Russell+and+Zembylas


 * //International Handbook of Research in Arts Education.//** Bresler, Liora, editor . //Chapter 18 – Arts Integration Russell and Zembylas-// Springer, 2007

ABSTRACT Summarizes what research says about arts integration in terms of “value” and “effectiveness”. How should success be measured? The focus on content areas here is not in terms of disciplines or handmaidens but more in terms of multilayered and symbiotic. “Current education practices place a high value on efficiency, behavioral objectives, and high-stakes achievement tests, whereas rigid boundaries inhibit students’ preparation for participation in a democratic society. Research suggests that curriculum integration has the potential to offer the world-class education that is often talked about, but rarely experienced.” This research looked at 15 studies from //North Carolina A+, Learning Through the Arts, and Chicago Arts Partnerships in Ed.// Findings included: · Many small and quiet examples of integration happen all of the time with imaginative teachers – this is usually not documented or evaluated. //(student teachers often report this kind of work after their experiences)// · There is a focus on qualitative evaluation methods – these reported positive learning outcomes in terms of engagement with subject matter; increased intensity, commitment, and capacity for critical thinking. This causes tension with policymakers due to an increased focus on high-stakes measures of learning. · There is a critical need to find better outcome measures, particularly in the area of student growth. Measures that evaluate multiple kinds of growth about how students’ arts-integrated learning provides both cognitively and affectively different experiences. · Many studies point to quantitative data about how students’ grades do not suffer and even improve in arts integrated classrooms. Qualitative studies and anecdotal evidence suggest strongly that a more important, possibly more long-lasting benefit to students is a positive change in attitude towards school. This is more about description than measurement. · Challenges to arts integration include; o watering down of individual subject matter, o issues of teacher self-efficacy, o the structure of the school day, and o issues teacher education in integration approaches.

QUESTIONS/IMPLICATIONS: o **//How can we find ways of collaborating across disciplines and professional ideologies that lead to: “Transformative practice zones that provide spaces to share and listen to others’ ideas, visions and commitments and to build relationships in collaboration?”//** o **//How can we soften the tension caused by a focus on “back-to-basics” with students, teachers, administrators, and parents?//** o **//How can we help all players to understand and distinguish between evidence and perception, between fact and belief? What kind of data will help with this?//** o **//There is a strong component in this research about trust in teachers! “Whether and when it is educationally enlightening to work with other subjects, whether arts or non-arts, will depend, as all education ought to depend, primarily upon the informed professional judgment of teachers who are experts in their particular fields. I will depend upon our having confidence in well-educated teachers. They are in the best position to make sound decisions about the value of working collectively with other disciplines.” David Best (1995)//** o **//This book also includes reviews of arts integration in other countries including South Africa, Greece, Japan and Switzerland. These perspectives may also be helpful.//**