Art? - Brain Compatible Learning

ASCD Brain Compatible Learning Network

Roxann Sorenson Moonfire Porcelain

Dr. Pauline Stonehouse University of North Dakota

PAULINE STONEHOUSE

ROXANN SORENSON

THE ARTS & BRAIN COMPATIBLE LEARNING

Recent Research on the arts, learning and the brain

STEPPIN’ OUT WITH SHAKESPEARE

A Clay Workshop in five acts

Jensen, E. (2001). Arts with the brain in mind:  Musical Arts  Visual Arts  Kinesthetic Arts

The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition - 2008

Does early arts training cause changes in the brain that enhance other important aspects of cognition? (2004)

Johns Hopkins University Summit - 2009

What new research is relevant? How does the process of learning with and through the arts improve academic performance? (2009)

 “We have almost survived the Decade of the Brain.” p. 649  “The brain-based literature represents a genre of writing . . . that provides a popular mix of fact, misinterpretation, and speculation.” p. 657

“The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing.” Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork (2010) Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence

NEUROSCIENCE

EDUCATION PSYCHOLOGY How children learn and what practices promote and sustain the learning process PRACTITIONERS OF EDUCATION

THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING

NEUROEDUCATION The Johns Hopkins School of Education Neuro-Education Initiative (NEI) Interdisciplinary group of researchers brought together to bridge the gap between brain sciences and education

Edutopia FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

Shakin’ Up Shakespeare

1. 2. 3. 4.

Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Macbeth A Midsummer Night’s Dream 5. The Taming of the Shrew

Chopines

. . . art is not, like science, a logic of references but a release from reference and rendition of immediate experience. . . not primarily a thought, or even a feeling, but an impact. Joseph Campbell (1959)

“In every adult there lurks a child – an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the part of the human personality which wants to develop and become whole.” Jung in Cameron (1996)

(Posner, M., Rothbart, M. K., Sheese, B. E., & Kieras, J. K., 2008, p.4)

…..each individual art form involves separate brain networks. Our theory of how interest and training in the arts to improved general cognition generally, involves five elements.

Macbeth Rap

 Memory skills are enhanced by training in music and acting  Specific links are suggested between the practice of music and geometry  Correlations exist between music training and reading

 Training in acting appears to lead to memory improvement  Learning to dance by effective close observation is closely related to learning by physical practice. Skills of observational learning may transfer to other cognitive skills

The visual arts enhance cognition, emotional expression, perception, cultural awareness and play a significant part to play in the learning process.

“One convenient way to sum up how study of the arts benefits student achievement is the recognition that learning in the arts is academic, basic and comprehensive. It is as simple as A-B-C.”

 Reading and Language Skills  Mathematics Skills  Thinking Skills  Social Skills  Motivation to Learn  Positive School Environment Ruppert (2006): National Assembly of State Arts Agencies Critical Evidence: How The Arts Benefit Student Achievement

If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended: That you have but slumbered here, While these visions did appear . . . Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend.

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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PABLO PICASSO For me, creation first starts by contemplation, and I need long idle hours of meditation. . . I let my mind drift at ease, just like a boat in the current. Sooner or later it is caught by something. It gets precise. It takes shape . . . My next painting motif is decided.

MAXINE GREENE “Participatory involvement with the many forms of art does enable us, at the very least, to see more in our experience, to hear more on normally unheard frequencies, to become conscious of what daily routines, habits, and conventions have obscured.” Maxine Greene (2007). Art and imagination: Overcoming a desperate stasis.