Art and Cognition: Integrating the Visual Arts in the Curriculum by Arthur D. Efland A book review by Kelly Jean Sullivan

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Summary

      Arthur Efland who an important scholar in art education, looks at some problems of art education and getting art back into schools. The author then looks at art and the development of our minds.

                Efland argues that when a person develops art interest and abilities that this role plays an important part in both learning and cognition. The ability of art to help people create cultural meaning is essential in social communication. The author goes on to look at the visual arts not just as letting out emotions but as a cognitive process and essential in learning. Looking art through a cognitive lens would be a good step in the right direction in how art is taught in schools.

             The author uses science and specifically cognitive developments in cognitive science to defend the need for art education in the schools. The author describes that to justify teaching art because the teacher needs to see the value of developing cognitive abilities in children and how art can be used as a strategy to do so. Selecting art curriculum is and teaching new teachers art strategies will reform general education. The book goes into how psychology and art are linked and should not be separated. The book then goes into cognitive flexibility theories and how art is created based on those theories.

Relate book to class conversations

        Making art fits well with the Cognitive flexibility theory. When a student can make mistakes and take what they are learning and find alternative ways to solve problems, it gives confidence to the student that they can find new solutions to get work done. The lack of this kind of cognitive skill will hinder the child’s ability to adapt to new situations in the school environment. In the class we have been discussing, what is learning and how we learn. This book gives insight into another way of learning. It also relates to the class when we discuss grades and this book assisted me in seeing the value of art as a grade free class.

          The arts play an important role in imagination. Imagination is a cognitive process that uses images. This type of cognition helps children to look at possibilities and pretending. Children lined experiences to grow and without imagining the child does not get the opportunity to see things not as they are but as they possibly could be.

              Research is showing that making art assists in our perceptions of things but also uses higher level cognitive skills like attention and memory as well as executive functioning. Making art allow the child to practice patterns and teaches cause and effect especially when mixing colors. making pictures of what they want can help the child use their critical thinking skills to make and action plan.

Personally, reflect on the book as it impacted you with your practices and beliefs.

This book will be used in my research and in my current educational practice. It has opened my eyes to my practice because it has gotten me aware of the stigma that needs to be overcome in art education in the value of art as an important instruction. Art hits all cognitive stages and there is theory to back up childhood development in Rhonda Kellogg’s work of the stages of art and development in children. The way that this will impact my belief of art going forward is that it needs to be argued with confidence as a valuable intervention for cognition don motivation.

                When looking at the impact that art has on the brain and cognition and motivation it has opened my eyes to what this can do for strategies in working with students with autism. The value of art making and the brain health and the science on how art can assist in both motivation and learning can be a very scientific defense in integrating art into the curriculum and my research. I will be using the cognitive and motivational information in my art in the elementary school course instruction going forward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Efland, Arthur D. Art, and Cognition: Integrating the Visual Arts in the Curriculum. Teachers College, 2009.

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