Category Archives: Education

What is Accessibility and what does it look like?

Accessibility, Education, Getting Started

Accessibility has many different definitions and can look very different depending on the way in which it is being applied to situations and environments. Marriam-Webster’s definition is: something ‘being within reach or easy to understand’, which might not be where your mind first goes when thinking about accessibility. It’s more than likely that most of us think about accessibility strictly in the context of disability. Wikipedia’s definition of accessibility is: “…the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities.” While accessibility does include making technology and the environment available to people with disabilities, it can also mean so much more. In rural areas, accessibility can look like the ease of getting from place to place (think about driving from your home to the hospital or a grocery store. If it isn’t very far, then these places are accessible to you) In big cities it can be the availability of sidewalks and public transit to the public. Accessibility can even be the price of goods so more people can afford them or the language written on important road signs.

Accessibility can look like just about anything that affects the availability of a thing or place to people. Everyone, in one way or another, is affected by accessibility. Even children in public schools depend on their education being accessible, meaning they need; extracurricular classes and sports to have an accessible price, for classes to be spoken and written in languages they understand, and for schools to be an accessible distance from home and have accessible bus systems. But that can be a lot to tackle, and it covers so many topics.

So, for the purposes of my research, here is the definition I’ll be using for accessibility in school in the context of STEAM. ‘The ability for non-English speaking, disabled, and impoverished students to engage with and understand materials at the same capacity their English speaking, able-bodied, and non-impoverished peers do‘. In this context, accessibility looks like having a bilingual instructor, having low-cost or no-cost art courses and activities for public schools, or making art tools like paintbrushes and scissors usable for students with low-grip capacity.

What does Art do to our Academics?

Education, STEAM

Briefly touched upon in my previous post, Art, and how students engage with it in the classroom, has an impact on the academic achievements met by said students. The Oregon Community Foundation (OregonCF) reported that those taking more Art classes more frequently than other students had better fluency, originality, and overall better “academic discipline”. OregonCF also found improved grades and SAT scores among students taking more Art focused classes.

The Nation Endowment for the Arts found similar correlations in their research between Art engagement and academic scores. They found improved Social Emotional Learning in younger children who participated in the Arts at an early age, and that High Schoolers who participated in the Arts had higher average grades and greater “post-graduation outcomes” than students who did not.

Marcia Gibson and Meredith Larson found in their report on the visual arts and academic achievement that along with improved social skills, younger children who read with Art integrated as a part of the story have significantly improved reading abilities when compared to their peers without Art integration. Along with this, they found education is more engaging for students of all ages when art in incorporated. Art provides another way for more students to engage with academic material, thus improving a school’s overall test scores and grades. The inclusion of Art in education is integral to making the classroom more accessible and enjoyable for all students.

What can Art in schools look like?

Education, STEAM

Art in education can look very different depending on the way in which it is approached. In a report done by The Oregon Community Foundation (OregonCF), the way art is incorporated into learning can fall into one of three categories. The first is ‘Arts Exposure’, which is described as limited or occasional art experiences. This can look like a field trip or an assembly featuring the Arts. Art Exposure causes students to become more interested in and engaged with the topic being present to them, though the OregonCF report suggests it’s most impactful on students when Art is also being discussed and explored regularly in the classroom.

The second way of bringing art to students is referred to as ‘Sequential Arts Instruction’. Sequential Arts Instruction is the act of teaching Art in Art settings, or basically ‘the art class’. Sequential Arts Instruction includes traditional art classes, like painting, drawing, preforming arts, and also non-traditional Art activities like art clubs and bands. This is the most common type of Art engagement inside of Oregon schools, and it provides kids with observation, reflective, and developmental skills. OregonCF finds that Sequential Arts Instruction also serves as an emotional outlet for students who feel anxious or stressed about traditional education (think math/science/writing/history).

The third and final category of education and Art is ‘Arts Intergration’, and it is the category that OregonCF suggests has the largest impact on students. Arts Intergration is the act of including Art-based activities in non-art classes. This looks like making historical posters for a history class, creating 3D models of atoms for a science class, or being allowed to include creative writing instead of just essays in a writing class. OregonCF and Oregon teachers praise Arts Intergration for six main reasons:

“1. The Arts makes content more accessible.

2. The Arts encourage joyful, active learning.

3. The Arts help students make and express personal connections to content.

4. The Arts build community and help children develop collaborative work skills.

5. The Arts help students understand and express
abstract concepts.

6. The Arts stimulate higher-level thinking.” (OregonCF)

While OregonCF finds this final category to be to most impactful on students when it comes to increasing engagement and grades of students, they propose that the best way for art to be included into education is to implement it wherever and whenever possible. OregonCF claims that when students are able to constantly engage with the three kinds of Art education, they see better Social Emotional Learning (SEL), improvements to the community in the school, improved patience with difficult topics, and many other academic benefits including increased SAT testing scores and grades.

Art looks different for everyone. Some prefer to sculpt, others to dance, and many just enjoy a small doodle on the edge of their notebook. By having more art in school of many different kinds and disciplines, students are able to express themselves in safe regulated ways which results in positive outcomes for the rest of their academics.