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U N E S OU L T U R E

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Measuring the Impact of

Richard A EngelhardtRegional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific

UNESCO

UNESCO Expert Symposium on Arts Education in Asia 9-11 January 2004, Hong Kong SAR, China

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"At a time when family and social structures are changing, with often adverse effects on children and adolescents, the school ofthe twenty first century must be able to anticipate the new needs by according a special place to the teaching of artistic values and subjects in order to encourage creativity, which is a distinctive attribute of the human species. Creativity is our hope.“

International Appeal by the Director-General of UNESCO for the Promotion of Arts Education and Creativity in School (1999)

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Why is Arts in Education important?

Improving children’s emotional, cognitive aesthetic and cultural development

Social integrationè

Learning achievementè

Ability to innovateè

Contributing to quality basic education

Developing the potential for creativity

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Arts in education is a basic element for the development of both intellectual and social skills

COGNITIVE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: Art instruction can improve cognitive abilities in children and may contribute to brain development. For example, there is evidence of linkages between music instruction and mathematical reasoning; between visual arts instruction and spatial-temporal reasoning; between drama instruction and verbal communication skills.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Art instruction can offer children the means to successfully communicate complex thoughts, emotions and ideas. The feeling of self-worth generated through effective performance encourages children to put their developing skills to use in socially-approved ways.

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Arts in education is a basic element of quality education for all, promoting learning achievement at multiple levels of intelligence and in diverse learning environments

THE UN MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND THE 2001 DAKAR FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION ON EFA commit governments to achieving quality basic education for all by 2015.

According to the Dakar Framework this means "improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of also that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills."

Integrating arts into education offers an array of tools to bring quality education to everyone, adapted to the reality of diverse and not always equal learning environments and respecting the diversity of individual ability and cultural aspirations.

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AESTHETIC INQUIRY into the nature and diversity of the world through an exploration of the shapes, colours, geometries, relationships and other forms of artistic expression arising from specific cultural contexts, stimulate children's imagination and creative impulses and, by deconstructing and constructing the re-combination of elements with hands-on exercises, encourage children to experiment with innovative approaches to new learning challenges.

At the same time, the process of CULTURAL INQUIRY which accompanies this process imparts an individual appreciation of the richness of artistic expressions in young children; an awareness of their potential as a source of inspiration for students as they grow through the education system, and lays the groundwork for collective action in favour of the preservation of diverse forms of cultural expression later in life.

Arts in education is a basic element in fostering an awareness of cultural diversity and encouraging the innovative thinking which gives rise to creativity

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The linkage of arts and educationis therefore both an instrumental tool and an ultimate objective

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What are the goals of Arts in Education?

The improvement of quality in education through the integration of arts into education thereby encouraging artistic expression, innovation, creativity, socio-cultural integration and learning achievement

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UNESCO’s initiative

§Observatories in education and art§Dissemination of the results of quantitative and qualitative

research on the contribution of arts to quality education (specifically to: social integration, learning achievement and creativity) § Impact on the framing of Member States policies in education and

the arts

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an international network of experts and practitioners, hosted by UNESCO, with a view to strengthening the role of arts teaching in education.

LEA Links to Education and Art (Lea International)

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LEA’s aim is to multiply contacts between specialists throughout the world for the exchange of information and dissemination of best practices, pedagogical tools and interdisciplinary resources in each discipline. It also gathers information on teacher training. In due course, therefore, LEA will provide an inventory of the situation of international arts education that can assist governments in furthering arts education in their countries.

LEA

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§ In response to the International Appeal by the Director-General of UNESCO for the Promotion of Arts Education and Creativity in School (1999)

§ Will summon high-level experts and representatives of international and national NGO’s, in order to discuss different topics such as the transmission of cultural and artistic heritage and updating “arts and sciences” interdisciplinarity in a society governed by the information and communication technologies

§ Will reinforce the role of arts in formal and non-formal education by gathering Ministers and government officials of Education andCulture and thereby by influencing their policies

§ The six regional meetings and the LEA network are in preparation for the World Congress

UNESCO World Congress on Arts in Educationand Creativity (2005)

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Between 2001 and 2003 five regional meetings were held in:• Africa (2001), • Latin America and the

Caribbean (2001), • Arab States (2001), • the Pacific (2002), • Europe (2003),The meeting which serve as a way for countries to strengthen their arts education curricula in and outside of school.

Regional meetings

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The meeting for Asia is the last in the series of regional meetings

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î Review the current status of arts in education in Asia

î Promote the empirical measurement of the contribution of arts to children's general development

î Sensitize Asian policy-makers of the role of arts within basic education

î Develop Asian input to the World Congress on Arts Education and Creativity

î Establish a network of observatories on arts in education

What needs to be done in the region: