Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts

McCarthy, Kevin F.; Ondaatje, Elizabeth Heneghan; Zakaras, Laura; Brooks, Arthur C.

doi:10.7249/mg218

Cited by 139 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Additionally, students in arts classes have demonstrated greater self-efficacy and a more positive selfperception (Catterall et al, 1999;McCarthy et al, 2004), as well as fewer feelings of boredom, less risk of dropout (Catterall, 1998), and fewer risky behaviors (Eccles, Barber, Stone, & Hunt, 2003). In a recent longitudinal study, in-school arts engagement positively predicted academic buoyancy, self-esteem, and sense of meaning and purpose, beyond student sociodemographics and prior achievement (A. J.…”

Section: Positive Schoolingmentioning

confidence: 94%

The subjective well-being of Israeli adolescents attending specialized school classes.

Orkibi¹,

Ronen²,

Assoulin³

2014

Journal of Educational Psychology

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Although adolescents' well-being has long been considered a central goal in therapy and education, research focusing on the link between subjective well-being (SWB; happiness) and studying in specialized school classes is rather limited. Using a between-subjects design, the present study examined whether adolescents studying in sports, arts, or regular classes differ in SWB indicators of life satisfaction and positivity ratio. Based on previous findings linking self-control and perceived social support to SWB, the study further examined the mediating role of these variables in the relation between class affiliation and adolescents' SWB. The sample included 648 Israeli adolescents in Grades 7-10 attending public schools. Results indicated that students in elective sports and arts classes reported significantly higher life satisfaction than did students in regular classes and that students in elective sports classes reported significantly higher self-control and positivity ratio only in comparison to students in regular classes. Structural equation modeling indicated that self-control and perceived social support had a significant direct effect on the SWB of all students, regardless of their class affiliation. Self-control and social support significantly mediated the relation between class affiliation and SWB only for students in sports class, suggesting that mediators between class affiliation and SWB may differ across specialized classes. The discussion provides interpretation of the findings, considering the potential role of predispositions and individual characteristics as intervening variables. The study's limitations as well as implications for theory and practice are addressed, and future directions for research on the SWB of adolescents attending specialized classes are highlighted.

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Section: Positive Schoolingmentioning

confidence: 94%

The subjective well-being of Israeli adolescents attending specialized school classes.

Orkibi¹,

Ronen²,

Assoulin³

2014

Journal of Educational Psychology

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“…Of course much evidence has been gathered, although not quite the right evidence (too qualitative and subjective to adequately compete with other government policy areas that thrive on quantitative measures in the hierarchy of evidence). The aim of this paper is not to discuss that research, nevertheless, interesting reviews can be found [1,21,36,45], including from a historical critique perspective [4]. There is generally a common conclusion: causal links are almost impossible to prove.…”

Section: Public Policy and The Quest For Evidencementioning

confidence: 98%

Creativity as Openness: Improvising Health and Care ‘Situations’

Oliver

2009

Health Care Anal

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Creativity has become an oft-used word in UK public policy, but perhaps it is also under-imagined. This paper contends that there is an instrumental tendency to narrowly frame creativity as innovation, implying a reproducible product, instead of more openly as improvisation, a situational, embodied and temporal process. This is not a simple dichotomy (innovation and improvisation, product and process, can be mutually informing concepts), nor is it specifically a question of definition; rather, it relates to an ontological orientation, and related to that are issues of epistemological implications. In particular the paper is concerned with the value of the arts in public policy, as situated in the social, and therefore human, spaces of health and care; and more generally the arts in society. The paper brings together a broad discussion from across disciplines, not in an interdisciplinary attempt to solve a problem, or to be reductive in the analysis, but to begin to approach a reorienting of understandings of creativity and the human value and foundation of the arts in society.

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“…The quality of those encounters-the level of emotional and mental engagement people experience with works of art-is critical to the creation of a range of benefits that enhance personal lives and contribute to the public welfare in ways that go beyond economics. People who experience high levels of engagement with works of art move imaginatively and emotionally into different worlds; broaden their field of reference beyond the confines of their own lives; exercise their capacity for empathy; develop faculties of perception, interpretation, and judgment; and form bonds with others who find in some works of art the expression of what whole communities of people have experienced (McCarthy et al, 2004). If the number of arts appreciators shrinks with succeeding generations, the cultivation of these humanizing effects will decline as well.…”

Section: What's At Stakementioning

confidence: 99%

“…But a few studies have suggested that prolonged instruction has the greatest effects on behavior and level of involvement (Heath, Soep, and Roach, 1998;McCarthy et al, 2004;Hetland et al, 2007). To describe the arts instruction available today, we inventoried the institutional infrastructure for the support of arts learning: K-12 public schools, colleges and universities, and programs offered beyond the classroom by arts organizations, community organizations, and community schools of the arts.…”

Section: Educational Support For This Kind Of Learning Is Weakmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts

Cited by 139 publications

References 18 publications

The subjective well-being of Israeli adolescents attending specialized school classes.

The subjective well-being of Israeli adolescents attending specialized school classes.

Creativity as Openness: Improvising Health and Care ‘Situations’

Cultivating Demand for the Arts: Arts Learning, Arts Engagement, and State Arts Policy

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