Below is an excerpt from a technical paper I wrote for a Research Methodologies course. If you would like to see the entire APA paper, please contact me and I would be happy to share.
Introduction
Children who are well educated and culturally rounded are better equipped to tackle academics, make for better candidates in higher education and the workplace, and ultimately contribute to society. While being well educated is subjective, too often, a common belief is that having a K-12 education that prepares you for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is the goal for an innovative 21st Century. This mindset creates lanes of learning, shortchanges society and creates a Nation ill-prepared to compete in a global economy. Incorporating the Arts (STEAM) by way of an interdisciplinary approach addresses different learning styles, forges associative neurological pathways that reinforce material taught in the other disciplines, and serves as a powerful positive intervention on multiple fronts, including overall well-being and cognitive performance.
With stakeholders of higher education asking for better prepared college candidates, and business communities asking for graduates better prepared and able to bring a well-rounded education to the table, you are left wondering where the United States is falling short. What can be done about it? Fortunately, there are several nations exploring solutions to this question. Unfortunately, the United States is bringing up the rear when it comes to embracing empirical research findings and deploying a comprehensive overhaul of education. While there are bright spots regionally, this typically takes place where funds are not an issue and there is greater support for the humanities, which leaves a majority of students from under-resourced communities marginalized.
In an article from 2019, an example of the extent higher education institutions are willing to take to compensate for building block opportunities in K-5, according to Bear and Skorton (2019) explained that the World Needs Students with Interdisciplinary Education. In their article, they explain that students with Harvard Medical School are engaging in “communication, visual literacy, critical thinking, and empathy through art observation” (p.1). This is an effort to create more well-rounded students who are able to employ critical thinking across disciplines. The same disciplines most have been indoctrinated in while attending public schools. They’ve gone on to explain how any trend that higher education institutions are taking is relative to the concerns voiced by employers eager for candidates with “writing and oral communication skills, critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills, ethical reasoning skills, knowledge of global world cultures, and “integration of learning across disciplines”. (p. 62) Integrating learning across disciplines is critical and is inherently formulated while studying the arts.
In another study conducted by Ramey, et al (2020), they discuss how “making” activities help foster spatial reasoning skills, which inform performance in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM); the trend is towards STEAM, which is an acronym simply incorporating art into the same disciplines. While their study is important in that it addresses the need for more qualitative analysis on how spatial reasoning can be cultivated, the decision to use CAD software (limiting topics to 30 STEAM challenges) , focusing on fifth and sixth grade students, and from a large, suburban, midwestern school district (p. 470), does not provide the experience of an actual fine arts curriculum. Additionally, the issues of cost associated with CAD software/hardware, as well as buy-in from school site administrators, may pose problematic for budget-strapped school districts. Nevertheless, their findings under the implications category (p. 488), states that “our findings provide further, empirical support for the promise of hands-on making activities for learning”.
One of the more interesting studies on the importance of incorporating the arts and humanities into curriculum was amongst medical students, citing the necessity to provide opportunity for “observation, diagnostic skills, empathy, team building, communication skills, resilience, and cultural sensitivity” (Makunda, et al., 2019). All of these opportunities are inherent to visual art instruction and happen to help ensure college applicants are better equipped for higher education, as well as meet the demands and expectations of corporate America vocations or the public sector careers. The methods employed with the medical school were to make use of “art museums, with sessions led primarily by art educators employing validated pedagogy such as Visual Thinking Strategies or Artful Thinking” (p. 1). Observational skills, cultural awareness, and no fear of failure attitudes all translate to a greater chance of risk taking with the arts, learning about cultures outside social circle, and sensitivities that come with it.
Then you have a study conducted by Edward P. Clapp and Raquel L. Jimenez of Harvard Graduate School of Education. To better understand the maker trend and STEAM movement, their research cites the first Maker Faire in San Mateo, California, and their understanding that “In recent years there has been a push to incorporate the Maker movement esprit de corps into various formal and informal teachings and learning” (Clapp & Jimenez., 2016, p.482). This is not uncommon given the citing’s previously mentioned. Furthermore, their report parrots what other researchers have been claiming, that stakeholders in education have led the clarion call for arts in curriculum while touting the many benefits, such as increasing capacities to engage in STEM subjects.
While education and the growing of a nation’s people have always held an interest by policy makers, educators, and employers, it appears that research has focused on pieces of a puzzle to solve the problem of a comprehensive education, one that equips citizens for success in academia, employment, and cultural aptitude.
Administrations as far back as President Truman have grappled with stagnant academic performance. Researcher Clay Francis wrote a paper, Academic Rigor in the College Classroom: Two Federal Commission Strive to Define Rigor in the Past 70 years, about how the higher education for American Democracy, The Truman Commission of 1947 and The Spellings Commission of 2006, are calling for drastic reform in education, more specifically ensuring public education was well rounded. One important point is “citing the growing success of higher education in other nations and the simultaneous stagnation in quality at U.S. institutions” (p. 30). As well as ensuring the United States held a competitive edge, specifically with the Soviet Union. It is reflective of a long-standing recognition of subpar education philosophy that remains problematic in the U.S..
Finally, you have the same studies pointing to disciplines that help foster the skills, such as spatial reasoning, necessary in the performance of STEM or STEAM disciplines. These skills will invariably come back as intrinsically learned from the studies of the arts and humanities, specifically, visual arts. The remaining point to be made is, if visual arts have been proven to make a difference in spatial relation amongst middle school and high school students, why not make visual arts instruction a requirement at the foundational level, that of K-5; this window of opportunity where learning visual arts become building blocks instrumental in academic success in all other subject areas.
References
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (2020, November). The Humanities in American LifeAttitudes American Academy Insights from a 2019 Survey of the Public’s & Engagement – Appendix. The
American Life | American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved Humanities in December 20, 2021, from https://www.amacad.org/publication/humanities-american-life/section/8
American Psychological Association. (2017, March). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychological Association. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://www.apa.org/ethics/code
A., & SKORTON, D. (2019). The World BEAR, Science & Technology, Needs Students with Interdisciplinary Education. Issues in 35(2), 60–62.
Clapp, E. P., & Jimenez, R. L. (2016). Implementing STEAM in Maker-Centered Learning. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity & the Arts, 10(4), 481–491. https://doi-org.lpclibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/aca0000066
Francis, C. (2018). Academic Rigor in the College Classroom: Two Federal Commissions Strive to Define Rigor in the Past 70 Years. New Directions for Higher 25–34. Education, 2018(181), https://doi-org.lpclibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/he.20268
Mukunda, N., Moghbeli, N., Rizzo, A., Niepold, S., Bassett, B., & DeLisser, H. M. (2019). Visual art instruction in medical education: a narrative review. Medical Education 24(1), 1–5. https://doi-org.lpclibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/10872981.2018.1558657
Public Online, for report Retrieved opinion national 2018 from – Americans for the Arts. Americans the Arts. (2018). December 20, 2021, [SHORTENED TITLE UP TO 50 CHARACTERS] 17 https://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/Public%20Opinion%20National%202018%20Report.pdf
Ramey, K. E., Stevens, R., Uttal, D. H., Wallace, T. L., & Kuo, E. (2020). In-FUSE-ing STEAM Learning With Spatial Reasoning: Distributed Spatial Sensemaking in School-Based Making Activities. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(3), 466–493. https://doi-org.lpclibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/edu0000422
Winsler, A., Gara, T. V., Alegrado, A., Castro, S., & Tavassolie, T. (2020). Selection Into, and Academic Benefits From, Arts-Related Courses in Middle School Among Low-Income,Ethnically Diverse Youth. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity & the Arts, 14(4), 415–432. https://doi-org.lpclibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/aca0000222