essay on art integrated learning

An In-Depth Look at the Power of Arts Integration

Art education is riddled with frameworks and philosophies. However, there is one approach encompassing the best of all art education frameworks: Arts Integration. Integration develops the deeper thinking and learning abilities used in all other disciplines. It can also provide ample evidence for making art a core subject in an academic system.

Integration is being piloted at district levels in the California Bay Area. Julia Marshall is a professor of Art Education at San Francisco State University, as well as a consultant to the Alameda County of Education for Integrated Learning.

Marshall recently wrote an article titled, A Systems View: The Role of Art in Education , in the May 2016 issue of Art Education . I got a chance to sit down with Marshall to expand on the concepts of integration in her article and to discuss further steps for implementation.

Arts Integration: What It Is and What It Is Not

Arts integration is the product of arts-based inquiry. What differentiates integration from approaches like STEAM is that integration makes art the key lens through which students explore, conceptualize, and demonstrate deeper thinking and understanding. Through integration, art is at the forefront of how students investigate different topics. Marshall gave the example of a thematic study of ancient Greece. “Integration is not ‘let’s study Greece and in the social sciences students talk about wars, in math classes look at Pythagoras, and in art make Greek sculptures.’ That is thematic learning. Real integration uses the arts as the primary lens. Integration would ask students questions such as: What if you were a Greek artist? How would you interpret your time? What would you document and how would you do it?”

Integration embodies what frameworks like TAB and the Studio Habits of Mind value: choice-based art education with behaviors, not products, as the primary objectives. Marshall explains that art education is headed toward the assessment of the process . “The focus is not on color choices but rather the meaning, thinking, and reasoning that the artistic process generates. Assessment is in showing understanding of the world, on persistence, observation, and artistic behaviors.”

Workbooks: A Method for Integration Implementation

One successful integration method being used by students of all ages throughout the Bay Area is the workbook. The workbook is essentially a sketchbook given to each student. The workbook is used for writing, drawing, designing, questioning, and illustrating interdisciplinary content and connections. Students create a generative topic that interests them and they are then asked to explore it. Peer groups can be used for analyzing choices and determining which topics work best. The workbooks are then taken from class to class throughout days and weeks in order to conduct artistic research. Students follow the thread of their themes and topics throughout their day. Marshall observes, “In middle and high school, it’s the students who should be integrating, not the teachers. The students go from class to class and they are the ones who should be finding connections and patterns. The art room is the place to bring it all out.”

Marshall gave some specific workbook examples from Oakland city schools and Berkeley High School. One student chose to focus an inquiry around zoo animals. The student went to a zoo, used her workbook as the soil to cultivate ideas and document connections and demonstrated a dynamic progression in thinking. The student documented similarities between human anatomy and various animals. The anatomical investigation inspired further research and illustration into comparative evolutionary theory. Study of reincarnation came about as a next step in this student’s inquiry-based process. In a final summative project, a metaphorical zoo display was created to examine the relationship between humans and animals.

Steps and Resources for Integration

According to Marshall, one small step that can be taken toward integration is to refocus central questions away from which techniques students will use to what concepts students need to grapple with and understand. Start with what larger understandings students should achieve first, and then build the art skills up to help manifest those understandings. The key is a shift in thinking from products to behaviors. Another entry point comes from asking students what interests them and what bothers them. Studio Habits of Mind is a great framework for assessment.

Integration is invigorating because it can be successfully executed by even the most isolated of art educators. STEAM and PBL models can require hours of collaborative time and visionary leadership to be properly executed. Integration can alleviate the struggles of interdisciplinary staff collaboration. Marshall suggests that some crucial resources for integration can be found through Project Zero: Teaching for Understanding . Another online resource is Making Learning Visible .

A dynamic resource for integration is a book written by Marshall and David M. Donahue titled Art-Centered Learning Across the Curriculum . The book gives concrete examples of how to incorporate integration using contemporary artists and every core discipline within the school system. Marshall acknowledges art teachers are not always experts in other academic content, and the purpose of this book is to give insight into integration and steps on how to make it work. There is even an instructional guide to developing an integrated curriculum.

Conclusion: Integration as Art’s Central Academic Role in the School System

As artist educators, we know how vital the arts are for developing multiple intelligences. When taking an integration approach, we can also provide evidence for the central role art can play to foster academic success in all disciplines. Marshall believes art classes can become the catalyst for deeper thinking, understanding, exploring, and independent learning.

Integration encourages students to create knowledge and contribute to the growth of knowledge, rather than be passive receptacles of it. Integration can help students think systemically and see the bigger picture of where they fit into the world. Marshall elaborates, “Through integrative practice, students see a bird and then expand their thinking about the entire ecosystem that bird is a part of. They contemplate the notions of biodiversity, evolution, and how human beings have learned to fly by observing the bird.”

What kinds of experiences have you had with integration?

What other questions or concerns does integration raise?

Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

Matt Christenson

Matt Christenson, a high school art educator, is a former AOEU Writer. He strives to cultivate maximum creative potential in all students through visual art and mural design.

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Promoting Inclusivity in Elementary Classroom Through Art Integrated Learning (AIL)

13 Pages Posted: 19 Nov 2020

Mayurakshi Basu

National Council of Educational Research and Training

Date Written: October 2, 2020

Art Integrated learning is an innovative approach of teaching and learning which ensures effective and joyful classroom transaction in order to secure attention of students, to motivate learners, to support active participation of students in classroom process and to enable then to develop their thinking abilities by keeping in mind the individual differences and preferences. Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory (1983) provided a wonderful way to embody an Arts Integration approach that would foster student’s autonomy with a focus on multiple learning styles and abilities. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has also formulated comprehensive guidelines and a framework for the integration of art in pedagogy to create an atmosphere of “experiential and joyful learning” in the classrooms. At this premise this paper makes an attempt to look into the positive aspects of Art Integrated Learning in promoting inclusivity in classroom at elementary level. The thrust areas of this paper are concept and understanding of ‘Arts’ as pedagogical tool, its impact on the holistic learning and development of every child, importance of Art Integrated Learning in promoting inclusivity in classroom and role of teacher/facilitator in promoting inclusivity in classroom through Art integrated learning approach. Further, this paper also advocates that there is an urgent need to orient teachers towards the implementation of Art Integrated Learning in regular classroom in order to promote inclusive education and to attain certain educational goals.

Keywords: Inclusivity, Elementary Level, Art Integrated Learning, Individual Differences, Joyful

JEL Classification: I

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Mayurakshi Basu (Contact Author)

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Art-Integrated Teaching-Learning

• First Online: 26 September 2023

Cite this chapter

• Lovely Puri 3 &
• Surinder Singh 3  

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Inclusion of art as a subject in faculty curriculum has been rightly recommended by way of NCF 2005. But Arts (visual as well as performing) can also be very effectively used as a pedagogical tool through integrating it with curricular areas. Such an art-incorporated schooling is predicted to enrich the scholars in each of the areas (Arts and other topics) with the help of presenting a total picture of social and environmental phenomena. Such an included training is also likely to make the coaching-studying method more enjoyable for the children and make them more stimulated to study and will result in healthy improvement in their personalities. Art-integrated teaching is is an instructional approach that effortlessly combines artistic standards with core curricula to establish connections and offer captivating context. What is also noticed in these classrooms that students enthusiastically participate in various artistic activities like dance, drama, visuals, story-telling, and roleplaying etc. while they learn different subjects of their curriclula. But that engagement can also be leveraged to boost educational boom and advanced area looks like a mystery that genuinely needs to be revealed. While you see how the children include these classes, hear them telling how art allows them to keep in mind concepts higher, and find out about the upgrades teachers have mentioned in student know-how and retention, it makes you wonder why larger schools are not integrating the art in each class.

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Puri, L., Singh, S. (2023). Art-Integrated Teaching-Learning. In: Ahmad, J., Masih, A. (eds) Teaching and Teacher Education in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4985-4_20

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Transforming a School Through Arts Integration

Structuring a school around the arts can help students excel academically and develop social and emotional skills.

Nearly a decade ago, poor test scores and low enrollment put Washington Elementary, a high-poverty school in Alameda, California, at risk for closure. But a group of committed parents and teachers pushed the district to keep the school open with a pledge to “build a school centered around art,” writes Katrina Schwartz, who visited the school for her story “ How Art Can Help Center a Student’s Learning Experience ”  in KQED’s Mindshift.  

Now known as Maya Lin Elementary, the school’s newfound emphasis on art comes in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act, which pushed many U.S. school systems to neglect enrichment classes and place a greater emphasis on testable subjects like math and English language arts (ELA). Yet schools like Maya Lin are “starting to realize the folly of these practices,” reports Schwartz, and are increasingly offering art, not as a separate course, but as a way to teach academic content —an approach that research shows can boost students’ learning and well-being.

“The arts provide an access point for everyone,” Caitlin Gordon, a Maya Lin third grade teacher, told Schwartz. “I think it allows children to learn about how the process of something is just as important, if not more important, than the product. I think it just really helps create more of that well-balanced, critical-thinking person that we want for our future.”   Teachers like Gordon work hand-in-hand with art instructors to devise lessons that integrate art into every element of the school day, including subjects like math and English. For a project on climate change, for example, teachers used aspects of the artistic process to teach science, ELA, and social studies content, while helping students build social and emotional skills like creativity, communication, and resilience. 

Schwartz spoke with one student, John, who created a painted model to show the greenhouse effect. Though he experienced some “setbacks” artistically, he became more resilient by persisting and iterating in his creative process, Schwartz says. 

Maya Lin students also regularly respond to their peers’ creations through a technique called “the ladder of feedback” where “partners take turns presenting their work, getting positive and negative feedback from a partner, and thinking through how they plan to incorporate the feedback.” Their dialogue is framed around the eight studio habits of mind , principles like “envision” and “observe” that can guide the artistic process. Students are encouraged to use these methods, not only in the creation of artwork, but in their interactions with their teachers and each other. 

To Schwartz, the approach at Maya Lin not only makes “learning fun, multi-disciplinary, connected and creative,” it also “gives students a way to think about the world differently, to make connections, and to contemplate their place within it....habits that they’ll use no matter what they go on to do.”

• DOI: 10.38177/ajast.2023.7409
• Corpus ID: 266515171

Art Integrated Learning: An Innovative and Inclusive Mode of Teaching

• Ms. Surbh , Dr. Anuradha Sharma
• Published in Asian journal of applied… 2023
• Art, Education

4 References

Using fine arts to implement inclusive education: inspiring the school through a schoolwide art project, related papers.

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Seneca Academy

Preserving the Wonder of Childhood

Arts Integration in School: 10 Reasons Why It’s Important

It was not long ago that arts education in schools was thought to be a luxury, and arts classes were cut from the curriculum to make room for more time to prepare for standardized tests. Currently, there is more and more information available that shows how crucial arts integration is to creating well-rounded, well-prepared learners and leaders. Articles with titles such as “ Teachers are using theater and dance to teach math — and it’s working ,” and “ Arts-Based Education Will Power the Creative Economy ” discuss the theory and research behind such claims.

At Seneca Academy, the arts (fine arts, drama, music, movement) have always been an integrated part of our curriculum . We weave the arts into our core classroom curricula as well as teach specific artistic skills and abilities.

Here is what we’ve learned through experience about why arts integration is so important:

• Working in the arts helps learners to develop creative problem-solving skills.
• Teaching through the arts can present difficult concepts visually, making them more easy to understand.
• Art instruction helps children with the development of motor skills, language skills, social skills, decision-making, risk-taking, and inventiveness.
• Visual arts teach learners about color, layout, perspective, and balance: all techniques that are necessary in presentations (visual, digital) of academic work.
• Integrating art with other disciplines reaches students who might not otherwise be engaged in classwork.
• Arts experiences boost critical thinking, teaching students to take the time to be more careful and thorough in how they observe the world.
• The arts provide challenges for learners at all levels.
• Art education connects students with their own culture as well as with the wider world.
• A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair, or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.
• A study of Missouri public schools in 2010 found that greater arts education led to fewer disciplinary infractions and higher attendance, graduation rates, and test scores.

Learn More About Seneca Academy Curriculum

Read More About Arts Integration:

Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning

Early Childhood Arts Education Improves Vocabulary, Communication, and Memory in Young Children

High Arts Involvement Among Disadvantaged Students Is Related to Finding a Better Job, Earning Degrees, and Volunteering

Students with High Levels of Art Involvement Are Less Likely to Drop Out of School

Seneca Academy is an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IB PYP) World School that fosters children’s natural curiosity and ignites a love of learning through a collaborative, inquiry-based program in a dynamic and welcoming community.

15601 Germantown Road, Darnestown, MD 20874 Phone: (301) 869-3728 • Fax (301) 869-3348

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Thank you so much for your donation to Seneca Academy’s 2020 auction and gala, “Around the World.” Because of you and other generous supporters, we are able to continue serving the children and families in our school as well as the community at large. We appreciate your gift to help us preserve the wonder of childhood for years to come!

ART INTEGRATED LEARNING: AN INNOVATIVE AND INCLUSIVE APPROACH TO EDUCATION

• Dr. Poonam Srivastava Assistant Professor, Dept. of Education, Vasanta College for Women, BHU

Art-integrated learning is an inventive and constructivist learning approach through which students illustrate, experiment & demonstrate the concept through various art forms. Art integration into the curriculum implies exploring academic contents (facts, ideas, concepts, processes, methods and skill sets to be acquired by a student through the spectacles of various forms of art. Instead of teaching art as a separate subject, teachers are using dance, drama, music, visual arts etc to teach a variety of academic subjects in a more engaging way. A 360-degree holistic learning is possible in classrooms by integrating various academic concepts with arts. Cognitive domains along with socio-emotional, behavioural, psychomotor domain development could be targeted using this.the paper attempts to look at 'Arts' as a pedagogical tool and its impact on a child's overall learning and development. The importance of an Art Integrated Learning method is that it promotes inclusivity in the classroom while also serving as a facilitator/educator in developing inclusivity.

I. Gardner H. Art education and human development. Los Angeles: The Getty Education Institute for the Arts, 1990.

II. Gardner H. The arts and human development. New York: Basic Books, 1994.

III. Stainback W, Stainback S. Collaboration, support networking, and community building. In W. Stainback & S. Stainback (Eds.), Inclusion: A guide for educators Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co,1996:193- 202.

IV. Valentino D. Using Fine Arts to Implement Inclusive Education: Inspiring the School through a School-wide Art Project. Dissertations & Professional Papers, 2016. 10731. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/10731

V. Vandercook T, York J. A team approach to program development and support. In W. Stainback & S. Stainback (Eds.), Support networks for inclusive schooling. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co, 1990, 95-122.

VI. National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Guidelines on AIL

VII. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf

VIII. https://blog.teachmint.com/what-is-art-integrated-learning/

IX. https://theeducatorspot.com/art-integrated-learning-10-best-useful-activities-for-teachers/

X. https://leadschool.in/blog/art-integration-in-nep-2020/

XI. https://macmillaneducation.in/blog/why-art-integration-is-important-in-classroom-teaching/

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Arts Integration and 21st Century skills: A Study of Learners and Teachers

2021, International Journal of Education & the Arts

Arts integration and 21st century skills are increasingly relevant to addressing complex student needs in contemporary education. The Creative Classroom Collaboratives: Creativity, Confidence, & Competence (C32) study found that comprehensive arts integration approaches and peer-to-peer professional collaborations between teachers, teaching artists, and cultural partners such as museums, theaters, and arts councils had a positive relationship to students’ achievement and 21st century skill development. By reinforcing criteria that make up the core 21st century skills of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication, arts integration methods were associated with increases in student learning in a cluster randomized control trial of a study of fourth- and fifth-grade students in two school districts with low socioeconomic status on Long Island, New York. This study includes implications for arts integration in schools, peer professional development and teaching practices, and dynamic partnerships with arts and cultural partners.

Related Papers

Laura Reeder

The Creative Classroom Collaboratives (C3) quasi-experimental demonstration project is testing the effects of the integration of visual and performing arts into elementary school instruction. In 2011-2012, students in four Title I treatment schools in eastern Long Island began participating in arts-integrated curriculum units collaboratively developed by teaching artists, teachers, and school arts, music, and library specialists. Based around a focal theater or dance performance, each unit teaches literacy and 21st Century skills while addressing components of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Based on research highlighting the importance of professional learning communities for teachers, and arts integration and 21st Century skills for students, the C3 study provides evidence that collaborative, arts-integrated instruction can positively impact student and educator skills.

Jennifer McGee

Kirk Wilson

1 Arts Integration’s New Paradigm for Learning 1 Students’ Role in Learning 1 What Is Arts Integration? 2 Implementing Arts Integration 4 Arts Integration’s Role in Promoting Personal Competencies 8 Arts Integration’s Role in Turning Around Low-Performing Schools 10 An Inner-City School Turns Itself Around 12 Lessons from Wilson Arts Integration Elementary School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 12 Implications and Recommendations 17 Implications 17 Recommendations 17 Appendices 19 Appendix A: Arts Integration Models 19 Appendix B: Accomplishments and Highlights for Wilson Arts Integration Elementary School 21 Appendix C: Unpacking the Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education Definition of Arts Integration 22 References 24 About the Authors 26

The state education standard

Patricia Saraniero

This article examines the impact of two approaches to teacher professional development in arts integration-a summer institute model and a model combining the summer institute with instructional coaching. In an experimental design, the intervention trained third and fourth grade teachers to integrate visual arts and theater into reading curriculum. Findings suggest the coaching plus institute intervention had a greater impact on teacher confidence, use and frequency of arts integration than the institute-only intervention or the comparison group. Coached teachers reported greater confidence integrating the arts, produced higher-quality work samples, taught more reading concepts with arts integration, implemented more arts standards, and used arts integration more frequently than did the institute-only teachers or the control group teachers. Coached teachers reported in greater numbers about the positive impact the professional development had on their teaching practice, including fee...

Journal of Language and Literacy Education

Teaching Exceptional Children Plus

Christine Mason

Journal for Learning through the Arts: A Research Journal on Arts Integration in Schools and Communities

Lisa LaJevic

Researching how Arts Integration is practiced in a primary school, this article explores how elementary teachers understand, implement, and experience Arts Integration. Weaving together personal experiences, teacher interviews, focus group sessions, classroom observations, and written texts, I investigate how the arts are often devalued in Arts Integration. Not only are the arts used for decorative purposes, but the arts component in Arts Integration is greatly diluted as well. Addressing what can be done to attend to the problem of devaluing the arts in the classroom, this essay holds implications for teacher education, Arts Integration and curriculum development.

Gail Burnaford

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Arts Integration: The Authentic Context for 21st Century Learning

• Creating a Collaborative Classroom
• Book Arts: A 3-day Visual Art Residency
• Beyond the Paper Quilt: A Math & Visual Art Teacher Workshop
• Creating a Cooperative Classroom for Integrated Learning Through Drama
• Teacher Guide for a Residency Integrating Social Studies, English Language Arts, and Theatre Arts
• Endorsements

The term, 21st Century Skills, has become one of the most referenced catch phrases in contemporary culture. The definition of those skills has been expanded and refined over time until it now amounts to nearly a full page of text on the official website the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Although there may not be absolute consensus, most educators do agree that there is a set of critical skills and knowledge that today’s students will require in order to succeed in the world they will enter as adults.

• They must be able to think critically and creatively.
• They must have organizational skills.
• They must be able to work well with others.
• They will need to be self-confident, self-motivated, and self-disciplined.
• They will be required to understand and use Mathematics, Science and Technology.
• They will need to be highly effective communicators.
• They will need to understand and appreciate cultural diversity.

In order to meet these needs, schools and school districts have rushed to implement a plethora of highly structured and very expensive programs in every curriculum area. States and districts have created detailed pacing guides that dictate scope and sequence for every subject. In addition to State and Federal testing, district and local standardized assessments are common practice even in the primary grades. Yet, in spite of the huge investments of time and money, few students can demonstrate mastery of the skills that have been identified as critical to their success.

Yet there is a well known teaching practice that has been shown to help students understand and practice these important skills. It combats the often arbitrary fragmentation of the curriculum and brings multiple curriculum areas together to explore key concepts in real world contexts. It offers students multiple paths to understanding of key concepts and important ideas. It allows individuals to access information and to process it in ways that are developmentally appropriate to each learner. Furthermore, this remarkable teaching practice is no secret. It is currently in use in hundreds, if not thousands of schools worldwide. It’s called arts integration. It is, very simply, a process of using the arts—visual art, dance, drama and music—to enhance learning experiences across the curriculum

There are manifold reasons for the efficacy of arts integration.

• The engagement factor is perhaps the most easily understood. Study after study has shown that sitting and listening to a lecture is perhaps the least effective learning strategy of all, while participating in an activity is the most effective. The arts provide a wide variety of engaging activities that provide a context for understanding. Dance demonstrates a comparison of solutions and mixtures, or the inner workings of a cell. Drama illustrates history. Music models how sound waves work. Simply reading or hearing facts cannot compete as a learning experience.
• Arts Integration employs strategies that are compatible with current scientific knowledge of the human brain and how it functions. Howard Gardner proposed his Theory of Multiple Intelligences decades ago and contemporary brain research confirms his hypotheses. We know now that different regions of the brain manage different functions and that each individual has a whole series of intelligences that are both innate and experiential. We also know that our intelligences are not static, but fluid and capable of growth throughout our lives. We know that some people learn more easily through the spoken or written word, while others can more easily comprehend visual or kinesthetic information. The arts provide an arena where the seven intelligences—the visual/spatial, the kinesthetic, the musical/rhythmic, the interpersonal and intrapersonal, the natural, the mathematical/logical and the verbal linguistic– are all recognized and addressed. From the third grader who creates and performs a dance to demonstrate the water cycle, to the high school senior who builds an abstract sculpture of geometric forms, students who have an opportunity to learn through arts integration are able to explore the subject through all their intelligences in ways that have personal meaning for them. The result is deeper understanding and greater ability to apply their knowledge to other situations.
• The arts process skills provide a strong platform for learning across the curriculum. They are strongly connected to process skills in Science, to problem solving skills in mathematics, and to communication and information skills in Language Arts. All these skill sets are about more than merely acquiring information. They are about processing that information in order to be able to understand and apply it. Observing, recording and organizing information, collaborating, planning, practicing, revising, making predictions, experimenting, and communicating are among the arts process skills, but these are equally critical skills for every curriculum area. Arts integration offers students myriad opportunities to practice these skills in the context of an experience that is meaningful to them.

Jef Lambdin and mask-making students

Arts integration is not a new teaching strategy. Nearly every teacher employs at least a smattering of arts integration. Students illustrate stories and poems. They act in skits about famous historical events. They sing patriotic songs and draw portraits of famous people. However, unless the students receive meaningful instruction in the arts, they probably miss an important part of the experience. Making art, whether it is visual art, music, drama or dance, is a process of making informed choices. Students who do not receive instruction in the arts may not be aware of the kinds of decisions they can make and thus may not be able to express themselves or communicate their ideas as they intend. Just as students require instruction in understanding and using words, they need the opportunity to learn the language and the elements and principles of the arts. Then and only then can they really bring their visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, kinesthetic, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences to bear on the topic at hand.

Thoughtful arts integration offers students an authentic context for 21st century learning. It gives them the opportunity to explore the important concepts and to acquire and practice the critical skills they need to succeed in the world they will inherit. If we take the performance of a play as an example, the connections to the critical skills listed above are clear. All members of a drama production are required to plan together and to make critical and creative decisions about each part of the production. Any kind of group effort requires organizational skills, and the conventions of theatre teach students to accept responsibility for their share of the organization; from meeting schedules to organizing props and costumes. They must learn the necessary social skills to get along with other cast members. They must have the confidence to participate and have the motivation to stay engaged in their tasks without undue oversight.. The technical aspects of theater—scenery, costume, lighting, sound and special effects require a command of multiple technologies. Actors, directors, technical crew are required to communicate effectively if the production is to succeed. Audience awareness is a central component of drama and that awareness includes the cultural diversity of an audience and how they will perceive the plan from their cultural perspective.

No matter what art form is integrated, there are strong connections to the skills for 21st century learning. Each art form offers its own unique context where students can learn to acquire and process information and apply that learning in their own life.

Martha Burdette, 2011

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