Editorial
Pilgrims offer a brand new course: Teaching Through Music & Visual Art
20th July – 02 August
| "The course aims to give teachers an insight into how they can integrate music and art into their teaching so as to stimulate learners desire to learn and to open often unexpected channels into mind, body, and spirit connections. It is designed for teachers who are looking for new dimensions in their teaching." |
Art and Music in the Classroom
Bonnie Tsai, France
Bonnie Tsai is a teacher and teacher trainer who has worked around the world running teacher training courses for teachers of all ages, levels, and needs. She has been trained in such humanistic approaches such as Suggestopedia, N.L.P. and Psychodramaturgie Lingusitque. She has studied the theory and practice of Multiple Intelligence with Dr. Howard Gardner at Harvard University. Long time Pilgrims trainer. E-mail : tsaibonnie@hotmail.com
Music and art help us learn because they
establish a positive learning state
create a desired atmospherev
build a sense of anticipation
energize learning activities
change brain wave states
focus concentration
increase attention
improve memory
facilitate a multisensory
learning experience
release tension
enhance imagination
align groups
develop rapport
provide inspiration and motivation
add an element of fun
accentuate theme-orientated units
We all know how greatly music and art affects our feelings and energy level. It can make us feel incredibly happy, sad or nostalgic. Without even thinking about it, we use music to create desired moods. It helps us get into movement and dance, to energize, and to help us relax and focus. Music is a powerful tool for our personal expression within our daily lives. It helps "set the scene" for many of life's important experiences.
Art on the other hand can be a gateway to teaching any subject, because art is engaging, it connects with the visual, it is peripheral, it deals with feelings, it taps the potential to learn, it is provocative because it deals with real problems, and finally it invites reflection on thinking and learning. There are three aspects of teaching through the arts: This includes a disposition to explore diverse perspectives.
Firstly by projecting yourself into some else's shoes...Wearing some else's words. Understanding the world from the perspective of someone else.
Secondly by using creative anthropomorphizing. That is speaking through an object or an animal thus speaking under a safe cover.
Thirdly by identifying clues about perspectives held. Some time ago I had a group from China. Speaking didn't come easily for them although they had a solid intellectual knowledge of the language. Upon seeing Van Gogh's Starry. Starry Night, one student, who had barely opened his mouth to speak at all since the beginning of the course, suddenly started speaking eloquently about his village in China. This painting touched him in such a way that he wanted to speak. It is one the those beautiful moments in teaching that we all search for and treasure.
Throughout time, people have recognized and intentionally used the powerful effects of sound and the visual. In the 20th century the western scientific community conducted research to validate and expand our analytical knowledge of the effect of music and art. This research supports what we already know from our own personal experience:
Music and art greatly affects and enhances our learning and living!
Music aids learning experiences where students are asked to participate actively. It does this by heightening the impact of the experience. A story read aloud with music which accentuates the mood and meaning of the story will create a powerful memory. In movies the sound track is important in gaining and holding the involvement of the watcher. The more the viewer is drawn into the story, the more powerful is that person's experience. Our participation in learning in which music is associated can be just as much a key to student involvement as the learning experience itself.
When we combine music and art the results are magical. Together they hold great power to stimulate the students internal visual images as well as feelings. As teachers, we can provide students with opportunities to form their own visual images and memories about course information which they can return to for improved recall.
Music played in the background will facilitate a reflective, intrapersonal experience. The content material is remembered more easily because of the intensity of the multi-sensory experience and because the student has been involved actively in constructing personal visual meaning during the activity.
This is why both music and art have such an important role in Suggestopaedia (Dr George Lozanov) and Multiple Intelligence (Dr. David Perkins and Howard Gardner) Although these famous researchers come from very different starting points, all came to the conclusion that art and music has a prominent role in learning and education. Using art and music creates an atmosphere of co-operation in the class. It provokes a real desire for students to speak and write in class. It opens the door to adapt and sometimes even improve a course book. It offers many opportunities for student-centered learning and integrated skills.
Another aspect of music and art is that it helps with attention and energy levels, which fluctuate in regular patterns throughout the day. All of us experience periods of low energy as well as energy peaks. During our lulls or if learning becomes tedious, it may be difficult to keep our focus on the task at hand. When we are required to focus attention for long periods of time we may move into at-tension and lose productivity. A change of activity can revitalize lagging attention levels and relieve tired bodies. Students are then prepared to continue learning productively. Music and movement are both excellent ways to refocus and re-energize. Put together, they are literal dynamite. Two or three minutes of spirited music with vigorous activity will perk up the mind, stimulate the body, and bring thought-activating oxygen to the brain. Besides, it's fun! Even without the physical movement, a musical sound break can raise the listener to refreshing new level of attention and interest.
Art can have the same effect in that it opens and stimulates the human mind. It is literally like massaging the brain. Visual stimulus provokes reactions…they may be positive or negative, moving or repelling; it can shock us or inspire us; but there is always a reaction.
Pilgrims will be running for the first time this summer, a course on using music and visual art.
It will run from July 20 through August 2. Teachers who are genuinely looking for new and exciting ways of teaching and using their coursebook will love this course. It will give teachers a taste of Multiple Intelligence and Suggestopaedia that are useable in even the most restricted classrooms. For teachers who have already attended Multiple Intelligence or Creative Methodology it will go deeper into uses of visual and musical stimulus.
Please check the Teaching through Art and Music course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the CLIL - Teaching Other Subject Through English course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
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