The Impact of Arts Integration Professional Development on Equity and Access in Teaching and Learning

• In Event: 29.054 - Exploring Equity and Access for Priority Populations: Learning From Students, Teachers, and Arts Partnerships

Abstract

Objectives
This paper describes a three-year study examining how teachers experience professional learning (PD) opportunities regarding approaches to arts integration, student engagement, creative/higher order thinking, and differentiation for students with disabilities. It seeks to answer the question, to what extent can teachers recognize and provide evidence of utilizing arts integration strategies to teach for student engagement, creative/higher order thinking, and differentiation for priority populations?
Theoretical Framework
Guskey’s Five Critical Levels of Professional Development Evaluation (2000) provides a theoretical framework for this study. This continuum of professional development, beginning with teacher reaction and progressing to student outcomes, situates targeted areas of need in professional learning, in particular the importance of receiving adequate training in working with special needs students (Darling-Hammond, Wei, Andre, Richardson & Orphanos, 2009) relevant to this symposium topic.

Methods
Educator survey responses were analyzed after participation in a year-long arts integration professional development program. Frequency and central tendency analyses were performed to provide a descriptive summary of data and examine relationships between population variables and teaching for student engagement, creative/higher order thinking, application of arts integration strategies, and uses of strategies targeting priority populations.

Data Sources
The Professional Development Course Survey was administered to 141 participants from schools engaged in a partnership with an arts organization. A subgroup of 54 educators provided documented implementation of arts integration in their classrooms. The pilot data from this documentation was used to develop criteria for 2016-2017 documentation regarding differentiation for students with disabilities as well as English Learners. Results will be available in April 2017.

Results
While almost three-quarters (72.3%) of educators attending PD indicated that sessions addressed differentiation for children with disabilities/IEPs occasionally or as a main focus, a significant proportion of teachers (27.7%) reported that sessions either did not address or marginally addressed this area. There was no statistical significance between participants indicating the PD addressed differentiation and teachers’ Title I school status, attendance in arts integration PD in the past three years, or the art form session focus.
Results also demonstrated a significant correlation between differentiation for children with disabilities/IEPs and level of student engagement addressed in sessions (Spearman’s rho = 0.42, p < 0.001). That is, as teachers’ reporting that student engagement was addressed increased, their reporting of learning regarding differentiation for children with disabilities/IEPs also increased. There was also a significant correlation between differentiation for children with disabilities/IEPs and the level of creative/higher order thinking addressed in sessions (Spearman’s rho = 0.48 p < 0.001).

Significance
This study will help researchers understand what teachers experience in and through PD sessions and workshops; contribute to the literature in the field of arts education, particularly arts integration; and will add to the dialogue concerning methods of collecting evidence about relationships between effective PD, meaningful practice and student learning, particularly for priority populations.

Author

• Suzanne M. Katz, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts