Artists at School–developing Pupils’ Social Interaction through Artist-teacher Co-operation

Abstract

The research is a case study of teacher-artist co-operation in one primary school in a metropolitan area in Finland. In this case study, the artists worked at school with teachers and learning at the school was planned through arts-based, co-operative teamwork. The aim of this study is to evaluate how social skills were developed during the project. The research task was to determine whether the long-term artist pedagogy and co-operation at school have any significant connection to the social skills and behaviour of the pupils. Data has been collected through teacher-based evaluations of pupils' social skills during the school days and by interviewing the artists and teachers. Primary school teachers were asked to describe the behaviour and verbalisation of the pupils. Altogether 32 pupils from 3rd grade participated in this case study. Half of the pupils participated in an artist's class and half formed the control group. The teachers' descriptions of the pupils' behaviour were analysed. The artist group also used some music and drama. Two artists worked with the test group weekly during a period of six months. The measures used were Likert-based evaluation scores of pupils' social behaviour in everyday situations at school. According to the results, the artist-teacher co-operation and learning through the arts are worthwhile tools to develop pupil's social skills and learning in Finnish schools.Click here and insert your abstract text.

‘I – from dreams to reality’: A Case Study of Developing Youngsters’ Self‐Efficacy and Social Skills through an Arts Educational Project in Schools

“…These results are similar to those found when Ruokonen & Ruism€ aki (2015) studied artist-teacher co-operation in Finnish primary schools. The aim of their research was to find whether artistic activities had any significant connection to the daily social behaviour and skills of the pupils compared to those pupils studying in the same area in primary school at the same grade level, but without the artist-based learning programme.…”

“…According to this case study, pupils of the primary school made improvement in their social behaviour during the arts educational programme. The results show that artist–teacher co‐operation and learning through the arts are worthwhile tools to develop pupils’ social skills and learning in Finnish schools (Ruokonen & Ruismäki ). According to these previous studies, the artist in the school programme or an extra arts education can help pupils to give form to their ideas either by explaining from their own artistic experiences or demonstrating through the arts.…”

Convergence among imagination, social-emotional learning and media literacy: an integrative literature review

“…cited in Nielsen, 2006;Shank, 2016); project-based learning (Ruokonen & Ruismäki, 2015); situated learning (Bruner, 1996, as cited in Blatt-Gross, 2010; situated cognition by using cognitive apprenticeship model (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989, as cited in Blatt-Gross, 2010); Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978, as cited in Blatt-Gross, 2010. Studies that aim at a multi-arts programme (Clark, 2007;Goldstein & Bloom, 2010;Joronen et al, 2011;Kim & Wiehe-Beck, 2016;Ruokonen & Ruismäki, 2015;Shank, 2016) take into consideration Vygotsky's theory of art (1971( , as cited in Hedegaard, 2016, with arts satisfying human's cognitive, emotional and social needs. From this point of view, arts education constitutes the social and emotional form of cognition (Blatt-Gross, 2010).…”