ARTS and LEARNING
Jerome Kagan, Ph.D., of Harvard University, spoke about the importance of arts education in elementary schools during the Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference at Baltimore's American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore on May 6, 2009. Read his remarks at the link below:
http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21740
Brain Scientists Identify Close Links between Arts, Learning
The latest research in neuroscience is providing evidence that arts study strengthens other cognitive areas.
Read more at:
Attention May Link Arts and Intelligence
This Dana Foundation Study studies cognition, memory, and focus absorbed via Arts Education and its impact on general intelligence.
Research from Americans for the Arts
Topic: Arts Education in Early Childhood
Early engagement in the visual and performing arts has great significance on the life of a child because these experiences help create unique brain connections that will have long-term impacts on that youngster's life. Early childhood learning in the arts seeks to foster cognitive, motor, language, and social-emotional development.
Read more about the AFA's rsearch at:
http://www.americansforthearts.org/information_services/research/impact_areas/arts_education/001.asp
A Multi-Arts Approach to Early Literacy and Learning.
This article from the Journal of Research in Childhood Education (September 22, 2008),
uses teacher questionnaires and close ethnographic observation of 40 first-grade students to explores the learning possibilities the arts present for teaching young children and fostering developmentally appropriate practice.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1439/is_1_23/ai_n30954900/
Baby Steps:
How to connect your child with the performing arts.
By expressing a curiosity in the arts, your child is embarking on an adventure with many possible outcomes. Don't worry that your child will never become a professional artist. Artistic yearning doesn't equate with a career path or even a college scholarship.
Read more at:
Living the Arts through Language and Learning: A Report on Community-Based Youth Organizations
The Center for 21st-Century Skills
Learning and innovation skills increasingly are being recognized as the skills that separate students who are prepared for increasingly complex life and work environments in the 21st century, and those who are not. A focus on creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration is essential to prepare students for the future.
http://www.p21.org/route21/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=4
