The Brain, Learning, and the Arts

1. ASCD Brain Compatible Learning Network The Brain, Learning, and the Arts Roxann Sorenson Moonfire Porcelain Dr. Pauline Stonehouse University of North Dakota

2. Introductions: PAULINE STONEHOUSE ROXANN SORENSON

3. This Session: THE ARTS & BRAIN COMPATIBLE LEARNING STEPPIN’ OUT WITH SHAKESPEARE A Clay Workshop in five acts Recent Research on the arts, learning and the brain

4. Prologue: The Globe Theatre

5. Defining Arts: Jensen, E. (2001). Arts with the brain in mind: • Musical Arts • Visual Arts • Kinesthetic Arts

6. Art?

7. Neuroeducation: Recent Research The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition - 2008 Johns Hopkins University Summit - 2009 Does early arts training cause changes in the brain that enhance other important aspects of cognition? (2004) What new research is relevant? How does the process of learning with and through the arts improve academic performance? (2009)

8. In Search of Brain-Based Education: Bruer (1999) • “We have almost survived the Decade of the Brain.” p. 649 • “The brain-based literature represents a genre of writing . . . that provides a popular mix of fact, misinterpretation, and speculation.” p. 657

9. Learning Style Research Under Fire “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing.” Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork (2010) Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence

10. Neuroeducation NEUROSCIENCE EDUCATION PSYCHOLOGY How children learn and what practices promote and sustain the learning process PRACTITIONERS OF EDUCATION THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING NEUROEDUCATION The Johns Hopkins School of Education Neuro-Education Initiative (NEI) Interdisciplinary group of researchers brought together to bridge the gap between brain sciences and education

11. Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT ONE: Characters

12. “Shakespeare, Meet You Tube” Edutopia FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010 Shakin’ Up Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet Hamlet Macbeth A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Taming of the Shrew

13. Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT TWO: Footwear Chopines

14. Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT THREE: Drawing on the Imagination

15. Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT THREE: Drawing on the Imagination

16. Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT FOUR: Getting Your Feet Wet (“Jump”) . . . art is not, like science, a logic of references but a release from reference and rendition of immediate experience. . . not primarily a thought, or even a feeling, but an impact. Joseph Campbell (1959)

17. Steppin’ Out With Shakespeare ACT FIVE: Reflection “In every adult there lurks a child – an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the part of the human personality which wants to develop and become whole.” Jung in Cameron (1996)

18. Epilogue:Arts Training and Cognition …..each individual art form involves separate brain networks. Our theory of how interest and training in the arts to improved general cognition generally, involves five elements. (Posner, M., Rothbart, M. K., Sheese, B. E., & Kieras, J. K., 2008, p.4)

19. Rap Up: Musical Arts Macbeth Rap • Memory skills are enhanced by training in music and acting • Specific links are suggested between the practice of music and geometry • Correlations exist between music training and reading

20. Kinesthetic Arts • Training in acting appears to lead to memory improvement • Learning to dance by effective close observation is closely related to learning by physical practice. Skills of observational learning may transfer to other cognitive skills

21. Visual Arts The visual arts enhance cognition, emotional expression, perception, cultural awareness and play a significant part to play in the learning process.

22. Simple as A-B-C • Reading and Language Skills • Mathematics Skills • Thinking Skills • Social Skills • Motivation to Learn • Positive School Environment Ruppert (2006): National Assembly of State Arts Agencies Critical Evidence: How The Arts Benefit Student Achievement “One convenient way to sum up how study of the arts benefits student achievement is the recognition that learning in the arts is academic, basic and comprehensive. It is as simple as A-B-C.”

23. Session Evaluation, Questions, Comments: If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended: That you have but slumbered here, While these visions did appear . . . Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend. William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream

24. Join Us: ASCD Brain-compatible Learning Network http://braincompatiblelearning.org If you’d like to receive our newsletter, please complete the form provided on your table. With the introduction of ASCD’s new social networking platform, ASCD EDge, ASCD leaders have access to new opportunities to connect, share information, and engage with fellow leaders, members, and colleagues within the ASCD community. Go to: http://edge.ascd.org/_How-the-Brain-Learns/group/110564/127586.html

25. Insight: The Artist PABLO PICASSO For me, creation first starts by contemplation, and I need long idle hours of meditation. . . I let my mind drift at ease, just like a boat in the current. Sooner or later it is caught by something. It gets precise. It takes shape . . . My next painting motif is decided.

26. Insight: The Philosopher MAXINE GREENE “Participatory involvement with the many forms of art does enable us, at the very least, to see more in our experience, to hear more on normally unheard frequencies, to become conscious of what daily routines, habits, and conventions have obscured.” Maxine Greene (2007). Art and imagination: Overcoming a desperate stasis.