Arts and Learning

Arts and Learning is an excellent introduction to the field of arts and education, particularly for teachers who want to make the arts drama, dance, music, visual arts, and poetry, for example a part of teaching and learning in their classrooms. First, Goldberg sets a framework for understanding the relationship between arts and learning, making a distinction among three different manifestations of this relationship: learning about the arts (i.e., the arts are taught as subjects separate and apart from the other academic subjects), learning with the arts (e.g., students study the songs of a particular time to learn about that period in history), and learning through the arts, in which students use art forms to both communicate and deepen what they know about a particular content area. In succeeding chapters, Goldberg explores specifically how learning can take place with and through the arts in various subject areas: literacy, history and social studies, geography, science, and math. The final chapter focuses on ways that teachers can connect with and develop the arts in their local communities.