The Arts-in-Education Approach

30.07.2013

Arts-in-Education (AiE) is an approach to teaching which uses the arts as a tool to educate
students in a variety of subjects. This approach does not simply aim to bring the arts subjects
into the curricula (arts education) and it is not about teaching art forms such as visual art,
music, dance and drama - although artistic skills and art appreciation are usually learned in
the process.

The AiE approach uses the arts to stimulate cognitive and emotional development and to
encourage innovative and creative thinking so that students learn more effectively in a range
of subject-areas such as mathematics, science and heritage education. By looking at,
engaging in, and thinking about the arts (including visual and performing arts), students
develop better analytical and interactive skills and acquire broader, more creative, innovative,
and clearer thought-patterns.

This approach enables all types of learners to understand the subject matter more easily and
also nurtures many other skills including problem solving, communication and empathy by
encouraging learning of kinesthetic, musical and interpersonal skills. Using the arts in
education also makes learning more enjoyable and brings about active student participation in
lessons.

Learning Through the Arts® (LTTA), developed by the Royal Conservatory in Canada, is an
educational programme which attempts to put AiE into practice. Schools that have
implemented this programme routinely witness their students learning numeracy through
dance, literacy through media arts, and science through music - amongst other possible
combinations.

This programme involves bringing professional artistes, certified to help teach curricular
requirements, into the classroom to work in partnership with classroom teachers. They work
hand in hand to create lessons that make learning of content subjects exciting and relevant to
students with diverse learning styles. In this way, the programme equips teachers with
creative tools which enable them to use arts-based activities to teach the curriculum -
including mathematics, science, language and social studies.
In bringing the arts, cognition, and curriculum together, the LTTA programme aims to
enhance the capacity of teachers to teach, the ability of children to learn, and the potential of
schools to inspire.

Arts Education, by contrast, focusses on teaching processes and skills related to the specific
art forms. For example, within Arts Education, visual art lessons could include the teaching
and learning of different drawing techniques while music lessons could involve learning how
to play musical instruments. Arts Education and AiE, although dissimilar, can play
complementary roles in the education system.

UNESCO recognizes the importance and the potential of both Arts Education and AiE, and
works to improve both through its Culture programme. In this region, UNESCO Bangkok has
established a network of Asia-Pacific Arts-in-Education Observatories.

These Observatories function as clearinghouses of information about the instrumental uses of

arts education, facilitating knowledge-sharing and information-utilization by the network and
by UNESCO, its Member States and cooperation partners.  There are currently 6
Observatories in the region, and they are based in Australia, Hong Kong SAR (China),
Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea and Singapore

Together with their partners, these observatories are charged with the mission of bringing the
Arts into every school and classroom in their country. As a network, they also aim to support
other countries in the Asia-Pacific to bring quality arts education, and with it, quality
education to all in the Asia-Pacific region.

For more information, please contact Stella Yu [s.yu(at)unesco.org] and Ramya

Vivekanandan [r.vivekanandan(at)unesco.org] at the Education Policy and Reform Unit.

Written by Stella Yu [s.yu(at)unesco.org]

http://www.unescobkk.org/education/news/article/the-arts-in-education-approach/

16/08/2013 ; 11.43am