Arts vs Science Debate

The first half of this blog will explore the benefits of combining the arts and sciences to maximise learning in the 21^st century; as well as how schools are already using methods like the Leonardo Effect and Mantle of the Expert (MoE) that incorporate the two to engage each child. Art and Science are often seen as separate entities within the curriculum although evidence suggests that the most successful people have the ability to explore the two simultaneously, thus gaining the most effective learning experience (Jamison, 2010).

Previously there has been a huge emphasis on ‘the left and the right brain’; “left brained” people tend to be academic and logical whereas those whom are “right brained” are said to be more creative and intuitive. Why not both? In fact it has been argued that people are not as dichotomous as first thought and although the brain, at times, can become lateralised, on the whole, both sides work together (Cherry, 2014).

Science provides an understanding of universal experience and arts provide a universal understanding of personal experience (Jamison, 2010).

 

The combination of the arts and science can promote creative development through expression and play, which leads to new found knowledge and a greater understanding of a subject. When creating a piece of art, an artist considers materials and the suitability for purpose, for the integrity of the piece they will consider the form that it is taking. Therefore as well as using their imagination to create the piece, they are also using their logic (Oliver, 2006).  Leonardo da Vinci for example, had an eye for detail, when looking at his works of art you are able to see his sound knowledge of the human anatomy, everything is in proportion and in scale, this is explored further in The Leonardo Effect (BBC Science and Nature, 2014)).  Also in the MoE curriculum design, children are using their imagination when taking on the role of the ‘expert’ and at the same time they using scientific deduction to complete the task at hand, as you will see in further posts, it is the combination of the two that increases the pupils interest and in turn their knowledge of the subject (Heathcoate & Herbet, 1985).

If we do not start to see the arts and sciences as complimenting subjects rather than binaries the future looks bleak, we must be using the creative and the analytical together to revolutionise the years to come, as it is what we do now that will determine the quality of life in the future. It is now we are seeing the benefits of the ideas people had in the fifties and sixties, so if we are unable to modernise our way of educating our children now then we will see no change in the future, we need to be accessing all aspects of the child’s brain and their interests in order to develop their knowledge and understanding of the world, thus providing them with the tools to improve it (Jamison, 2010).

Leonardo Effect

Hickey and Robson (2013) explain the Leonardo Effect as a creative approach that empowers children with the freedom to construct their own learning. This is through investigation of a topic using a complementary curriculum design which incorporates the collaboration of science and the arts; through their experiential learning, other subjects such as literacy and numeracy are also visited, therefore enhancing the knowledge of the pupil. Whilst using the Leonardo Effect in the classroom the teacher’s role is purely as a facilitator, guiding the learning using their knowledge and skills. When children are taught in a traditional teacher-led setting it is suggested that a number of pupils will become disengaged, thus limiting their attainment and damaging their desire to learn (Hickey & Robson, 2013).

The curriculum design stems from the works of Leonardo da Vinci, which are a perfect example of how art and science are not separate entities. You only have to look at the Vitruvian Man below to see that da Vinci had a sound scientific understanding of the proportions of the human body, which has been meticulously recreated to scale using his artic skills (BBC Science and Nature, 2014).

(Vinci, 1490)

Leonardo da Vinci believed that in order to develop ideas pupils must gain first-hand experience; feed their curiosity by exploring the subject. In turn this will re-ignite their passion for learning and expand their potential to learn. The theory is, by encouraging our leaners to think and involve themselves actively in a task the meaning and relevance of the subject will become more apparent to the leaner (The Leonardo Effect, 2013).

The curriculum design is practiced in many schools throughout Scotland and Wales and has been proclaimed an innovative approach that enables children to “become more confident collaborators…rising to learning challenges” (The Leonardo Effect, 2013).

As a course of exploring the benefits of the Leonardo effect in practice we conducted an activity using the principles of the method. This process is explained below:

Step One: As the facilitator of the session our lecturer, Laura Philips, gave four tables a sheet of paper and asked us each to write down our assigned element. Our table was given Water. From here we were asked to record any words that related to this element in two minutes; once our time came to an end we would move clockwise to each of the tables and spend an additional two minutes adding to the documents. As you can see from the image below, the end product visited avenues that may not have been explored had there not been input from all of the pupils in the classroom, or if the lesson had been planned ahead of time by the teacher for a structured session.

 

Step Two: We were asked to prepare a five minute presentation as a group, based on one of the words, to present back to the class. As a group we decided upon the Bermuda Triangle; a topic that, had we not used The Leonardo Effect curriculum design, we may never have explored. It was fascinating that from the four original elements we ended up with such a variety of interesting presentations that fully engaged each member of the class.

The activity was not only interesting and engaging, it was also challenging. Once the third and fourth table was reached, two to three groups had already visited them and it was becoming increasingly difficult to think of words without being influenced by other groups’ suggestions. Once the obvious words had been documented we began to think in abstract manner; thinking about the periodic table (H2O), the different states of the element (ice, snow), current and past events around the world (the Tsunami or the Bostcastle flooding) as well as tapping into our geographical knowledge (The Bermuda Triangle). The presentation itself accessed additional areas of the curriculum.  We created a PowerPoint presentation before presenting back to the class, so Information Technology and Communication Skills were also key areas that the method encouraged the groups to visit. With this said it is not difficult to see how children are surpassing ceilings and excelling using the method as they are gaining a richer and more varied learning experience, covering a multitude of subjects simultaneously.

Mantle of the Expert

Another curriculum design that is based upon the combination of the arts and science is the Mantle of the Expert (MoE), a method designed by Dorothy Heathcote.  Studying the arts and science linearly is said to allow learning to take place at a conceptual, personal and social level.  The MoE, like The Leonardo Effect, is a child led learning experience that places the teacher in the role of the facilitator, it is the responsibility of the child to extract information from the teacher, thus reversing the traditional style of learning (Heathcote & Herbert, 1985).  The syllabus is derived from a drama enterprise approach which draws its structure from societal matrixes (Grimley & Holt C of E Primary School, 2014).  Grimley and Holt C of E Primary School (2014) state that there are four key elements to the MoE method:

Ø  Expert roles are created and each child assumes one of the positions

Ø  A fictional organisation is created based on the subject area they will be studying

Ø  Client’s assign tasks to the experts which interlink with various areas of the curriculum

Ø  Through collective imagination and pupil inquiry the children develop the ability to solve challenges that they are faced with throughout the activity

Piaget stated that children, as constructivists, learn through experimentation and play.  The subject must become an extension of their environment in order for the knowledge to become a concrete schema (Gruber & Voneche, 1977).  It could be argued that through Heathcotes MoE method, the child is using all of the aforementioned skills to construct their own knowledge of the subject.  Therefore the emotional involvement in the activity will become embedded thus create a greater understanding and improved recall of the information; by creating a life like situation they are able to make ‘human-sense’ of the subject matter (Donaldson, 1978).

To explore the curriculum design further we were tasked with an activity based upon the MoE framework, enabling the group to gain first-hand experience.  The task consisted of building a bridge to replace the existing River Tawe Bridge in Swansea.  Using the aforementioned process each member of the group was given a role in which they would become the expert; Architect, Buyer and Estimator, Director, Project Manager and Structural Engineer.  The client required the bridge to be built using the following specifications:

Ø  Must cover a gap of 50cm’s

Ø  Must hold the weight of one average sized tangerine

Ø  Must be made from lollipop sticks and masking tape (although this was later amended to include the use of a hot glue gun due to the poor quality of the masking tape)

Ø  Each stick would cost fifty pence

Ø  Two inches of masking tape cost twenty five pence (each press of the glue gun trigger would also equate to two inches of masking tape)

Each group then designed, evaluated and built their bridge.   

Although there is evidence that the Mantle of the Expert curriculum design is effective in a primary education setting; Avenue Primary School, Norwich have dubbed MoE a “revolutionary approach to education (Burrell, 2007); I would argue the effectiveness of the method in older children and adults.  Throughout the experimental MoE task, assigned to myself and fellow second year university students, it was evident that the imagination aspect of the task in which the student would take on the role of an ‘expert’ was difficult to access.  However on the whole I found MoE to be effective in a primary setting, the way the children reacted to the method in the video indicated that young children have a greater access to their imagination and thus the ability to learn through role play.

 

 

Creative Partnerships

Another way that schools are encouraging enquiry in learners is through Creative Partnerships between creative professionals and schools (PwC, 2010).  LOCWS Schools is a participatory education project running in Swansea that brings together school children and creative agents to encourage expression through the arts. Throughout the experience pupils are exposed to Swansea’s culture, architecture and heritage from which they create pieces of artwork for public exhibition (Haste, 2014).  In a report commissioned by the Creativity, Culture and Education Board (2010) it was suggested that some of the benefits from creative partnerships include; increased comprehension of the curriculum, increased motivation, higher attainment at GCSE level with more pupils progressing to further and higher education, as well as increased parental engagement.

To gain experience of Creative Partnerships our group attended an excursion to The Grand Theatre in Swansea where we were able to see the final product of the most recent LOCWS school collaboration and also speak with the Director of Art in the City, David Haste. Haste (2014) explained the process of Art in the City as a 3 day workshop where the children would, along with the assigned creative professional, go through a four step process on their journey to creating a final piece. First of all they would look around the city by taking their learning outside of the classroom and encouraging the pupils to observe, document and then reflect upon what they had seen during their excursion. In the next part of the process they would be asked to discuss what they had seen and what their thoughts and feelings were from the trip, this would be transformed into a mind-mapped plan, and at the end of this session the children would have an idea of what they were going to create for their final piece. Depending on the speciality of the creative professional collaborating with the group, this final piece could be anything from a painting or sculpture to a poem, story or song. The third step in the process would be the creation of the final piece, the creative professional assuming the role of facilitator and the pupils leading the activity. Finally, the piece would be presented or displayed in a way that would, according to Haste (Haste, 2014), bring the children sense of pride and achievement thus encouraging them to continue on a creative path.

 

From the information gained during the visit to The Grand Theatre as well as the information presented from research I would conclude that Creative Partnerships appear to be of benefit for pupils, parents and teachers alike. The output from the workshops not only increases the attainment of the child as well as improving personal attributes, self-confidence, for example; the relationships between student and teacher is also improved as the pupil is gaining a richer experience than in a traditional teaching setting. With regards to learning and creativity in the twenty first century it is evident that the creative partnerships provided by LOCWS are including varied enquiry methods due to the child led nature of the workshops, as well as incorporating modern technology to plan, document and present their pieces.

Creative Play

(PlayProject.org, 2014)

Creative play is key to the development of a child’s imagination and focuses on individual personalities; how they express their thoughts and feelings (WAG, 2008).  It does this by encouraging the child to look differently at the world, this could be in the form of dance, art, music or role play; all of which boost self-esteem and increase confidence.  This blog post looks at the forms of creative play and how it can enhance pupil learning in the early years ( (Wilson, 2009).

One theorist to discuss the importance of learning through experience and play was Jean Piaget.  While in their sensory motor stage children will seek to learn, as they are not in a structured learning environment this learning, in the most part, will come from their play.  Once they reach their pre-operational stage children are starting nursery or school and in these settings it is important to maintain the role play and experiential learning as when their learning comes from a memorable experience, it is more likely that this information will be retained (Gruber & Voneche, 1977).  Gardner (1991) also expressed his strong belief in how imaginative play increases the understanding of children as; even if a child’s imagination was a distorted form of reality, it would in some way to relate to truth.  For example if a child can imagine the solar system, even though it may not be astronomically accurate, they would be able to readily assimilate objects like the sun, moon and planets. 

There are different types of play that can enhance a child’s learning:

Motor/Physical – Types of play that promote the development of muscles and motor skills.  Running, Climbing, Catching, etc..

Social – Types of play that involves two or more people.  Board games, team sports etc…

Constructive – This involves the manipulation of a child’s environment for example den building.

Fantasy – Imaginative play in which the child assumes the role or responsibility of another.

Games with Rules – This style of play enables the child to develop an understanding of social constraints.  These games could involve anything from a team sport to a solitary game of cards (WAG, 2008).



 

Whilst on placement I have gained exposure to the children using fantasy play within the role play area as a method of learning, which in Clydach Infants School was a Café.  It encouraged them to practice a variety of skills covering a multitude of areas of the Foundation Phase Curriculum.  Language, Literacy and Communication Skills are developed as the children are taking on roles that they would not normally assume, they are therefore thinking about the type of language they would hear from a waitress or a customer and they are using words and phrases that may exceed their years when communicating with their peers.  They are also encouraged to take on the full role within the role play area, so they would be expected to read the menu, write down order, the children would also charge or pay for the meals they ‘ate’ using money, this would link into Mathematical Development.  Finally, Creative Development is accessed as soon as they enter the Café; their imagination takes over and they assume their role.  Although fantasy play is only one aspect of creative play from what I have experienced and observed I am a strong believer in the benefits of creative play within the curriculum and the benefits on the child’s learning.

Conclusion

I would conclude that from the topics discussed throughout this blog that creativity and inquiry are key to the curriculum in the twenty first century.  The enhancement of the imagination at a young age gives pupils the ability to retain information; they are able to relate what they are learning to their lives.  Child lead learning involves the child and encourages them to gain knowledge in the subjects that they are interested in, and in turn they will also excel in the areas that they may have previously struggled in.  With regards to the art vs science debate, it is easy for me to conclude that they are not separate entities and should not be treated as such; if we are expecting the children of today to be the innovators of tomorrow we must ignite all of their senses and interest to maximise the quality of their future ideas.  With the curriculums designs discussed in this blog, The Leonardo Effect and Mantle of the Expert, the marriage of art and science becomes a reality within the primary setting, and under these frameworks it is possible for our children to achieve maximum attainment.

Reference List
 

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Burrell, J., 2007. Mantle of the Expert - The Sea Company. National Union of Teachers Magazine.

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