Integrating the Arts

Reports from research around the world continue to extoll the importance of arts education. Whether it is the role of dopamine in engaging learners K-12 (music gives our brains a surge of the much beloved chemical) or the growth of empathy found in British students who spent one hour per week during a year’s time playing instruments together, research findings about the many ways that the arts improve learning and readiness for college and careers is news we can use.

The fiscal concerns in many districts threaten the arts and have done so for a long time. This module has two goals. One is to learn more about the solid research showing the connections between the arts and learning, engagement, and other positive human attributes. The second is to learn the research-based strategies for infusing arts across the curriculum.

Instructors will share information about successful practices derived from research projects with national arts integration communities as well as universal design projects incorporating art with museum research for all students, including students with disabilities. Participants will review and critique arts integration rubrics and discuss possible uses for their particular schools. Additionally, participants will design a lesson for an arts-infused unit in their domain of choice.

Key Points

In order to successfully integrate the arts into instruction, school leaders should become strong advocates for the arts and learn about recent, valid, and rigorous research findings.
Students deserve the best education we can provide; integrating the arts across the curriculum will give students fresh opportunities to comprehend and learn material.

Length

3 hours

Instructors

Dr. Christine Mason, Reem Labib, Orinthia Harris, and Suzan Mullane

ABOUT CHRISTINE Y. MASON

Christine Y. Mason, Ph.D., is Founder and Executive Director of the of Center for Educational Improvement. She is a nationally recognized expert in the area of educational reform, principal leadership and mentoring, and heart centered learning. She has 17 years’ experience as a yoga and meditation teacher. Mason has authored more than 100 books and articles, and given over 500 national, international, regional and local presentations. Her Ph.D. is from The University of Ohio.

ABOUT REEM LABIB, M. ED.

Reem Labib, M. Ed., is an education consultant focused on school improvement and school reform efforts both in the United States and the Middle East. She has participated as a team member in school quality reviews for seven years, evaluating schools serving students in grades PreK-12. Labib holds a bachelor’s in psychology from The George Washington University and a master’s in education specializing in curriculum and instruction with a focus on multicultural education from George Mason University.