Assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Assignment 2 - Essay Example This is the key to successful improvement. Consequently, this will call for integration of the arts in the curriculum. It was also found that the norms of interactions and communications in a classroom are very different from those to which students have been accustomed and this is why they may experience confusion and anxiety. Furthermore, they find it difficult in paying complete attention in the classroom. They also struggles to seek the teacher's attention or participate in discussions. Therefore, it is inherent to create culturally compatible learning environments. Moreover, there is also a need for encouragement of active participation of parents or guardians.   Strategies 1. Integrate the arts in the curriculum One of the important strategies is engaging students in arts activities which encourage dialogue in issues that are important to them. These make the students alive. Moreover, providing opportunities for students to express themselves through the visual and performing arts enable them to learn and develop their talents and multiple intelligences. Such intelligences are not only in verbal and mathematical form rather they are visual, spatial, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences (Gardner, 1983). Students benefit from being encouraged to make sense of their world and their relationships through drawing and painting graphic images. Students who are ‘encouraged’ are able to use their imaginations. They take time to elicit their interpretations of visual arts through open-ended questions and these are significantly valuable for them. These conversations enable students to understand, as they listen to other classmates and the multitude of interpretations that are possible when viewing the same work of art. DeMoss and Morris (2002) investigated the question of how the arts support cognitive growth in students. They interviewed 30 students from 10 classes in CAPE schools that are led by veteran teacher/artist partnership s. They found significant increases in the ability of the students to analytically assess the learning of their own. These students belong to different achievement levels and the results were found in case of arts-integrated units. However, in case of traditional instructional experiences, no such benefits were reported. (2002, p. 1). In addition, DeMoss and Morris documented these benefits of CAPE. â€Å"Observations of final performances in the arts-integrated units corroborated students' own assessments. Students who had difficulties controlling their behavior and staying on task performed their parts in final events with seriousness and competency. †¦ As students across the board indicated in their interviews, the kinds of activities that the arts provide do engage children more deeply in their learning by creating an intrinsic responsibility for the learning activities. This finding held particularly true for those children hardest to reach by traditional approaches.† (pp. 20–21) â€Å"In this case, the arts contributed to analytically deeper, experientially broader, and psychologically more rewarding learning. These developments could have significant positive effects on students' general cognitive growth over time, particularly if students experience arts-integrated learning in their classrooms on a regular basis.† (p. 24) A more recent study demonstrating the benefits of integrating visual arts in