Astronaut Mae Jemison on Reintegrating the Arts and Sciences

Mae Jemison, best known for being the first African American woman in space, presents a new vision of learning that combines arts and sciences, intuition and logic in a February TED Talk.

Making Learning Whole by David Perkins

In his latest book Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching Can Transform Education, David Perkins presents an alternative to the superficiality and fragmentation inherent in so much of today's teaching and learning. Perkins, who is co-director of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, diagnoses today's education as suffering from "elementitis" (learning all the elements of a subject without learning the whole) and "aboutitis" (learning about a subject without doing it). He presents his seven principles by connecting them to the way countless kids become skilled to some degree in the game of baseball.

Here is the complete list of principles is:

1. Play the whole game.
2. Make the game worth playing.
   
3. Work on the hard parts.
4. Play out of town.
5. Uncover the hidden game.
6. Learn from the team . . . and other teams.
7. Learn the game of learning.

"Play the whole game" is the first of the seven principles —and it's the overarching one. Perkins says playing a "junior version" of the whole game, often involving some type of inquiry or performance that crosses disciplines, is what promotes the kind of understanding that students will be able to apply in a range of contexts.

"Make the game worth playing" is ensuring "immediately meaningful active engagement.

"Work on the hard parts" is isolating and practicing skills and focusing on conceptually difficult knowledge (but integrating them as quickly as possible into the whole).

"Play out of town" is promoting transfer by encouraging reflective abstraction and simulating diverse applications of knowledge and skill, as well as making connections to prior knowledge.

"Uncover the hidden game" is paying attention to the processes of inquiry, thinking and problem-solving that are beneath the surface of student work.

"Learn from the team" is paying attention to the sociocultural context through various group learning strategies.

"Learn the game of learning" is promoting self-direction.

Themes Instead of Subjects—Interesting to Consider

"Rethinking Education," an article by Julian Richardson in Sunday's Jamaica Observer, proposes that Jamaican high schools think about the humanities curriculum in terms of "life themes" that have "obsessed all cultures and all peoples in one way or another." Examples include 'The Origins of the Universe', 'Representations of God', 'Food and Nature', 'The Individual and the Common Good', 'Racial Differences and the Other', 'Gender Identity and Sexual Relations', 'Marriage and Family', 'Civil Life and Political Systems', 'Aging and Death', 'Art and Beauty', and 'Work, Tools and Technology'. (The article expands on each of these.)

Richardson proposes students would be more engaged in these themes than they are in things like "history" or "geography." Examples of arts integrated instruction in books such as Third Space: Where Learning Matters by Lauren Stevenson and Richard Deasy from the Arts Education Partnership, certainly could support that hypothesis.

Sunday Arts Education Connection #5: Unity and Variety

Third Installment in my series on Arts Elements and Principles

The complementary arts principles of variety and unity are this week's topic—building on last week's post on contrast. The principles of unity and variety are important in all four arts disciplines. Whether composing music or a dance, writing a play, or creating a painting or graphic design, the artist must strive for wholeness and cohesiveness—unity—while introducing enough variety to prevent a work that is monotonous.

Exploring these principles in an arts class could set the stage for other investigations. Consider: In science, children marvel at the vast variety of species while seeking to impose unity through classifying them. In math, they create a whole shape from a variety of shapes. In reading, they look for a common theme that unifies a novel or poem and for the variety of ways the author or poet uses to present that theme. In writing or speaking, they work on making sure they use variety to keep the audience's interest while building on a thesis. In social studies, they consider the many cultures and ethnic groups that make one United States or the many nations that make one world.


Photo Credits: Stefano Corso, Agência Brasil, Justin, Peter Halasz, Mark Harden's Artchive

Sunday Arts Education Connections #4

Contrast
Second Installment in my series on Arts Elements and Principles (See overview post See introduction to series See entry on Form)

Contrast is a design principle at work in all the arts disciplines. Listening to or composing contrasting musical passages—high and low pitch, fast and slow tempo—and exploring the effects of color contrasts prepares the senses for scientific observation and opens the writer's mind to how contrasts in sentence structure improve the flow of a composition.

Contrast also is a technique used in arts criticism. Critics may highlight the contrasts within a work of art and explore contrasts across periods and movements to heighten understanding or suggest meaning. The critical exploration of contrasts in paintings can be a springboard for investigating differences across societies, ecosystems, and ideologies.



Photos from Flickr and Wikimedia Commons by: Aussiegall, Bobbie8, Vince Alongi, Andrew*, babasteve, Azoreg, roberdan, makemake, Thomas Schoch

Arts are an 'R' Too—Mississippi Has the Right Idea

The central features of Mississippi's Whole Schools Initiative are an arts-infused curriculum, instruction in the arts disciplines, and arts-based professional development. An evaluation of the initiative by two independent researchers, Dick Corbett and Bruce Wilson, and David Morse, a professor of psychology at Mississippi State, concluded that schools fully implementing arts integration had significantly better results on tests of literacy. Evaluators suggested that "enriching rather than narrowing the curriculum might be the wiser move in improving students’ literacy."

The report says arts learning is a powerful ally and should, perhaps, be considered "the 4th R."

I agree. Some people can express their ideas better through an art form than through writing an essay or making a presentation. I think it's important that children be able to use and develop the voice that feels most natural to them. Finding that voice can fuel the desire for knowledge and provide a bridge to other literacies.

Also, works of art are vital threads in the fabric of history and culture. If we want kids to really think about the academic content we have decided they need in order to understand their world, I can think of no better way than becoming immersed in works of art.

Arts and 21st Century Skills: Wisconsin and North Carolina are Moving Forward

Two states have made definitive statements about the importance of arts learning in developing the next generation of innovators.

In January, the Wisconsin Task Force on Arts and Creativity published its plan for action. It recommends specific actions for making the arts a more integral part of the state's innovation infrastructure, but there is much in the report that has national application. I particularly liked its description of creative skills and attitudes, followed by what attributes in the environment nurture creativity.

North Carolina has published Arts Education and 21st Century Skills, a document that aligns the state's fine arts standards with the competencies outlined by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. This is an eloquent illustration of how much the arts contribute to the development of innovatiove thinkers, and I think it could be used as a model for anyone who is thinking about how to integrate 21st century skills with any academic content.

Art & Soul: Edutopia Pleads the Cause of Arts Education

The February issue of Edutopia is entitled "Art and Soul: Why Arts Education Must Be Saved."

There are articles about the latest research and cutting edge programs. One that describes Opening Minds Through the Arts in Tucson, Arizona, is the most exciting thing I've seen in awhile. OMA also provides some really good rubrics and other materials for arts integration.

My favorite article is "Art in Schools Inspires Tomorrow's Creative Thinkers" by Jeffrey T. Schnapp—"director of the Stanford Humanities Lab at Stanford University, a prominent twentieth-century cultural historian, and a frequent curator of art exhibitions in Europe and the United States."

Schnapp's passionate essay begins:

"Education minus art? Such an equation equals schooling that fails to value ingenuity and innovation. The word art, derived from an ancient Indo-European root that means "to fit together," suggests as much. Art is about fitting things together: words, images, objects, processes, thoughts, historical epochs.

It is both a form of serious play governed by rules and techniques that can be acquired through rigorous study, and a realm of freedom where the mind and body are mobilized to address complex questions -- questions that, sometimes, only art itself can answer: What is meaningful or beautiful? Why does something move us? How can I get you to see what I see? Why does symmetry provide a sense of pleasure?"

NEA Chair Dana Gioia Comments on Arts Education

"You're in a society that will be happy if you're simply a good customer and make enough money to buy stuff and be a consumer." That was one interesting comment National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia addressed to some high school students recently. (It was covered in The Tidings, a weekly paper by the LA Archdiocese. Paula Doyle wrote the story.)

Chairman Gioia, who left a high position in the corporate world to pursue his poetry, also said the purpose of arts education is "to produce complete human beings who can lead successful lives in a complicated society."

I would like to see this broader vision for arts education. I believe part of the problem is that teachers don't have adequate time to explore and talk about art with students. It's all about production and performance. Therefore, the arts are viewed as only for the talented and they become compartmentalized instead of flowing into all areas of inquiry.

The Conundrum of Art as Evidence

I know that yesterday's post—an image and a song about 21st century kids—are not really evidence, in the usual sense, that the arts should play a central role in developing 21st century skills. I've done enough writing about research-based reading programs to know what it takes to make causal connections. And I know there is a growing research base on arts education and arts integration I could cite. (If you're interested, start at the Arts Education Partnership. )

But I'd like to suggest that developing creative, innovative thinkers requires that the education community and those who set policy need to adopt an innovation agenda for themselves. If you have decided to act based on scientific research, then fund basic and applied research to test promising approaches like arts integration in a systematic way. If you view education as a science, you must do more than look at the existing literature for answers. It is not scientific to ignore possibilities because no one has yet proved them.

At the same time, think about a broader approach to collecting evidence. I still concede that the two artists I mentioned yesterday have not provided a basis for action, but qualitative studies and meta-analyses, as well as looking at the culture, have a place in the quest for innovation. Think about it: While the theories of Einstein and Freud were taking shape, artists like Picasso and Kandinsky were investigating space, time, and consciousness in parallel.

Or did the poet Ezra Pound get it right:

"Artists are the antennae of the race, but the bullet- headed many will never learn to trust their great artists."

Arts Education Connections #2: Overview of Approaches

This is an overview of the four ways of approaching the arts. (For readers who may have even less fine arts training than I do.)

Students' work in each of the arts disciplines can be categorized as:

Art-making (or production): Performing a musical composition, a dance, or a play. Creating an original work of visual art, writing a play, creating a dance or dramatic improvisation, composing music, etc. Includes a number of technical components, such as learning dance steps or proper intonation on an instrument and notating a composition, mastering paints and other media, and learning how to block a scene in a play. Includes the generation of original ideas, the involvement and expression of emotions, and the making of meaning.

Art history: Connecting art to people, places, and times. Gaining a better understanding of artworks, periods, and styles by examining them against a larger context of history and culture. Using art to better understand events, periods, and other phenomena.

Criticism: "Reading" works of art. Responding to the form of artworks (how the elements and principles have been used) or to their expressive qualities. Formulating and supporting hypotheses about the meaning, importance, or value of works of art.

Aesthetics: Examining theories regarding what makes art good, important, or valuable. Connecting works of art to bigger philosophical questions and ideas.

As you may imagine, these approaches often overlap and enrich one another. I intend in my "Arts Education Connection Sunday series" to explore how they might also overlap with and enrich other disciplines and help develop 21st century skills.

Arts Education Connections #1: Elements & Principles Overview

Although sources vary on what are considered the elements of visual art, music, dance, and drama. My list as an example:

Visual art elements: Line • Shape or Form • Color • Space • Value • Texture
Visual art principles: Balance • Contrast • Emphasis/Focal Point • Movement/Rhythm • Proportion/Scale • Repetition • Unity/Harmony

Music Elements: Duration • Intensity • Pitch • Timbre
Music Principles: Composition • Form • Genre • Harmony • Rhythm • Texture

Dance Elements: Action/Movement • Body • Relationships • Dynamics • Space
Dance Principles: Climax and Resolution • Contrast • Development • Repetition • Sequencing • Transition • Variety • Unity

Theater Elements: Characters • Plot • Setting • Script • Dialogue • Staging
Theater Principles: Balance • Collaboration • Discipline • Emphasis • Focus • Intention • Movement • Rhythm • Style • Voice

As you'll notice, some elements and principles are shared by different arts. That is the first indication that these elements and principles are powerful concepts that are widely meaningful. The word cloud below (made at www.wordle.com provides a first look at the overlaps.

Arts Approaches, Elements, and Principles Widely Relevant

For the past couple of years, I've been working with visual arts and music educators on innovative standards-based units that are organized around essential questions. Of the projects I have done with the arts education community, this one was by far the most content focused. Therefore, my professional learning for the project included considerable time learning and thinking about approaches to art and the arts elements and principles.

The ways of approaching art are art-making, art history, criticism, and aesthetics. (State standards and other writings vary in the terms they use for these four areas.) The standards I have reviewed encompass all four of these areas and people who advocate for comprehensive arts education say that students need instruction in all four areas in order to be competent in the arts. Arts elements can be defined as the components or "ingredients" that go together to create works of art. Arts principles (sometimes called "design principles" or "composition principles") can be defined as ways of applying the elements to achieve desired effects. (Some examples of elements are line and color in visual arts and melody and harmony in music. Variety and repetition are examples of principles in both music and visual art, as well as in dance.)

I was thinking about how all these basics in the arts are powerfully connected to all disciplines. Why are the arts so often at the periphery of the curriculum? What if we explored these connections?

I am going to start a new feature based on this thought called "Arts Education Connections." Every Sunday, I will write a post about how a particular element, principle, or art approach might connect to other academic areas.

The Brain Revolution

Interesting Discussion. Here are some highlights:

Paul Nussbaum, Neuroscientist, University of Pittsburgh: Neuroplasticity—the brain can grow and generate new cellular connections in an enriched environment. School systems represent brain health centers. Curriculum is a prescription. The brain receives information through all five sensory pathways. Integration of different forms of information creates a new type of intelligence that, if applied in ways that are unpredictable to the learner, leads to the most sophisticated types of learning. Good teachers understand how to stimulate the brain to realize its potential and how to integrate with other areas. In 2050, there will be gadgets that work with the brain.

Marc Prensky, Author of Digital Game-based Learning: Today’s students think and process information in fundamentally different ways. They are more comfortable with multitasking. Doing is very motivating. They like the interactivity and rapid change of games. School is where we keep kids safe while their parents work. Education is learning, which often happens after school as they use technology, play games. Good teachers will do more than just teach. They will have multiple roles. The right thing to do, how to do it, and how to get it done skills. Interacting with other people, technology, machinery. Interact on a world level. Creativity will be a big factor going forward. In 2050, text will be an artifact. Audio and video, even making art, will be more common than putting squiggles on a page.

Eric Grant, KnowledgeWorks Foundation: Why not pick the learning style in the age of learning that fits the learner best? A good teacher will be someone who knows how to identify the most effective learning styles of individuals and then connect them with people and resources. Schools in 2050 will need to be participatory, personalized, post-national.

George Siemens, Learning Technologies Center in Manitoba: Educators need to do the unlearning. They need to think about what we need education to be. We don’t yet understand the problem. Schools need to educate students for complex systems—problems that have not yet been answered.

Documentation Fuels Imagination

Arnold Aprill, founding and creative director of the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education, spoke to a group of Ohio Arts Council teaching artists in Columbus to encourage more documentation of their residencies in schools. "Too much important work just disappears," he says. "People oppose our work because they can't imagine what we are talking about."

Aprill demonstrated how teachers and teaching artists can use a digital camera to capture images and video throughout the process. Simply walking around and taking photos of the work and switching to video mode and asking students to talk about what they have learned is easy and can be a powerful start.

Aprill also urged artists and teachers to commit to more writing and publications about their work and to make the work public. He talked about a solar-powered model of the neighborhood created by students in one school. The little houses, which were the product of an interdisciplinary design process that included participation by parents, were installed outside the school. One resident of the neighborhood said that she had never before seen art on display.

A Day with Teaching Artists

As editor of Links & Threads, an Ohio Arts Council publication for school leaders and their arts partners, I have many opportunities to visit and talk with people about exemplary arts education programs. One of my favorite experiences is an annual meeting of teaching artists who spend anywhere from one day to two weeks working with teachers and students in Ohio's schools. This group is inspiring for a number of reasons:

• Though they are passionate about their work as artists, their residencies are clearly about the kids. They share their skills with students but they also think deeply about the meaning of the students' creative work.
• They are genuinely interested in each other's work and ideas.
• They bring their artistic sensibility even to non-arts areas. When a speaker gave an update about budget cuts and urged the group to write letters, they started to think about new possibilities. One artist suggested that everyone use their art to make a statement to share with the Governor.

We need more thinking like this in every area of life.

Defining Terms I

Artful: In general, a product, process, or performance that displays artistry. In this context, "artful" also suggests the need to place high-quality arts education and arts integrated learning at the center of the conversation about improving schools and preparing students for the future.

Innovation: The implementation of creative ideas that create significant value. The use of creative ideas to add new value to an existing idea, product, process, environment, or system. Widely recognized as critical to U.S. leadership in 21st century science, technology, and business. The education community is beginning to recognize the need to prepare students for the realities of competing in an economy driven by innovation.

Arts: Music, dance, theater, and the visual arts.

High-Quality Arts Education: In-depth opportunities for students to respond, perform, and create in the arts with originality and rigor.

Arts-Integrated Learning: instruction that incorporates content, processes and/or techniques from one or more arts and at least one other discipline. Approaches vary, but one major mark of quality is a design that leads to significant learning in each discipline.

Imagination: ORIGIN Middle English: via Old French from Latin imaginatio(n-), from the verb imaginari ‘picture to oneself,’ from imago, imagin- ‘image. The part of the mind that sees possibilities and generates original ideas.

Creativity: A way of being in which we draw from the imagination, the intellect, and the world around us to bring something new into being.