Arts education is often said to be a means of developing critical and creative thinking. This report examines the state of empirical knowledge about the impact of arts education on these kinds of outcomes.

Arts education is often said to be a means of developing critical and creative thinking. This report examines the state of empirical knowledge about the impact of arts education on these kinds of outcomes.

The Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education marks a milestone in the field of art education. Sponsored by the National Art Education Association and assembled by an internationally known group of art educators, this 36-chapter handbook provides an overview of the remarkable progress that has characterized this field in recent decades. Organized into six sections, it profiles and integrates the following elements of this rapidly emerging field: history, policy, learning, curriculum and instruction, assessment, and competing perspectives. Because the scholarly foundations of art education are relatively new and loosely coupled, this handbook provides researchers, students, and policymakers (both inside and outside the field) an invaluable snapshot of its current boundaries and rapidly growing content. In a nutshell, it provides much needed definition and intellectual respectability to a field that as recently as 1960 was more firmly rooted in the world of arts and crafts than in scholarly research.

This text introduces readers to definitions and examples of arts-based educational research, presents tensions and questions in the field, and provides exercises for practice. It weaves together critical essays about arts-based research in the literary, visual, and performing arts with examples of artistic products of arts-based research (arts for scholarship’s sake) that illuminate by example. Each artistic example is accompanied by a scholARTist’s statement that includes reflection on how the work of art relates to the scholar’s research interests and practices. Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice: helps the reader understand what arts-based research is – tracing the history of the field and providing examples; includes end-of-chapter questions to engage students in practicing arts-based inquiry and to generate class discussion about the material; features a diverse range of contributors -- very established scholars in educational and social science research as well those new to the field; represents a variety of voices – scholars of color, queer and straight orientations, different ages, experience, and nationalities; and presents beautiful illustrations of visual art, data-based poems, plays, short stories, and musical scores. First-of its kind, this volume is intended as a text for arts-based inquiry, qualitative research methods in education, and related courses, and as a resource for faculty, doctoral students, and scholars across the field of social science research methods.

In Creativities in Arts Education, Research and Practice: International Perspectives for the Future of Learning and Teaching, Leon de Bruin, Pamela Burnard and Susan Davis provide new thinking, ideas and practices concerned with philosophically, pedagogically and actively developing arts learning and teaching. Interrogating successes and challenges for creativity education locally/globally/glocally, and using illustrative cases and examples drawn from education, practice and research, they explore unique local practices, agendas, glocalised perspectives and ways arts learning develops diverse creativities in order to produce new approaches and creative ecologies through inter- and cross-disciplinary teaching practices interconnecting beyond arts domains. This book highlights innovative approaches and perspectives to activating and promoting diverse creativities as new forms of authorship and analytic approaches within arts practice and education, along with the production of adaptable, sustainable pedagogies that promote and produce diverse creativities differently. This book will help educators, artists, and researchers understand and fully utilise ways they can transform their thinking and practice and keep their learning and teaching on the move. Contributors are: Christine Bottrell, Pamela Burnard, Peter Cook. Susan Davis, Elizabeth Dobson, Leon R. de Bruin, Tatjana Dragovic, Martin Fautley, Robyn Heckenberg, Susanne Jasilek, Fiona King, Sharon Lierse, Shari Lindblom, Megan McPherson, Sarah Jane Moore, Amy Mortimer, Alison O'Grady, Mark Selkrig, Susan Wright.

This book presents ground-breaking research on the ways the Arts fosters motivation and engagement in both academic and non-academic domains. It reports on mixed method, international research that investigated how the Arts make a difference in the lives of young people. Drawing on the findings of a longitudinal quantitative study led by the internationally renowned educational psychologist Andrew Martin, the book examines the impact of arts involvement in the academic outcomes of 643 students and reports on the in-depth qualitative research that investigates what constitutes best-practice in learning and teaching in the Arts. The book also examines drama, dance, music, visual arts and film classrooms to construct an understanding of quality pedagogy in these classrooms. With its evidence-based but highly accessible approach, this book will be directly and immediately relevant to those interested in the Arts as a force for change in schooling. How Arts Education Makes a Difference discusses: The Arts Education, Motivation, Engagement and Achievement Research Visual Arts, Drama and Music in Classrooms Technology-mediated Arts Engagement International Perspectives on Arts and Cultural Policies in Education This book is a timely collation of research and experiential findings which support the need to promote arts education in schools worldwide. It will be particularly useful for educationists, researchers in education and arts advocates.

More than ever before, the arts are shaping and influencing our daily lives through the media and the creative industries. The arts are no longer confined to museums and theatres, but are adding value to our national economies and improving the quality of education. This has implications for arts education. However, unlike other subjects taught at schools, the arts have rarely made their purpose clear: Why are they taught? What is good arts education? And what are the benefits of teaching creative subjects or using creative ways to teach? In 2004 Professor Anne Bamford conducted the first international analysis of arts education research for UNESCO, in partnership with IFACCA and the Australia Council. Comparing data and case studies from more than 60 countries, the book analyses the differences between 'education in the arts' and 'education through the arts'. While appreciating that arts programmes are embedded in their unique social and cultural contexts, Professor Bamford develops internationally comparable standards for quality arts education. In addition, she identifies a number of concrete educational, cultural, and social benefits of arts education. This definitive work is of major interest to policy-makers, educators and artists. Professor Anne Bamford is Director of the Engine Room at the University of the Arts London and has an international reputation for her research in arts education, emerging literacies and visual communication. Through her research as a World Scholar for UNESCO, she has pursued issues of innovation, social impact and equity and diversity. She has conducted major national impact and evaluation studies for the governments of Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium and Australia.