exactly replicated. In this manner, every piece of jeweled art that leaves a master artist will be unique and never to be precisely recreated again! Your jewelry is meant to tell a story, and investing in handcrafted pieces like beads and fused glass ensures that your story is one of beauty, intrigue, and timelessness. Choose to do more than wear jewelry; wear art and in doing so you will find that you also will not only feel special, but also look special! Jay Hatfield founded Hatfield Copper Decor in April of 2013 and started selling scenic, draped, and votive oil candles along with soy candles, fused glass jewelry, plates, dishes, and clocks. The company's unique home decor is unlike any other. At Hatfield Copper Decor and More, we pride ourselves on quality. Our goal is to bring you decor that lights up your home and has your guests in awe.
It's meant as an accessory to our personalities and as an embellishment to our standard outfits. Some pieces of jewelry can even tell a story in and of themselves without the wearer ever having to say a word! But one thing has stayed steadfast since the advent of jewelry. As a culture and species, we've always worn jewelry as an artistic expression of oneself. The difference now is that we have more options available to us in terms of the artistry of our jewelry. Master craftsmen spend lifetimes creating art that is meant to be worn in the form of adornment. No longer are we just simply wearing jewelry - we're wearing art! Two types of artistic jewelry are beaded jewelry and fused glass jewelry. Both require more than a simple molded printout copy of a blueprint.
In fact, the artistry involved with beaded and fused glass jewelry ensures that no two pieces can ever be exactly replicated. In this manner, every piece of jeweled art that leaves a master artist will be unique and never to be precisely recreated again! Your jewelry is meant to tell a story, and investing in handcrafted pieces like beads and fused glass ensures that your story is one of beauty, intrigue, and timelessness. Choose to do more than wear jewelry; wear art and in doing so you will find that you also will not only feel special, but also look special! Jay Hatfield founded Hatfield Copper Decor in April of 2013 and started selling scenic, draped, and votive oil candles along with soy candles, fused glass jewelry, plates, dishes, and clocks. The company's unique home decor is unlike any other. At Hatfield Copper Decor and More, we pride ourselves on quality. Our goal is to bring you decor that lights up your home and has your guests in awe.
Still Life Paintings Still Enrapture
There is no real requirement for subject matter when it comes to still life painting. The only two things you really need are stillness and life... and really, you (the artist) are the one who creates the life within the painting. The real challenge arises in creating something beautiful and interesting to look at from commonplace objects. The Dutch and Flemish painters really took off with the genre during the 17th century, creating meaning out of seemingly simple, everyday objects. With the spread of new religions, symbolism and still lifes took on more meaning. The genre was not given as much respect as other creative passions, but through history it has grown on the art community. Still lifes have never required some larger symbolic meaning.
The form is respected as a difficult endeavor taken on by contemporary still life artists. Creating beautiful composition out of a commonplace item takes high level of artistic passion and skill. The genre has evolved over time, but several parts of still life remain the same. The biggest similarity from century to century -- and the biggest difference -- is subject. The subject is the life. Over the hundreds of years, flowers, fruits, architecture, and more common elements have appeared over and over. Times change and objects change, but stillness and beauty don't. Fruit and flowers are always a good place to start, and a good way to learn how to create or observe great still life.
Something about the vivacity and freshness of fruit and flowers keeps bringing artists back. As the subject is the most important part of a still life, picking the right subject for you is the best way to put the life into a still life. There's no such thing as a boring subject -- there are always a few ways to add some interest to the imagery. As with any other painting, thematically beautiful colors, dramatic lighting, and an eye for composition will make any everyday object fascinating. Another artistic trick is to create a border around the still life. Focus the eyes into the object and allow the viewer to spend more time looking closer. The magic of a still life is that they give people the chance to look at objects that anyone would normally look past. An artist has the opportunity to make any regular object into a beautiful point of interest. There is something powerful in that, and something that demands respect. If you feel that certain paintings are lacking life, maybe look into adding some still life!
The form is respected as a difficult endeavor taken on by contemporary still life artists. Creating beautiful composition out of a commonplace item takes high level of artistic passion and skill. The genre has evolved over time, but several parts of still life remain the same. The biggest similarity from century to century -- and the biggest difference -- is subject. The subject is the life. Over the hundreds of years, flowers, fruits, architecture, and more common elements have appeared over and over. Times change and objects change, but stillness and beauty don't. Fruit and flowers are always a good place to start, and a good way to learn how to create or observe great still life.
Something about the vivacity and freshness of fruit and flowers keeps bringing artists back. As the subject is the most important part of a still life, picking the right subject for you is the best way to put the life into a still life. There's no such thing as a boring subject -- there are always a few ways to add some interest to the imagery. As with any other painting, thematically beautiful colors, dramatic lighting, and an eye for composition will make any everyday object fascinating. Another artistic trick is to create a border around the still life. Focus the eyes into the object and allow the viewer to spend more time looking closer. The magic of a still life is that they give people the chance to look at objects that anyone would normally look past. An artist has the opportunity to make any regular object into a beautiful point of interest. There is something powerful in that, and something that demands respect. If you feel that certain paintings are lacking life, maybe look into adding some still life!
Creativity Through Home Art and Camaraderie
About a year ago three friends and I attended a Paint and Sip session. When you attend such an affair you pay a small fee and then receive a blank canvas, a tray of paints, a glass of wine (or two) or other beverage of your choice, and the opportunity to participate in 2-3 hours of "copy art". In copy art, the instructor tells you what to do, then s/he demonstrates and you copy. It is interesting and fun, especially for a novice painter such as myself, but it can become tedious if the instructor works at the pace of the slowest painter (not I!) and everyone waits and waits until each attendee is at the same point before the lesson continues. For a speed demon such as myself, this sluggish pace did not lead to creativity but rather the fatigue of non-participation and so I simply abandoned my leader and moved along at my own pace. With a finished product to replicate and occasion listening, I ended up with a fairly decent wine bottle representation with added touches, dashes, and flourishes of my own. The instructor, unfortunately, was not a teacher. She knew some techniques and she had obviously led this lesson several times in the past, but she was not attuned to her students. We plodded, she yapped; we waited and she yapped some more.
It was clear that the slowest painter was never going to finish but we patiently killed time just the same. During this "free" time the instructor filled any empty spots of air with criticism to her fledgling artists: "Too much color", "Stop trying to fix that mess", and "Please quit" were just a few of her remarks. Really makes you want to paint, doesn't it? But the class was still fun because I was with friends and dibbling around with colors is entertaining and critiquing non-teacher types is even more so. As a result I decided to host my own paint and sip with no pressure applied. Ten friends gathered at my home one evening excited to test this activity. Each easel was loaded with a clean canvas, water and brushes were at the ready, and an array of paint drops filled each pallet. I had a finished example to share so that I could explain what I had done, when and how, and also clarified some important steps like having a damp canvas, how to cover errors with white, tools available for special touches, and so forth. For those who were too nervous to self-launch, I led them step-by-step through the process.
For those who just wanted to plunge, I let them go with maximum freedom. As my friends painted, I wandered, offered advice, looked up other bottle shapes and backdrops on the Internet, and commended their efforts. While some replications were a bit on the mysterious side, like the command "draw a bottleneck approximately 1-inch wide" produced tiny traces and thin lines instead, but the idea was creativity and that was just how some translated my work to their canvas.
Others, with amazing vision, added dogwood blossoms, fancy wine bottle labels, and intricate designs with delicate shades. The inner personality was exposed along with imagination and magical conceptualizations in each painting. The finished products were fantastic. I recommend that you organize your own painting party soon. While first-time expenses are high because you will need to buy easels, paints, and brushes, the second go-round will only require more canvases. Practice the design first so that you have a good idea of what to paint and when, and then let the creative juices of others flow.
It was clear that the slowest painter was never going to finish but we patiently killed time just the same. During this "free" time the instructor filled any empty spots of air with criticism to her fledgling artists: "Too much color", "Stop trying to fix that mess", and "Please quit" were just a few of her remarks. Really makes you want to paint, doesn't it? But the class was still fun because I was with friends and dibbling around with colors is entertaining and critiquing non-teacher types is even more so. As a result I decided to host my own paint and sip with no pressure applied. Ten friends gathered at my home one evening excited to test this activity. Each easel was loaded with a clean canvas, water and brushes were at the ready, and an array of paint drops filled each pallet. I had a finished example to share so that I could explain what I had done, when and how, and also clarified some important steps like having a damp canvas, how to cover errors with white, tools available for special touches, and so forth. For those who were too nervous to self-launch, I led them step-by-step through the process.
For those who just wanted to plunge, I let them go with maximum freedom. As my friends painted, I wandered, offered advice, looked up other bottle shapes and backdrops on the Internet, and commended their efforts. While some replications were a bit on the mysterious side, like the command "draw a bottleneck approximately 1-inch wide" produced tiny traces and thin lines instead, but the idea was creativity and that was just how some translated my work to their canvas.
Others, with amazing vision, added dogwood blossoms, fancy wine bottle labels, and intricate designs with delicate shades. The inner personality was exposed along with imagination and magical conceptualizations in each painting. The finished products were fantastic. I recommend that you organize your own painting party soon. While first-time expenses are high because you will need to buy easels, paints, and brushes, the second go-round will only require more canvases. Practice the design first so that you have a good idea of what to paint and when, and then let the creative juices of others flow.
The Pedestal: A Misunderstood Art Form
As Hercules says in the Disney animation version "Rule number 15: a hero is only as good as his weapon!" A hero is strong and great on his or her own but without a weapon they are weak. Weapons give a hero a potent edge over enemies. Like a hero, a piece of art is strong and beautiful on its own but with a pedestal it can be accentuated to a further degree that audiences will not be able to resist looking at. A pedestal originates deep into the catacombs of history. Beginning as early as the Grecian time period, pedestals supported chiseled statues of gods, rulers, and other distinguished people. Pedestals continue to hold objects of great worth, value, creativity, design, and artistic prowess. Many artists agree that a work of art is only as good as its frame or pedestal. Paintings that lack beauty and a sense of design can be ten times better than usual if mounted to the right frame or balanced on a flattering pedestal. Choosing the right pedestal to go with artwork is an extension of the art itself.
A pedestal offers viewers the privilege of enjoying your art while, simultaneously, a pedestal functions as the final touch to your artwork; it makes your artwork complete. For example, quality watercolor paper is frayed and uneven on the edges. Artists usually cover the edges with masking tape about a half inch to an inch to avoid painting in those areas and to remind them of where the frame will be placed. It will give an artist an idea of the best spot to put their focal point on their painting adjacent to the frame. An artist even begins planning what frame colors go best with the painting he or she is working on. This same example can be applied to sculptures and pedestals as well. A sculpture is designed to sit on something. The bottom surface on a sculpture is flat in order to be placed on a flat surface.
An artist intends for his or her work of art be placed on a pedestal and not hung from the ceiling (unless they are specifically designed to be hung from a ceiling). As an artist sculpts, a general abstract idea is shaped into a physical and magnificent piece of artwork. An artist has to decide whether a pedestal is needed or if the art will be tall or large enough to stand on its own and not need a pedestal. Before an artist begins sculpting he or she will consider the color and design of their sculpture and pedestal and decide how they would best compliment each other. An artist relays a message through artwork and a pedestal completes that message. A pedestal flatters the theme of a sculpture. If a sculpture has smooth edges and is delicate an artist might consider placing it on a cylinder pedestal. If a sculpture is rough and has hard edges, an artist might lean toward a square pedestal. Although, this is not a strict rule every artist should follow.
Deciding what pedestal goes with what sculpture is dependent on what message the artist is trying to reveal. Neutral colored sculptures can be contrasted with a rich shade of brown or black pedestal, and in reverse a dark colored piece of art can be placed on top of a neutral colored pedestal. Again, it is dependent on what message the artist, or the buyer of the artwork, wants to relay to an audience or how they want that sculpture to fit a theme of a room. A piece of an artist's memory is captured in their art. An artist molds an idea into a canvas with strokes of paint or constructs a sculpture with creamy clay. It is as if an artist's imagination and creativity will live longer than he or she will and other individuals will enjoy their artwork for generations. A pedestal puts art on display to show full appreciation of the piece's value.
A pedestal offers viewers the privilege of enjoying your art while, simultaneously, a pedestal functions as the final touch to your artwork; it makes your artwork complete. For example, quality watercolor paper is frayed and uneven on the edges. Artists usually cover the edges with masking tape about a half inch to an inch to avoid painting in those areas and to remind them of where the frame will be placed. It will give an artist an idea of the best spot to put their focal point on their painting adjacent to the frame. An artist even begins planning what frame colors go best with the painting he or she is working on. This same example can be applied to sculptures and pedestals as well. A sculpture is designed to sit on something. The bottom surface on a sculpture is flat in order to be placed on a flat surface.
An artist intends for his or her work of art be placed on a pedestal and not hung from the ceiling (unless they are specifically designed to be hung from a ceiling). As an artist sculpts, a general abstract idea is shaped into a physical and magnificent piece of artwork. An artist has to decide whether a pedestal is needed or if the art will be tall or large enough to stand on its own and not need a pedestal. Before an artist begins sculpting he or she will consider the color and design of their sculpture and pedestal and decide how they would best compliment each other. An artist relays a message through artwork and a pedestal completes that message. A pedestal flatters the theme of a sculpture. If a sculpture has smooth edges and is delicate an artist might consider placing it on a cylinder pedestal. If a sculpture is rough and has hard edges, an artist might lean toward a square pedestal. Although, this is not a strict rule every artist should follow.
Deciding what pedestal goes with what sculpture is dependent on what message the artist is trying to reveal. Neutral colored sculptures can be contrasted with a rich shade of brown or black pedestal, and in reverse a dark colored piece of art can be placed on top of a neutral colored pedestal. Again, it is dependent on what message the artist, or the buyer of the artwork, wants to relay to an audience or how they want that sculpture to fit a theme of a room. A piece of an artist's memory is captured in their art. An artist molds an idea into a canvas with strokes of paint or constructs a sculpture with creamy clay. It is as if an artist's imagination and creativity will live longer than he or she will and other individuals will enjoy their artwork for generations. A pedestal puts art on display to show full appreciation of the piece's value.
Cotton Canvas VS Linen Canvas
What are canvases? Canvases are supports that are traditionally used by painters. The term 'canvas' is generally used to refer to the fabric that paint is applied to. Canvases have been used for many centuries by top painters and remain just as popular today. They're light, easy to transport and last a long while. One of the best things about canvases is that they can be used to create very large paintings. To make canvases, fibres are woven together and then either glued to a panel or stretched over a frame. There are lots of different types of canvas and each type has different properties. Cotton canvases Cotton is usually the cheaper of the two. It's able to be stretched very easily, though it's seen as too flexible to cope with larger paintings.
Many students and beginner painters choose to go for cotton as it's easier to get used to and it's less costly. Cotton can actually be stretched tighter than linen, though it doesn't tend to have as much permanence as linen; it also doesn't tend to be as strong or as heavy as linen. Cotton canvases are usually primed with an acrylic-based gesso, making it a better option for acrylic and watercolour paintings. However, cotton canvases are also very popular for oil paintings. Linen canvases Linen is usually more expensive than cotton because the material it's made of is of a higher quality. It's also more expensive because it tends to be more durable and stronger, providing painters with a painting surface that will have permanence and will therefore last.
The reason why linen is longer-lasting is because the threads it's made of weigh the same, so the chance of them expanding and contrasting because of moisture is very slim. This also means that linen is very tough and will not become slack as quickly as cotton does. One of the reasons why artists use linen so much is because there are lots of varieties of it: you can get lots of different textures and weights of this type of canvas available in both smooth and rough finishes.
Linen canvases are usually primed with an oil-based gesso, making it a better option for oil paintings. Which one should I go for? Both types of canvas have their advantages, so really it's all about budget. If you can afford to pay a bit more for your canvas, you should go for linen, as it will offer you a very good investment. However, if your budget isn't that high, cotton will still serve you very well. Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions.
Many students and beginner painters choose to go for cotton as it's easier to get used to and it's less costly. Cotton can actually be stretched tighter than linen, though it doesn't tend to have as much permanence as linen; it also doesn't tend to be as strong or as heavy as linen. Cotton canvases are usually primed with an acrylic-based gesso, making it a better option for acrylic and watercolour paintings. However, cotton canvases are also very popular for oil paintings. Linen canvases Linen is usually more expensive than cotton because the material it's made of is of a higher quality. It's also more expensive because it tends to be more durable and stronger, providing painters with a painting surface that will have permanence and will therefore last.
The reason why linen is longer-lasting is because the threads it's made of weigh the same, so the chance of them expanding and contrasting because of moisture is very slim. This also means that linen is very tough and will not become slack as quickly as cotton does. One of the reasons why artists use linen so much is because there are lots of varieties of it: you can get lots of different textures and weights of this type of canvas available in both smooth and rough finishes.
Linen canvases are usually primed with an oil-based gesso, making it a better option for oil paintings. Which one should I go for? Both types of canvas have their advantages, so really it's all about budget. If you can afford to pay a bit more for your canvas, you should go for linen, as it will offer you a very good investment. However, if your budget isn't that high, cotton will still serve you very well. Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions.
How Do You Tell When A Painting's Finished?
Have you run out of ideas? One of the simplest ways to tell if your painting's finished is if you've run out of ideas. Paintings are visual displays of your creative talent and ideas. If you can't think of anything else to add to your painting, it's time to move on to another project, to put it simply. If you're stuck for ideas, the best thing to do is to accept that your work is complete. If you don't accept your work is complete, you could end up adding things to your work that aren't really necessary; in other words, you could be coming up with ideas that aren't so good and adding them to your work just for the sake of it. Once you've run out of ideas, don't be tempted to go back and add more to your work, instead just leave it as it is.
Are you bored with your painting? Artists put a lot of passion and dedication into their works. Paintings can take a long time to complete and it's the artists' motivation that keeps them painting. However, it's perfectly possible to become bored with a painting, even if you started off being completely passionate about it. Sometimes as you get into completing a painting, the enthusiasm goes down. If you find yourself less enthusiastic about your painting - if you find yourself bored with it, let's say - then you should consider it finished, for now at least. Move on to something else - there's no point working on something if you're not passionate about it. Does it look finished? Try to see your painting from another person's perspective.
Would they consider it finished? If you're unsure whether your work is complete or not, simply ask other people what they think. If they don't think it's complete, ask them what's missing from the painting. If, on the other hand, they do think it's complete, then as long as you're happy with it as it is, you've got a finished painting on your hands. Of course, deciding whether your painting's complete is ultimately up to you and you alone, though it can be helpful to get opinions from other people.
When deciding on whether your painting looks finished, ask yourself these questions: does it have a clear subject matter? Are the shades and tones done effectively? Do the colours match the tone of the painting? Does everything tie in with the message I want viewers to pick up on? Revisiting a painting Remember there's no hard and fast rule that once you leave a painting, you can't go back to it. Loads of artists regularly put works to one side for a while and revisit them at a later stage. You may well consider a painting finished, only to revisit it a few months or so later to add some extra details you think would enhance its appeal. Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions.
Are you bored with your painting? Artists put a lot of passion and dedication into their works. Paintings can take a long time to complete and it's the artists' motivation that keeps them painting. However, it's perfectly possible to become bored with a painting, even if you started off being completely passionate about it. Sometimes as you get into completing a painting, the enthusiasm goes down. If you find yourself less enthusiastic about your painting - if you find yourself bored with it, let's say - then you should consider it finished, for now at least. Move on to something else - there's no point working on something if you're not passionate about it. Does it look finished? Try to see your painting from another person's perspective.
Would they consider it finished? If you're unsure whether your work is complete or not, simply ask other people what they think. If they don't think it's complete, ask them what's missing from the painting. If, on the other hand, they do think it's complete, then as long as you're happy with it as it is, you've got a finished painting on your hands. Of course, deciding whether your painting's complete is ultimately up to you and you alone, though it can be helpful to get opinions from other people.
When deciding on whether your painting looks finished, ask yourself these questions: does it have a clear subject matter? Are the shades and tones done effectively? Do the colours match the tone of the painting? Does everything tie in with the message I want viewers to pick up on? Revisiting a painting Remember there's no hard and fast rule that once you leave a painting, you can't go back to it. Loads of artists regularly put works to one side for a while and revisit them at a later stage. You may well consider a painting finished, only to revisit it a few months or so later to add some extra details you think would enhance its appeal. Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions.
Basic Color Palette of Acrylic Paint
There are many mediums available for an Artist to experiment with but I believe that Acrylic Paint is the best and easiest for beginners. Acrylic dries quickly and wash up in water. If you want to lengthen the time that it takes to dry, you can mix Extenders and Retarders. By extending the drying time of acrylic paint you can blend colors more easily with one another while you are working on an art project. Artists who paint model figures often use Extenders or retarders, Some Artists simply prefer Acrylic paints over other paints, but it takes a little more time to finish the work.
Acrylic Paint can be mixed with a huge range of media and you can add a variety or texture to your art by mixing other media to the paint. You can use sand, rice, pasta and salt or when the paint dries you can use pen, charcoal, pastels on the top of the paint to give a different texture. What colors do you need to start out? As we all know we can make a huge collection of colors by mixing red, blue and yellow and most of us like to squeeze colors directly from a tube. Here we list some colors to make up a good palette and you can add more colors you need. Cadmium Red - Cadmium red is a yellowish, warm red color and relatively opaque.
Phthalo Blue - It is an extremely versatile blue. It goes very dark when combined with burnt umber and, You can create a lighter blue by mixing it with white because of its high tinting strength. Titanium White - it is an opaque, bright white color with a strong tinting. Some manufacturers also provide a "mixing white", which is the most affordable and, as the name suggests, it is formulated to blend with other colors. Mars Black - It is a relatively opaque color and should be added to other colors in small quantities until you've got used to its strength. Another option is ivory black, but only if you're not squeamish about it being made from charred bones.
Cadmium Yellow - You can easily create a lighter yellow by adding white to this. Remember that if you want to darken yellow to try adding its complements colors, purple, rather than black. Purple - Buy a very dark purple because you can waste a lot of paint trying to mix one. Orange - Make Orange by mixing red and yellow and you can also buy ready made orange color in a tube. Phthalo Green - Phthalo green is a bright and bluish green.
You can get a variety of shades of greens by mixing it with cadmium yellow. Paynes Gray - It is a versatile, transparent dark blue-gray made from a mixture of black and blue with some red. Yellow or golden ocher - It is a yellowish brown, golden and glorious color. Raw titanium - It is a deep cream useful for mixing with burnt umber to create skin tones. Art shed has a large collection of art materials. We focus on providing a high quality of art supplies at a reasonable price to all customers.We are regularly providing discount and offers to our customers on different art supplies for limited period. From our online store you can buy any best art material such as Acrylic Paint, Oil Paint, Watercolor paint etc.with fastest home delivery services.
Acrylic Paint can be mixed with a huge range of media and you can add a variety or texture to your art by mixing other media to the paint. You can use sand, rice, pasta and salt or when the paint dries you can use pen, charcoal, pastels on the top of the paint to give a different texture. What colors do you need to start out? As we all know we can make a huge collection of colors by mixing red, blue and yellow and most of us like to squeeze colors directly from a tube. Here we list some colors to make up a good palette and you can add more colors you need. Cadmium Red - Cadmium red is a yellowish, warm red color and relatively opaque.
Phthalo Blue - It is an extremely versatile blue. It goes very dark when combined with burnt umber and, You can create a lighter blue by mixing it with white because of its high tinting strength. Titanium White - it is an opaque, bright white color with a strong tinting. Some manufacturers also provide a "mixing white", which is the most affordable and, as the name suggests, it is formulated to blend with other colors. Mars Black - It is a relatively opaque color and should be added to other colors in small quantities until you've got used to its strength. Another option is ivory black, but only if you're not squeamish about it being made from charred bones.
Cadmium Yellow - You can easily create a lighter yellow by adding white to this. Remember that if you want to darken yellow to try adding its complements colors, purple, rather than black. Purple - Buy a very dark purple because you can waste a lot of paint trying to mix one. Orange - Make Orange by mixing red and yellow and you can also buy ready made orange color in a tube. Phthalo Green - Phthalo green is a bright and bluish green.
You can get a variety of shades of greens by mixing it with cadmium yellow. Paynes Gray - It is a versatile, transparent dark blue-gray made from a mixture of black and blue with some red. Yellow or golden ocher - It is a yellowish brown, golden and glorious color. Raw titanium - It is a deep cream useful for mixing with burnt umber to create skin tones. Art shed has a large collection of art materials. We focus on providing a high quality of art supplies at a reasonable price to all customers.We are regularly providing discount and offers to our customers on different art supplies for limited period. From our online store you can buy any best art material such as Acrylic Paint, Oil Paint, Watercolor paint etc.with fastest home delivery services.
Painting Supplies For Beginners
Colours You may find yourself overwhelmed at how many paint colours are available. The number seems to be growing every day! The good thing is that with just over half a dozen colours, you can create pretty much any colour. A good selection of colours for beginner painters is as follows: - Cadmium yellow medium - Cadmium red medium - Burnt umber - Burnt sienna - Phthalo green - Phthalo blue - Purple - Titanium white - Mars black Of course there are no limitations; this is just a sample of colours that you could use.
By all means you can add colours such as purple, grey and brown into the mix. The colors given should provide a beginner with a perfectly good range of colours to use when painting. Palette A very useful type of palette you can use is the disposable palette. It's great for beginners because it's cheap and once you've used it once, you can throw it away. Alternatively, there are 'stay wet' palettes, which are especially designed to be long-lasting. These 'stay wet' palettes are also designed to be very light and easy to carry round. Brush Brushes come in all shapes and sizes.
Most painters are able to use a single brush for their paintings. As a beginner, you might want to try out a few different shapes and sizes to see which one suits you best. Generally speaking, you should go for a thin brush if you're doing a painting that has lots of detail to and a larger brush if you're doing a larger painting with less fine detail. Support A support is the surface you apply your paint on to. Supports can be practically anything, from glass and wood to cardboard and, of course, canvas. Beginner painters should try canvas for their support. As with other painting supplies, there are loads of different types of canvas available.
Buying a pre-prepared, pre-primed canvas will save you the hassle of preparing and priming the canvas yourself. Other bits and bobs As well as the supplies mentioned above, it's handy to have a few other bits and bobs when painting. You'll need things such as kitchen roll, a paper town or an old rag to help you clean up any mess afterwards. Have a pencil and rubber so you can do some light sketching to plan your painting out. You'll also need a jar or glass of water to dip your brushes in and some soap to clean your brushes out once you've finished painting. Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions.
By all means you can add colours such as purple, grey and brown into the mix. The colors given should provide a beginner with a perfectly good range of colours to use when painting. Palette A very useful type of palette you can use is the disposable palette. It's great for beginners because it's cheap and once you've used it once, you can throw it away. Alternatively, there are 'stay wet' palettes, which are especially designed to be long-lasting. These 'stay wet' palettes are also designed to be very light and easy to carry round. Brush Brushes come in all shapes and sizes.
Most painters are able to use a single brush for their paintings. As a beginner, you might want to try out a few different shapes and sizes to see which one suits you best. Generally speaking, you should go for a thin brush if you're doing a painting that has lots of detail to and a larger brush if you're doing a larger painting with less fine detail. Support A support is the surface you apply your paint on to. Supports can be practically anything, from glass and wood to cardboard and, of course, canvas. Beginner painters should try canvas for their support. As with other painting supplies, there are loads of different types of canvas available.
Buying a pre-prepared, pre-primed canvas will save you the hassle of preparing and priming the canvas yourself. Other bits and bobs As well as the supplies mentioned above, it's handy to have a few other bits and bobs when painting. You'll need things such as kitchen roll, a paper town or an old rag to help you clean up any mess afterwards. Have a pencil and rubber so you can do some light sketching to plan your painting out. You'll also need a jar or glass of water to dip your brushes in and some soap to clean your brushes out once you've finished painting. Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions.
An Overview Of Oil Paint
Components Oil paint is usually made up of three different components: a pigment, a binder and a thinner. The pigment is the colour element and is a ground-up powder. The binder is a liquid substance that holds the pigment together. Once the pigment and binder have been mixed together, the thinner is added. What the thinner does is it makes the paint easier to apply to a support with a brush. Many of these paints contain other additives to give it extra properties or to make it dry more quickly. These additives, also known as 'mediums', can be mixed in with the paint or they can be applied to the paint once it's on the support.
Drying speed One of oil paint's main properties is that it is very slow to dry. Once you've applied the paint, you should have about 12 hours to manipulate it. Usually you'll have to wait three days or so for one coat to dry before you can apply another coat. You can apply as many layers of oil paint to your painting as you want, so long as you let the paint dry enough in between coats. For an oil painting to completely dry out, it should take three to six months. Once an oil painting has completely dried out, you'll then be able to apply varnish to it to protect it from dust and other particles. Application and supports The flexibility of oils means they can be applied to supports in numerous ways. In fact, you can use practically any implement to apply this type of paint to your support.
As well as brushes, you can very easily apply oil paint to supports with implements such as a palette knife, or even finer implements like toothpicks for extra fine detail. You can apply oil paint to a variety of supports; artists usually go for canvas, specially prepared paper, a hard wooden or metallic board or even panels. Advantages Oil paint has many advantages, which is why it's been the paint of choice for many artists over the years. The slow drying time allows painters much more time to get their paintings exactly how they want them. It gives more time for applying different techniques, blending and layering. Oils provide a much wider range of colours, tones and shades; once oils have dried, their colours tend to be long-lasting.
When painting with oils, if you make a mistake, you can easily remove it with a wet rag or a palette knife and start over. Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions. For more information about Joanne, her work and her current projects visit: [http://joannesberkshirescenes.com/default.aspx]. Joanne can be found on Facebook.
Drying speed One of oil paint's main properties is that it is very slow to dry. Once you've applied the paint, you should have about 12 hours to manipulate it. Usually you'll have to wait three days or so for one coat to dry before you can apply another coat. You can apply as many layers of oil paint to your painting as you want, so long as you let the paint dry enough in between coats. For an oil painting to completely dry out, it should take three to six months. Once an oil painting has completely dried out, you'll then be able to apply varnish to it to protect it from dust and other particles. Application and supports The flexibility of oils means they can be applied to supports in numerous ways. In fact, you can use practically any implement to apply this type of paint to your support.
As well as brushes, you can very easily apply oil paint to supports with implements such as a palette knife, or even finer implements like toothpicks for extra fine detail. You can apply oil paint to a variety of supports; artists usually go for canvas, specially prepared paper, a hard wooden or metallic board or even panels. Advantages Oil paint has many advantages, which is why it's been the paint of choice for many artists over the years. The slow drying time allows painters much more time to get their paintings exactly how they want them. It gives more time for applying different techniques, blending and layering. Oils provide a much wider range of colours, tones and shades; once oils have dried, their colours tend to be long-lasting.
When painting with oils, if you make a mistake, you can easily remove it with a wet rag or a palette knife and start over. Joanne Perkins is a Berkshire-based artist with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She specialises in painting Berkshire landscapes and loves capturing the natural beauty of her local countryside. She is happy to accept all queries and questions. For more information about Joanne, her work and her current projects visit: [http://joannesberkshirescenes.com/default.aspx]. Joanne can be found on Facebook.
Tuesday, 19 June 2018
Why we should care more about who our future teachers will be
By No�mie Le Donn�
Analyst, Directorate for Education and Skills
�What would you like to be when you grow up?� is not only an adult�s favourite icebreaker when speaking with children � it's also a key consideration for policy makers who truly care about students� futures. This is especially true when the answer to the question is: �I want to be a teacher.�
Faced with teacher shortages, recruitment challenges, and concerns about the social standing of the teaching profession, policy makers need to design strategies to attract more, better-qualified candidates to the teaching profession. But before doing that, they need to know who tomorrow�s teachers might be.
In 2015, the PISA survey asked 15-year-old students the following forward-looking question: �What kind of job do you expect to have when you are about 30 years old?� Our new report, Effective Teacher Policies: Insights from PISA, reveals some enlightening findings.
On average across OECD countries, about 4.4% of 15-year-old students expect to work as teachers. By comparison, the number of teachers in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education represents about 2.4% of the labour force across OECD countries. This means that the share of students expecting a teaching career is generally larger than the share of working-age people who are actually teaching today.
This suggests that education systems could do more to encourage students to pursue a career in teaching. Teaching�s initial popularity among school-age children is not that surprising considering that the profession, like healthcare, enjoys one clear advantage over other occupations: all 15-year-olds know that this occupation exists. They have all had some contact with teachers, and they have at least a general idea of what they do and what their working conditions are like.
Interestingly, the skill gap between students who expect a career in teaching and those who expect a career as professionals tends to be larger in low-performing countries. In other words, there seems to be an opportunity for a virtuous cycle: highly skilled teachers are needed to meet the challenge of educating future generations, while also attracting more motivated candidates to the profession. At the same time, the more an education system is able to raise the skills of its students, the more likely it is to create future generations of highly skilled teachers.
School systems often aim to recruit their teachers out of the same pool from which all of the top professionals are recruited. But people who see themselves as candidates for those professions, and are attracted to the working conditions enjoyed by professionals, might not find what they�re looking for in schools that use an overly bureaucratic management structure to direct teachers� work.
Transforming the work organisation of schools, involving teachers in school decision making and enhancing their leadership responsibilities are at least as important as increasing teacher salaries. Media campaigns to enhance the image of the profession � by highlighting its importance for the nation, its sophistication and complexity, and the intellectual excitement it can generate � can also be a great help.
�What would you like to be when you grow up?� is no throwaway question. The answers are symptomatic of the virtuous or vicious nature of the education cycle in a given system. So what can policy makers do to enter or pursue a virtuous cycle? Our new report on effective teacher policies discusses this and recommends important levers for promoting teaching as a demanding, rewarding and fulfilling profession.
Learn more
Analyst, Directorate for Education and Skills
Image credit: Education and Employers, "Drawing the Future"
�What would you like to be when you grow up?� is not only an adult�s favourite icebreaker when speaking with children � it's also a key consideration for policy makers who truly care about students� futures. This is especially true when the answer to the question is: �I want to be a teacher.�
Faced with teacher shortages, recruitment challenges, and concerns about the social standing of the teaching profession, policy makers need to design strategies to attract more, better-qualified candidates to the teaching profession. But before doing that, they need to know who tomorrow�s teachers might be.
In 2015, the PISA survey asked 15-year-old students the following forward-looking question: �What kind of job do you expect to have when you are about 30 years old?� Our new report, Effective Teacher Policies: Insights from PISA, reveals some enlightening findings.
On average across OECD countries, about 4.4% of 15-year-old students expect to work as teachers. By comparison, the number of teachers in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education represents about 2.4% of the labour force across OECD countries. This means that the share of students expecting a teaching career is generally larger than the share of working-age people who are actually teaching today.
This suggests that education systems could do more to encourage students to pursue a career in teaching. Teaching�s initial popularity among school-age children is not that surprising considering that the profession, like healthcare, enjoys one clear advantage over other occupations: all 15-year-olds know that this occupation exists. They have all had some contact with teachers, and they have at least a general idea of what they do and what their working conditions are like.
The more an education system is able to raise the skills of its students, the more likely it is to create future generations of highly skilled teachers.At the same time, about 46% of students in OECD countries expect to pursue a career as some other type of non-teaching professional: high-status jobs that typically require a university degree, such as doctors and lawyers. Yet in many countries, students who expect to work as teachers have poorer mathematics and reading skills than those who expect to work in these other professions.
Interestingly, the skill gap between students who expect a career in teaching and those who expect a career as professionals tends to be larger in low-performing countries. In other words, there seems to be an opportunity for a virtuous cycle: highly skilled teachers are needed to meet the challenge of educating future generations, while also attracting more motivated candidates to the profession. At the same time, the more an education system is able to raise the skills of its students, the more likely it is to create future generations of highly skilled teachers.
School systems often aim to recruit their teachers out of the same pool from which all of the top professionals are recruited. But people who see themselves as candidates for those professions, and are attracted to the working conditions enjoyed by professionals, might not find what they�re looking for in schools that use an overly bureaucratic management structure to direct teachers� work.
Transforming the work organisation of schools, involving teachers in school decision making and enhancing their leadership responsibilities are at least as important as increasing teacher salaries. Media campaigns to enhance the image of the profession � by highlighting its importance for the nation, its sophistication and complexity, and the intellectual excitement it can generate � can also be a great help.
�What would you like to be when you grow up?� is no throwaway question. The answers are symptomatic of the virtuous or vicious nature of the education cycle in a given system. So what can policy makers do to enter or pursue a virtuous cycle? Our new report on effective teacher policies discusses this and recommends important levers for promoting teaching as a demanding, rewarding and fulfilling profession.
Learn more
Monday, 18 June 2018
How can technology support teaching and learning more effectively?
By Marc Fuster Rabella
Consultant, Directorate for Education and Skills
When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century, it marked one of the most revolutionary technological developments in human history. Gutenberg�s invention allowed for the universalisation of knowledge and the rapid spread of new ideas. However, whenever an artefact serves to disseminate both good and bad ideas alike, it cannot be considered an absolute benefit.
For better or worse, technology intervenes in most, if not all aspects of our lives. When it comes to the link between education and technology, there are at least two important considerations to make. How can schools and teachers help students improve the outcomes of their use of technology? What are the ways in which technology can support teaching and learning more effectively? We address these and related questions in our latest Trends Shaping Education Spotlight.
The first question revolves around what students should learn in a world that is increasingly influenced by technology. A common response consists in focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). This makes sense from a labour market perspective, considering the current and projected growth of sectors such as biotechnology, computer science and software, renewable energy or medical and personal care. Yet a narrow focus on STEM learning may not be enough.
There are multiple paths to STEM occupations that don�t require qualifications in STEM; and even the most technologically advanced industries require workers with strong mixes of skills, including social and emotional skills, and multilingual and multicultural competencies. Addressing gender-based prejudices and stereotypes is a particularly crucial issue, as these prevent many girls and women from engaging in STEM education and careers.
When thinking about the future of work, it is important to bear in mind that current students might be preparing for jobs that do not even exist yet. OECD projections show that in less than a decade, computers will be capable of performing tasks carried out daily by more than 50% of today�s workforce. We must therefore pay greater attention to life-long learning and rethink the links between education and work, in order to articulate a whole-of-society effort that guarantees access to skilling, up-skilling and re skilling opportunities.
A number of issues related to personal and social development emerge in a heavily digitised world, as well. Technology creates opportunities and risks alike. For example, wider access to information eases learning, but it also enables the spread of low-quality and unreliable information. The use of social media makes it easier to connect with friends at any time, yet it simultaneously exposes a great deal of personal data to unwarranted use, and facilitates more pervasive forms of bullying and harassment.
Students across OECD countries need to develop resilience to these risks. It is important to support their engagement in and motivation towards positive ICT uses, and their development of strong digital skills. Enabling strategies, rather than bans and limitations, is the most effective way for students to deal with risks both at home and at school. Fairness is a key consideration here, as schools might have to compensate for students who do not receive such support at home.
Apart from education on using technology, how can education systems harness technology to improve teaching and learning? Adaptive learning systems are one example of impressive advances in so-called �edTech� applications. Increasingly reliant on big data, these systems support students in managing their own learning experiences with more autonomy, and free up time for teachers to better plan, prepare and develop classroom activities.
Another example is the use of increasingly sophisticated virtual environments such as games, simulations and virtual worlds. These provide low-cost opportunities for more situated and collaborative learning, sometimes where they did not exist before � think of home-schooled children accessing virtual labs through virtual reality devices.
Despite the inherent potential of such technologies, putting them to work depends on finding the right interplay among the different elements that influence student learning. These include learning goals, available technologies, students� prior knowledge and learning needs, and the context in which teaching and learning develop.
In this respect, different forms of ICT use, digital skills and attitudes towards technology are as important for students as they are for teachers. Using technology effectively in the classroom requires teachers to have access to training, practice and peer collaboration, in order for them to coherently integrate integrate content, technological and pedagogical knowledge.
Ultimately, technology reflects and even amplifies what happens in everyday life � whether in our personal, professional or civic capacities. Positive technology use is built on skilled users who anchor their practice in ethical attitudes and behaviours, and education has a lot to say about that. As the technology philosopher Jaron Lanier says about the printing press, �people, not machines, made the Renaissance�.
Learn more:
Consultant, Directorate for Education and Skills
Photo credit: John Schnobrich/Unsplash
When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century, it marked one of the most revolutionary technological developments in human history. Gutenberg�s invention allowed for the universalisation of knowledge and the rapid spread of new ideas. However, whenever an artefact serves to disseminate both good and bad ideas alike, it cannot be considered an absolute benefit.
For better or worse, technology intervenes in most, if not all aspects of our lives. When it comes to the link between education and technology, there are at least two important considerations to make. How can schools and teachers help students improve the outcomes of their use of technology? What are the ways in which technology can support teaching and learning more effectively? We address these and related questions in our latest Trends Shaping Education Spotlight.
The first question revolves around what students should learn in a world that is increasingly influenced by technology. A common response consists in focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). This makes sense from a labour market perspective, considering the current and projected growth of sectors such as biotechnology, computer science and software, renewable energy or medical and personal care. Yet a narrow focus on STEM learning may not be enough.
There are multiple paths to STEM occupations that don�t require qualifications in STEM; and even the most technologically advanced industries require workers with strong mixes of skills, including social and emotional skills, and multilingual and multicultural competencies. Addressing gender-based prejudices and stereotypes is a particularly crucial issue, as these prevent many girls and women from engaging in STEM education and careers.
When thinking about the future of work, it is important to bear in mind that current students might be preparing for jobs that do not even exist yet. OECD projections show that in less than a decade, computers will be capable of performing tasks carried out daily by more than 50% of today�s workforce. We must therefore pay greater attention to life-long learning and rethink the links between education and work, in order to articulate a whole-of-society effort that guarantees access to skilling, up-skilling and re skilling opportunities.
A number of issues related to personal and social development emerge in a heavily digitised world, as well. Technology creates opportunities and risks alike. For example, wider access to information eases learning, but it also enables the spread of low-quality and unreliable information. The use of social media makes it easier to connect with friends at any time, yet it simultaneously exposes a great deal of personal data to unwarranted use, and facilitates more pervasive forms of bullying and harassment.
Students across OECD countries need to develop resilience to these risks. It is important to support their engagement in and motivation towards positive ICT uses, and their development of strong digital skills. Enabling strategies, rather than bans and limitations, is the most effective way for students to deal with risks both at home and at school. Fairness is a key consideration here, as schools might have to compensate for students who do not receive such support at home.
Apart from education on using technology, how can education systems harness technology to improve teaching and learning? Adaptive learning systems are one example of impressive advances in so-called �edTech� applications. Increasingly reliant on big data, these systems support students in managing their own learning experiences with more autonomy, and free up time for teachers to better plan, prepare and develop classroom activities.
Another example is the use of increasingly sophisticated virtual environments such as games, simulations and virtual worlds. These provide low-cost opportunities for more situated and collaborative learning, sometimes where they did not exist before � think of home-schooled children accessing virtual labs through virtual reality devices.
Despite the inherent potential of such technologies, putting them to work depends on finding the right interplay among the different elements that influence student learning. These include learning goals, available technologies, students� prior knowledge and learning needs, and the context in which teaching and learning develop.
In this respect, different forms of ICT use, digital skills and attitudes towards technology are as important for students as they are for teachers. Using technology effectively in the classroom requires teachers to have access to training, practice and peer collaboration, in order for them to coherently integrate integrate content, technological and pedagogical knowledge.
Ultimately, technology reflects and even amplifies what happens in everyday life � whether in our personal, professional or civic capacities. Positive technology use is built on skilled users who anchor their practice in ethical attitudes and behaviours, and education has a lot to say about that. As the technology philosopher Jaron Lanier says about the printing press, �people, not machines, made the Renaissance�.
Learn more:
- Trends Shaping Education Spotlight 15
- OECD Skills Outlook 2017
- Computers and the Future of Skill Demand
- Teaching for the Future: Effective Practices to Transform Education
- Teachers as Designers of Learning Environments
Friday, 15 June 2018
Improving learning spaces by empowering school users
By Andreas Schleicher
Director, Directorate for Education and Skills
During a trip to Finland in the middle of winter, I visited a school where all the students left their snow boots in the school lobby and walked around in their socks for the rest of the day. I had a similar experience in New Zealand, where barefoot students are a common sight in warmer months. In each case, the students clearly felt as comfortable in their schools as they would in their living rooms. While fundamental, we need to do more than just ensure the comfort and safety of students in schools. The bigger challenge is to foster an effective learning environment that supports students in building the portfolio of knowledge and skills they will need to thrive in the 21st century.
When visiting schools all over the world, I�ve witnessed many instances of students and teachers re-arranging their physical environment � both inside and outside school buildings � to suit their learning objectives and teaching practices. In some cases, the school building and its grounds had clearly been designed to be responsive to changing user requirements. Too often, though, it was apparent that the needs of students, teachers, staff and school leaders were simply an afterthought.
The potential impact of user-centred design is substantial if we pause to consider that by the time students in OECD countries reach 15 years-old, they will have spent on average over 7,500 hours inside a school building. The same holds true for their teachers and school leaders who are regularly obliged to adapt to existing layouts in schools, rather than being empowered to actively shape them.
We often overlook the importance of building and renovating physical learning spaces in a way that positively supports � rather than actively impedes � the introduction of innovative pedagogy, curricula and technologies.
Today, we are pleased to launch the OECD School User Survey: Improving learning spaces together, which gives voice to those who use schools on a daily basis. This unique OECD tool consists of three self-assessment questionnaires designed for students, teachers and school leaders. They can be used to collect and triangulate evidence on the actual use of learning spaces, and to solicit user perspectives, as well.
The OECD School User Survey focuses on five areas related to the learning spaces in schools:
We hope that this tool will be useful to school leaders, teachers, local authorities, school facilities managers and national governments around the world as they seek to maximise the educational impact of their investments in building and refurbishing physical learning environments. By making this survey tool freely available in the public domain, we would like to encourage schools around the world to experiment with, learn from and share their survey results with their peers.
Our next step will be to explore options for making the OECD School User Survey available online in multilingual versions. For ultimately, our goal is not just to make better use of limited education resources and existing school buildings � it is to improve the learning outcomes and well-being of students everywhere.
Director, Directorate for Education and Skills
When visiting schools all over the world, I�ve witnessed many instances of students and teachers re-arranging their physical environment � both inside and outside school buildings � to suit their learning objectives and teaching practices. In some cases, the school building and its grounds had clearly been designed to be responsive to changing user requirements. Too often, though, it was apparent that the needs of students, teachers, staff and school leaders were simply an afterthought.
The potential impact of user-centred design is substantial if we pause to consider that by the time students in OECD countries reach 15 years-old, they will have spent on average over 7,500 hours inside a school building. The same holds true for their teachers and school leaders who are regularly obliged to adapt to existing layouts in schools, rather than being empowered to actively shape them.
We often overlook the importance of building and renovating physical learning spaces in a way that positively supports � rather than actively impedes � the introduction of innovative pedagogy, curricula and technologies.
Schools are more than just places of learning for children � they are workplaces, too.Schools are more than just places of learning for children � they are workplaces, too. The adults who breathe life into a school building and have chosen to spend their careers building a vibrant learning community within its walls are under increasing pressure to meet ever-rising expectations from parents, school districts and society at large. Responding adequately will require the teaching profession to devote more time to peer-learning, mentoring and professional development, which is largely conducted on-site and grounded in their daily work. So school buildings also need to offer appropriate spaces for teachers to collaborate, learn and innovate together in multidisciplinary teams � yet they too often fail to meet this expectation.
Today, we are pleased to launch the OECD School User Survey: Improving learning spaces together, which gives voice to those who use schools on a daily basis. This unique OECD tool consists of three self-assessment questionnaires designed for students, teachers and school leaders. They can be used to collect and triangulate evidence on the actual use of learning spaces, and to solicit user perspectives, as well.
The OECD School User Survey focuses on five areas related to the learning spaces in schools:
- Physical environment and its use
- Use of technology
- Comfort and safety
- Perceptions of learning environments
- Overall satisfaction with the school facilities
We hope that this tool will be useful to school leaders, teachers, local authorities, school facilities managers and national governments around the world as they seek to maximise the educational impact of their investments in building and refurbishing physical learning environments. By making this survey tool freely available in the public domain, we would like to encourage schools around the world to experiment with, learn from and share their survey results with their peers.
Our next step will be to explore options for making the OECD School User Survey available online in multilingual versions. For ultimately, our goal is not just to make better use of limited education resources and existing school buildings � it is to improve the learning outcomes and well-being of students everywhere.
Tuesday, 12 June 2018
How to Get Ready for A Studio Photoshoot
Typically, backdrops come in the form of a big roll of whatever fabric you choose to get, such as velvet, and felt. The colors of fabric that I would recommend for a backdrop would be either black, grey or white depending on what the model is wearing. Another thing to consider is using a green screen and changing the color of the background later in Photoshop. Black velvet is always a good choice because it has a quality where it can absorb light, giving a nice rich, darker black. To set up the backdrop you need a strong enough stand to support or over hang from the ceiling it.
The main light has to be placed in a very specific position in comparison to the model. The angle, height, and distance of the main light are vital to getting the right look. You do not want this light in the models eyes or from a side angle. It also needs to be placed at a good height so you are not casting shadows on the models face. With this light you need to use a diffuser or a soft box to help decrease the darkness of the shadows in the picture.
A hair light is a second light that sits in a specific position. Basically, the hair light is placed behind the model for a few reasons. To use this light correctly attach a snoot to it. A snoot is an attachment to the light that helps direct the light to a specific spot on the model; in this case it is for the hair. The camera, you need to connect your camera with the studio lights so everything flashes in the right connections. There are a couple of was to handle the camera for a photo shoot. One of the ways is to put it on a tripod and keep the camera stationary. By doing that you will help eliminate blur and you can find a sweet spot to stay at. Another way is by just holding the camera and creating different angles while the shoot is happening.
The reflector is used to bounce light onto the models features from the main light. There are a few different types of reflector; you could use a white, black, gold and silver colored reflector. You would want to use a white reflector when the area you are taking a picture in does not have enough light. A black reflector would be used to take away light when there is too much shine washing out the model. A gold/silver reflector is for the happy medium, but find what works best for you and best for the situation in general. Finally, the model is the last thing you need to use the studio set up that you have. For someone just starting I would recommend starting with a family member or a friend.
The main light has to be placed in a very specific position in comparison to the model. The angle, height, and distance of the main light are vital to getting the right look. You do not want this light in the models eyes or from a side angle. It also needs to be placed at a good height so you are not casting shadows on the models face. With this light you need to use a diffuser or a soft box to help decrease the darkness of the shadows in the picture.
A hair light is a second light that sits in a specific position. Basically, the hair light is placed behind the model for a few reasons. To use this light correctly attach a snoot to it. A snoot is an attachment to the light that helps direct the light to a specific spot on the model; in this case it is for the hair. The camera, you need to connect your camera with the studio lights so everything flashes in the right connections. There are a couple of was to handle the camera for a photo shoot. One of the ways is to put it on a tripod and keep the camera stationary. By doing that you will help eliminate blur and you can find a sweet spot to stay at. Another way is by just holding the camera and creating different angles while the shoot is happening.
The reflector is used to bounce light onto the models features from the main light. There are a few different types of reflector; you could use a white, black, gold and silver colored reflector. You would want to use a white reflector when the area you are taking a picture in does not have enough light. A black reflector would be used to take away light when there is too much shine washing out the model. A gold/silver reflector is for the happy medium, but find what works best for you and best for the situation in general. Finally, the model is the last thing you need to use the studio set up that you have. For someone just starting I would recommend starting with a family member or a friend.
Monday, 11 June 2018
What can PISA tell us about teacher policies?
By Francesco Avvisati
Analyst, Directorate for Education and Skills
Teachers are the most important resource in today�s schools. Teacher salaries and training represent the greatest share of education spending in every country, and for good reason: students who are taught by the best teachers have much higher chances of succeeding in learning and life. It should come as no surprise, then, that policy makers across the world have focused greater attention on teaching, as they strive to improve student learning and make education more equitable and inclusive.
A new report published today aims to guide policy-makers in their quest for effective teacher policies by analysing data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other OECD databases. Our report, Effective Teacher Policies: Insights from PISA, examines how the best-performing countries select, develop, evaluate and compensate teachers; how teacher sorting across schools affects the equity of education systems; and how countries can attract and retain talented candidates to the teaching profession.
The report also finds that in some countries, teachers truly are seen as lifelong learners, who constantly seek to improve their practice with support from principals and colleagues. High-performing countries such as Australia and Singapore help teachers bridge between theory and practice with a mandatory and extended period of practical classroom training at the start of their career. These countries cultivate a habit of inquiry and reflection throughout teachers� careers, as well � for example, through school workshops to address major issues or by using teacher evaluation instruments to develop a learning plan for all teachers.
And contrary to popular belief, our report shows that high-performing systems do not enjoy a natural privilege simply due to a traditional respect for teachers. These systems have also developed a high-quality teaching force through deliberate policy choices that were carefully implemented over time. There is, in other words, no room to feel complacent or resigned about the education system of any country. As our report shows, it is entirely within our means to attract, retain and develop high-quality teachers, and to deploy the best teachers where the challenges are greatest, thereby redressing the inequities that limit opportunities for so many students.
Learn more:
Analyst, Directorate for Education and Skills
Photo credit: Jeffrey Hamilton/Unsplash
Teachers are the most important resource in today�s schools. Teacher salaries and training represent the greatest share of education spending in every country, and for good reason: students who are taught by the best teachers have much higher chances of succeeding in learning and life. It should come as no surprise, then, that policy makers across the world have focused greater attention on teaching, as they strive to improve student learning and make education more equitable and inclusive.
A new report published today aims to guide policy-makers in their quest for effective teacher policies by analysing data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other OECD databases. Our report, Effective Teacher Policies: Insights from PISA, examines how the best-performing countries select, develop, evaluate and compensate teachers; how teacher sorting across schools affects the equity of education systems; and how countries can attract and retain talented candidates to the teaching profession.
It is entirely within our means to attract, retain and develop high-quality teachers.The report shows that not all students have equal access to high-quality teaching, and that this inequality can explain much of the learning gaps observed between the most advantaged and disadvantaged students � both within and across countries. (See this month�s PISA in Focus for more.) In about half of the 69 countries and economies examined, teachers in schools with high concentrations of disadvantaged students tend to have lower qualifications or credentials than teachers in the most advantaged schools. And in education systems where this is observed � including France, Italy, the Netherlands and the public school system in the United States � the gap in student performance related to socio-economic status tends to be wider than in countries such as Canada, Finland, Japan, or Korea, where teacher qualifications, credentials and experience are more balanced across schools.
The report also finds that in some countries, teachers truly are seen as lifelong learners, who constantly seek to improve their practice with support from principals and colleagues. High-performing countries such as Australia and Singapore help teachers bridge between theory and practice with a mandatory and extended period of practical classroom training at the start of their career. These countries cultivate a habit of inquiry and reflection throughout teachers� careers, as well � for example, through school workshops to address major issues or by using teacher evaluation instruments to develop a learning plan for all teachers.
And contrary to popular belief, our report shows that high-performing systems do not enjoy a natural privilege simply due to a traditional respect for teachers. These systems have also developed a high-quality teaching force through deliberate policy choices that were carefully implemented over time. There is, in other words, no room to feel complacent or resigned about the education system of any country. As our report shows, it is entirely within our means to attract, retain and develop high-quality teachers, and to deploy the best teachers where the challenges are greatest, thereby redressing the inequities that limit opportunities for so many students.
Learn more:
- Effective Teacher Policies: Insights from PISA
- PISA in Focus no. 85: In which countries do the most highly qualified and experienced teachers teach in the most difficult schools?
Thursday, 7 June 2018
Royal Society books shortlist: Cancer Chronicles by George Johnson
A existence-maintaining and reassuring analysis that treats cancer as a subject of observe for the natural historian and social scientist
Fowl science author george johnson�s partner nancy become recognized as having cancer, he reacted in a surprising way. He determined to gather as much records as he may want to approximately the situation, and examine how plenty technology has learned approximately most cancers in recent years and the risks that the situation poses to our lives today. The end result is a gentle, life-maintaining, slightly reassuring analysis of a much-feared situation, one that treats cancer now not just a medical circumstance that requires treatment but as a topic of take a look at for the historian, the herbal historian and the social scientist.
For a begin, there may be a clear hierarchy inside the animal global when it comes to most cancers, johnson famous. �mammals appear to get more cancer than reptiles or fish, which in turn get greater most cancers than amphibians,� he observes. �domesticated animals appear to get more cancer than their cousins within the wild. And those get the maximum cancer of all.�
This human vulnerability mirrors our fears and studies within the 21stcentury. As infectious diseases had been eliminated from the west, and lifespans have lengthened dramatically, more deaths at the moment are being attributed to cancer � which, chiefly, is a disease of old age. (around seventy seven% of cancer is diagnosed in those who are fifty five years or older, johnson tells us.) accordingly we have far extra to fear from cancer today than we did 200 years in the past.
Sign up for bookmarks: find out new books our weekly e-mail
examine extra
Further, there are several aspects of 21st century existence that also increase risks of cancer and further accentuate our fears, even though those aren't pretty those we'd count on. Do not forget very different factors: childbirth and smoking. The primary seems to be as an alternative proper at defensive ladies against cancers including those of the breast and uterus � for the simple cause that the extra children a female bears and nurses, the fewer menstrual cycles she studies and the fewer month-to-month jolts of estrogen � a recognised human carcinogen � are set coursing through her frame at some point of her lifetime.
In the beyond, girls were greater frequently pregnant and so had fewer menstrual cycles. Similarly, ladies menstruated a good deal later than they do these days. �the end result of all this is that a teen these days might also have already experienced extra menstrual cycles than her grandmother did for the duration of her whole life,� says johnson. And that has results � it suggests that girls today face greater risks of estrogen-related cancers than they used to.It is interesting stuff, expertly � and touchingly � assembled with the aid of johnson who efficiently avoids being overly goal and retains a humane, wry perspective of his concern whilst never descending into mawkishness or sentimentality. Nancy, i need to upload, survives.The story with smoking is specific. �from all the public service bulletins and scary caution labels, i thought that a big share of smokers need to die [of lung cancer],� says johnson. �it changed into unexpected to analyze that the parent is one in eight.� of course, that also leaves coronary heart assaults, strokes, continual bronchitis emphysema and different cancers that are additionally related to cigarette smoking. Nonetheless the tale of the uncle who smoked like a chimney and never were given lung most cancers is absolutely more the norm than the exception, johnson insists.
We�re reviewing all six books shortlisted for the royal society winton prize for technological know-how books. The winner might be introduced on monday 10 november. Click here to go into our opposition to win the shortlisted books
Fowl science author george johnson�s partner nancy become recognized as having cancer, he reacted in a surprising way. He determined to gather as much records as he may want to approximately the situation, and examine how plenty technology has learned approximately most cancers in recent years and the risks that the situation poses to our lives today. The end result is a gentle, life-maintaining, slightly reassuring analysis of a much-feared situation, one that treats cancer now not just a medical circumstance that requires treatment but as a topic of take a look at for the historian, the herbal historian and the social scientist.
For a begin, there may be a clear hierarchy inside the animal global when it comes to most cancers, johnson famous. �mammals appear to get more cancer than reptiles or fish, which in turn get greater most cancers than amphibians,� he observes. �domesticated animals appear to get more cancer than their cousins within the wild. And those get the maximum cancer of all.�
This human vulnerability mirrors our fears and studies within the 21stcentury. As infectious diseases had been eliminated from the west, and lifespans have lengthened dramatically, more deaths at the moment are being attributed to cancer � which, chiefly, is a disease of old age. (around seventy seven% of cancer is diagnosed in those who are fifty five years or older, johnson tells us.) accordingly we have far extra to fear from cancer today than we did 200 years in the past.
Sign up for bookmarks: find out new books our weekly e-mail
examine extra
Further, there are several aspects of 21st century existence that also increase risks of cancer and further accentuate our fears, even though those aren't pretty those we'd count on. Do not forget very different factors: childbirth and smoking. The primary seems to be as an alternative proper at defensive ladies against cancers including those of the breast and uterus � for the simple cause that the extra children a female bears and nurses, the fewer menstrual cycles she studies and the fewer month-to-month jolts of estrogen � a recognised human carcinogen � are set coursing through her frame at some point of her lifetime.
In the beyond, girls were greater frequently pregnant and so had fewer menstrual cycles. Similarly, ladies menstruated a good deal later than they do these days. �the end result of all this is that a teen these days might also have already experienced extra menstrual cycles than her grandmother did for the duration of her whole life,� says johnson. And that has results � it suggests that girls today face greater risks of estrogen-related cancers than they used to.It is interesting stuff, expertly � and touchingly � assembled with the aid of johnson who efficiently avoids being overly goal and retains a humane, wry perspective of his concern whilst never descending into mawkishness or sentimentality. Nancy, i need to upload, survives.The story with smoking is specific. �from all the public service bulletins and scary caution labels, i thought that a big share of smokers need to die [of lung cancer],� says johnson. �it changed into unexpected to analyze that the parent is one in eight.� of course, that also leaves coronary heart assaults, strokes, continual bronchitis emphysema and different cancers that are additionally related to cigarette smoking. Nonetheless the tale of the uncle who smoked like a chimney and never were given lung most cancers is absolutely more the norm than the exception, johnson insists.
We�re reviewing all six books shortlisted for the royal society winton prize for technological know-how books. The winner might be introduced on monday 10 november. Click here to go into our opposition to win the shortlisted books
Tuesday, 5 June 2018
Are Norwegian universities preparing students for a changing labour market?
By Dirk Van Damme
Head of the Skills Beyond School Division, Directorate for Education and Skills
In many countries, there are increasing concerns about the gap between the qualifications and skills that universities deliver, and those that the labour market demands. Employers are becoming especially vocal about this, claiming that they cannot find graduates with the skills sets they need. And as globalisation and digitalisation continue to transform economies, we can expect to see profound changes in the skills that employers demand in the future. In other words, the skills shortages of today might not be the same as those of tomorrow.
Ensuring that the supply of skills more or less matches demand � both today and tomorrow � is no easy undertaking. Higher education has the very difficult task of equipping students with generic and domain-specific knowledge and skills that last for a lifetime. This is almost impossible. Simplistic answers will not do, and past attempts at fine-grained �manpower planning� (i.e., estimating the demand for specific qualifications in the future and conditioning entry into studies accordingly) have often ended in failure. People often respond to different opportunities or experience life-events that change the course of their professional paths, sometimes by taking jobs that are not related to their study. And jobs demand often changes significantly, even within the four or five years that the study requires.
Consequently, higher education institutions in Norway and other countries seem to take a very relaxed attitude to labour market demands, and tend to maintain that giving students the choice to enrol in a given programme of study is still the best guarantee of motivation and success. They expect graduates to be able to cope with change and uncertainty throughout their lifetimes, whatever their field of study. In these countries, freedom of choice remains an important social value � but is this approach sufficient.
Today, we published Higher Education in Norway: Labour Market Relevance and Outcomes, a review of the Norwegian system�s capacity to link skills demand and supply. In many aspects, the situation in Norway is very positive. Indeed, high graduate employment rates and relatively high earnings in a booming economy suggest that there are almost no problems to worry about. But high employment rates and a compressed wage structure, in which it is difficult to measure returns on investment, can hide real problems. Good economic fortune can easily lead to complacency, whereas it should be seen as an opportunity to prepare for the future. And the Norwegian government knows that its future world will be different: less dependent on oil, more dependent on technology and more open to the world. Are the skills that university graduates attain the right ones to prepare the country for this transition?
The chart above displays the literacy, numeracy and problem-solving proficiency of Norwegian higher education graduates across a number of fields of study, as measured in the OECD Survey of Adult Skills in 2012. It indicates that there are important differences in graduates� skills across different fields of study and the variation in these foundation skills is high. Yet these differences are not mirrored in labour market success. Health, welfare and education professionals seem to have relatively low levels of foundation skills, but they enjoy some of the best employment rates and most stable earnings of all graduates, thanks to the continuous demand for skilled labour in their respective sectors. In contrast, graduates from the arts and the humanities have relatively high skill levels, but relatively weak labour market outcomes. Compared to graduates in other fields of study, arts and humanities graduates have a harder time finding jobs that make full use of the knowledge and skills they developed in higher education.
Our report suggests various measures and strategies to strengthen labour market relevance and outcomes of higher education in Norway: for example, by more directly connecting studies to the world of work, strengthening cooperation between institutions and social partners, or improving labour market information and career guidance systems. But a more profound reflection is needed to ensure that the country�s higher education system delivers the skills and qualifications needed in the economy and society of the future. Norwegian universities still place a very high value on domain- and discipline-specific knowledge. But Norwegian graduates will need much deeper and broader transversal skills (cognitive, non-cognitive, social and emotional) to deal with uncertainty and change, and to perform future jobs.
Today, there is no clear consensus view about the role of higher education in developing the skills outside the traditional discipline-specific ones. But it is clear that universities, governments and social partners in Norway have a shared responsibility to actively improve the labour market relevance of higher education.
Read more:
Higher Education in Norway: Labour Market Relevance and Outcomes
Head of the Skills Beyond School Division, Directorate for Education and Skills
Photo credit: Mikael Kristenson/Unsplash
In many countries, there are increasing concerns about the gap between the qualifications and skills that universities deliver, and those that the labour market demands. Employers are becoming especially vocal about this, claiming that they cannot find graduates with the skills sets they need. And as globalisation and digitalisation continue to transform economies, we can expect to see profound changes in the skills that employers demand in the future. In other words, the skills shortages of today might not be the same as those of tomorrow.
Ensuring that the supply of skills more or less matches demand � both today and tomorrow � is no easy undertaking. Higher education has the very difficult task of equipping students with generic and domain-specific knowledge and skills that last for a lifetime. This is almost impossible. Simplistic answers will not do, and past attempts at fine-grained �manpower planning� (i.e., estimating the demand for specific qualifications in the future and conditioning entry into studies accordingly) have often ended in failure. People often respond to different opportunities or experience life-events that change the course of their professional paths, sometimes by taking jobs that are not related to their study. And jobs demand often changes significantly, even within the four or five years that the study requires.
Consequently, higher education institutions in Norway and other countries seem to take a very relaxed attitude to labour market demands, and tend to maintain that giving students the choice to enrol in a given programme of study is still the best guarantee of motivation and success. They expect graduates to be able to cope with change and uncertainty throughout their lifetimes, whatever their field of study. In these countries, freedom of choice remains an important social value � but is this approach sufficient.
Today, we published Higher Education in Norway: Labour Market Relevance and Outcomes, a review of the Norwegian system�s capacity to link skills demand and supply. In many aspects, the situation in Norway is very positive. Indeed, high graduate employment rates and relatively high earnings in a booming economy suggest that there are almost no problems to worry about. But high employment rates and a compressed wage structure, in which it is difficult to measure returns on investment, can hide real problems. Good economic fortune can easily lead to complacency, whereas it should be seen as an opportunity to prepare for the future. And the Norwegian government knows that its future world will be different: less dependent on oil, more dependent on technology and more open to the world. Are the skills that university graduates attain the right ones to prepare the country for this transition?
The chart above displays the literacy, numeracy and problem-solving proficiency of Norwegian higher education graduates across a number of fields of study, as measured in the OECD Survey of Adult Skills in 2012. It indicates that there are important differences in graduates� skills across different fields of study and the variation in these foundation skills is high. Yet these differences are not mirrored in labour market success. Health, welfare and education professionals seem to have relatively low levels of foundation skills, but they enjoy some of the best employment rates and most stable earnings of all graduates, thanks to the continuous demand for skilled labour in their respective sectors. In contrast, graduates from the arts and the humanities have relatively high skill levels, but relatively weak labour market outcomes. Compared to graduates in other fields of study, arts and humanities graduates have a harder time finding jobs that make full use of the knowledge and skills they developed in higher education.
Our report suggests various measures and strategies to strengthen labour market relevance and outcomes of higher education in Norway: for example, by more directly connecting studies to the world of work, strengthening cooperation between institutions and social partners, or improving labour market information and career guidance systems. But a more profound reflection is needed to ensure that the country�s higher education system delivers the skills and qualifications needed in the economy and society of the future. Norwegian universities still place a very high value on domain- and discipline-specific knowledge. But Norwegian graduates will need much deeper and broader transversal skills (cognitive, non-cognitive, social and emotional) to deal with uncertainty and change, and to perform future jobs.
Today, there is no clear consensus view about the role of higher education in developing the skills outside the traditional discipline-specific ones. But it is clear that universities, governments and social partners in Norway have a shared responsibility to actively improve the labour market relevance of higher education.
Read more:
Higher Education in Norway: Labour Market Relevance and Outcomes
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