Both collaborative learning and structured lessons from the HITS are teachings styles that can expand and enhance student learning. Collaborative learning provides the opportunity for students to develop skills that they can use in many aspects of their life. HITS (Victorian Government, 2020) explains that collaborative learning fosters many skills like, effective communication, negotiations, cooperation, individual responsibility and participation. These skills can allow for groups to explore deeper meanings about their designs for their artwork as they are able to rebound ideas and learning from each other as different students have different perspectives. Students can also develop their 21st Century skills as collaboration learning develops problem solving skills and decision making. Structured lessons can enhance student learning as students are able to recognise the routine and prepare themselves for revision questions at the end of a learning sequence/ lesson. This strategy develops students’ ability to be self-aware, self-directed and to be independent with their learning. Collaboration learning is typically student driven, whereas structured lessons allow for teacher driven learning. Both strategies could be used together, teachers can use collaborative group tasks as a section of their structured lesson. This may involve learning tasks that require student to solve a problem in a creative task or verbally in short responses like ‘elbow buddy chatting’. Before implementing structured lessons and collaborative learning into a classroom, student behaviour and expectations of a lesson may appear negative and disengaged as there may have not been consistency or enjoyment of the subject. Digital technologies like interactive quizzes and OneNote can support student learning. These digital technologies provide students with consistent spaces for their content to be found and organised. Teachers can access this platform to assess the learning of their students to understand their progress and readiness to learn. Interactive quizzes are useful to also allow teachers to assess student learning formatively, and to encourage students to be confident with their learning. Collaborative learning can support a range of students with different capabilities as groups can be split into high achievers, at level and low-level students. The high achievers can support those who are at different stages by mentoring and explaining concepts to deepen their understanding (Johnson, 2024) and low-level students can rely on peer instruction to develop further understanding of the task required by their group. This promotes autonomy within the class and creates relationships between students which can create a positive learning environment. Teachers can also target the content descriptors of Visual Art by implementing the two strategies and digital literacies into their teaching. The content descriptors that can be targeted through collaborative learning and structured lessons are, investigations of Australian and Torres Strait Islander artists and cultural practices and artists from different times and places that represent a subject or a theme (ACARA, 2025). Students can work together on research tasks to gather inspiration. Teachers can use interactive quizzes to test their knowledge of different artists, art history and types of artwork that have existed through time. To conclude, Collaborative learning, Structured lessons and the use of digital technologies can be utilised to benefit students learning. This is done by promoting confidence, autonomy, self-awareness and consistency within the classroom. The use of digital technologies aids in the process of improving engagement and confidence of student learning.
