Opportunities for Implementing, Studying, and Evaluating an Arts-Integrated Early Childhood Education Program

• In Event: 18.045 - Arts-Integrated Early Childhood Education: Model, Implementation, Impact, and Future

Abstract

This session provides the 20-year programmatic and evaluative evolution of an arts-integrated early childhood education program -- Art As A Way Of Learning® (AWL). This work originated through a business-education partnership between Northampton Community College and Binney & Smith, Inc. (now Crayola) and was based on preparing classroom teachers for substantively integrating the visual arts throughout the traditional academic curricula (preK -- middle school). It emerged on the cusp of literature identifying visual arts as important in children’s learning (Bresler, 1992; Feeny & Moravcik, 1987) as well as research indicating that schools must reshape teaching and learning so students develop higher-order thinking skills and understanding (MENC,1994). The original AWL model has since been refined and expanded -- now ArtsIN (see Hartle, Pinciotti & Gorton, 2014) -- to include all of the arts.

The original formative efforts of the partnership occurred within a 5-year program of action research conducted by a local resource team including classroom teachers, collaborating artists, and NCC faculty. The conclusion of this action research was that young children understand concepts more completely and retain knowledge better when they use art explorations that fully engage both expressive and cognitive processes. From this early work AWL was born as a professional development program for teachers and artists focused on four components -- visual literacy, creative collaborations, aesthetic environments, & teaching strategies -- and based on the premise that art is a language through which all subjects can be learned via guided explorations, reflective practices, and collaborations in the classroom.

At this point we pursued and were awarded a series of funds that allowed specific program developments in AWL as well as opportunities for research and evaluation. Two overarching questions organized specific AWL iterations. Does AWL ECE prepare young children for school success? How does AWL change teachers and their pedagogical approaches and efforts?

PNC Financial Services ‘Grow Up Great’ -- 3-year grant funded AWL implementation in Head Start classrooms; continued action research/evaluation designed to create teacher beliefs and observation tools
HHS, ACYF ‘Promoting & Supporting Early Literacy through the Arts -- 18-month grant funded AWL expansion to all art forms and implementation in high-risk community setting; undertook first quasi-experimental evaluation of child literacy-related outcomes
PNC Foundation ‘Promoting & Supporting School Readiness through the Arts -- 3-year grant funded AWL model-program development at NCC and substantiation of AWL instructional processes, teacher documentation strategies, and arts-related measurement tools; included 2nd quasi-experimental evaluation of child outcomes
NEA ArtsWorks/Arts Education -- 4 successive 1-year grants awarded to support AWL implementation and development in NCC’s model program; included 3rd quasi-experimental evaluation of child outcomes

AWL began as an action research project, continues to evolve based on information learned from our data, as well as ongoing arts-integration research and emergent knowledge from related fields. This multi-disciplinary approach provides a unique view of the arts as integral to our humanness and as a universal language that communicates across cultures and time. (Hartle et al., 2015)

Author

• Rebecca L Gorton, Northampton Community College