Arts+and+Learning-+Recent+Research+Recommendations

Student Participation in the Arts and Academic Performance: Recent Research Recommendations Summarized by Dr. Kenneth Pool, Gettysburg College

A wide range of reports attempt to show a relationship between student participation in the arts and corresponding improvement in academic performance. Hetland, Winner, Veenema and Sheridan have noted there are three areas in which a causal relationship between the arts and non-arts cognition has been firmly established: 1. Classroom drama improves reading readiness and reading achievement scores, oral language skills, and story understanding (Podlozny, 2000 as cited by Hetland et al). 2. Listening to classical music improves performance on some spatial tasks. This effect is apparently transitory and lasts for only 1-15 minutes (Hetland 2000). 3. Classroom music programs in which children experiment with instruments, improvise, and move to music, improve performance on some paper and pencil spatial tests (Hetland 2000b). Hetland and her colleagues reviewed over 1000 published studies reporting findings relative to arts participation and school achievement. Their research has been often misunderstood and mis-represented. What they have said repeatedly is that most studies do not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that there is a causal link between studying the arts and a positive transfer to academic achievement. In their most recent book on the topic, Studio Thinking (Hetland, Winner, Veenema & Sheridan 2007) challenge arts education advocates to start designing and implementing studies more closely identifying the benefits of arts education. They suggest that there are habits of mind that are directly taught by arts and that we must focus new research along the following dimensions: Developing Craft – the arts teach students how to use tools, instruments, materials learn artistic conventions and learn how to care for the tools, materials and space needed for the expression of the arts. Engaging and Persisting – the arts provide the opportunity for students to learn and embrace problems of relevance within the arts world and/or personal importance, to develop focus and other mental states conducive to working persevering at art tasks. Envisioning – Learning to picture mentally what cannot be directly observed and imagine possible next steps in creating a work. Expressing – learning to create works that convey an idea, a feeling or a personal message. Observing – Learning to attend to sensory contexts more closely than ordinary looking, hearing, touching, smelling etc., and thereby notice things that otherwise might not be seen. Reflecting (questioning and explaining)- Learning to think and talk with others about an aspect of one’s work or the process of work, and evaluate by learning to judge one’s own work and working process, and the work of others in relation to standards of the field. Stretching and Exploring – learning to reach beyond one’s capacities to explore playfully without a preconceived plan, and to embrace the chance to learn from mistakes. Understanding the Arts World- learning about the history of various art forms, current practice, communities