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Art Education Research
Supercharge Your Child's IQ
Dr. Robert Sternberg, Dean of Arts
and Sciences at Tufts University, specializes in determining
what makes people successful in life. Through his research,
he has determined that Imagination and Creativity are
just as important as Intelligence.
Today our schools are placing a great
deal of emphasis on test taking, grades and the classic
IQ: Intelligence Quotient. Parents, wanting their children
to be successful in life, often worry about how these
things will affect their children’s futures. In
Dr. Sternberg’s ground breaking research, he reveals
that creativity is just as important for a child to
be academically successful. In fact, he found that being
a creative individual substantially improves a young
person’s college success.
“Intelligence is certainly important,
but it’s only part of the equation,” Dr.
Sternberg says. “Intelligence
and imagination are both essential to a child’s
success now and in the future.” Further he adds,
“Parents (and teachers) should also be thinking
about what they can do to boost children’s imaginations.
One of the best things they can do is nurture creativity
from an early age.”
So what can parents and teachers
do to supercharge imagination and creativity through
the arts?
- Provide opportunities for children
to be creative. Supplement arts related activities
in
school with classes like Abrakadoodle® and activities
at home. The average public
elementary school provides its students only 26 hours
of visual arts instruction a year.*
- Ask questions and present challenges
– Ask “What if the sun came up at night?”
and
“What would it be like if … you lived
underground like a mole?”
- Generate ideas – Provide
art supplies and encourage kids to record their ideas,
anywhere and anytime.
- Explore other points of view –
Challenge children to come up with different endings
to stories or to see an experience through someone
else’s eyes.
- Encourage collaboration –
Try group projects in which children add something
to a
picture in succession.
- Make these experiences fun and
thought-provoking!
* Source American Art
Education Association
Art
Because It’s SmArt!
Abrakadoodle®,
an exciting art education program in partnership with
Crayola®,
offers comprehensive art education programs for children
across the country, which
research indicates can ”increase student academic
achievement.”
Americans for the Arts (www.americansforthearts.org)
reports that young people who consistently participate
in wide-ranging arts programs are:
- 4 times more likely to be recognized
for academic achievement
- 3 times more likely to be elected
to class office within their schools
- 4 times more likely to participate
in a math and science fair
- 4 times more likely to win an
award for writing an essay or poem
This study* indicated that involvement
in the arts can have long-reaching benefits. But the
short term benefits are impressive, as well. According
to Abrakadoodle’s creator Mary Rogers, M.Ed.,
children can actively develop their unique creativity
in a well-developed program like Abrakadoodle. “We
designed Abrakadoodle to build upon a child’s
natural creativity, imagination and curiosity. It’s
important that children have the freedom to express
their ideas through color, line, shape and form using
a wide range of materials and media. In the process
they learn much more than artistic techniques. They
also learn to find solutions to problems or challenges,
improve fine motor skills, experiment and take chances,
develop a richer vocabulary, appreciate art from different
perspectives and more.”
Jessica Davis, founding director
of the Harvard Graduate School’s Arts in Education
Program, agrees. “When we educate children
in the arts, we provide them another way to communicate
and comprehend their world.”
* Source:
Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, Americans for the Arts Monograph,
November 1998. Shirley Brice Heath, Living the Arts
through Language + Learning: A Report on Community-based
Youth Organization
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