British Educational Research Association Conference 2009 presentation about the Arts as a Tool for Learning Across the Curriculum initiative funded by the Scottish Arts Council in the School of Education, Aberdeen University.

1. Arts as a Tool for Learning Across the Curriculum: A pilot project Sharmistha Das, Yvonne Dewhurst, Donald Gray School of Education University of Aberdeen British Educational Research Association (BERA) 2009

2. STNE and ATLAC Teacher for a New Era New Learning Environment STNE New Professional Culture New Framework for Continuous Learning ATLAC increasing creativity learning in partnership inclusive approach interconnected learning

3. Policy Context Global European UK All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. (1999) Creativity in Education (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2001) National Priorities (Scottish Executive, 2001) Determined to Succeed (Scottish Executive, 2002) Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive, 2004) Final Report of the Cultural Commission (Scottish Executive, 2005) Emerging Good Practice in Promoting Creativity. (HMIE, 2006) How Good is our School? The Journey to Excellence (HMIE, 2006) Skills for Scotland :A Lifelong Skills Strategy (Scottish Government 2007) Improving Enterprise in Education (HMIE, 2008)

4. Successful Learners with: enthusiasm and motivation for learning determination to reach high standards of achievement openness to new thinking and ideas and able to: use literacy, communication and numeracy skills use technology for learning think creatively and independently learn independently and as part of a group make reasoned evaluations link and apply different kinds of learning in new situations. Confident Individuals with: self-respect a sense of physical, mental and emotional well-being secure values and beliefs ambition and able to: relate to others and manage themselves pursue a healthy and active lifestyle be self-aware develop and communicate their own beliefs and view of the world live as independently as they can assess risk and make informed decisions. Curriculum for Excellence Responsible Citizens with: respect for others commitment to participate responsibly in political, economic, social and cultural life and able to: develop knowledge and understanding of the world and Scotland's place in it understand different beliefs and cultures make informed choices and decisions evaluate environmental, scientific and technological issues develop informed, ethical views of complex issues. Effective Contributors with: an enterprising attitude resilience self-reliance and able to: communicate in different ways and in different settings work in partnership and in teams take the initiative and lead apply critical thinking in new contexts create and develop solve problems.

5. Philosophy Interdisciplinarity (e.g. Petrie, 1992; Ivanitskaya et al, 2002; Klein, 2004) Creativity (e.g. Creativity in Education, 2001) ‘Holistic education’

6. Pedagogy, cognition and creativity The creative learner - divergent and convergent thinking The role of interdisciplinary learning Understanding learning in three domains: - cognitive - social - affective Creativity -thinking and feeling Multiple Intelligence (Gardner, 1993) Emotional Intelligence (Goleman, 1994)

7. Intervention and methods ATLAC input in the BEd and PGDE programmes ATLAC and action research (Carr & Kemmis, 1986) Data gathered - 34 interviews with the students, tutors and artists - 37 semi-structured (classroom) observations - pupil questionnaire

8. Selective emerging findings Curriculum, pedagogy and creativity - reinforcement of subject knowledge - developing generic life-long learning skills - pupils’ level of engagement (link)

9. Selective emerging findings Inclusive practice “…it got everyone involved, because you were incorporating different areas of activities, like more thinking, …different children’s learning…styles, and children want to get more involved because it’s more practical, it’s more fun, it’s not just sitting at their desk doing all written work.” (BEd3 interview) “…everybody said to me ‘Oh! The boys won’t want to dance’… the boys were fantastic because it’s physical and they don’t have any kind of inhibition... In P4, …as well the boys really surprised me how artistic they were in their movements. They weren’t just running about and were really playing with the space and pattern and dynamic, it’s good.” (PGDE interview)

10. Selective emerging findings ATLAC and Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) The interdisciplinary learning approach created wider scope for skills development in the cognitive, affective as well as social domains. “… If the student teachers are happy to allow children freedom to be creative, they are not imposing barriers that may help build confidence in the children, building self-esteem, and therefore enabling them to be much more creative, which I think would link on to them... that creativity helping them become much more successful learners. Responsible citizens… effective contributors, well if you are creative and willing to problem solve you are more likely to be helping out and helping each other so lots of team work going on. Sharing ideas and learning from each other, ehm, back to the responsible citizens…” (BED3 Tutor interview)

12. ‘Fun’ and ‘learning’

13. Holistic learning

14. Interdisciplinary learning