The Arts

Benefiting Academic
Achievement
The Arts Benefiting Academic Achievement
Action Research Proposal
The Arts Benefiting Academic Achievement

Action Research Proposal
Final Presentation
Final Presentation
Purpose and Focus

1)My experience

2)Undervalued

3)In defense of the arts in schools

4)Art is not recess

5) Just like any real teacher, I want my students to be successful








Can the skills I teach in the visual
art room benefit academic
achievement?
Literature
How are arts experiences affecting academic achievement?

Found 65 distinct relationships between arts and academics

6 types of benefits found: reading and language, mathematics,
thinking skills, social skills, motivation and positive environment.

Cognitive skills/visual art-students trained to look at art were able to
transfer their learning about artwork to reasoning about images in
science.
Literature
What is arts learning? Does it extend to learning in other school subjects? What
conditions in schools support this learning?

Diverse participants (4 states, socioeconomic status), high and low arts groups.

Questionnaires to students, teachers and administrators, Torrance test of
creative thinking.

High-arts students scored higher in creativity, self-efficacy in other subjects,
better relationships with teachers, better able to express themselves, task
persistence, ownership, empathy, collaboration. Teachers more likely to favor
change and experimentation.

Suggested that integration of arts in schools was more important to overall
education than transfer of skills.
Literature

CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnership Education)-19 Elementary schools
Higher average reading and mathematics scores than other
elementary schools-over a 6 year period
Positive changes in school climate, leadership, focus on instruction,
teacher colleagueship and participation in decision making

Field of neuroscience finding ways certain arts affect cognitive
development

Finding connections using brain imaging

Early arts learning is a building block of developing brain function

Practicing an art form leads to improved attention and focus which leads
to improvement of other cognitive domains



Interventions
4
th
or 5
th
grade class, all students in class with permission

Collaborate with classroom teacher who will assess with me-
improvement in critical thinking

Normal lessons for this age group-learn the language of art, how
to think about what they are seeing, how to express those
thoughts

Begin with pre-assessment having students look at a posted work
of art and DESCRIBE, ANALYZE, INTERPRET AND JUDGE in writing.

This will help me understand what students already know and this
will be a tool to see what they have learned at the end of the unit.

Interventions
1
st
lesson-learn vocabulary used in critique, elements of art, principles of
design and DESCRIBE, ANALYZE, INTERPRET AND JUDGE.

2
nd
lesson-Critique-man!

3
rd
Passing notes critique

4
th
Critique-out-loud

5
th
Make art, self assess midway, critique self when done

6
th
Museum visit with classroom teacher with written critique
after with choice of writing, presentation or artwork

Methods
Pre-assessment-used to understand what students already know and used
again at the end of unit to understand what has been learned
Observation-during each lesson, keeping track
Student self-assessment during projects to keep on track and for me to
understand confidence
I will write a critique of student artwork for grades (set example)
Unit portfolio kept to see growth
Final rubrics for each project and for the unit total-all posted prior to each
beginning

Collaboration/Methods
Working with classroom teacher, incorporation same ideas into other
lessons, assessing
Validity

Triangulation-each intervention has several methods

Corroboration-all work will be in portfolio, classroom teacher

Artifacts-student generated work

Observational data-prolonged observations

Daily reflections in writing