Yet, the arts are defined as core academic subjects in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. So school districts are starting to experiment with ways to integrate the arts into the traditional academic basics, like math and science. A handful of public school districts from California to Nevada to Maryland are using dance as the vehicle to help deliver the concepts of science, math, social studies, and English to their students.
Education Week showcased Fort Garrison Elementary School in Baltimore County, MD, last week in “Schools Integrate Dance Into Core Academics.” Second graders were asked to come up with dance moves to convey the parts of the photosynthesis process, including chlorophyll and carbon dioxide. It gives the kids the chance to engage, to take what could be dry concepts and interpret them, to get creative, and to move. The small program at Fort Garrison is called Teaching Science With Dance in Mind, funded through a grant from a now-closed nonprofit Hands on Science Outreach. The grant provided teachers and dance specialists professional development.
“We are addressing the science curriculum as required by the county and meeting the standards for dance instruction in a mutual learning experience. The more we teach through dance integration, the more we realize how dynamically it brings deep and complex learning to children,” said Rima Faber, Program Director. Faber is a dance education expert.
The National Dance Education Organization, based in Silver Spring, MD, promotes education in the art of dance. Jane Bonbright, Executive Director, says “the art of dance uses movement to create meaning about the human experience. It is far more than exercise and entertainment.”
But teachers would have a tough time taking this approach and making it meaningful solo. “You really need to have a dance education specials who knows what they’re doing,” said Bonbright. For integration to work, you need “mutual support from both disciplines.”
There is little research to provide statistical support for the dance-academic collaboration. There are numerous studies to connect music/arts education to math achievement, though. Here’s an except from a study by Daniel Hodges and Debra O’Connell, University of North Carolina Greensboro. But integrating dance and movement into academic study may not only help students understand lessons, but will also help battle the rising trend in childhood obesity.
All dance education advocates aren’t sold on the integration. The Los Angeles Unified School District has long offered dance both on its own and across the curriculum. Shana Habel, dance professional who works with the program, is part of the dance programs. She said, “My concern is that integration doesn’t mean us can use surface connections. I would like to see the integration with dance become so rich and so deep that administrators say … ‘Wow, we need that; we see what its doing.'”
Fort Garrison’s Karen Harris, Principal, likes what she sees. “This is how learning should be. It should be active, it should be engaging. It should use a variety of modalities. That’s how we all learn,” she said.
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