Arts Integration Solutions

http://artsintegration.com/

I explored Arts Integration Solutions which did the presentation on February 7 and 8. I found a research paper, “Champions of Change”, in the teacher’s section. It is a compilation of several research studies involving teaching with the arts. One of the articles starts with a quote from a middle school principal which states, “I couldn’t work anymore in a school that wasn’t totally immersed in the arts.“ . I thought about our schools and how nice it would be to have a school climate where all teachers thought as this principal did.

The study I read involved exploring the effects of arts education on students. Arts education for the purposes of the study included the arts taught by arts educators, or classroom teachers, or teaching artists. There was a high correlation between the amount of exposure to the arts and the students increased creativity, fluency, originality, elaboration, resistance to closure, expression, risk taking, and imagination.  The greater the involvement in the arts, the more likely students believed that they did well in school, particularly in language and math. Teachers and administrators confirmed the children’s perceptions. School climate was also reviewed in the study. Schools with greater involvement in the arts had better student-teacher relationships, increased professional development experiences for teachers, more innovative teaching practices, and increased collaboration between teachers.

One of my favorite statements from the article is: In such cross - disciplinary conversations involving the arts, young people are given permission to go beyond what they already know and to move toward s new horizons for their learning.