Sheelagh Cook

April 16, 2018

Integrating Arts into the Common Core
Rationale-DRAFT

As a future teacher what got me interested in researching integrating the arts into the

Common Core was the ideas I have learned through my classes at Wheelock. Through not only

my education classes but also my performing arts classes I have been able to draw connections

to why the arts are important. Through this paper I hope to explain through philosophies and

research just exactly why the arts are important and how they benefit now only how teachers

teach but also how students from learning through the arts.

In one of my first education classes we looked at Howard Gardner’s Multiple

Intelligences. Gardner first introduced the idea of multiple intelligences in his book Frames of

Mind first published in 1983. But as of a recent publication in 2011, there is a total of eight

multiple intelligences. The eight intelligences are Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial,

Musical, Naturalist, and Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal. Each of the eight

multiple Intelligences were created to express the many methods we as individuals learn. As

human beings we collect information and solve problems in our own unique way and the

Multiple Intelligences give names for how we do that. Through his research Gardner noted that

many schools only focus on teaching through two intelligences, Linguistic and Logical

Mathematics, and well those are important teachers should be open to teaching through ways

that connect to their students who relates to another intelligence.(Gardener p.6) Adding the

arts into the common core would enhance how teachers incorporate more of the Multiple

Intelligences into the classroom. For example, a teacher could do a reading unit with students

and have art centered lessons. The art lessons could be either visual and performing and they
would allow students to explore and develop more of the multiple intelligences. Adding the arts

would not only explore the Spatial, Musical, and Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligences but also the

Interpersonal Intelligence because many art based lessons require the students to work

together.

Another philosopher I learned about that also expresses the important of arts in

education is Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky discovered the Theory of Creativity. In an article written by

Gunilla Lindqvist she explains Vygotsky’s feelings towards art and his theory. Lindqvist write,

“Vygotsky maintained that art has an important role in education, not as morality, but as an

introduction of aesthetic reactions into life itself. (p. 246)” What Vygotsky means is that

including arts in education not only helps students in school but also helps them with life

outside of the classroom.. Lindqvist writes, “According to Vygotsky, one of the most important

aspects of art—the absurdities, nonsense, inversions— are very close to children’s play. This

explains why art is such an important ingredient in children’s life. (p. 248) It is easy to

understand how these aspects are easily related to children’s play because when you watch a

child play or listen to them learn the sometimes have the most absurd responses but it makes

sense to them and it allows them to explore their learning in their own ways. Another

important aspect of art of Vygotsky that also relate to children is imagination. “Vygotsky

claimed that all human beings, even small children, are creative and that creativity is the

foundation for art as well as for science and technology.” (Lindqvist p. 249) This creative ability

Vygotsky considered to be imagination. His belief is an interesting one but as someone who

believes in integrating the arts into the common core it makes sense. I believe what Vygotsky is
trying to say is that we should allow students to explore their imagination in other areas

besides art forms because it allows them to be creative in other ways that are just not art.

While I was doing research I stumbled upon the work of Dorothy Heathcote. Dorothy

was an inspiring young actress who turned to teaching when she didn’t see a future in acting.

Dorothy is most known for developing the Mantel the Expert approach. The Mantel the Expert

approach is when teachers make the students responsible for becoming the expert of their

learning. The students act as the expert of a certain topic and spend time reviewing it to their

other classmates. Thus through this the students’ confidence grows not just in what they are

learning but in their everyday lives. Dorothy believed that this could be a one time drama

lesson but it would best be done over multiple lessons in multiple content areas to really make

the students experts. (Farmer) Once again Heathcote makes the same point that Garnder,

Vigotsky and many other have made. That including art in education does not only allow

students to learn about the arts but it helps them learn across contents and it also impacts their

lives outside of school.

In my future classroom I want to be able implement arts into the common core. I

strongly believe that implementing the arts will grow my students knowledge. I want my

students to be able to explore their learning in different ways and this includes using their

minds, bodies and imagination.

 Bibliography

Farmer, D. (2015, August 05). Dorothy Heathcote – Pioneer of Educational Drama. Retrieved
April 17, 2018.
https://dramaresource.com/dorothy-heathcote-pioneer-of-educational-drama/

Gardner, H., Davis, K., Christodoulou, J., & Seider, S. (n.d.). The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
https://howardgardner01.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/443-davis-christodoulou-seider-mi-
article.pdf

Lindqvist, Gunilla(2003) 'Vygotsky's Theory of Creativity', Creativity Research Journal, 15: 2, 245
— 251 http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/Mail/xmcamail.2010_08.dir/pdfMJiQyOan8C.pdf