Series: Hear from the Experts
Can Arts Education Improve Early Math Classrooms?
Teachers are using theater and dance to teach math — and it’s working
Washington Post
"This giggly play session actually was a serious math lesson about big and small and non-standard measurements. Dreamed up by Richardson and kindergarten teacher Carol Hunt, it aims to get the children to think of animal steps as units of measurement, using them to mark how many it takes each animal to get from a starting line to the target... And the program appears to have been effective: A study by the American Institutes for Research found that students in classes headed by Wolf Trap-trained teachers performed better on math assessments than did their peers being taught by teachers who were not in the program."
Go to linkNew research is showing how arts education and math can build off of one another. Although many talk of STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) as important subjects in early education, increasingly an importance on STEAM education is taking root (i.e. adding the Arts). This program and resulting research in Virginia points to the opportunities that joining the arts to STEM topics can have worthwhile outcomes.