ARTS & MOVEMENT

The Arts and Movement at Every School

Joy Taylor
Concordia University, Irvine
EDU/EDOL 547: Brain-based Teaching and Learning
Dr. Nicholson
October 11, 2015

ARTS & MOVEMENT

The Arts and Movement at Every School

The arts and movement should be integrated into every schools curriculum in order to
help every student reach their full potential. Studies have shown the numerous benefits of
integrating the arts into every subject for every students ultimate success. Just as important,
research concludes that making movement apart of every class regimen fashions healthier,
happier and keener students. Many administrations have taken both the arts and exercise out of
schools to spend more time focusing on specific subjects such as math and science in hopes of
making their students perform better on standardized tests, but to the contrary, they are
inadvertently making it so students cannot focus, lose interest and their cognition becomes
stifled. Schools or administrations who have listened to the vast amount of research and infused
both the arts and movement into all curriculum have shown significant results in raising
confidence in students, holding their interest, bringing classmates and community closer and
making well-rounded, higher-performing students overall.
The importance of the arts (dance, music, drama and visual arts) as a form of learning and
expression has been evident since the beginning of human existence. Evidence of its
effectiveness in reducing student dropout, raising student attendance, developing better team
players, fostering a love for learning, improving greater student dignity, enhancing student
creativity, and producing a more prepared citizen for the workplace for tomorrow can be found
documented in studies held in many varied settings, from school campuses, to corporate America
(Bryant ). Top business leaders have explained that the most useful employees and successful
entrepreneurs they have known are those that do not just get the job done by completing their
everyday tasks, but those who have the ability to make connections to past experiences that come
from a well-rounded education that abounded in the teaching of the arts, thus gifting them with

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creativity and problem-solving skills. In order to give our students the ability to not only
complete a job, but to make a difference in their future workplace, at home and in the world
alike; to live a more abundant life in general, the arts must not be cut out of education when the
budget gets tight or the demands for higher test scores becomes a threat.
The integration of the arts into every core subject is the answer to providing the best
education with the best academic results, and to create the best school and community
atmosphere. When a science teacher gives his or her students the opportunity to explain the
process of photosynthesis by looking at a basic diagram on a generic worksheet, the student often
forgets the scientific term and process they learned about the next day. This lesson did not have
any emotional or meaningful connections to cement the term into their long-term memory bank.
But say the teacher brings a famous and beautiful image of people, the sun and trees on the
overhead projector and draws the cycle of photosynthesis atop the image. Students will be
stimulated visually and more likely remember the lesson taught. Even further, if the instructor
asks the students to create their own painting of people, the sun, trees, have labels atop their
masterpiece and have them hanging in the classroom for a period of time, students will master
the understanding of photosynthesis and its components along with the cementation of this
concept into their long-term memory because the assignment became beautiful, challenging and
personal. They will also learn that many other connections can be made through using art to
understand concepts in any subject. High School English teachers often have their students
create masks based on what they first perceive Frankensteins creation to look like. This
assignment has been a favorite of students for decades. They get to walk into the classroom and
enjoy their humorous masks hanging on their classroom wall. When a teacher goes further and
asks students to create and sing song lyrics or a dance to describe or display what Frankensteins

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creation was really thinking and feeling after his creator abandoned him and as he longed for
companionship, students will remember the importance of not judging a person based on their
looks, but on their heart. In using the arts as a vessel for learning important concepts, students
will be stimulated, have fun, and gain a deeper understanding of what is being taught.
Furthermore, studies repeatedly show the following in schools where arts are integrated into the
core curriculum (Rabkin & Redmond, 2004): 1. Students have a greater emotional investment in
their classes. 2. Students work more diligently and learn from each other. 3. Cooperative learning
groups turn classrooms into learning communities. 4. Parents become more involved. 5.
Teachers collaborate more. 6. Art and music teachers become the center of multiclass projects.
7. Learning in all subjects becomes attainable through the arts. 8. Curriculum becomes more
authentic, hands-on, and project-based. 9. Assessment is more thoughtful and varied. 10.
Teachers expectations for their students rise. These facts are among a multitude of the many,
many reasons the arts must be integrated into the core curriculum in every school.
Movement in the classroom, at recess and after school promotes a healthy lifestyle and
improves cognition. Too often students spend an entire class period sitting in their seats, where
they begin to lose focus and sometimes even fall asleep. Getting students to engage in a few
minute exercise break in the middle of every class regimen is a practice that is working for many
schools around the country. Instilling what some call brain breaks into the lesson plan brings
more oxygen into the bloodstream and stimulates both hemispheres of the brain for ultimate
cognition. Exercise triggers one of the brains most powerful chemicals called brain-derived
neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which supports the growth of young neurons in the brain and
promotes the growth of new ones (Souza, 2011). A study done by researchers at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne where forty-four students were tested and then divided into two

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groups, the most fit and the least fit, concluded that the students who were most fit significantly
outperformed the others in tasks that called for straight memorization (Morbitzer, 2013). This is
just one acknowledgement out of the many studies done that prove that physical activity causes
higher brain function. Promoting exercise in the class and beyond helps students perform better
academically, socially and create life-long habits for healthy living.
Kinesthetic learners reap the benefits of integrated movement into curriculum along with
the rest. For those students who are constantly moving in their seats and use the bathroom pass as
much as they are allowed, movement integrated into curriculum will alleviate any suffering they
may experience in long, sedentary lessons and any annoyance for the teacher who is trying to
manage their disruptive behavior. With the understanding that many students best learn when
moving around, teachers must create lessons where students have the opportunity to learn and
express their thoughts and learning through movement. This can be done in a math class where
the teacher asks groups of students to act out a math problem by creating signs with symbols and
numbers and students have to model how to solve the problem by standing in the right place of
the equation while holding up their sign. A history teacher can have students walk in a line
around the class while reciting The Declaration of Independence. The possibilities to infuse
movement into the classroom are endless and the benefits are enduring. Alongside this, recess
and lunch time are necessary for everyone to get their bodies moving, to give their brain a rest
and to learn how to socialize with their peers. An abundance of sports opportunities must be
provided during these times to promote physical engagement for different preferences. Teachers
need to challenge their students to be involved in an after school sport and provide the means
necessary for those who cannot afford any cost of joining. This means providing scholarship
forms, phone numbers and any other help at hand. Teachers must set the example of engaging

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in physical activity during and after school and relay the importance of students being involved
in physical activity and its effect on health and academic excellence to parents as well.
There is more than enough research that has been done by experts to prove that the
benefits of integrating both the arts and movement into classroom curriculum is undebatable.
With the pressure on administrators and teachers to make sure students have high scores on
standardized tests, it has been tempting for many administrations to focus on teaching students to
memorize what they need to know, and cut out other beneficial activities. In doing this,
educators are not only doing their schools a disservice, but their students are suffering. The late
honorary educator and president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
Ernest L. Boyer, said The quality of civilization can be measured through its music, dance,
drama, architecture, visual art, and literature. We must give our children knowledge and
understanding of civilizations most profound works. By infusing the arts and movement into
the curriculum, students will not only be excited about learning and perform better, but the
school community and the families associated will all experience a fuller, richer life altogether.

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Works Cited
Boyer, E. L. Retrieved from http://artquotes.pdf
Bryant, B. The importance of fine arts education. Retrieved from
http://www.katyisd.org/dept/finearts/Pages/The-Importance-of-Fine-Arts-Education.aspx
Morbitzer, A. (2013, October 15). Physical activity in children promotes more academic
success. Retrieved from http://www.beinglatino.us/lifestyle/physical-activity-inchildren-promotes-more-academic-success/
Rabkin, N. & Redmond, R. (2004). Putting the arts in the picture: Reforming education in the
21st century. Chicago: Columbia College.
Souza, D. A. (2011) How the brain learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.