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You
are here: Moving the Arts to the Center of Learning:
The New Integrated Arts and Performance Learning Master's Program at City University
by Dee Bayne
"The arts are creative expressions using sound, image, action and movement. They are a means to satisfy the human need to communicate thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. The purpose of the arts is to engage those capacities most characteristically human -- imagination, creativity, the ability to conceptualize and solve complex problems -- by stimulating thinking skills which are essential to learning" (Joseph, 2005.)
The arts should be the center of learning in the lives of our students. Learning with the arts is important as our work force applies their imagination and skills to create new and innovative products. The concept of "back to the basics" ignores significant evolutions in today's world. With the explosion of information to be learned in this highly technical world and few, if any, strategies on how to learn what is relevant or essential, a heavily content-based curriculum makes less and less sense. The "real world workplace demands emotional balance and cognitive flexibility" (Jensen, 2001, p. 9. ) In this world, differences between the creative process, creative thinking, imagination, experiential learning, and problem-solving, as involved in art and science, art and academics, or art and life are non-existent. "It's not the memorization of facts from a textbook that makes students smart, it how they learn to think about their new learning. Can they analyze it, critique it, and place it in context?" (Jensen, 2001, p. 10) In Jensen's world, the goal is not high test scores, the priority is better human beings who not only get better test scores, but who are also "cooperative, self-disciplined, creative, and compassionate with a real love of learning" (Jensen, 2001, p. 10. )
Art Engages the Body, Mind, and Spirit
We need students who grow up with aesthetic awareness, creativity, appreciation of diversity, motivation, and self-discipline. Theorists see art as an expression, an embodiment of the artist's inward feedings and images into an objective, outward "expressive" form. Art embodies the body, mind, and spirit. (Eisner, 2002, p. 282). In the Netherlands, music and other arts became mandatory in 1968. Today, students are assigned comprehensive art projects to complete before graduation. As a result math and science scores are near the top in the world! (Jensen, 2001). We must move the arts to the center of learning!
The arts are a national initiative for the Education Commission of The States. In Washington State, the Arts are a "core subject area." By 2008 teachers will be assessing these EALR's statewide beginning in grades eight and ten. In 2009 grade five will be assessed. The astounding thing about this is that teachers are already doing this and have been for many years. The arts are not an "add-on;" they are a natural part of teaching and learning. "It is as easy as breathing" say the teachers doing it -– to incorporate the arts for their own sake and to use the arts to help students learn in other subject areas. Teachers understand that using the creative process and the arts is naturally the way the brain learns-- by making connections and looking for meaning.
Integrating the Arts with Performance Learning
City University has created a new Masters in Education in Integrating Arts and Performance Learning to help classroom teachers meet the demand of the Art EALRs and to expand their capacities for making the arts an integral part of their teaching and at the center of learning for their students.
This new master's program at City University is designed to help teachers help their students meet the state EALRs, engage in expanding their thinking, use the creativity process, and develop their capacity for in-depth problem solving and decision-making. This emphasis is based on research that shows the importance of the arts in reaching all students and improving performance in all areas of learning. It gives K-12 teachers, with or without prior experience in the arts, permission to explore art in a safe environment. Educators learn the skills to use dance, theatre, drama, and visual arts as connectors to the world of history, religion, science, and math. The arts become a vehicle for conveying feelings, aspirations, and values. Jamie Deering, an active member of the Arts Advisory Committee, comments, "The arts program will allow teachers and students to remember all they are learning while discovering who they are!"
This program evolved from discussions at City University on how educators could reach the diverse population of students in their classroom. Research supports the fact that one model, or one way of teaching, certainly does not fit all students. We found in accessing the research on best practices, the arts and the creative process were well referenced in terms of brain research, retention of learning, and transfer of learning into long-term memory. The arts were well documented in how they promoted creative problem-solving and decision-making, the seven intelligences, and learning styles. More importantly, the research was clear on how the arts play a significant role in motivating reluctant learners and increasing student enthusiasm and passion for learning. The arts help students learn the essential academic learning requirements (EALRs) in all subject areas. Many examples have emerged from the studies on how to integrate the arts into the classroom such as using drama to help students study characterization, students' becoming the characters in their stories, or using visual art, dance, and music to study the ancient cultures of civilization. This program seeks to put the arts in the center of learning.
The Development of City University's Arts Program
From conversations with staff and arts advocates in the community, a focus group for the arts was developed at City University composed of 45 educators to study the idea of a master's program centered on the arts. These were classroom teachers already teaching the arts in their classrooms as well as Art Specialists. These people brought their passions and commitment to the table to discuss how the arts could help students learn. It took about two years to design a practitioner model for teachers. This group evolved into the Arts Advisory Committee and in 2002 they submitted a program plan to the members of City University's Master's of Education Advisory Committee and the Curriculum Advisory Committee for approval. Dr. Margaret Davis, Dean of the Albright School of Education and devoted Arts advocate, presented the program plan to the Deans and to others at City University to gain their support. The result was a new master's degree in Integrating Arts and Performance Learning.
How the Program Works
Master of Education students build upon an integrated series of core courses (16 credits) followed by an emphasis of their choice. Integrated Arts and Performance Learning (IAPL) is one of four emphasis choices. It was created in 2003 to respond to needs of educators as they prepare to meet the Essential Academic Learning Requirements in the arts required by the state of Washington in 2008.
The IAPL program is designed to introduce teachers to the arts and the research on how the arts affect learning. Teachers focus on the idea of integration and how their students can learn about the arts, learn subject area content with the help of the arts, and learn through the arts to employ a variety of media as a strategy for learning. Throughout the program teachers engage in activities, field experiences, and projects to develop their passions, interests, and capacity for creativity. Through performances, simulations, and role-play, teachers help students engage in the creative process, defer judgment about the product, and instead focus on the creative process. Teachers focus on engaging students in alternative ways of thinking, looking at multiple perspectives, and entertaining different points of view.
Each art form is studied in depth in the fall and winter quarters. Teachers give examples of how they are using each art form in teaching and how they can merge two or more art forms to further student learning of specific concepts and skills. The arts are then seen through the lens of literacy, understanding diversity and multicultural perspectives, using technology, and learning across content areas. During the summer quarter teachers explore their own creative nature and use the process of creativity to design a production or product they can share with others. No prior experience is necessary to take this master's degree program. Teachers can feel at ease in creating something they truly feel represents them. The end of the summer quarter brings joy and vast relief at having finished a master's degree. It also brings sadness to be leaving the cohort in which they have shared so much of themselves, their dreams, and passions. Cohort groups continue to stay close and teachers continue to share their lives with each other, even after leaving City University.
Past, Present, to Future
In the fall of 2003 the first pilot cohort group began in Everett, Washington under the direction of Mari Evans, Art Specialist for Yelm School District. Using evaluation data from the students and instructors, the program was revised during the summer of 2004. In the fall of 2004, two new cohorts started in Renton and Vancouver, Washington.
An important component of the program is Action Research. Mari Evans (personal communication, February 5, 2005) discusses the research done by students:
Each master's candidate in the Integrating Arts and Performance Learning Emphasis does a culminating action research project. In action research, teachers focus on improving skills their students have difficulty mastering and use the arts as part of their intervention to impact the skills needed to master the state EALRs. They teach their students the elements of the art forms and the creative process and observe growth based on student performances. They share many ways in which they have integrated arts into the curriculum on an ongoing basis. They discuss how to promote the arts through workshops, coaching other teachers, and dialoguing at both the district level and in their communities. Teachers and students reach into the heart of a community through participation in the visual and performing arts and by understanding the unique culture of a community. Those connections represent life.
A February, 2005 graduate survey included the following comments from students:
"The parents are grateful that their kids, who never talked about how their day went in the previous years at the center, are giving blow-by-blow accounts of what they are learning. They sometimes don't even want to be picked up from school." Vancouver student
"As a result of the arts, the teaching material has become more exciting and meaningful to students." Renton student
"Students remember vocabulary and are very enthusiastic about developing short skits or pantomimes to demonstrate their understanding. They love moving - kinesthetic to connect the cognitive." Olympia student
In considering the future direction of this program, City University will continue to work closely with teachers to help make a difference in the view of the educational community on the importance of the arts and learning. To this end City University will be exploring partnerships with school districts, grants, community program support, and possible endorsements. We need to respond to educators who are looking for ways to embed creativity and the arts in a way they can be sustained within the educational system. This is bringing all of us closer to the task of education and what the arts contribute, which is not only to open the door to the world of learning, but to put the arts at the center of learning.
References
Eisner, E.W. (2002). The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs (3nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Goldberg, M. (2000). Arts and learning: An integrated approach to teaching and learning in multicultural and multilingual settings. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
Jensen, E. (2001). Arts with the brain in mind. Alexandra, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Joseph, R. (2005). Introduction to the arts. Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, from http://www.k12.wa.us/
Dee Bayne is Senior Faculty for the Master of Education in Reading, Literacy, and ESL/ELL, Integrating Arts and Performance Learning, and the Currriculum and Instruction Specialized Study at City University.
For more detailed information about the program, teachers can call toll free, 1-800-426-5596, and talk with an advisor in any of our sites to include Vancouver, Washington, Tacoma, Renton, Bellevue, and Everett. Teachers can also go to the City University Web site. http://www.cityu.edu/channels/programs/program_list.aspx?pgmNum=131399A
Dee Bayne
Senior Faculty
Albright School of Education
City University
Email: dbayne@cityu.edu
www.cityu.edu
©March 2005 New Horizons for Learning
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