What We Know

Making art is a process of using qualities found through experience and translating them into symbolic form via some arts medium or process (Anderson, 2004). An essential component in making art is learning the connection between form and meaning. As young people develop increasing levels of skills, they can respond to more sophisticated challenges. They develop both inspiration and disciplined craftsmanship by learning to solve problems within the context of a given medium (Anderson, 2004).

Throughout the last two decades, the theory and practice of arts education have changed significantly in response to new concepts about arts learning. Much of this change originated in the visual arts, driven by movements such as the Getty Center’s Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE). In the DBAE approach, making art is a cognitive process and part of an integrated series of intellectual actions that also includes aesthetic response, art criticism and historical or contextual knowledge. In the early 20th century, arts educators, viewed children’s artistic development as primarily natural, emotional and intuitive. Newer learning models that more accurately reflect contemporary learning theory have replaced these old ideas (Efland, 2002). These newer theories hold that children learn the arts, as they do any other subject area, through rigorous instruction from teachers who are well-trained in the interactions of the cognitive, affective and social realms. Even in early childhood, artistic skill and interest do not unfold naturally, any more than skills in science or math, but must be carefully nourished (Kindler, 1996).

Paralleling these changes within arts education, new findings in educational research have found ways in which the arts are connected to learning. These findings, which have impacted both the theory and practice of arts education, include:

• Creativity;
• Using Multiple Symbol Systems;
• Using Metaphor;
• Metacognition;
• Investigation of Questions, Problems and Hypotheses;
• Impact of Arts on Social and Personal Variables.

Creativity

Research has shown connections between the creative expression and communication aspects of art-making and the development of student creativity. Creativity is difficult to understand. However, the pioneering research of Guilford established that creativity encompasses multiple strands including:

• The ability to conceive new solutions "ideational fluency;"
• The ability to generate multiple uses for a familiar item or product (Snyder, et. al., 2004);
• The development of novel ideas that have value (Sternberg, 2003).

Creativity is important, and infrequently emphasized in schools (Sternberg, 2003). Schools tend to concentrate on analytical skills and memorization but not creative and practical skills, which may be as important or even more important to students after they have completed their formal education (Sternberg, 2003).

The research connecting the arts to creativity has produced a variety of results. Several studies support the role of the arts in instilling critical thinking (Luftig, 2000; Burton, Horowitz, and Abeles, 2000). In summaries of previous studies, Winner and Hetland (2000) found limited evidence that the arts predict improved performance on standardized measures of creativity. Studies in dance education and movement poetry, however, have shown connections to measures of creativity in both controlled (experimental) and naturalistic designs (Deasy, 2002).

Eisner (2002) demonstrates that the arts can instill a quality he calls "flexible purposing," an ability to discern dynamic relationships and possibilities within any problem, media or situation. Using pre- and post- data from tests of creative thinking, Luftig (2000) found that students receiving systematic instruction in the arts made greater gains than control groups in several dimensions including total creativity, fluency and originality. This research provided evidence that arts instruction improves creative thinking. Burton, Horowitz, and Abeles (2000) found that students who have experiences in the arts improve in several dimensions of creativity including elaborative and creative thinking, fluency, originality, focused perception, imagination, assuming multiple perspectives and understanding layered relationships. Anderson (2004) demonstrates that the arts are not about sticking with a preconceived solution but being aware of possibilities that can be explored. In art, both the problem and the work in progress evolve mutually as the student works through the process. Stevenson and Deasy (2005) note that students who study the arts seem to develop an ability called "adaptive expertise"-a combination of increasing proficiency within a domain and greater flexibility to innovate. This gives them superior abilities to apply the skills and procedural knowledge of a discipline in new and flexible ways.

It is not totally clear if creativity is a general construct that transcends disciplines or if it varies according to the domain in which it is being used (Sternberg, 2003). Research identifying coherent strands of creativity supports the broad, interdisciplinary view. Other research suggests that creativity is not merely a set of skills but a group of habits of mind or thinking dispositions that recognize situations for which creativity is appropriate (Perkins, et. al, 2000).

Using Multiple Symbol Systems

Learning in the arts provides students with forms of communication that differ from literal or discursive language including visual communication, movement and gesture, and music and sound. These alternative means of communication are what Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) call "nonlinguistic representations," concepts and ideas that can be conveyed through pictures or gestures in ways that are not possible with words.

Eisner (2002) expands the concept of nonlinguistic representation to encompass the idea that not everything people can learn or know can be expressed in the form of a declarative sentence because there are ideas that are beyond language. Related to this idea is Eisner’s claim that the arts make students profoundly aware of the capabilities and limitations of any communicative or expressive medium, whether language, mathematics, the arts or history. Therefore, the arts instill knowledge that may be applied across domains. Anderson (2004) points out that the arts require learners to use progressively more sophisticated understanding and significant or relevant symbols.

Research has explored the concept of understanding as distinct from awareness or knowledge (Wiggins and McTighe, 1993). Perkins, in the Teaching for Understanding project, found that understanding can neither be achieved nor properly assessed except through some form of performance or other application in a real context (Seidel, 2000). The arts, through experiences such as theatrical presentations or gallery exhibitions, offer rich opportunities for students to demonstrate what they understand (Seidel, 2000).

Using Metaphor

Artistic representation has a powerful capacity to convey meaning metaphorically. The work of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) clearly shows that the metaphor is a significant, basic tool that humans use to develop concepts. Lakoff and Johnson establish that metaphor is not simply a linguistic phenomenon but exists at the level of thought, making it essential to explaining the arts and any other form of communication. Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) confirm that it is important for students to understand and use metaphor as a powerful key to help them learn and integrate new knowledge by comparing and contrasting it to existing or familiar knowledge. The arts help students understand metaphors, symbols and analogies and their potential for communicating ideas (Efland, 2002).

Imagination and metaphor are strongly linked. Efland (2002) defines imagination as the ability to organize and reorganize images, symbols, metaphors and narratives into ways of thinking that are more innovative and less constrained than conventional, rule-based or propositional ways of thinking. In the arts, the nature, structure and purpose of metaphor become primary objects of study (Efland, 2002). Metaphor is not only used to produce or perform works of art but to interpret and respond to them. Only in the arts do the products of imagination take center stage as the primary objects of study as they are fully and consciously explored (Efland, 2002).

Visual metaphors inundate society through advertising and media. Schools need to teach children how to actively perceive, understand and evaluate the metaphors that are part of their everyday culture. (Efland, 2002).

Metacognition-Thinking about Thinking

Students should have the capacity to know and understand their own thinking processes and strategies in order to continuously improve them. Through metacognition, students can take control of their own learning by understanding how to set their own goals and monitor their progress in achieving them. Metacognitive strategies do not necessarily develop automatically in learners but should be taught through modeling and reciprocal teaching (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2000).

The arts can be strong tools in helping students develop metacognitive habits and skills (Davis, 2000; Seidel, 2000). The artistic process requires students to carefully consider their intents, purposes, techniques and processes regardless of which media or disciplines they choose (Anderson, 2004). Students develop metacognitive skills through thinking about the artistic process and interpreting works (Stevenson and Deasy, 2005). This creative process contributes significantly to higher-order thinking, especially when students collaborate with partners and in groups (Stevenson and Deasy, 2005).

Investigating Questions, Problems and Hypotheses

Student inquiry about meaningful, significant, real-world problems and questions helps unlock student learning (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock, 2001). This inquiry process requires students to apply what they know and to simulate real-life situations. Through investigation, they learn to solve problems, use historical data, invent, experiment and make decisions. The most effective inquiries involve broad, open-ended questions (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005; Perkins, 2001) and complex problems in which the "right" or optimal solution is not easy to identify. Studying the arts provides effective avenues for these investigations. Inquiries may be specific to the arts themselves or involve integrated learning (Lake, 1994).

Impact of Arts on Social and Personal Variables

Producing and performing artistic works give students the opportunity to develop and improve a variety of social and intrapersonal skills that will help them achieve success. Hughes and Wilson (2004) found that youth theatre contributes significantly to the personal and social development of students. Deasy (2002) found that students’ interpretation and dramatic presentations of their own poems improved oral skills, increased their comfort with oral communication and enhanced their self-esteem and self-perception. Students improve their self-discipline behaviors when lessons integrate multiple arts (Deasy, 2002). Other research on integrated curricula shows that students are willing to take more risks, cooperate more easily when working with others and have better academic self-concepts (Burton, Horowitz, and Abeles, 2000). The arts allow students to understand social meanings that promote communication (Efland, 2002). Through the arts, students develop a sense of ownership of the work that they do in school because they must take responsibility for forming their own vision of what they hope to accomplish, organize tasks, evaluate their progress and set their own personal criteria for excellence (Stevenson and Deasy, 2005).