Evaluation of a Large-Scale Science Teaching Intervention Employing Arts-Integrated Instruction

• In Event: 72.049 - Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 72.049-14 - Mixed-Methods Research in the Lived Experiences of Artists and Arts Educators

Abstract

This study examines the first year of a large-scale science intervention that utilized visual and performing arts (VAPA) techniques to foster science learning, particularly for English learners (ELs) and children from low-SES households. Third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students participating in the intervention received three VAPA-based and three inquiry-based lessons and were randomly assigned to which set of lessons they received first. Regressions using data from a researcher-designed earth sciences measure suggest that there were no differences or clear heterogeneous impacts between treatment groups on the type or order of the lessons. Treatment students (N=2,910) outperformed students from a constructed control group (N=826) on the earth sciences measure. Implications for utilizing VAPA-science integration methods are discussed.

Authors

• Brad Hughes, University of California - Irvine

• Robert Kalinowski, University of California - Irvine

• Christa Renee Mulker Greenfader, University of California - Irvine

• Doron Zinger, University of California - Irvine

• Douglas Grove, Concordia University - Irvine

• Drew Bailey, University of California - Irvine

• Alex Ray, University of California - Irvine