02.05.10 
Southeastern helping K-12 teachers use the arts to boost student achievement

By Southeastern University

About 50 educators from mostly high-needs, K-12 schools throughout Florida are enrolled in a two-year, Southeastern graduate program that helps teachers raise student achievement with the help of the arts.

The idea is to engage students in their class curricula - math, science, literature, social studies, or any other subject - using some of the basic concepts found in music, theatre, dance, and visual arts, and doing so in a lively, robust, energetic way.

The program is informally known as "Untie the Right Brain." It is believed artistic ability is a function of the brain's right hemisphere.

The program stems from a $660,000 Florida Department of Education professional-development grant that Southeastern is sharing with The University of Tampa, Eckerd College, Ringling College of Art and Design, Saint Leo University, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, along with other educational organizations and school districts.

The other colleges also are offering the arts-integration program, which has a total enrollment of about 180 degree-seeking teachers statewide. The grant pays for more than 80 percent of the teachers' tuition.

At Southeastern, the program is tied to the Master of Education in Teaching and Learning, with a Concentration in Arts and Academic Interdisciplinary Education. The curriculum consists of 12 classes and 36 credit hours. About half of the classes are online; half are in a classroom.

The driving force behind the entire statewide program and the grant is Dr. Helene Robinson, a Southeastern professor of Exceptional Student Education who has 14 years' experience teaching special education students in public schools. Drawing on that experience and the successes she had in utilizing the arts to engage those students, Dr. Robinson conceived the graduate program and started the process that led to the grant and the program's start last summer.

"Research has shown that students who have had training in the arts score higher (in) academics," Dr. Robinson said. "The reason is, everything they do in the arts is to create, analyze, critique, perform, critique. So, if we can teach the students the basics of these different art forms, we're teaching them how to critique in the art forms. Then that automatically rolls over into helping them to critically think and critique in the other (academic) areas."

The intent of the master's curriculum is to transform the teachers into lively teacher/coaches who will share the lessons and tools of this program with their school and district colleagues to stimulate creativity among students for years to come. For the teachers of academic subjects, the goal is to integrate academic and art concepts and to get them to teach their subject using the arts.

Dr. Robinson explains: "For example, let's say we were teaching a science lesson about the solar system. Instead of just having the students take a test on that, one way we could teach through the arts would be to have them either choreograph a dance routine, demonstrating the locations of all the different planets, or create a production - write a theatrical piece or even a multi-arts performance."

The students/teachers enrolled in Southeastern's program are already applying their newly gained arts education in their districts and schools, and they're already seeing results - just as other teachers integrating the arts have experienced elsewhere. The strides are particularly evident among students who were formerly struggling or not motivated. "Suddenly they are engaged and excited about learning," Dr. Robinson said.