Arts Competencies and Other Disciplines

Attribution

Judith Burton, Robert Horowitz, and Hal Abeles (1999), "Learning In and Through the Arts: Curriculum Implications," Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning, Arts Education Partnership.

Item Text

Studying over 2000 public school students in grades 4-8, a group of researchers from Teachers College Columbia University found significant relationships between rich in-school arts programs and creative, cognitive, and personal competencies needed for academic sucess.

They found, "The appearance of arts competencies in other disciplines was found in contexts where, for example:

• There was a need for pupils to figure out or elaborate on ideas on their own;
• There was a need to structure and organize thinking in light of different kinds of experiences;
• Knowledge needed to be tested or demonstrated in new and original ways; and
• Learning involved task persistence, ownership, empathy,and collaboration wit others."

"In subjects such as science, mathematics, and language, invitations to accommodate conflicting ideas, to forumlate new and better ways of representing thoughts, and to take risks and leaps call forth a complex of cognitive and creative capacities. These capacities are typical of arts learning. Indeed, what is particuarly interesting about this grouping of responses is that it reveals a rich interweaving of intuitive, practical, and logical forms of thought at work advancing the range and depth of children's thinking. This kind of mix of intuitive and logical thinking is, or course, highly typical of most creative artists, scientists, and thinkers in general. At a more mundane level, it also characterizes how we deal with the challenges of everyday living!"

Links

www.aep-arts.org (under Publications)

Submitter Information

• Name: MENC Staff
• Email: advocacy@menc.org