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da Vinci and Friends:
Curriculum Where Science and the Arts Meet
Research/Articles
on Integrating Arts and Academics
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“Seeing is an art which must be learnt.”
- William Herschel
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Study Links Arts Education to Better Performance in Reading, Math
Arts Integrated Into Academics
Arts for Academic Achievement
Music and the Brain
Van Gogh History Sleuths
Mathematics, Physical Science and the Arts
Campus Museums Go Interdisciplinary
Multi-Discipline Magic: Teacher Blends Science, Music
Arts for Academic Achievement Initiative
Interview: Beauty, Mystery, Science
Arts as Essential
Music and High-Performing Academics
Creating Creativity with Music
Dance and Physics
Science Winners are Musical?
Music Lessons May Make Kids Smarter
Music and The Brain
Three Rs are Essential, But Don't Forget ahe A--The Arts
The Nonmusical Outcomes of Music Education
Art & Science
Matters Of Opinion
Arts and Sciences, Building Bridges
Study Links Arts Education to Better Performance in Reading, Math
This USA Today article documents the effect of arts on academics, though not specifically mentioning science. Exposure to arts education can raise achievement in core academic subjects, according to a report by the Arts Education Partnership. UCLA education professor James Catterall, who coordinated the research, says research suggests arts education can be especially beneficial for poor students who are lagging academically.
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020520/4124182s.htm
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Arts Integrated Into Academics
The October 2001 issue of EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP has a relevant article, "In the Arts Spotlight" by Rebecca Hotvedt, describing how integrating the arts into daily instruction can make students more receptive learners. She describes how this has been particularly true with at-risk elementary students. Phases of her integrating the arts into academics went from role-play to performing the Nutcracker and producing puppet shows. Ms. Hotvedt elaborates on brain research indicating that the arts, particularly the elements of movement and emotion, have a strong impact on learning. She sums up by saying, "A strong arts foundation builds creativity, concentration, problem solving, self-efficacy, coordination, attention, and self-discipline. Isn't that what we want for all students?"
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Arts for Academic Achievement
The Star Tribune published an article May 26, 2002 about an arts program in the Minneapolis Public Schools, designed to "boost reading and science achievement, strengthen arts achievement and build partnerships between schools and artists in the community." Examples include second-graders who learned to play taiko drum, and transferred the balance and motion skills from the drum to science projects, such as balancing a pencil on a Popsicle stick. Benefits of the integrated approach appear to be more positive attitudes toward school, better attendance, increased confidence and more disciplined learners. The article is available for a fee at:
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1557/2859635.html
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Music and The Brain
What is the secret of music's strange power? Seeking an answer, scientists are piecing together a picture of what happens in the brains of listeners and musicians. An article in the November 2004 issue of "Scientific American" by Norman M. Weinberger delves into the deep roots of our fondness for music and the physiology of music appreciation.
http://cl.exct.net/?fe58157174610d757213-fe2516707367037f721378
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Van Gogh History Sleuths
"Identifying the 'Star' in a Long-Lost van Gogh" is the title of an article published in the April 2001 "Sky and Telescope magazine. It details a search conducted by college students with their professors as part of an honors course, "Astronomy in Art, History, and Literature." Professors Don Olson and Russell Doescher at Southwest Texas State University sought to locate the subjects of a van Gogh painting, "White House at Night," which resurfaced after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The students had studied four well-known van Gogh night-sky paintings and then set out to determine what the "star" in this rediscovered painting might be. Historical records enabled them to narrow the time frame of the painting's creation to the last couple months of his life in 1890.
Numerous methods were employed to track down both the identity of the star and the house. Using a planetarium computer program, they searched for bright stars and planets in northern France in mid-July of that year. Three stars and three planets were candidates; the moon was not out that evening. To narrow the search and identify the bright object, they needed to pursue four questions: "Does the painting depict an actual house? Could we find this distinctive house in present-day Auvers? What is the orientation of the house? What part of the sky is shown in the painting?" Using analytical methods and a trip to France, they gathered evidence and ruled out possibilities until they felt certain they had found not only the right house, which had been modified in the past century, but also the "star," which was Venus. Even meteorological evidence was used, to see if records showed sky conditions consistent with that found in the painting.
The search, or the inquiry, is a treat to read in the magazine, because it tells the complete story and because it pictures the painting in a two-page spread, as well as the likely houses they investigated, and a painting van Gogh completed of a church in Auvers alongside a present-day photo of the subject. Unfortunately the article is not available online, though it is available at public libraries which subscribe to "Sky and Telescope." However, a summary of the work is online with a 5-minute CBC radio interview of one of the professors (and the picture can be viewed) at
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/asithappens/STEAM/vangogh_031301.html
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Mathematics, Physical Science and the Arts
Dr. Robert Jacobs, a chemistry teacher at Wilton High School (Connecticut), has a web page in which he writes about the similarities of the arts and sciences and how the assumptions are different for science and the arts. There is a link to his musings on "Science, Mathematics and Beauty" as well.
http://www.chemistrycoach.com/arts.htm#Arts
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Campus Museums Go Interdisciplinary
"Art, Incorporated," an article in the Feb. 11, 2003 issue of Christian Science Monitor, describes a growing desire of college art museums to use their holdings in connection with disciplines from history and economics to psychology and the natural sciences. Examples include a collaboration between Amherst College's Mead Art Museum curator and a physics professor to use the famous stop-motion photographs by Harold Edgerton. At Smith College a course, "Chemistry of Artists' Materials and Techniques," has been designed to use the collection. The president of Ursinus College is quoted as saying, "There is mounting evidence that science students benefit from studying literature and the arts, adding to their creativity as scientists and helping them to become more aware of moral and ethical issues."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0211/p13s02-lecs.html
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Multi-Discipline Magic: Teacher Blends Science, Music
The Juneau Empire (AK) reported February 14 about a teacher who has an incredible gift of teaching, and who uses music with her students to teach confidence, and that confidence spills over into other academic areas. She also teaches the science of sound, with her sixth graders conducting experiments on string pitch, the purpose of frets and the reasons for using different types of wood in a sound box. Thanks to Marilyn Kelley for this lead.
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/021403/loc_mickelson.shtml
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Arts for Academic Achievement Initiative
Researchers from the University of Minnesota reported May 13, 2003, to the Minneapolis School Board that:
* Using the arts to teach other subjects improved student performance on standardized tests.
* This approach had a more significant impact on some groups of disadvantaged students.
* The more that arts were integrated into the instruction, the more students improved.
According to a Star Tribune article on May 14, 2003, this "Arts for Academic Achievement Initiative" is in its fifth year and has major funding ($3.2 million) from The Annenberg Foundation. The study primarily focused on third through fifth grade students and their improvement on math and reading tests. Teachers reported that they saw otherwise shy students thrive in the academic classroom when the arts were used. Summary:
www.backstageball.org/fact_sheet.html
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Interview: Beauty, Mystery, Science
Is there a link between the scientific exploration of the universe and our earth-bound lives? A science journalist seeks connections between distant wonders and everyday events. In the July 1, 2003, Minnesota Public Radio Midmorning show Katherine Lanpher interviewed K. C. Cole, author of "Mind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos" and a science columnist for the Los Angeles Times. In this 53-minute interview and question-answer session with listeners, K.C. Cole discusses the commonalities of art / music and science. She describes how imaginative thinking is a link between the arts and science, adding that part of Einstein's theory came from his simply wondering what it would be like to ride on a light beam. She also affirms that science and art are about noticing things, making connections, and using intuition. Cole, now a science writer, hated science in school and did not like it until, at age 26, she saw at The Exploratorium in San Francisco that physics was a way to look at the world, that it was beautiful and was an art. When asked about the current state of science education, she said it is generally taught with the dull, tedious material, not the beautiful questions and the mystery. She adds, "When you look at scientists, they are like kids playing around. There's a big disconnect...." When asked further about why Asian countries have done so much better than the US on some international science tests, she says that part of the answer resides in the way the teaching is done: Asian kids are not just asked to use the equations, but are asked to describe the beauty of it, to ask what it all means. When asked by a listener why so many scientists and musicians seem to be attracted to each other as couples, K.C. Cole suggests that in both fields, the rules are very disciplined, but also that they are about beauty and aesthetics, adding that this is true of writers as well. Listen to the full broadcast at:
http://news.mpr.org/programs/midmorning/
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Arts as Essential
An example of a "connected" curriculum in which arts are integrated into other subjects is Heritage High School in East Harlem, New York, where one of "da Vinci and Friends" readers is teaching art. The lead sentence in this New York Times article is about one of Kimberly Lane's art classes, and there is a picture of two of her students working on life-sized sculptures of people in everyday life. In "Battling the Chaos in the Public Schools' Arts Classes" (New York Times, June 5, 2003) Robin Pogrebin writes: "Some schools treat art as essential, with extensive cultural programs that are integrated into the rest of the curriculum. The Heritage School, for example, where most of the students are from low-income households in Upper Manhattan, was pioneered by a university arts educator devoted to making the arts central to general learning."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/05/arts/05SCHO.html?ex=1055776098&ei=1&en=
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Music and High-Performing Academics
This article does not specifically mention science but does link high-performing academics with music instruction in schools. The Chicago Sun-Times/Associated Press' article of July 22, 2003, titled "Music programs hurt by budget cuts," tells how the trend to cut funding for the arts and a growing emphasis on core academic subjects contradicts evidence that an arts-rich, "connected" curriculum fosters more learning.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/education/bc-spe--school-finalstan.html
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Creating Creativity with Music
An article on research into the question of whether music increases creativity, including intellectual creativity, was written by Dr. Norman Weinberger. The following summary is reproduced with permission Norman M. Weinberger and the Regents of the University of California. The full article is at the web link below.
In summary, the findings to date provide solid support for the claim that music increases creativity. Moreover, it appears that active music making is more effective than passive music experience. But it must be realized that there is not nearly enough research on this issue. Detailed and systematic studies of the types and amount of music education for groups of all ages need to be undertaken. In addition, a broader range of measures of creativity should be used to fully explore this critical dimension of the intellect. That creative potential can be increased is of great importance. That music appears to be an effective means of accomplishing this goal should be glad tidings for everyone. After all, what is the greatest source of potential benefit to our planet if not the potential of our imagination linked to rational and unselfish action?
http://www.musica.uci.edu/mrn/V5I2S98.html#creating
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Dance and Physics
This article from the Seattle Times (April 9) includes a description of a high school science and math teacher who incorporates studies of velocity and physical principles of dance into the curriculum. In "Arts school prepares students for real world "The Seattle Times takes an inside look at the Conservatory, a private, small, arts-oriented school designed to prepare students for careers in fields such as acting, dancing and singing. Admission is highly competitive and the school attracts students nationwide and internationally.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2001899229_conservatory09e.html
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Science Winners are Musical?
To Irene Sun, 17, playing piano is much like practicing her other passion -- science. Like a musician, a scientist learns the technical while seeking answers to more meaningful questions, said the Harvard history and science major, who credits a decade of studying piano for much of her other academic success.
Michele Kurtz reports in The Boston Globe (6/15/04) on some of the current studies in which experts wonder if learning music boosts math skills. A debate was held in June 2004, inspired by the observation that more than 60 percent of the 70 regional finalists in this year's Siemens
Westinghouse Competition reported that they played musical instruments. For a thoughtful analysis of some of the evidence, read the full article:
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2004/06/15/playing_with_a_theory/
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Music Lessons May Make Kids Smarter
According to a University of Toronto study reported in the "Daily Telegraph" (London, 7/25/04), children under the age of six who took weekly keyboard or voice lessons for nine months scored, on average, 2.7 points higher on IQ tests than children who had taken drama lessons or no lessons at all. The study was the first of its kind to feature a large number of children randomly selected from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/25/nmus25.xml
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Music and the Brain
What is the secret of music's strange power? Seeking an answer, scientists are piecing together a picture of what happens in the brains of listeners and musicians. An article in the November 2004 issue of "Scientific American" by Norman M. Weinberger delves into the deep roots of our fondness for music and the physiology of music appreciation.
http://cl.exct.net/?fe58157174610d757213-fe2516707367037f721378
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Three Rs Are Essential, But Don't Forget the A--the Arts
Elliot Eisner offers an eloquent argument for the arts in education, in a time when test-driven decisions about curricula often treat the arts as ornamental, not necessary. He outlines three ways in which the arts help children: First, the arts teach children to exercise the ability to make judgments in the absence of rules. Second, the arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution. A third lesson is that aims can be flexible in the arts, and that this flexibility is a necessary counterbalance to the pre-determined outcomes which are in vogue in industrial-style education.
http://ed.stanford.edu/suse/news-bureau/displayRecord.php?tablename=notify1&id=254
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The Nonmusical Outcomes of Music Education
Copyright © 1995 Norman M. Weinberger and the Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission.
Dr. Norman M. Weinberger and the Regents of the University of California
"In the face of the severe financial problems besetting many school districts, the role of education in the arts has come under increasingly close scrutiny as school administrators have sought to balance their budgets. Because many people are able to dismiss music and the other arts as educational frills, they find them the logical targets for reductions when school finances are strained. In situations such as these, the effect on music education is crippling."
Sound familiar? A resume of the current state of affairs? Hardly. This statement appears at the beginning of a review article published in 1979 (1). Written by Karen Wolff, it continues ... "Such actions make it incumbent upon the profession to provide a thorough and convincing justification for the place of music and, by extension, all arts education in the school curriculum." Dr. Wolff goes on to argue that the case for music education can be strengthened if it has nonmusical benefits to students, be they in academic subjects, social and emotional adjustments or physical development. I would add to the list general cognitive and intellectual growth.
Whether or not one agrees with this strategy, a comprehensive understanding of and appreciation for the roles of music demands that research determine all of the effects of music, both for informal exposure and in formal educational experiences. Previously, we documented some of the beneficial effects of music on cognitive achievement in children, specifically for reading, mental spatial abilities and creativity (MuSICA Research Notes, 1, Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 1994). Although that article did not attempt to review all of the relevant published studies, its preparation did not uncover vast amounts of systematic studies, as opposed to the more plentiful anecdotal accounts and single case reports. A reasonable conclusion at that time was that not much research had been done on the topic of "nonmusical outcomes of music education".
Well, that seems to still be the state of affairs, except that a sizable trove of studies has surfaced, so to speak. Actually, most remain a bit below the surface, as I will explain.
Recently, I came across an article that, perhaps, should have come to my attention earlier. In any event, James Hanshumaker, writing in 1980 in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (2), performed a detailed search for relevant articles in music and the other arts and found quite a few studies, 36 to be exact. In a moment I will summarize his conclusions. But first, I was puzzled why this large body of information seems to be largely unknown, particularly to the music education community for whom, it would appear, it was destined. Recall that Karen Wolff's article at about the same time testified to the importance of such studies in the late '70s crisis in arts education. Perhaps, I thought, it is due to an unjustified but too common generational gap: old knowledge is ignored. Maybe interest had waned in the '80's and early '90's. Possibly they were forgotten because no use was made of the findings. Any or all of these factors might be contributory. But I think the major reason is that the vast majority of these studies were never published!
Indeed, they still haven't been published. When I read the reference section of Hanshumaker's paper, the state of affairs clarified itself rapidly. Of the 36 references, only 5 had previously been published, that is had appeared in a journal, the standard medium of widespread communication. The other 31 citations were for doctoral dissertations in music education or allied fields. Although summaries of all dissertations are published in Dissertation Abstracts, they do not provide enough information to permit critical evaluation of the work.
Perhaps the results of these dissertations had been published after Hanshumaker wrote his article, although some of the work was almost twenty years old by the date of his review. To check this out, I searched exhaustively for any publications, up to the present time, that came from these 31 dissertations, To my astonishment and dismay, I could find only two. In other words, there are at least twenty nine studies predating 1980 (the date of Hanshumaker's review) that have never been published, which found evidence that music and arts education have beneficial effects on intellectual and social development. Presumably, their contents are known to very few people. For all intents and purposes, these findings contained in these dissertations have only an archival but no functional existence. (See the accompanying column "Matters of Opinion" regarding more about unpublished works.)
Now to Hanshumaker's major conclusions, based on his review largely of unpublished works. For present purposes, no distinctions are made between music and other arts education, unless otherwise noted.
1. Arts education facilitates language development and reading readiness.
2. Arts activities are valued by school children.
3. Arts activities foster positive attitudes toward school and result in lowered rates of absenteeism.
4. Direct music participation enhances the development of creativity.
5. Arts education facilitates social development, personality adjustment and general intellectual development.
These conclusions are gratifying in at least two respects. First, they confirm the intuitions and anecdotal personal experiences of the vast majority of teachers in music and the arts that music and arts education are highly beneficial, not only within their own domains, but in general intellectual and social development. Second, they are consistent with the conclusions reached in our previous article in MRN on the subject, although that article was based on a set of publications that were different from those which were reviewed by Hanshumaker. This consistency over time adds confidence to the conclusions (3).
From a theoretical point of view, these findings will help us understand mental and personal development and the roles of music in human life. From a practical point of view, the argument that music and arts education are merely "frills" finds no objective support. Quite the contrary. Because education is probably the best and most important way to help children develop to their full intellectual and personal potentials, it is incumbent upon us all to first support the discovery and then support the application of knowledge that promotes these goals. The conclusion that music and arts education are an important and effective part of this formula can no longer be doubted even if it can still be ignored.
Footnotes
(1) Wolff, K.I.(1979). The nonmusical outcomes of music education: A review of the literature Council for Res. Music Educ. Bull., 1-27.
(2) Hanshumaker, J. (1980). The effects of arts education on intellectual and social development: a review of selected research. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 61, 10-28.
(3) A only cautionary note is that I am reporting on what Hanshumaker concluded. I have not located, read or analyzed all those pre 1979 dissertations. Indeed, there may be quite a few more recent dissertations that contain findings pertinent to the issue of the nonmusical effects of music education. Finding and sorting through all of that material would make an excellent dissertation for someone seeking the doctorate in music education or perhaps the history of science.
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Art & Science
© Copyright by William C. Gough, The Foundation for Mind-Being Research, 1994. Redistribution rights granted for non-commercial purposes.
The worlds of art and science appear very different, yet at root both are based on the same principle -- the use of symbolism. Like poetry and other arts, science rests on the bedrock of a< symbolic language, in this case mathematics. But what is the foundation in which this magical use of symbols rests?
In the physical and biological science, the common denominator is the idea of "pattern" and of the changes in patterns. Study of phenomena in these areas is pursued though the abstract patterns named by the mathematical symbols that have meaning for the practitioners of science. Art also uses symbols, but with an understanding of their power to evoke feelings. Science has deliberately sought to separate itself from the inner power of symbols and hence from their relation to feelings. This has been necessary. It is one principle that has made possible much of the power of modern science and technology.
This has not always been true. In the early days, numbers and letters were seen as having qualities that could be experienced. Carl Jung, working with Pauli, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, recognized this. He suggested that these symbols related to archetypical patterns beyond the physical space-time — formless forms. If so, the abstract spaces of mathematics are not really that abstract. Rather they correspond to a reality we can experience in mind and spirit.
A major issue here is whether we can directly prove the existence of a reality beyond the physical world we experience. This may not be possible because there may be a wholeness that cannot be fully analyzed since we are a part of it. Despite this, a change in thinking seems to be emerging in modern science. It is becoming ever harder to deny a reality beyond space-time in the face of non-locality experiments in physics, extraordinary healing techniques in medicine, data on physical and psychological anomalies and parapsychological phenomena, and other evidence. While debate remains about many of these areas, the weight of the evidence strongly suggests a reality that cannot be addressed within the reductionism that has been the central theme of modern science.
The physical reality we experience may be a "perception" that we construct from the unity in which we are immersed -- a projection onto the "space" of our direct senses. The symbols and patterns of our minds and the archetypes they express may be the links through which we can begin to experience that larger unity.
This model sees creativity in art, science and mathematics — and in living — as arising from the same source: archetypical knowledge of a reality beyond space-time. Access to this wider reality depends on the clarity of attention and focus of intention. The artist, the scientist, anyone who seeks a vision of the truth, has the ability, the power and the responsibility to help find appropriate ways to seek that reality.
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Matters of Opinion
Copyright © 1999 Norman M. Weinberger and the Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission. Dr. Norman M. Weinberger and the Regents of the University of California
Consider the Source
The following opinions about music are intended to provoke thought, encourage discussion and sometimes even argument, but ultimately to energize and enlarge conceptions and inquiry about music.
This issue of MRN (MuSICA Research Notes) focuses on musical beginnings of two sorts -- the beginning of musical competence in the individual ("Lessons of the Music Womb") and the beginning of musical competence in our species ("Why Do We Have Music?"). These essays reflect a growing body of evidence that music has deep biological roots. Nonetheless, a great deal more research is needed. Investigation of the origins of music, both in the individual and in our species, is still scant.
In contrast to this relatively early stage of knowledge about the origins of music, the ways of asking and answering questions about music and behavior are well known. There are tried and true methods of obtaining reliable information. But reactions to statements or claims generally ignore them. My goal in this column is to provide a guide or reminder about evaluating sources of claims. But first, one needs to have an inquiring attitude. Unfortunately, when confronted with a story or report, people too often have one of the first three reactions.
*We believe it, perhaps because it sounds interesting, or agrees with our prior beliefs and biases. "Great, I always thought that beer was terrific, so I'm glad to hear it also prevents heart attacks."
*We become confused. The new information seems to be contradictory to something we have been told previously. "Now let's see, am I supposed to stuff myself with oat bran or not?"
*We reject it out of hand. "Oh, that's bunk ... salt makes the food taste good and it never hurt anyone."
*The fourth reaction is the one we should have, a healthy skepticism. "That certainly sounds interesting, but what's the basis for the claim that frogs cause warts?"
Most people react in different ways in different circumstances. And that is to be expected. But I find it troubling that the last option, healthy skepticism, is getting short shrift these days. This approach does demand more thought and effort than naive acceptance, surrender to confusion, or summary rejection. But it has the benefit of pushing for the truth.
Having adopted this stance, which is really just an inquiring attitude, the next step is to consider the source of the claim. This is neither time consuming nor very effortful. Let's consider three sources of claims.
The lowest source of information is the anecdote, an individual recounting of an experience. Anecdotes may be quite reasonable ("I once attended a World Series game" ... true in my case), only remotely possible ("I once saw Elvis at a World Series game), or downright impossible ("Last year I saw Elvis..."). But anecdotes simply cannot get one very far along the path to general truths, because of their individual nature and also because the same person had the experience and tells the story; this opens up the possibility of bias, exaggeration, mis-memory, etc.
Clinical case reports are better. Here, a trained clinician recounts the details of one or a few particularly interesting, and probably rare, medical or behavioral cases. The quantum increase in the value of clinical cases comes from the fact that there is an independent observer who is well trained in making relevant observations and gathering data. As case studies accumulate across time and geography, they form a substantial base of reliable information. For example, cases of brain damage form much of the basis for attempts to determine which parts of the brain are essential for the perception of melody.
Experiments in which groups of individuals are studied provide yet a higher degree of confidence that the findings can help form the basis for general laws that are applicable to and valid for other groups. Also, proper control groups are needed to determine if a treatment actually causes an effect vs. the effect happening by chance. For example, the effects of music presented during the prenatal period can be properly assessed only by comparing the music group to an appropriate control group, one that was the same in every way except for receiving music. Finally, the findings need to be published in a scientific journal after independent evaluation by other scientists so that they can be available for scrutiny.
Coming back to healthy skepticism, beware of the anecdote; have more confidence in clinical reports and particularly controlled studies. This advice is particularly timely, in fact it has been elicited by the plethora of popular self-help books and CDs on music and behavior. Books and articles, which indiscriminately mix reports of anecdotes, clinical reports and controlled studies, demand particular caution. Authors ought to have the obligation, if not the ability, to discriminate the sources of information and to alert the readership accordingly. Even when one consults footnotes in books, supposed objective studies often turn out never to have been subjected to independent evaluation and publication. The claimant's "Emperor's New Clothes" often turn out to be woven of gossamer strands of anecdote. Moreover, enumerating claims willy-nilly misleads the trusting reader who, adopting to some extent the stance of naïve acceptance, believes that, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, "If it's in a book, it must be true."
One way of approaching this general problem of credibility, and the promise of fast and easy answers to complex questions of music and behavior, is to realize that when we readily accept dubious claims, we are allocating part of our brain to the claimant. Brain territory being precious, we are well advised to surrender it with caution. There is also a positive side to the stance of healthy skepticism. Every time we attempt to penetrate the thicket of claims, we are exercising our mental faculties, developing our intellects and probably making it easier next time to ask, "Now tell me again, how do we know that frogs cause warts?"
-- N. M. Weinberger
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Arts and Sciences, Building Bridges
Copyright © 2000 Norman M. Weinberger Reproduced with permission. Dr. Norman M. Weinberger and the Regents of the University of California
The following opinions about music are intended to provoke thought, encourage discussion and sometimes even argument, but ultimately to energize and enlarge conceptions and inquiry about music.
This issue of "MuSICA Research Notes" focuses on the effects of arts education. In summarizing several reports from "Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning," I had several goals in mind. First, to increase awareness of contemporary research and findings on arts education. A key point is that research approaches vary greatly, from analysis of national statistics on the arts and academic performance to highly specific artists-teachers partnership programs. Because of this diversity, these different approaches provide unique and valuable insights. A second goal is to highlight studies that transcend measures of academic performance by directing attention to the effects of the arts on the underlying cognitive processes, mental attitudes and personal attributes of students within the school setting. Third, to also emphasize the critical importance of understanding the positive effects of arts education on teachers, and through student-teacher interactions, on the school learning environment. A fourth aim is to expand our usual range of thinking beyond music itself to music as part of a larger arts education context.
While one may have a particular interest in music or another subject, we need to avoid the conceptual isolation that could be self-defeating. What is learned about the other arts is of value to music study and vice-versa. So we need to remind ourselves to build bridges to other arts disciplines and keep in good repair those bridges already in place.
There are other bridges. In April of this year, an unusual conference convened in Irvine, California. Entitled 'The Sciences for the Arts', the conference was organized by the Arts Bridge program. Originated by Dean Jill Beck of the School of the Arts at the University of California Irvine, vigorous ArtsBridge programs have been established at the other seven UC campuses. UC ArtsBridge is the UC arts education outreach program. It works in partnership with California public schools, providing scholarships to qualified UC arts students, graduate and undergraduate, to plan and teach the arts by working with teachers to integrate arts across the curriculum.
'The Sciences for the Arts' builds yet another bridge. The goals of the conference were to bring the scientific, artistic, and educational communities together, to review recent research results applicable to arts education and to address some of the current misunderstandings in research bridging brain/behavior research and the arts. It also initiated exploration of research possibilities inherent in the network of UC ArtsBridge sites. The overriding goal was "... to build a coalition in support of restoring the arts to our schools in innovative ways that affirm the intrinsic and instrumental values of the arts." That process is in its early stages.
The subject of this conference is of special interest to me because I participated in its planning and implementation. But I hope it will also prove to be of special interest to many others. Although originating from the UC ArtsBridge initiative, it drew speakers and participants from across the United States. Its "Proceedings" will be published. In the interim, I'd like to mention a few points now.
First, the current distinction, one might even say cleavage, between the sciences and the arts is a relatively new one across the broad sweep of human history. Dr. Diana Deutsch, of UC San Diego, presented an insightful and illuminating history of relationships between the arts and the sciences. She noted that a distinction between the two areas would have puzzled the most accomplished individuals from Antiquity through the Renaissance up to the Industrial Revolution. Historically, at least since Pythagoras (ca. 530 B.C.), music and mathematics were considered to be sibling disciplines. Figures such as Galileo were not only practitioners of both the sciences and the arts, but also saw an extremely close relationship across these now separate domains. Newton linked physics to music as well. And for most of human intellectual history, music and other arts comprised an essential component of education. The advent of the extreme division of labor probably contributed to the split. Perhaps this resulted from a focus on the products of effort rather than on the processes of thinking and problem solving.
In any event, the findings seem relevant to relationships between the arts and the sciences because the beneficial approaches to cognition and action that can result from a high arts curriculum, while often born and nurtured in the arts, apply to the subjects of science as well. So a rapprochement between the arts and sciences may begin within the individual brain. It is true that the sciences use methods, such as experimental design, that are special to them. But the methods alone are not sufficient. It is the thinking behind the methods that is critical for success.
A second lesson of the conference came not from the podium but from the audience. While unanimity of opinion was not present (nor should it have been), unanimity of interest could be sensed. Arts educators and representatives of various arts agencies and foundations were deeply involved in the proceedings. Their questions were insightful and incisive and appropriately challenging. As arts educators increasingly come to see the importance of asking research questions in a rigorous manner, so scientists increasingly need to better understand the actual classroom situation. This jointly beneficial dialogue is a ship recently launched. We look forward to the voyage.
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