Original Contribution
American College of Education
C&I
Portfolio
Geraldo M.
Vieira
1848 Shower Tree Way
Wellington, FL 33414
July 13, 2013
geraldo.vieira@palmbeachschools.org
K-12 Art Teacher
The Benefits of Art Integration in Curriculum
Arts integration has provided
significant contribution to academic achievement in public education across the
United States. There is strong evidence that participating in art activities
produces high achievement in academic subjects. Visual arts, music, dance,
drama and others are centered in the conception of ingenuity, imaginations and
exploration of the world. The broad scope of fine arts expand students’
thinking ability and creativity; consequently developing in a better
understanding of academic subjects such as reading comprehension, writing,
math, social studies, science and all others. With the passage of No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) mandate and establishment of Common Core State Standards (CCSS),
teachers in public education face many challenges including accountability to
impact educational conditions
to improve student achievement. Utilizing an art integrated program as a mean
to teach students from grades K through 12 provides educators with strong
resources to engage diverse and multicultural populations.
Arts Integrated
Disposition
As
our public schools become captivated with testing, it places a strain on the
student by the many varieties of assessments conducted by teachers at school
and state level. Students have different abilities and are different culturally,
socially and linguistically. Art education offers the solution for a stressed
diverse population of students. Artistic activities such as drawings, watercolor
paintings, clay sculpturing, crafts and others can considerably stimulate the
creative side of the brain, developing and applying high level of intellectual
and critical thinking. Utilizing art as
a means to teach can be very effective; art provides students with opportunity
to look at content and problems from different perspectives. Educators can
teach, review and reinforce academic contents by utilizing creative art
projects that allow students to expand their imagination and critical thinking.
Many scientific researchers have been conducted to investigate the benefits of
art integration in public schools. Reviewing reliable data helps us to identify
the place and importance of art education in our public schools. Systematic researches provide insight
regarding additional avenues that art education can be explored. According to Eckhoff
(2007), the visual arts can be an important and rich domain of learning for
young children. It is recommended that during early years of elementary
education, art experiences for young children should include activities
designed to introduce them to works of art that are high quality and
developmentally appropriate in both content and presentation. Children from
birth to age eight are capable of making creative connections in art viewing
experiences. Eckhof (2007) agrees that educators provide support for
integrating rich, meaningful art viewing experiences while utilizing effective
strategies for early viewing experiences. These art viewing programs can be
part of museum-based art visitation project or in school students’ produced art
show.
Education is by
far one of the most important experiences in a person’s life, and learning is
often emphasized as the primary means by which one is able to excel or achieve
success Rosier et al. (2013). Visual arts are the first mean for instruction in
elementary education and should be perceived as a priority. The very first
contact that children have with literacy is by viewing pictures and
illustrations that in many cases are works of art. Studies have found that the
longer students participate in visual arts activities, the more complex their
artwork becomes (e.g., Hanline & Milton, 2007). Children that are
frequently involved in art activities sustain development of creative and
intricate thinking that last during adulthood. Researchers have come to an
understanding that what attracts people to the arts is the expectation that
encountering a work of art can be a rewarding experience, one that offers them
pleasure and emotional stimulation and meaning. It is concluded that the
effects of arts participation are likely to accrue to a student relatively
slowly at first and then shape rather sharply once the individual gains
familiarity with the artistic discipline and superior capacity for mental,
emotional, and social engagement through a creative experience. Therefore,
facilitating and promoting these experiences in our schools give students a
chance to interrelate with art and help stakeholders to understand the
intrinsic value of art. By promoting these benefits through K-12 education, we
can help communities truly understand how art fits into their lives (Rosier et
al. 2013).
Art Integrated
Curriculum
Art education
can expand through effective interconnection with literacy, math, science and
social studies and other subjects in the regular classroom and beyond school
confines. According to the National
Center for Education Statistics et al. (2012), fine arts teachers in
most public schools have a short weekly contact with students. Classroom
teachers in elementary school spend considerably more time with their students than
most elective instructors. Grade Level teachers know students’ individually in
a day-to-day base. They have a better understanding of students’ habits,
abilities, and strengths and follow closer data assessment information. They
are the daily source to pass on knowledge to children, work difficulties
together, prepare them for further education, and they are the foremost
contributors to students’ achievement.
Introducing artistic
activities such as drawing, painting, clay and other visual artworks aid
students to create mental images of abstract concepts learned in math, reading,
writing, social studies and sciences. Students that attend art classes demonstrated
that visual arts stimulate the visual memory part of the brain that helps them
to manufacture images in their mind while they are reading a book even without
any illustration or picture. Students have also demonstrated that while engaged
in pre-writing assignments, they primarily have a mental -picture of the
concept they are planning to write.
The development
of an art integrated curriculum prompts an examination of the contribution of fine
arts to academic subjects that are assessed by state standardized tests. Educators
must consider the cause and effect relationship in participating in art classes
and academic achievement. Instructors can develop an effective integrated
curriculum by analyzing the ways and possibilities that arts can expand
students’ thinking ability and imagination and how it can develop in a better
understanding of all educational subjects. Albert (2010) believes that
struggling students, who would often be behind grade level academically, could
be served with engaging art integrated activities to promote personal growth
and discovery. Accommodations and modifications can be utilized along with
various mediums and techniques to provide an environment that pushes each
student to reach their highest potential.
Another
advantage of incorporating arts in academic content is the possibility for students
to explore different talents they have and give them the opportunity to try
different things and take another perspective related to the content. Learners
have exclusive opportunities to express themselves through the art mediums. The
arts help students to explore their own knowledge about the content and about
themselves. Art integration makes
a dry subject interesting and exciting. It can take a simple
lesson into a new world of endless possibilities. Students develop
self-knowledge and self-esteem that can affect all areas of learning. Art interconnection
with academics contents must envision the highest levels of knowledge which is
creativity. Students are accountable to be creative. Creative learners can
process information efficiently, synthesize and apply knowledge in a variety of
settings including standardized tests and real life situation.
Arts Integrated in the
21st Century
It
is vital that schools of the 21st century prepare students to be critical
thinkers able to adapt to an evolving education in a reshaping world. Jerald(2009) observed
the fact that computers are becoming very good at performing works that mainly
demands following directions, even performing complex tasks that involve
decisions based on predicted scenarios. It is crucial that school curriculum
emphasizes creativity and more complex thinking tasks that computers still
cannot perform. Art Integration offers a unique opportunity for students to use
their imagination beyond the confines of academics. Students learn to be unique
and creative beyond the formal academic concept of what is right or wrong. Students can explore techniques, skills and
tools without being judged upon conventional limitations. The overall lesson
that art programs teach is that life is not only based on right and wrong
answers but is also grounded in wisdom to make appropriate choices. The main
disposition of arts integration in the 21st century is to allow students
to use their imagination, creativity and problem solving skills. Arts can provide
students with skills that could help them to solve problems in the real world. Whether
students are looking for career in business, science, education or any other
area, todays’ work force is demanding high creativity skills to be competitive
in a globalized market. Most successful individuals in our world started their
career by generating something new. All great inventors used their creative
skills to design new products, build new structures, explore new scientific
experiments, or utilize an unconventional way to conduct an outcome etc. Arts
interconnection should be incremented during the integration process in our
schools to foster creativity and innovation, preparing students with high
critical thinking and invention skills. It must provide a broader way beyond
derivative academic thinking and finding different forms of inspiration and
perspectives. More sophisticated thinking practices during art can teach
learners to see things around in various perspectives. Especially during elementary school levels art
programs can teach a youth to imagine the possibilities of their world as they
begin to explore it.
Art Integration
Advocacy
Many researchers
have been lead to know the importance of arts integration advocacy and how the
concept of advocacy has evolved with the times. Bobick and Dicindio (2012)
agree that for an art education program to continue, it must be qualitatively
significant. There must be a quality content learning and teaching support.
Also, students must be provided with the quality of tools, materials and
supplies necessary. Moreover, Lynch (1989)
pointed out that Disciplined-Based Art Education advocated for art education
through a comprehensive approach derived from the teaching of aesthetics, art
history, art criticism, and art creativity. It is crucial to promote art
education to school administrators in our public schools because they have
direct control over school budgets, which may include purchase of quality
significant supplies, instructional material, class field trip to museums and
art galleries. Bobick and Dicindio (2012) also endorse that art educators
provide administrators and school board members with a plan of action that
supports a school district's education goals that will strengthen the case for
art education advocacy. This plan of action should contain realistic teaching
goals, abiding with the state visual art standards and have the resources
needed to reach these goals. In addition, art teachers should invite school
administrators and school board members to visit their art classrooms. Art instructors
teaching in their classrooms are the perfect locations for art education
advocacy and valuation of its importance.
The future of
arts education is determined by advocacy that is defined by the inclusion of excellent
content and skills that learners acquire from studying the arts. Art teachers,
art organizations and museums educators must reach out to the community
leaders, present solid evidence in favor of funding arts programs and deliver
high quality instruction. Bobick and Dicindio (2012) recommend that by working
together, we can facilitate personal experiences in creating and looking at art
that will help more people understand the immeasurable value of art education.
References
Albert, R. (2010). Being both: An integrated model
of art therapy and alternative art education. Art Therapy: Journal Of The
American Art Therapy Association, 27(2), 90-95.
BobickB. &DicindioC. (2012).
Advocacy for art education: Beyond tee-shirt and bumper stickers. Art
Education, 65(2), 20-23.
Eckhoff, A. (2008). The importance
of art viewing experiences in early childhood visual arts: The exploration of a
master art teacher’s strategies for meaningful early arts experiences. Early
Childhood Education Journal, 35(5), 463-472 doi:10.1007/s10643-007-0216-1
Hanline, M., Milton, S., &
Phelps, P. C. (2008). A longitudinal study exploring the relationship of representational
levels of three aspects of preschool sociodramatic play and early academic skills.
Journal Of Research In Childhood Education, 23(1), 19.
Jerald, D. Craig (2009). Defining a 21st
century education: The Center for Public
Education
Parsad, B., Spiegelman, M., & National Center
for Education Statistics (2012). Arts education in public elementary and secondary
schools: 1999-2000 and 2009-10. NCES 2012-014. National Center For Education
Statistics,
Rosier, J., Locker Jr., L.,
&Naufel, K. Z. (2013). Art and memory: An examination of the learning benefits
of visual-art exposure. North American Journal Of Psychology, 15(2),
265-278.
