In this learning experience, students will explore the life and work of Yayoi Kusama, focusing on how her experiences of mental illness, culture, gender and identity have informed her unique visual language and artistic process. They will then reflect on aspects of their own lives and identities, such as culture, family, or personal experiences, as the foundation for creating original artworks that incorporate repetition, pattern, and bold colours.​​ Through Kusama’s story, students are guided to see difference not only as a limitation but as a source of creative and artistic expression and success. Kusama's life and work offer a message of inclusivity: all individuals, regardless of background or challenge, have a voice worth sharing and celebrating.

This learning experience is designed in alignment with the Australian Curriculum: Visual Arts for Years 9 and 10, particularly the content descriptions  AC9AVA10D01, AC9AVA10D02, AC9AVA10E01 and AC9AVA10C02. The learning experience also incorporates the cross-curriculum priority: Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia and General Capability: Intercultural Understanding, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Capability as students meaningfully engage with a globally renowned Artist from Asia. 

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The learning experience promotes inclusion by incorporating a diverse Artist and by making space for diverse student experiences and learning needs. It reflects the intentions of the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (Australian Government, 2005) by ensuring that learning tasks and materials are designed to be accessible to all students, including those with disabilities. This includes clear instructions, readable fonts, multimodal resources, alteration/differentiation, visual guides and flexible response formats. The approach is also informed by the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, which calls for all young Australians to develop as creative, confident individuals who value diversity and contribute to a socially cohesive society (Education Council, 2019). These inclusive practices that are used throughout this learning experience and as a part of my pedagogy are designed to assist all students, especially those with disabilities and difficulties, neurodivergent students and EAL/D students.  ​​

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The learning experience was designed in line with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy [BRT] (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). BRT works as a scaffolded cognitive framework that allows students to progress from lower-order to higher-order thinking skills. It also assisted me in the planning of this learning experience as I could follow clear stages of learning. Guided by BRT, students will begin by remembering important details about Kusama’s background and creative practice. They will develop an understanding of how her personal identity shaped her work. Building on this, students will analyse how her influences are reflected in the visual choices she makes and apply this analysis to inform the development of their own artistic concept. They will then create an artwork that expresses these ideas and evaluate their creative decisions through an reflective statement.

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The resource also heavily incorporated each of the 10 Victoria State Government Education and Training’s High Impact Teaching Strategies [HITS], as they are research-backed and internationally recognised as some of the most effective strategies for successful teaching and learning (Department of Education and Training Victoria, 2025). Learning goals are clearly stated at the beginning, helping students understand the purpose of the task (1. Setting Goals), while the lesson is organised with a structured sequence of activities that build knowledge and maintain engagement (2. Structuring Lessons). Explicit modelling is throughout the experience,  and clear instructions support student understanding (3. Explicit Teaching). Multiple worked examples are present to provide students with clear visual scaffolds (4. Worked Examples). Collaborative learning opportunities are included as options to support social learning (5. Collaborative Learning), and the repeated engagement with key ideas through video, discussion, and making activities ensures multiple exposures to content (6. Multiple Exposures). Carefully designed open-ended questions support deeper thinking and check for understanding (7. Questioning), while feedback opportunities are embedded through peer review, reflection and assessment (8. Feedback). Students also reflect on the meaning of their works and personal experiences, as well as their artistic process, which includes reflecting on their thoughts and idea progression, fostering metacognitive awareness (9. Metacognitive Strategies). Finally, the resource offers multiple entry points, guiding resource sheets, and choice-based responses to ensure accessibility and success for diverse learners (10. Differentiated Teaching).

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