This document discusses the skills needed in 21st century societies and how arts education can contribute to developing these skills. It finds that non-routine cognitive skills like creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration are increasingly important. While arts education is associated with innovation skills, more research is still needed to understand the precise causal relationships. It also emphasizes that high-quality teaching is essential for skills development in arts education. In conclusion, arts education can help develop 21st century skills like creativity and innovation, but more assessment is needed to fully understand its impacts.

1. A SKILLS PERSPECTIVE
TO ARTS EDUCATION
Dirk Van Damme
Head of the Innovation and Measuring
Progress division – OECD/EDU
World Summit on Arts Education, Wildbad Kreuth, 14 May 2013

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3. WHICH SKILLS DO 21ST
SOCIETIES NEED?
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4. 4
Changing skill demand
40
45
50
55
60
65
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Routine manual
Nonroutine manual
Routine cognitive
Nonroutine analytic
Nonroutine interactive
Source: Levy and Murnane, 2005
Meantaskinputaspercentilesofthe1960taskdistribution
Economy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input (US)

5. Working in creative jobs.
Increase in creativity-oriented jobs (Canada, 1901-2006)
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6. 6
Critical skills for the most innovative jobs
(tertiary-educated workers)
Likelihood (odds ratios) of reporting the following job requirements: people
in the most innovative jobs vs. least innovative jobs
Source: OECD, based on REFLEX and HEGESCO data

7. 21st Century Skills
Ways of thinking
•Creativity and innovation
•Critical thinking, problem solving
•Learning to learn, meta-cognition
Ways of working
•Communication
•Collaboration (teamwork)
Tools of working
•Information literacy
•ICT literacy
Living in the world
•Citizenship – local and global
•Life and career
•Personal, social responsibility
Source: Microsoft-Intel-Cisco ATC21S project
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8. Individual Skills for Innovation
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9. What share of graduates of a given field
have a highly innovative job?
Product /service innovation
Source: OECD, based on REFLEX and HEGESCO data 9

10. What share of graduates of a given field
have a highly innovative job?
Technology, tool, instrument innovation
Source: OECD, based on REFLEX and HEGESCO data 10

11. What share of graduates of a given field
have a highly innovative job?
Knowledge / method innovation
Source: OECD, based on REFLEX and HEGESCO data 11

12. Humanities hampering innovation?
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13. WHAT CAN ARTS EDUCATION
CONTRIBUTE TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF
TRANSVERSAL SKILLS?
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Arts in the curriculum
OECD average: 7.7% - EU21 average: 8.3%

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Relationship between instruction time
for arts and innovation

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17. Multi-arts education and subject-based
skills An association…
United States: SAT scores of students taking following subjects in high school
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18. Multi-arts education and subject-based skills
… but no causality
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19. Strengthening verbal skills through the
use of classroom drama
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20. • neurological: learning in an art form might activate
brain areas that are also involved in some form of
non-arts learning;
• cognitive: learning in an art form might train
cognitive skills that are involved in some non-arts
area;
• social: learning in an art form might train social
skills that are involved in some form of non-arts
area;
• motivational: learning in an art form might be
motivating and this motivation might spill over into
other areas.
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Possible explanations for skills transfer
value of arts

21. CREATIVITY: DEFINITION
AND ASSESSMENT
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22. Developing assessment tools to measure
progression in creativity / 21st century skills
Source: Lucas, Claxton and Spencer (2013)
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23. Assessing creative mindedness
Habit of mind
1. Inquisitive
2. Persistent
3. Imaginative
Sub-habit of mind
• Wondering and Questioning
• Exploring and Investigating
• Challenging assumptions
• Managing uncertainty
• Sticking with difficulty
• Daring to be different
• Playing with possibilities
• Making connections
• Using intuition
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24. Assessing creative mindedness
Habit of mind
4. Disciplined
5. Collaborative
Sub-habit of mind
• Crafting and Improving
• Developing techniques
• Reflecting critically
• Cooperating appropriately
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Sharing the ‘product’
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25. Self-assessment by students themselves
Source: Lucas, Claxton and Spencer (2013)
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26. A FEW CONCLUSIONS
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27. • A strong social and economic demand for innovation skills
• Evidence points to associations between arts education and
the development of innovation skills
• But causal evidence and detailed research about the precise
pathways of transfer is missing
• More systematic assessment of the development of creativity
through arts education is needed
• The quality of the teaching & learning process matters a lot
for actual skills development; arts education is no exception
• Arts education is not only instrumental, but also an end in
itself
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A few conclusions

28. Thank you !
dirk.vandamme@oecd.org
www.oecd.org/edu/ceri
twitter @VanDammeEDU
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