Does it work?

In a study done by McCartney et al. (2017), educators integrated science with arts activities such as acting out their prediction and creating a collage, poster, and pop-up card. As a result of arts integration, the second and third graders learned the science just as well as they would in the control condition, while the fifth graders learned and retained the information better in the experimental condition (McCartney et al., 2017, p. 88). Arts integration also helped students stay engaged and spend more time on task (McCartney et al., 2017, p. 95).

Another study interviewed adolescent students following a whole-school arts integration intervention to understand how the intervention improved their learning and engagement (Anderson et al., 2019). Arts were integrated into every subject in the two middle schools observed. In an English Language Arts class, students create tableau vivants, or “living pictures,” to represent key scenes in a novel they were reading. In a science class, students create models of different molecules and elements making up human anatomy. Students in a math class learned about math anxiety and created geometric, three dimensional, “math anxiety monsters.” A few students described that these arts activities allowed them to experience a flow state of heightened engagement. Over a quarter of the participants responded that arts integration increased their motivation and enjoyment in their classes. It was found that arts integration improved students' sense of individuality, expression, autonomy and creativity (Anderson et al., 2019).