ASCD Brain Compatible Learning Network
Roxann Sorenson
Moonfire Porcelain
Dr. Pauline Stonehouse
University of North Dakota
PAULINE STONEHOUSE
ROXANN SORENSON
THE ARTS & BRAIN
COMPATIBLE LEARNING
Recent Research on the arts,
learning and the brain
STEPPIN’ OUT WITH
SHAKESPEARE
A Clay Workshop in five acts
Jensen, E. (2001). Arts
with the brain in mind:
 Musical Arts
 Visual Arts
 Kinesthetic Arts
The Dana Consortium Report
on Arts and Cognition - 2008
Does early arts training
cause changes in the
brain that enhance other
important aspects of
cognition? (2004)
Johns Hopkins University
Summit - 2009
What new research is
relevant?
How does the process of
learning with and through
the arts improve academic
performance? (2009)
 “We have almost
survived the Decade
of the Brain.” p. 649
 “The brain-based
literature represents a
genre of writing . . .
that provides a
popular mix of fact,
misinterpretation, and
speculation.” p. 657
“The contrast between
the enormous
popularity of the
learning-styles
approach and the lack
of credible evidence
for its utility is, in our
opinion, striking and
disturbing.”
Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork (2010)
Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence
NEUROSCIENCE
EDUCATION
PSYCHOLOGY
How children learn and
what practices promote
and sustain the learning
process
PRACTITIONERS OF
EDUCATION
THE SCIENCE OF
LEARNING
NEUROEDUCATION
The Johns Hopkins School of Education
Neuro-Education Initiative (NEI)
Interdisciplinary group of researchers
brought together to bridge the gap
between brain sciences and education
Edutopia
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010
Shakin’ Up Shakespeare
1.
2.
3.
4.
Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet
Macbeth
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
5. The Taming of the
Shrew
Chopines
. . . art is not, like
science, a logic of
references but a
release from
reference and
rendition of immediate
experience. . . not
primarily a thought, or
even a feeling, but an
impact.
Joseph Campbell (1959)
“In every adult there lurks
a child – an eternal
child, something that is
always becoming, is
never completed, and
calls for unceasing
care, attention, and
education. That is the
part of the human
personality which wants
to develop and become
whole.”
Jung in Cameron (1996)
(Posner, M., Rothbart, M. K., Sheese,
B. E., & Kieras, J. K., 2008, p.4)
…..each individual art
form involves
separate brain
networks. Our theory
of how interest and
training in the arts to
improved general
cognition generally,
involves five
elements.
Macbeth Rap
 Memory skills are
enhanced by training
in music and acting
 Specific links are
suggested between
the practice of music
and geometry
 Correlations exist
between music
training and reading
 Training in acting
appears to lead to
memory improvement
 Learning to dance by
effective close
observation is closely
related to learning by
physical practice. Skills
of observational
learning may transfer to
other cognitive skills
The visual arts enhance
cognition, emotional
expression,
perception, cultural
awareness and play a
significant part to play
in the learning
process.
“One convenient way to sum up how
study of the arts benefits student
achievement is the recognition that
learning in the arts is academic, basic
and comprehensive. It is as simple as
A-B-C.”
 Reading and
Language Skills
 Mathematics Skills
 Thinking Skills
 Social Skills
 Motivation to Learn
 Positive School
Environment
Ruppert (2006): National Assembly of
State Arts Agencies
Critical Evidence: How The Arts Benefit
Student Achievement
If we shadows have
offended,
Think but this, and all is
mended:
That you have but
slumbered here,
While these visions did
appear . . .
Gentles, do not
reprehend.
If you pardon, we will
mend.
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
http://braincompatiblelearning.org
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PABLO PICASSO
For me, creation first starts
by contemplation, and I
need long idle hours of
meditation. . . I let my
mind drift at ease, just
like a boat in the current.
Sooner or later it is
caught by something. It
gets precise. It takes
shape . . . My next
painting motif is decided.
MAXINE GREENE
“Participatory involvement
with the many forms of art
does enable us, at the
very least, to see more in
our experience, to hear
more on normally
unheard frequencies, to
become conscious of
what daily routines,
habits, and conventions
have obscured.”
Maxine Greene (2007). Art and imagination: Overcoming a desperate stasis.