It is not difficult for arts educators to claim that the utilization of the arts in a school’s curriculum benefits learning across the spectrum, for it is an intuitive truth. It is encouraging to know that studies continue to show this truth to have tangible, scientific proofs that will, we all hope, lead to greater support within the K-12 academic world or, more specifically, by the school boards that fund it.
The Dana Foundation, which sponsors research on the brain and how it’s ability to learn better through art, and which is a great supporter of arts education, has published an article on its website well worth reading: How Arts Training Improves Attention and Cognition by Michael I. Posner, Ph.D., and Brenda Patoine.
Michael Posner argues that when children find an art form that sustains their interest, the subsequent strengthening of their brains’ attention networks can improve cognition more broadly.
This is the kind of work that provides hope that we can find the appropriate balance between the teaching of the arts and the other disciplines in order to help form better students.
Filed under: All Disciplines, Resources
