Visual Arts in Education and Child Care

            Functioning or practicing within multiple disciplines is an important tool or process in improving any area or industry. It constitutes the combination or synthesis of various concepts, theories, processes, techniques, methodologies, paradigms, and such from two or more disciplines in order to provide efficient and in depth information or outputs. Interdisciplinary practices strengthen an independent field or industry because of the fusion of various information and practices. In this case, the interdisciplinary relationship between visual arts and teaching will be discussed. The initial discussion will involve a description of both independent fields, while the latter parts of the discussion will involve the benefits and contributions of visual arts to the field of education.

            Visual Arts is a branch or field of artistic quality that utilizes icons or imagery. Graphic visuals include paintings, sculptures, photographic pictures, (Visual Arts) drawings and sketches, woven fabrics or textiles, and such. Visual arts also incorporates other medium of artistic values, such as auditory or kinesthetic, in order to develop the depth, importance, or impact of various types of visual arts. Examples of auditory, audio-visual and kinesthetic visual arts include multimedia presentations, filmstrips, mounted projections, and such. Although Visual Arts is an independent field of arts, it constitutes interdisciplinary practices by being instrumental in developing other fields or industries. Education is a field that is greatly influenced by visual arts, not only by a single aspect or form, but all the aspects and forms of visual arts as a whole (Bresler & Latta, 4) This meaningful relationship and connection between visual arts and education or child care will be discussed in this essay.

            Education is a complex process, requiring multifarious tasks and responsibilities in order to realize its mission and purpose. The primary goal of education is to facilitate and influence learning by employing teaching strategies and techniques that meets the needs and demands of the learner. Excellent teachers need to become flexible and creative in order to stimulate thinking and motivate learners to realize the importance of education. (Brain) Creativity and resourcefulness advances the quality of education – the teaching and learning process – and one of the many ways to accomplish this purpose is to resort to interdisciplinary education, specifically to visual arts.

            Perhaps the greatest effect of visual arts in the field of education is most observable in children. Bresler & Latta (17) have discussed the reality that visual arts provide for children that makes learning more interesting and the classroom environment relatable to them. Apparently, visual arts in the form of still pictures, films or movies, theater plays, sketches, drawings, and such products of graphic arts represent reality to the children because of their wild imagination and creativity. Visual arts becomes a medium for them to relate to what is being taught because what they see is perceived to be something real and truly experienced. Thus, learning becomes easy and effortless, most especially in the stage of early childhood. (Bresler & Latta, 17)

            Over the years, visual arts have proven itself to be highly instrumental in the field of education. A research study has been conducted to determine the effects of the integration of visual arts to the educational curriculum. McCarty ventured into the possibility of incorporating visual arts to learning as its use within the educational curriculum is limited. Consequently, the research has introduced the outcomes of incorporating visual arts to education, most especially in the field of reading.  The results of the study have revealed that visual arts in classroom instruction have increased the academic standing of the learners in terms of test scores, work outputs, the rate of attendance of learners as well as teachers, and the rate of learners graduating from their respective education programs, and surprisingly, also classroom and individual learner discipline. Visual arts utilized as instructional materials have stimulated the interest of the learners and motivated their inclination to become actively engaged in the learning process, thus, these advantageous and desirable results. (McCarty, 6)

            Moreover, the concept of utilizing visual arts during classroom instruction is supported by the theory of multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner. According to the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, the skills, talents and cognitive capacities of learners differ. Gardner have introduced nine multiple intelligences that might be used to categorized learners according to their interests, talents, skills, and capabilities. Some of these multiple intelligences touch on the importance of visual arts in learning. The implication of the relationship these multiple intelligences have to visual arts advocates its importance in education. The primary purpose of the theory is to convey that children should be provided with learning activities and materials that will highly motivate them because these instructional materials will be designed to focus on the characteristics and attributes of each of the multiple intelligences that are deeply integrated into the concepts of visual arts. (McCarty, 7)

            According to the study, the use of visual arts in education does not only apply to a single course or subject area. Visual arts is not only particular to art subjects, but also to physical education, reading, language arts, science, history, mathematics, and other subjects. However, the study focused on the major influence of visual arts to reading. Visual arts, in this particular area of study, were used to educate learners who were having difficulty understanding and interpreting text materials. Visuals were used in order to illustrate the meanings in each text materials, and evaluation tests were administered afterwards in order to determine the influence of visual arts in reading. The results have returned to be positive, such that learners were able to display understanding of the text materials they read with the assistance of visual materials by interpreting what they mean. (McCarty, 10) This means that visual arts hold great effects to literacy.

            Interdisciplinary practices are one of the best ways to perfect or develop one’s area of industry. This thought is proven by the advantages of integrating visual arts in the field of education. It improves the quality of education and facilitates learning effortlessly in such a way that learners are able to grasp required knowledge and information in order for them to become literate and highly productive. The return of utilizing visual arts in the field of education is proven by improved academic performances of learners which represents that learning took place and that educational strategies and techniques are highly appropriate, most especially because of the contributions of visual arts.

Works Cited

Visual Arts. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved from Dictionary.com. 20

            October 2008. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/visual arts>

Bresler, L. & Latta, M. M. (2007). “A Slice of Life: The Interrelationships Among

            Art, Play and the “Real” Life of the Young Child.” International Journal of

            Education & the Arts, 8(16). Retrieved from Education Resources Information Center. 20

            October 2008. <http://www.ijea.org/v8n16/>.

Brain, M. (1998). “Emphasis on Teaching.” Retrieved from BYG Publishing. 20 October 2008.

            <http://www.bygpub.com/eot/eot1.htm>.

McCarty, K. (2007). “The Effects of Visual Arts Integration on Reading at the Elementary

Level.” Education Resources Information Center. Retrieved from the Education Resources Information Center. 20 October 2008. <http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/28/08/1c.pdf>.