Arts education boosts academic learning

6/4/02 – Arts education helps students develop critical thinking skills and the motivation to achieve at high levels, concludes a report by the Arts Education Partnership.

Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, released by the partnership May 16, reviews 62 studies of education involving the visual arts, dance, drama, music, and multiple arts by nearly 100 researchers.

This compendium of the research in arts education is the first study to combine learning in all the artistic disciplines and make comparisons with academic achievement, performance on standardized tests, improvements in social skills, and student motivation.

James S. Catterall, an education professor at the University of California-Los Angeles and the contributing researcher/author of the report, says the studies suggest arts education is especially beneficial to poor students and those in need of remedial instruction.

"While education in the arts is no magic bullet for what ails many schools, the arts warrant a place in the curriculum because of their intimate ties to most everything we want for our children and schools," Catterall says.

The study, which was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education, outlines the relationships between learning in the arts and academic and social skills in the following major areas:

• Reading and language development–Certain forms of arts instruction can help "break the phonetic code" that unlocks written language by associating letters, words, and phrases with sounds, sentences, and meaning. Reading comprehension and writing skills also are improved.

• Mathematics–Certain music instruction develops spatial-temporal reasoning skills, which are fundamental to understanding and using mathematical ideas and concepts.

• Fundamental thinking skills and capacities–Learning in individual art forms, as well as in multiple arts experiences, engages and strengthens such fundamental cognitive capacities as spatial reasoning, conditional reasoning, problem solving, and creative thinking.

• Motivation to learn–Arts education promotes active engagement, disciplined and sustained attention, persistence, and risk taking.

• Positive social behavior –Students grow in self-confidence, self-control, self-identity, conflict resolution, collaboration, empathy, and social tolerance when they take part in certain arts activities.

• School environment–The arts help to create a positive learning environment by fostering teacher innovation, a positive professional culture, community engagement, increased student attendance and retention, effective instructional practice, and school identity.

Arts Education Partnership Director Richard J. Deasy says further research is needed to confirm and deepen the findings in this compendium.

"These studies suggest that it is a matter of equity that we make high-quality arts programs part of the education and development of every young person," Deasy says. "Research needs to show the forms of arts instruction that will close the achievement gap for students who are falling behind. Critical Links points to specific directions for this future research."