Drama in Teacher Education: Closing the Achievement Gap Through Arts Infusion

• In Event: 31.043 - Benefits of Arts-Based Pedagogy in Teacher Education

Abstract

Morrell explains, “Often, the failure of urban students to develop ‘academic’ literacy skills stems not from a lack of intelligence but from the inaccessibility of the school curriculum to students who are not in the “dominant” or “mainstream” culture” (p. 72). In this paper I share qualitative and quantitative data and experiences infusing arts based learning strategies into the daily language arts curriculum of one title 1 preschool class. These strategies have proven to increase student learning across cultures; closing the achievement gap (Catterall, 2009, Fiske, 1999, Stevenson and Deasy, 2005, Walker, Tabone & Weltsek, 2011). Based upon a qualitative and quantitative analysis I argue for the inclusion of arts based instruction in all teacher preparation programs.

Structure
In 2012, the local community college partnered with a preschool teacher from Madison Elementary School (Pseudonym), the community college Drama Professor and two graduate education students from a local four year college to infuse visual and theatrical arts based learning into the curriculum. Human subjects’ release was awarded, gathered data consisted of lessons plans, youth session video and audio recordings, student generated artifacts and pre and post standardized tests.
Arts based learning takes a multi-modal and multi-literate perspective. Strategies use embodied experiences such as painting, sculpture and theatre to engage the entire person in curricular inquiry. For example: in order to explore the concepts of orbit and rotation the students took an imaginary space flight and orbited a rotating planet. It is this experiential aspect that defines arts infusion as central to the learning experience.

Student Individual Growth and Development for Infants and Children (IGDI) scores in September of 2013 averaged a 14.39 for vocabulary versus a 21.30 average from the control group. By December of 2013 the control group had increased their scores to 29.65 or by 39% . The Madison students IDGI scores, for the same period, increased to 31.65 or 117% as a direct result of the arts infusion. Similarly, a qualitative analysis of the students’ personal, social and intellectual growth points towards a greater awareness of themselves as active social participants.

Position
Darling-Hammond (2010) explains that streamlining teacher accreditation is not wise. There is also an underlying commitment to the idea that “learning” and what it means to “learn” and by contrast “teaching” and what it means to “teach” are not the acquisition of skills or curriculum but an engagement between students and teacher in the construction of what it means to learn and to teach. Drama and arts based learning creates such an equitable and just space for both student and teacher.

Hammond champions the use of a range of learning strategies to provide students multiple curricular access points. Along these lines she points out that the achievement gap continues to widen amongst cultures with wealthy and Anglo students outperforming their marginalized counterparts. We maintain the need for introducing policy that would secure a place for the arts in and as education within teacher certification.

 

Author

• Gustave John Weltsek-Medina, Indiana University