Talking About Arts Education in 21st Century America

Richard J. Deasy

Arts Education Partnership

www.aep-arts.org

Arts Education PartnershipArts Education Partnership

Founded and financed by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment of the Arts in cooperation with the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.

Coalition of more than 100 national education, arts, business and philanthropic organizations

Demonstrates through research and best practices the role of the arts in improving schools and student achievement.

Purposes of arts education

Consensus among arts teaching organizations:

“Enabling students to create, perform and respond to works of art”

Framework for the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts

What happens when they do?

They grow in competence in and understanding of the arts forms

Develop intellectual, personal, and social capacities and dispositions demanded and nurtured by arts learning

Research Publications

Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts that Value Arts Education (1999)

Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections (1998)

Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Student Learning (2000)

Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development (2002)

Arts Education PartnershipArts Education Partnership

Third Space: When Learning Matters

How do the arts contribute to the improvement of schools that serve economically disadvantaged communities?

Capacities and Dispositions

Imagination:

Visualizing new possibilities for thought and action

Creativity:Originality, flexibility and elaboration in realizing new possibilities for thought and action

Innovative:

Fashioning new tools, products and solutions

Capacities and dispositions

o Symbolic Understanding:o Understanding and communicating in

multiple modes of representation, text, image, sound, motion

o Critical Judgmento Developing and applying criteria for making

decisions about quality

Capacities and Dispositions

Spatial reasoning Organizing and sequencing ideas,

images, movements Conditional reasoning

Theorizing about actions, outcomes, and consequences; defining and generating optional approaches and solutions to problems and conditions

Capacities and Dispositions

Self identity/self efficacy Realistically valuing oneself and the

impact of one’s actions; internalizing personally meaningful standards

Collaborative learning and action Participating as a contributing member

in a group process of acquiring and manifesting learning; supporting the conditions for openness and risk taking

o Persistence:• Sustaining concentrated attention

o Resilience:• Managing challenges; overcoming failure and

frustration

o Engagement/Motivation to Achieve:• The desire to succeed in fulfilling meaningful

goals and expectations

Capacities and DispositionsCapacities and Dispositions

o EmpathyIdentifying with another’s feelings and point of view

ToleranceRespecting multiple values and perspectives

Capacities and DispositionsCapacities and Dispositions

Adaptive Expertise

The capacity to apply knowledge and skill in new contexts and conditions

Adaptive expertise

Swartz, Bransford & Sears (2005)

Efficiency

Inn

ova

tio

n

Novice

Adaptive Expert

Routine Expert

Frustrated Novice?

Adaptive expertise

Swartz, Bransford & Sears (2005)

Efficiency

Inn

ova

tio

n

Novice

Adaptive Expert

Routine Expert

Frustrated Novice?

Motivation

Learning that Matters

Conditions and contexts in 21st Century America

Analyzed from several dominating points of view or “frames”

Each frame Describes conditions and concerns Proposes solutions Defines the capacities and dispositions

needed to implement solutions

The Economy: Descriptions

Growing capacities of other nations: India, China

Outsourcing of manufacturing and computerized processes

Workforce diversity Technology as the driver Instability of careers

The Economy: Solutions

Focus on being innovative and creative

Promote “entrepreneurship” Develop intercultural competence Create “horizontal” rather than

“vertical” institutions

The Arts in the Economy

Design one of the fastest growing dimensions and generators

Cultural institutions crucial to economic growth in urban areas

Employment in and GDP from cultural activities a growth sector

Media and entertainment dominant

Capacities and Dispositions

Imagination:

Visualizing new possibilities for thought and action

Creativity:Originality, flexibility and elaboration in realizing new possibilities for thought and action

Innovative:

Fashioning new tools, products and solutions

Capacities and dispositions

o Symbolic Understanding:o Understanding and communicating in

multiple modes of representation, text, image, sound, motion

o Critical Judgmento Developing and applying criteria for making

decisions about quality

Capacities and Dispositions

Self identity/self efficacy Realistically valuing oneself and the

impact of one’s actions; internalizing personally meaningful standards

Collaborative learning and action Participating as a contributing member

in a group process of acquiring and manifesting learning; supporting the conditions for openness and risk taking

Other “Frames”

Civil Society and Civic Engagement

Quality of Life

Education

Talking About Arts Education

The arts play an essential or significant role in fulfilling the needs and addressing the concerns of any frame

So they should be taught so the arts thrive

And they should be taught because they create essential capacities, dispositions and adaptive experts