Rationale for Integrating the Arts

Integrating the arts across the curriculum is an innovative, yet effective educational process by which students learn through the arts. The program's intent is not to necessarily teach the arts, but to use them within the regular curricula. The activities use art as the catalyst to make learning meaningful and motivating. Students learn best when they are actively learning. The arts provide opportunities in which students are actively involved in learning. Students are more likely to retain knowledge and information when they are involved in the learning process. Utilizing the arts in the regular curriculum increases knowledge of a general subject area while fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of the fine arts.

Individuals learn and process information in different ways. We must address these differences in our teaching styles, so that students have various opportunities to learn concepts (McCarthy, 1987). Teaching through the arts is the ideal process for these learning modalities. The four learning styles identified by McCarthy and the suggested sequence of instruction teach both right-and left-brain processing techniques, ensuring that we are teaching the whole brain. We often hear statements that learners are either right or left-brain oriented. Even though one side may be dominant, both sides are actually vital to learning. Integrating the arts into the curriculum provides endless opportunities to engage both sides of the brain. The arts enhance the process of learning. The systems they nurture, including sensory, attentional, cognitive, emotional, and motor capacities, are the driving influence behind all other learning. The arts provide learners with opportunities to simultaneously develop and mature mult...

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...ativity, and teamwork in our classrooms. These are the qualities needed to excel and succeed into adulthood, which should be our ultimate goal as educators.

Works Cited

Catterall, J. S. (2002). Overview: Arts and the transfer of learning. Critical Links. Retrieved May 15,

2010, from http://www.aep-arts.org/resources/research.htm 161-172 PDF The overview.

Davies, M.A. (2000). Learning...The beat goes on. Childhood Education, 76 (3) 148 – 153.

Jensen E. (2001). Arts with the brain in mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and

Curriculum Development.

McCarthy, B. (1987). The 4-Mat system, teaching to learning styles with right/left mode techniques.

Barrington, Il: Excel Inc.

Norfolk, S., Stenson, J., Williams, D. (2006). The storytelling classroom: Applications

across the curriculum. Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.