Benefits of Federally Funded Arts and Music Programs

This paper looks at existing research exploring some of the advantages of an education in the arts, especially, visual art and music education, in an effort to answer the question of whether or not this type of federally funded program is actually beneficial to children. This aim will be accomplished, not simply by looking at the value of the arts or way they are already working within the educational system, but also by exploring some ways the arts can be employed in a manner more beneficial to children. All of the following articles present concrete evidence of ways that children can profit directly from federally funded arts and music training.

The first two articles showing how integrating the arts directly into traditional educational curriculum by using a multi-arts teaching approach can help students achieve better test scores, gain more meaningful and critical understanding of a subject, as well as, help under-achieving students generate language and become more social. (Souto-Manning & James, 2008; Grant, Hutchison, Hornsby, & Brooke, 2008) The third article looks at how being taught the visual arts in an ongoing manner helps students build self-efficacy and develop originality, both important for success in life. The studies conducted by Schellenberg (2006) illustrated not only a positive correlation between long-term music training and intelligence as determined by IQ tests, but also the enduring increase in academic performance and of IQ scores for those who had studied music, even years after the lessons had ended. Finally, Hembold, Rammsayer, and Altenmuller (2005) explored the difference in mental ability between musicians and non-musicians and found that the former had greater ability with finding hidden visual patterns and perceptual speed.

Art to promote comprehension of subject matter
Souto-Manning and James (2008) observed 40 first-grade lower SES students (from two classes) and surveyed 25 teachers in the United States. They also evaluated teacher field notes and video data from the classrooms over a 5 month period. The paper began by discussing existing research indicating that a multi-arts education allows for experimentation and critical thinking that makes learning more meaningful to students by encouraging them to use multiple ways of seeing and doing and encouraging their natural curiosity. Souto-Manning and James (2008) sought to answer the questions: how does cognition develop through multi-arts education and can the arts can support literacy. To do so they had one teacher instruct two classes (20 students each) on the same subject (five unit lesson on an artist) for the same duration, one using multi-arts techniques and the other teaching without these. Assessment of learning was done, first, with a criterion-referenced test administered in the same manner for both classes. A majority of the students in the Non-arts Class answered less than 70% of the questions right, whereas 90% of the students in the Arts Class answered over 70% of the questions right. (Souto-Manning & James, 2008) This indicates that the children in the Arts class learned and retained more of the content of the lesson than those in the Non-Arts Class. Next, creation of student paintings that were intended to imitate the painting style and incorporate stylistic elements of the artist studied were created, the paintings, designed to assess how the students would include techniques and details they had discussed critically and observed, were graded according to a 5 point rubric. These scores also indicated that the Arts Class was better able to produce work reflective of the concepts learned in the lesson that the Non-Arts class, a majority of the Non-arts class scored below 60% on the assignment. (Souto-Manning & James, 2008) The results of this small study demonstrated that multi-arts, meaningful learning does raise the scores of formal criterion-referenced tests as well as overall critical comprehension of subject matter.

Using the arts to teach reading and writing
This study conducted by Grant, Hutchison, Hornsby, and Brooke (2008) looked at the use of visual arts, literature, music and crafts in the classroom to help teach standard curriculum. 400 students and 5 teachers in a Melbourne primary school participated. Video, students’ writing samples and teacher observations were collected for a year while the participating teachers employed multi-arts lessons to teach traditional subject matter and then assessed by the researchers. From that longitudinal position several findings were demonstrated, first, the teachers found that with artful exploration the students had a higher level of collaboration and co-operation in the classrooms. Second, students reported having more time and space to complete tasks, feeling more comfortable and interested. And third, teachers found that through story and play, language was generated and students became more socially confident and articulate, this was especially true for under-achieving students. These results, taken with those of the prior study, illustrate some of the benefits of incorporating the arts into traditional education.

Effect of arts on children’s beliefs about themselves
Catterall and Peppler (2007) conducted a study to uncover whether or not ongoing visual arts instruction would change various aspects of motivation, including self-concept and creativity in 103, 9-year-olds from inner-city neighborhoods in St. Louis, MO and Los Angeles, CA. The paper discussed theoretical principles that lead them to believe that sustained visual arts instruction would nurture self-confidence and self-belief in students (Catterall & Peppler, 2007). To assess changes in what they called the students’ worldview, they surveyed the students before and after the period of art instruction and also made observations in the arts classroom as well as the traditional learning classrooms of the students. In St. Louis the instruction took place twice a week for 90 minutes a session, for 20 weeks and in Los Angeles, instruction was one hour a week for 30 weeks. Changes in the students were measured against a control groups of students not participating in the arts program.

After assessing student surveys from both groups, Catterall and Peppler (2007) demonstrated that a large percentage of the art program students in both cities made gains in both the motivation and creativity sections. In general, students described an increase in self-concept, specifically, over half of arts students participating, had significant increase in their self-efficacy, (the belief that one can achieve what one attempts to accomplish) whereas, only one thirds of the non-arts students made gains. The researchers also reported that the students made improvements in creativity, specifically in the field of originality, they made 55% increase over the non-arts students 33% increase. The study’s concept of originality was not based upon on artistic creativity, but rather on larger applications of originality such as whether or not the students felt that they could come up with innovative ideas and solutions to problems which the authors suggest might enable the students to have more unrestrained ideas about their futures. Self–efficacy and originality can help students achieve in all aspects of education and life and these increases are valuable and illustrate some benefit of arts education.

Study of Music and IQ
Schellenberg’s (2006) research in this study sought to determine, with the use of Wechsler’s IQ test (WAIS-III) as a measure, whether or not there was a relationship between formal study of music and intelligence. Existing research was described that indicated positive relationships between music lessons and math skills, spatial-temporal skills, vocabulary and memory and the hypothesis that followed was that formal training in music would enhance ability on a variety of cognitive tasks. Two studies were conducted, the first to determine whether duration of musical training has a positive correlation with IQ and the second sought to determine the existence of a more stable relationship between music and intellect.

In the initial study, 147 Canadian children ages 6-11 who had a history of musical training were each given an IQ test and Adaptive Skills test. The results demonstrated that though no relationship could be shown between music training and social adjustment, a positive relationship existed between music and general measures of intelligence (Shcellenberg, 2006). Furthermore, music lessons had a positive association with academic performance.

The second study involved 112 Canadian university freshman ages 16-25, who had had musical training for a block of time in the past, which had ceased several years prior. It sought to determine whether the positive effects of music training on IQ, demonstrated in the initial study, would persist long after the training had stopped. Students were given IQ tests and after analysis, the researcher determined that music lessons in childhood did have effect on adult IQ scores. The results demonstrated that students with a history of music training had higher than average scores (Schellenberg, 2006). Further, by asking the participants about the duration of their music lessons, Schellenberg (2006) was able to determine that longer periods of musical training also predicted higher levels of intellect. These findings illustrate that musical training is beneficial to students in terms of intellectual and academic performance.

Study of Music and Mental Abilities
Hembold, Rammsayer, and Altenmuller, (2005) wanted to investigate the mental abilities of individuals who played music and those who did not, and how they differed. The researchers made note of prior research indicating relationships between musical training and things like verbal, math, information processing and visual-spatial skills and wanted to further investigate these claims. To do this, they enlisted 70 musicians (music students) and 70 non-musicians (students studying other subjects) who were at a German university, participants were between the ages of 18 and 32. These participants were given a battery of intelligence tests designed to assess a range of mental and cognitive abilities. The results indicated that musicians did perform better on basic perceptual skills such as Flexibility of Closure (ability to detect known visual patterns that are hidden) and Perceptual Speed (ability to quickly and accurately compare objects: numbers, letter, symbols) both helpful for quickly recognizing musical symbols (Hembold, et al., 2005).

Discussion
The articles discussed in this paper represent several of the ways that arts and music education can be beneficial to children. The advantages of federally funded arts programs can come in may different forms, from inclusion of the arts into traditional curricula to promote literacy, deeper comprehension of material and more meaningful learning, to using arts to promote original problem solving and increase self-efficacy in students who have academic challenges. (Souto-Manning & James, 2008; Grant, et al., 2008; Catterall & Peppler. 2007) The sustained study of music can increase scores on IQ tests and help children improve perceptual skills. (Schellenberg, 2006; Hembold, et al., 2005). Although the research presented herein illustrates a very small sample and variety of different advantages that arts and music education can provide children, all of these examples nonetheless, represent valuable reasons why the arts should be federally funded.


References

Catterall, J.S. & Peppler, K.A., (2007). Learning the visual arts and the worldviews of young children. Cambridge Journal of Education, 37 (4), 543-560.

Grant, A., Hutchison, K., Hornsby, D., & Brooke, S. (2008) Creative pedagogies: “Art-full” reading and writing. English Teaching: Practice and Critique 7 (1), 57-72.

Hembold, N., Rammsayer, T., & Altenmuller, R. (2005) Differences in primary mental abilities between musicians and nonmusicians. Journal of Individual Differences, 26 (2), 74-85.

Schellenberg, E.G. (2006). Long-term positive associations between music lessons and IQ. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98 (2), 457-468.

Souto-Manning, M. & James, N. (2008). A multi-arts approach to early literacy and learning. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23 (1), 82-95.