The Brain, Learning, and the Arts ASCD Brain Compatible Learning Network The Brain, Learning, and the Arts Roxann Sorenson Moonfire Porcelain Dr. Pauline Stonehouse University of North Dakota

Introductions: PAULINE STONEHOUSE ROXANN SORENSON

STEPPIN’ OUT WITH SHAKESPEARE This Session: THE ARTS & BRAIN COMPATIBLE LEARNING STEPPIN’ OUT WITH SHAKESPEARE A Clay Workshop in five acts Recent Research on the arts, learning and the brain

Prologue: The Globe Theatre Music Globe Musicians + Introductory Activity for participants…..Globe-trotting…..where are you from? (Image labeled for reuse in Google)

Defining Arts: Jensen, E. (2001). Arts with the brain in mind: Musical Arts Visual Arts Kinesthetic Arts Image: Grand Theater Center for Arts – Tracy, CA Activity: List under each heading…..

Art?

Neuroeducation: Recent Research The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition - 2008 Johns Hopkins University Summit - 2009 Does early arts training cause changes in the brain that enhance other important aspects of cognition? (2004) What new research is relevant? How does the process of learning with and through the arts improve academic performance? (2009)

In Search of Brain-Based Education: Bruer (1999) “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

Learning Style Research Under Fire “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 Educators currently struggle to define effective C21st instruction. According to a review of existing research on catering for different learning styles, scientists have not shown conclusively that students learn better when they are taught according to their preferred modality. The authors argue that it is time to stop funding the technique that hasn’t been proven effective. Cognitive psychologists, Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork , reviewed major studies to see whether those studies had reached any valid conclusions. The research says that much more research is needed to validate the learning style theory. Should schools stop funding the tools and training needed to help teach the various learning styles as the research has suggested?

Neuroeducation EDUCATION NEUROSCIENCE PSYCHOLOGY NEUROEDUCATION How children learn and what practices promote and sustain the learning process PRACTITIONERS OF EDUCATION THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING Kenneth Kosik – “Educators are seriously interested in research; they are hungry for information. Neuroscientists are typically less interested in education; they haven’t gotten into the trenches with the educators. The scientific community now is beginning to have answers, and is prepared to begin addressing teachers’ needs and questions.” Galinsky – “If educators see a substantive body of work affirming the benefits of arts training, they’ll be more likely to include and integrate the arts into schools and classrooms.” Educators are largely unaware of new scientific research; scientists typically do not conduct research with educators in mind as end users; advocates are convinced of the efficacy of arts integration but need hard evidence to promote it. Communication among these constituencies is almost nonexistent; when information is shared it often is synthesized into headlines or neuro-myths. 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

Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT ONE: Characters

“Shakespeare, Meet You Tube” Edutopia FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010 Shakin’ Up Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Macbeth A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Taming of the Shrew Clips 18 minutes

Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT TWO: Footwear Chopines

Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT THREE: Drawing on the Imagination

Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT THREE: Drawing on the Imagination

Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT FOUR: Getting Your Feet Wet (“Jump”) . . . 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)

Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT FIVE: Reflection “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)

Epilogue: Arts Training and Cognition …..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. Multiple three-year studies from seven universities were published in a report released in March 2008. Consortium researchers found “tight correlations” between arts training and improvements in cognition, attention, and learning. The summit held in 2009 was planned to explore how studying and practicing the arts might enhance creativity, cognition, and learning. Neuroscientists continue to find clues as to how the mental and physical activities required for the arts are so fundamental to brain function. Sousa (2006) “Certain brain areas respond only to music while others are devoted to initiating and coordinating movement from intense running to the delicate sway of the arms. Drama provokes specialized networks that focus on spoken language and stimulate emotions. Visual arts excite the internal visual processing system to recall reality or create fantasy with the same ease.” (Posner, M., Rothbart, M. K., Sheese, B. E., & Kieras, J. K., 2008, p.4)

Rap Up: Musical Arts 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 Clip - 4.14 minutes – reveal research results while showing the clip…..

Kinesthetic Arts 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

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

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 Research does not hold all the answers to why the arts are important, but it does confirm what most people know to be true in their hearts and minds. The arts make a significant contribution to education. The research compendium Critical Links contains a diverse collection of studies that examine how arts learning experiences affect the academic achievement of children and youth. More than 65 distinct relationships between the arts and academic and social outcomes are documented. When school budgets get tight, elementary level art and music programs are among the first to be reduced or eliminated. Now, pressure from NCLB Act to improve reading and mathematics achievement is prompting schools to trade off instruction in the arts for more classroom preparation for the mandatory high-stakes tests. Ironically, this is happening just as neuroscience is revealing the impressive impact that the arts have on the young brain’s cognitive, social and emotional development. Sousa (2006) “The arts are not just expressive and affective, they are deeply cognitive. They develop essential thinking tools – pattern recognition and development; mental representations of what is observed or imagined; symbolic, allegorical and metaphorical representations; careful observation of the world; and abstraction from complexity.” “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.”

Session Evaluation, Questions, Comments: 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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Insight: The Artist 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. Reflection….

Insight: The Philosopher 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.