Taxonomy of Arts Education

Several models of arts education are practiced in U.S. schools:

• Creative, Self-Expressive Model. This traditional approach is used in many schools. Its goal is to allow students to express themselves through the arts and help them develop the skills needed to make or perform works of art. In many schools, arts classes provide release time for classroom teachers, as the arts classes are taught in isolation from the rest of the curriculum.
• Comprehensive Model. This model is intended to help students understand and appreciate the arts from four perspectives: aesthetics, criticism, history, and production and performance. It is based on arts education standards, including National Standards for Arts Education, that outline content and achievement standards for dance, music, theatre, and visual art at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Many states have adapted parts of these national standards within their own state guidelines.
• Community Resources Model. This approach exposes students to visual and performing artists at work in their communities, to expand their understanding and appreciation of the arts and develop future audiences for the arts. Examples of practices in this model include a field trip to the local museum and attendance at a young people’s concert given by the local symphony orchestra.
• Arts Across the Curriculum. This is the interdisciplinary or integrated curriculum model used in The Arts in Every Classroom workshop. It responds to many needs, including deepening learning within current time constraints, addressing the different ways students learn, and making learning more relevant to students (real-world connections). In this model, the curriculum typically is developed by a teacher or team of teachers and starts from one of three places:
  • major ideas within disciplines (art, math, science, etc.);
  • major problems whose solutions require the use of various subject matter and methods; or
  • methods of thinking, inquiry, or study specific to various disciplines. Students need to learn about the arts themselves and apply the skills that come from arts awareness to other areas.

Source: Vicki Rosenberg, Council of Michigan Foundations

For more perspectives on integrated arts curriculum, see The Arts in Every Classroom video library program What Is Arts Education?