The Importance of Teaching with the Arts
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At Golden Hill we understand the importance and value of art, and we incorporate a creative mindset in all of our instruction so that the individual strengths of each child is realized and fostered. By allowing our students to explore a concept, they are able to conceive and develop new ideas all on their own. We are not simply teaching and incorporating art for art’s sake, we are using the tools of art to teach real-world problem solving in every facet of curriculum, and throughout our school day.
NCCAS National Coalition for the Core Arts Standards
Student success and academic achievement through the arts demand engagement in four fundamental creative practices: Imagination, Investigation, Construction, and Reflection in multiple contexts. These meta-cognitive activities nurture the effective work habits of Curiosity, Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication, and Collaboration, each of which transfers to the many diverse aspects of learning.
When our students engage in the arts, they are excited, energized, and confident. Without a doubt, it is evident that through artistic exploration and engagement, we see how arts integrated education engages children and contributes to their overall development.
Standards-based arts integration and instruction, by its very nature, engages students with one another, helping them to:
- Develop, implement, and communicate new ideas to others effectively.
- Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work.
- Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real world limits to adopting new ideas.
- View failure as an opportunity to learn; understand that creativity and innovation is a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes.
- Demonstrate the ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams.
- Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal.
- Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and values the individual contributions made by each team member.
For more information, please visit:
NCCAS Standards document (full)
Watch Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on the importance of allowing students to learn in their own way.
