Varieties of Arts
Integration (VAI) Presentation - Introduction
Our research in Minneapolis on the Arts for Academic Achievement
project has revealed that arts integration is not one thing but many
different things. From our observations of teachers and artists
working to integrate the arts, we have developed the Varieties of
Arts Integration tool to describe this multiplicity in practice and
outcomes. Some of the variation occurs in areas such as the
following, which we list from the most practical to the more
philosophical:
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The art discipline involved.
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The non-art discipline involved.
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The learning goals for students. For
example, the learning goals may encompass both arts and non-arts
skills/concepts/processes, or may only address non-arts
skills/concepts/processes.
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Who plans the instruction, delivers
the instruction, or assesses student learning. It may be a
classroom teacher, an arts specialist teacher, an arts partner
or a collaborative effort among some combination of people in
these roles.
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How the arts instruction is related
to the non-arts instruction. For example, the purpose of the
arts instruction within arts integration may be to motivate
student learning in the non-arts discipline. Or, the purpose of
the arts instruction within arts integration may be to make
teaching multi-modal, including visual and kinesthetic
dimensions in the instruction. Sometimes arts integration is
based on tenets of interdisciplinary instruction, built around
concepts or processes that are important in each discipline.
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The purpose of integrating the arts.
Some common purposes are:
" To increase the level of arts
education in a school, sometimes through instruction that is
interdisciplinary and sometimes through instruction that is
based in an arts discipline, or a combination.
" To improve
teaching and learning in non-arts disciplines.
" To increase
student understanding of knowledge integration and their ability
to think across disciplines.
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The theory underlying arts
integration. For example, sometimes practice is based on the
theory of multiple intelligences, theories of interdisciplinary
curriculum, or learning theories.
These variations have critical implications for researchers and
practitioners of arts integration. Practitioners need to know what
good arts integration looks like and how they can use it effectively
in their classrooms. And, to assess the effects of arts integration,
researchers need to be able to identify when arts integration occurs
and when it doesn't. It's also important for researchers to know how
to make distinctions among different types of integration and their
various effects.
The tool we developed in Minneapolis, the VAI (short-hand for
Varieties of Arts Integration), is our attempt to develop a common
language for researchers and practitioners to begin making sense of
the complex range of teaching and learning that occurs under the
label of arts integration. It is a work in progress, not a
prescription for how to integrate the arts. It grew out of our
experiences watching and listening to teachers and artists in
Minneapolis as they worked to integrate the arts in ways they
believed would be effective in their particular contexts. We also
drew on theories of interdisciplinary instruction, and conversations
with and publications from other researchers in arts education and
arts integration.
We invite you to join this ongoing discussion by sending us your
honest reactions to the VAI, and suggestions and questions elicited
by it.
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