Arts in Education A Creativity Crisis?

1. Arts in EducationA Creativity Crisis?

2. Creativity and the Arts: Food for Thought • “The dynamic interaction of technological and economic change has two immediate longterm implications for labor markets. First, it puts a premium on the capacity of companies, countries and of individuals for creativity and innovation. The most important resources of all companies are now the ideas and creative capacities of the workforce … The second key quality is the need for flexibility and adaptability.” –Sir Ken Robinson • “A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. Yet it’s not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care. Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others.” (Newsweek, 2010)

3. The Creativity CrisisNewsweek, 2010 • E. Paul Torrance tested 400 kids in 1958 in a series of tasks that measure creativity. Those kids have been tracked, and based on their contributions to society (e.g., patents, books, software, businesses), it was found that the childhood creativity scores were an excellent predictor of later success (correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ). • Kyung Hee Kim analyzed almost 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults. Creativity scores rose until 1990, when they began falling. The decline in K-6th graders is “most serious.” • Why? • TV and video games instead of creative play • Lack of creative development in schools

4. The Creativity CrisisNewsweek, 2010 • Other countries are doing something about it: • Great Britain has revamped school curricula to encourage idea generation, has begun using Torrance’s test to assess their progress, and has held conferences to explore the science of creativity, financing teacher training, and implementing problem-based learning. • China has moved away from a drill-based teaching style and has been adapting problem-based approaches. • What does neuroscience tell us about creativity? • Left brain and right brain activity—both sides working together lead us to “aha!” moments (both divergent and convergent thinking). This is a repeated cycle of finding, recycling, and/or recombining new and old information and evaluating it. • Although divergent thinking is something that one can be naturally prone to, convergent thinking and focus require different neural talents. In other words, creativity is natural to some, but can be encouraged in others with proper teaching.

5. The Creativity CrisisNewsweek, 2010 • How do we teach creativity or allow it to develop? • In elementary school children, project-based learning has been successful (e.g., Akron 5th graders were tasked with solving the noise problem in their library). • Parents should encourage uniqueness and challenge children while providing a framework of stability and rules for children to explore in. This type of environment encourages adaptability. • In early childhood, free play, especially role play, encourages creativity. Play is a safe way to work through taboo or unexplored thoughts and emotions. • In middle childhood, children’s paracosms (fantasy worlds) that children visit and develop are a good indicator of creativity. • From 4th grade on, researching and studying are important parts of problem solving and creative thinking. • Why is creativity important? • Study of 1500 middle schoolers indicated that students with high creativity were more confident about their future and ability to succeed.

6. The Arts and Elementary Education: Shifting the ParadigmMadeline Fuchs Holzer, 2009 • Holzer and the Lincoln Center Institute delve into what they call the Capacities for Imaginative Learning, which are the steps in creative thinking (similar to neuroscience discussed in Newsweek). • Noticing deeply, embodying, questioning, identifying patterns, making connections, exhibiting empathy, creating meaning, taking action, reflecting/assessing. • Holzer argues that aesthetic learning (i.e., arts education) employs and encourages this thinking. The arts are a way to stimulate children’s imaginations, and through exposure, tutoring, and reflection with various forms of art, they engage in the Capactities. • “. . . [T]eachers and students . . . approximate the artist’s choices in a particular artwork by exploring the artistic/aesthetic process and the use of contextual resource materials. Then (unlike what can happen in some forms of arts integration), when the art works under study are linked to other curricular areas, the integrity of the art, as art, is preserved, while connections across other disciplines are made deeply and authentically.” • Imaginative learning and the Capacities are integral to all learning, not just the arts.

7. Fight the Stress of Urban Education with the ArtsCreedon, 2011 • High stress levels are associated with asthma (14.7 million school absences in 2002) and depression (50% of urban youth suffer from some level of depression). Stress directly affects “attention, memory, planning, and behavior control,” and produces high levels of cortisol. • Continuous high cortisol levels damage neurons in the brain associated with learning and memory. • Solution: Arts and music education produce endorphin, which counteracts the effects of cortisol. It helps students to manage their stress levels and enhances their ability to learn. • “Cognitive research shows that a well-structured music and arts education program enhances the emotional well-being of children, enhances their readiness for learning, reduces stress, and reduces negative social behaviors.” • Arts-based education will help students master critical concepts in other subjects, but also helps insulate their brains from urban stressors and supports their physical and emotional health.

8. I Like Cities; Do You Like Letters? Introducing Urban Typography in Art EducationHuerta, 2010 • Often forgotten in our inventory of literacy materials are typography from the urban landscape (posters, signs, billboards, graffiti). These can be approached from new, creative, interdisciplinary standpoints. • Typography and calligraphy as an art form: design of letters, forms, cultural implications—this can be linked to traditional art, urbanism, and computer graphics. • “In this way we will be able to approach certain of the pupils’ interests, taking advantage of historical and patrimonial aspects as well as the more pressing issues related to technology such as computer design or the manipulation and creation of characters. This would also help us to improve the appreciation and observation criteria of some visual products coming from the arts, design, urbanism or the media.” • Suggests encouraging students to explore their urban environments with digital cameras to capture what they perceive as they see it, how they want, with their own emphasis.

9. I Like Cities; Do You Like Letters? Introducing Urban Typography in Art EducationHuerta, 2010 • Approach typography and composition as an art form; approach the letter in a similar way to how we look at contemporary art. • Typography’s presence in our lives—cell phones, television, and especially computers. At some point, students will have to decide how they want a written work to appear. Suggests that art educators approach the letter as a topic due to its dual nature as a graphic language and a verbal written language. • Cultural implications: “Beyond the verbal meanings of words, letters hide a graphic and symbolic code that connects directly with our cultural heritage.” • Calligraphy and typography are a means by which to make art education more accessible for teachers who must teach art but are unfamiliar/uncomfortable with it. • Also a good way to connect teachers and students, who may have different interests, but can both invest in typography.

10. Education in the New Millenium: The Case for Design-Based LearningLee & Breitenberg, 2010 • Points out that the skills and thought processes of the designer are more valuable in the business world now than traditional MBA skills. • Suggests design-based learning as a better fit for how students learn in the digital age, and better prepares them for real-life issues and experiences. • Design described in the broadest sense; i.e., communicating through a number of different media and the interactions between them. • “Very few secondary schools have fully understood the consequences of this shift: it means that visual learning, spatial and holistic thinking, the need to work simultaneously in different media, and (most critically) the importance of active learning over passive learning, are fundamental to the learning and cognitive processes of students today.” • A number of schools have shifted their focus to incorporate design and creativity.

11. Education in the New Millenium: The Case for Design-Based LearningLee & Breitenberg, 2010 • Thinking skills and processes are similar to what other articles have cited: observe, identify needs, seek and frame problems, work collaboratively, explore solutions, weigh alternatives, communicate their ideas verbally and visually, self-assess, critique, and reflect. • The idea is to teach “through design” to support learning in other areas, as opposed to learning to or about design. • A City of Neighborhoods: community program for youth, educators, designers and civic leaders; goal is to engage people in neighborhood planning. • Provides access to primary resources (e.g., maps, historic and cultural materials) to explore a city’s past and present and plan for its future. • The Summer Design Institute: “Participants at the institute learn ways to promote innovation, critical thinking, visual literacy and problem-solving across the K-12 curriculum . . . Most importantly, they experience how architectural, environmental, product, graphic and media design can enhance the teaching of mathematics, science, environmental studies, language arts, history and art.”

12. Art Influences LearningReyner • “I hear and forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” –Confucius • Positive outcomes of quality arts education • Creates positive attitude towards learning • Develops greater sense of personal and cultural identity • Fosters more creative and imaginative ways of thinking in young children • Art and children’s literacy • Studies have shown that children who draw or paint about the stories they have read improve their reading comprehension and are motivated to read more. • Art and math • Math isn’t just numbers and formulas—math is symmetry, structure, shapes; conversely, art isn’t just color and aesthetics—it’s about patterns, problem solving, and assessment.

13. Arts in Early Childhood: Curriculum Connections • Parental involvement • Invite and encourage participation in classroom art activity, field trips • Encourage parents to engage children about their creations and not just say, “That’s nice, dear.” • As educators, if you witness a parent-child interaction about a child’s art, reinforce the engagement process and explain to the parents how the artwork came about and how it is benefiting their child • At the beginning of the year, offer a meeting or workshop on the topic, “What is childhood art?” • Encourage art activities to continue at home during school vacations or absences; have 4 or 5 art backpacks containing different art media that children can borrow.

14. Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools • President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities • Created in 1982; advisory committee to the White House on cultural issues; work “to address policy questions in the arts and humanities, to initiate and support key programs in those disciplines and to recognize excellence in the field.” • Report published in May 2011 • Two baseline principles: • “First, the arts are a vital part of the culture and life of this country, and all students deserve access to the arts in school as part of a complete education.” • “Second, decades of research and experience show that high quality arts education can play an important part in achieving a range of educational objectives.”

15. Reinvesting in Art Education: Art Education Outcomes • Students involved in the arts (including minority and low-income students) performed better and stayed in school longer than students with low involvement. • Of interest: low-income students involved in band outscored others on the NELS math assessment; low-income students involved in drama showed greater reading proficiency and more positive self-concept compared to those with little or no involvement. • Several studies have found that skills from art involvement transfer to other subjects. Others have reported that the arts encourage positive personal development, such as social skills, self-confidence, motivation, and tolerance. • Shirley Brice Heath studied non-school youth organizations in low-income neighborhoods. Research indicated that youth who participated in at least 9 hours of arts-related activity per week were 4 times more likely to have high academic achievement and 3 times more likely to have high attendance. • Findings are especially credible because they were an unexpected outcome of another investigation.

16. Reinvesting in Arts Education: Education System in Crisis • Dropout rates are alarming: 25-30% dropout rate before high school graduation; 50% for males in some minority groups. • Why? Studies report that reasons include boredom, classes not being interesting, lack of motivation to work hard, and low expectations. • Even students who do graduate are not properly prepared for the real world. The skills they lack include “problem solving, critical and creative thinking, dealing with ambiguity and complexity, integration of multiple skill sets, and the ability to perform cross-disciplinary work.” • Leaders are worried that the US is losing its competitive edge, and that creative thinking and imagination are not being fostered in our education system. The recent financial crisis has shed light on the changing need for this type of skill set to maintain our competitiveness in the global market.

17. Reinvesting in Art Education: Recommendations The PCAH was impressed with the impact that the arts are having in educational settings across the country. The President and the PCAH believe that now is the time to reinvest in arts education. The Committee’s recommendations are: 1. Build collaborations among the different approaches to arts education. - Standards-based, arts integration, teaching artists all have a place. 2. Develop the field of arts integration. - “We agree that the arts will have a more secure place in the curriculum when teachers experience firsthand the deepening of learning in their subjects that comes from incorporating arts teaching strategies, and working in collaboration with arts specialists and teaching artists.” 3. Expand in-school opportunities for teaching artists. - “By employing teaching artists, schools can expand access and involve more students, but that involvement must be sustained and supported.”

18. Reinvesting in Art Education: Recommendations 4. Utilize federal and state policies to reinforce the place of arts in K-12 education. - “[State and federal governments] need policy guidance and more explicit examples of the place of the arts in the initiatives designed to increase the rigor of curriculum, strengthen teacher quality, and improve low-performing schools. The achievements and outcomes of arts-rich schools, both those incorporating the arts and those focusing on the arts through a magnet or other emphasis, should be folded into the larger dialogue of successful school reform strategies.” 5. Widen the focus of evidence gathering about arts education. - “Given the importance of 21st Century Skills to educators and policymakers, we believe it is critical to know more about how and under what circumstances arts education can develop students’ divergent thinking skills. It is generally accepted that arts education has the potential to develop students’ creativity, but more definitive information is needed along with measurement methods that can be replicated by local school districts.”

19. Creativity and the Arts: Food for Thought • “I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to [learn calligraphy]. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful. Historical. Artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture. And I found it fascinating. None of this had any hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would never have multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.” –Steve Jobs