Talking About Arts Education in 21st Century America Richard J. Deasy Arts Education Partnership

Arts Education Partnership Founded and financed by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment of the Arts in cooperation with the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Coalition of more than 100 national education, arts, business and philanthropic organizations Demonstrates through research and best practices the role of the arts in improving schools and student achievement.

Purposes of arts education  Consensus among arts teaching organizations:  “Enabling students to create, perform and respond to works of art”  Framework for the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts

What happens when they do?  They grow in competence in and understanding of the arts forms  Develop intellectual, personal, and social capacities and dispositions demanded and nurtured by arts learning

Research Publications Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts that Value Arts Education (1999) Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections (1998) Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Student Learning (2000) Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development (2002) Arts Education Partnership

Third Space: When Learning Matters  How do the arts contribute to the improvement of schools that serve economically disadvantaged communities?

Capacities and Dispositions Imagination: Visualizing new possibilities for thought and action Creativity: Originality, flexibility and elaboration in realizing new possibilities for thought and action Innovative: Fashioning new tools, products and solutions

Capacities and dispositions oSymbolic Understanding: oUnderstanding and communicating in multiple modes of representation, text, image, sound, motion oCritical Judgment oDeveloping and applying criteria for making decisions about quality

Capacities and Dispositions  Spatial reasoning Organizing and sequencing ideas, images, movements  Conditional reasoning Theorizing about actions, outcomes, and consequences; defining and generating optional approaches and solutions to problems and conditions

Capacities and Dispositions  Self identity/self efficacy Realistically valuing oneself and the impact of one’s actions; internalizing personally meaningful standards  Collaborative learning and action Participating as a contributing member in a group process of acquiring and manifesting learning; supporting the conditions for openness and risk taking

oPersistence: Sustaining concentrated attention oResilience: Managing challenges; overcoming failure and frustration oEngagement/Motivation to Achieve: The desire to succeed in fulfilling meaningful goals and expectations Capacities and Dispositions

o Empathy Identifying with another’s feelings and point of view Tolerance Respecting multiple values and perspectives Capacities and Dispositions

Adaptive Expertise  The capacity to apply knowledge and skill in new contexts and conditions

Adaptive expertise  Swartz, Bransford & Sears (2005) Efficiency Innovation Novice Adaptive Expert Routine Expert Frustrated Novice?

Adaptive expertise  Swartz, Bransford & Sears (2005) Efficiency Innovation Novice Adaptive Expert Routine Expert Frustrated Novice? Motivation Learning that Matters

Conditions and contexts in 21 st Century America  Analyzed from several dominating points of view or “frames”  Each frame Describes conditions and concerns Proposes solutions Defines the capacities and dispositions needed to implement solutions

The Economy: Descriptions  Growing capacities of other nations: India, China  Outsourcing of manufacturing and computerized processes  Workforce diversity  Technology as the driver  Instability of careers

The Economy: Solutions  Focus on being innovative and creative  Promote “entrepreneurship”  Develop intercultural competence  Create “horizontal” rather than “vertical” institutions

The Arts in the Economy  Design one of the fastest growing dimensions and generators  Cultural institutions crucial to economic growth in urban areas  Employment in and GDP from cultural activities a growth sector  Media and entertainment dominant

Capacities and Dispositions Imagination: Visualizing new possibilities for thought and action Creativity: Originality, flexibility and elaboration in realizing new possibilities for thought and action Innovative: Fashioning new tools, products and solutions

Capacities and dispositions oSymbolic Understanding: oUnderstanding and communicating in multiple modes of representation, text, image, sound, motion oCritical Judgment oDeveloping and applying criteria for making decisions about quality

Capacities and Dispositions  Self identity/self efficacy Realistically valuing oneself and the impact of one’s actions; internalizing personally meaningful standards  Collaborative learning and action Participating as a contributing member in a group process of acquiring and manifesting learning; supporting the conditions for openness and risk taking

Other “Frames”  Civil Society and Civic Engagement  Quality of Life  Education

Talking About Arts Education  The arts play an essential or significant role in fulfilling the needs and addressing the concerns of any frame  So they should be taught so the arts thrive  And they should be taught because they create essential capacities, dispositions and adaptive experts