Art in general education

August 20, 2024 5:24 AM

Decades ago, I read a lot of literature about the effect of arts in general education. Back then, there was a pretty wide consensus that the inclusion of visual arts and music in the general education, from first grade to high school graduation, improved the learning outcomes across all subject. How does that look today?

The concept is: when kids play an instrument or spend time doing visual arts, they would get better at math and reading.

Or, my anecdotal experience as a teacher at a tech university is that people who have been educated at Steiner or Freinet schools are better at problem solving and actually also learning in general.

I don't really know which search terms to use, back then I had very easy acces to research through my work.

posted by mumimor to Education (4 answers total)

John Dewey's works may be a helpful place to begin [wiki]
posted by HearHere at 5:59 AM on August 20 [3 favorites]

How does that look today? ...which search terms to use
STEAM is a current keyword [artsintegration]
posted by HearHere at 6:26 AM on August 20 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Investigating the Causal Effects of Arts Education says it is the first randomized controlled trial of arts education; it finds "strong evidence that the arts can produce meaningful impacts on students’ academic outcomes and social-emotional development." (Full article may be behind a paywall; here's a full earlier version.) Related work at "Arts, Humanities, & Civic Engagement Lab: Rigorous, practitioner-engaged, policy-relevant research on the impact of the arts and humanities."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 6:37 AM on August 20 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks all. I've marked Mr.Know-it-some's answer as best, because it is most useful for what I'm doing right now.
posted by mumimor at 1:59 PM on August 22