What are the Benefits for Pupils Participating in Arts Activities?

Boyes, Louise Comerford; Reid, I. D.

doi:10.7227/rie.73.1

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Part of this benefit may be realised through the capacity of creative activities to help develop Running head: Improvisation, divergent thinking, creativity and education 4 children's cognitive abilities (Boyes & Reid, 2005;Catterrall, Chaplow & Iwanaga, 1999;Dunbar, 2004;Hassler, 1992;Keinanen, Hetland & Winner, 2000;Schellenberg, 2001;Smithrim & Upitis, 2005;Vaughn, 2000) as well as their creative achievement (Minton, 2002). However, it remains a matter of debate to what extent the beneficial effects of creative arts activities on cognitive skills are domain (music, drama, visual arts etc; e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education.

Sowden

Clements

Redlich

et al. 2015

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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The benefit of arts education for cultural engagement, wider academic achievement, and as a contributor to the creative economy is a subject of significant debate. In the present work we focus on the potential for simple arts-based improvisation activities to enhance divergent thinking skills and creativity in primary school age children. In a first experiment we compared the effect of children taking part in an improvised vs. non-improvised dance class on their subsequent performance on the Instances Task (Wallach & Kogan, 1965) and on a creative 'toy' design task. In a second experiment children took part in verbal and acting improvisation games or in matched control games before completing figural activity 1 of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1974). In both experiments we found that children who took part in the improvisation interventions showed better divergent thinking and creativity after the intervention. Our findings suggest that simple, arts-based improvisation interventions could have domain general benefits for creative cognition processes. Further, they indicate one way in which simply making better use of existing arts education provision could provide a cost-effective way to increase creativity relevant skills in primary school children. We consider putative mechanisms for the improvisation effects and specify directions for future work.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education.

Sowden

Clements

Redlich

et al. 2015

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Arts education is inextricably bound up with the wider curriculum, particularly in the areas of personal, social, cultural, moral and spiritual education. Boyes and Reid (2005) indicate that the arts can solve many educational problems in both the United Kingdom and the United States, and is fundamental to all nations' futures. The Australia Council's National Education and the Arts Strategy (2004) claims that when education is linked 'with the arts you not only improve the quality of learning, but the quality of life itself in its many variations-from the personal, to the family, community, to regional life, and to the life of the nation ' (p. 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of Hong Kong Students' Music Participation in and Out of School

2009

Research in Education

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“…On the other hand, there were other studies that reported no beneficial effects of integrating fine arts on academic outcomes (Boyes & Reid, ; DeMoss & Morris, ; Garcia, ; Thomas & Arnold, ). Garcia () and Thomas & Arnold () reported no small overall effects of integrating fine arts on reading and mathematics.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Impact of arts education on children's learning and wider outcomes

See

Kokotsaki

2016

Review of Education

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Almost every educational system in the world regards numeracy and literacy as more important than the arts. In the UK arts interest groups and politicians have, for years, asked for arts education to be accorded the same priority arguing that arts contribute to learning and development of useful skills. It is not clear if these claims were based on evidence. The aim of this review is to examine international empirical evidence to establish whether arts participation could lead to improvements in children's learning and other wider outcomes, and to identify arts activities with the best evidence of success. A search of 11 databases identified 76,195 reports, of which 200 were included for analysis. No studies with high levels of supporting evidence were found because of serious weaknesses in design. Tentative evidence suggests that music training and integrating drama in the classroom may have beneficial effects. This finding has to be taken with caution because of weaknesses in these studies, the lack of replication and inconsistent findings across studies. More robust and rigorous evaluations are needed to test the causal links. However, if improving attainment is the aim then arts may not be the solution. Promising programmes already exist that can boost learning. Given the lack of evidence so far, perhaps we should think more broadly about the purpose of arts. IntroductionArts have always struggled to find a legitimate place in the school curriculum in education systems across the world. For years, arts education has been marginalised and viewed by many as the poor relation of subjects such as mathematics, science and literacy, which are often regarded as core subjects because they are deemed to have greater currency in a competitive global economy (Confederation of British Industry, 2010, p 2).International league table, such as, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) also used performance in these core subjects as an indicator of the quality of a country's education system. Consequently, schools around the world are putting greater emphasis on these subjects. Performance in these curriculum subjects has now been used as a yardstick for attainment. To ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed in education the 'No Child Left Behind Act' was introduced in the USA. This has led to a decline in emphasis on arts education. In the UK, reforms in education have also been made to ensure that the country remains competitive. These reforms and the focus on the Ebacc (English Baccalaureate) have been blamed for a decline in the number of students taking arts at GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) (The Telegraph, 2014).The marginalisation of arts, the declining take up and the low status have prompted some to call for greater attention to be given to arts education in schools. Three main arguments were put forward. The first was that arts are synonymous with creativity and creativity was necessary for a world-class...

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What are the Benefits for Pupils Participating in Arts Activities?

Cited by 10 publications

References 12 publications

Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education.

Improvisation facilitates divergent thinking and creativity: Realizing a benefit of primary school arts education.

A Study of Hong Kong Students' Music Participation in and Out of School

Impact of arts education on children's learning and wider outcomes

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