A Podcast From
Erica Halverson
How The Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Instruction
A New Book by Erica Rosenfeld Halverson
As students return to a “normal” school year following the pandemic, a new book from a leading thinker and researcher on arts education argues that now is the time to fundamentally reimagine education, push back against the accountability machine of standardized testing, and redesign learning environments that don’t work for most kids.
“Halverson blends insightful scholarship with humorous narrative to make a convincing case for the importance of the arts in education.”
Johnny Saldaña, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University
Erica Rosenfeld Halverson shares a bold vision for reimagining our struggling education system in her new book, How the Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Instruction (Teachers College Press, October 2021). Halverson draws on 25 years as a researcher and teaching artist to offer a blueprint for all classrooms where students and teachers can take risks, collaborate, and work creatively. She calls for a change in what counts as good teaching and learning, redefined by building learning environments with the arts at the center.
Halverson, a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, shows how we can rethink what learning, teaching, and curriculum can be using theater, music, visual arts, dance, and digital media tools. She offers new models for learning in core subjects like literacy, math and social studies that embrace the social, cultural, and historical assets that kids at all grade levels bring to the classroom. Throughout the book, she reminds us that joy is a critical part of learning and demonstrates how the arts can transform education from meeting standards to changing lives.
Artist…
Teacher…
Researcher…
Book Author!
“Erica shines a light on the impact and transformative power of high-quality arts experiences in the life of young learners and reflects on what happens in the moment when students are engaged at the highest level, when they are given real-world reasons for working hard. It is a focus on deep learning that transfers to everything that follows in the life of a student.”
Ellen Weinstein, Director of the National Dance Institute|From the foreword
“We can imagine a future for education that is inclusive, culturally-sustaining, rigorous, and just plain joyful.”
“Arts experiences like telling, adapting, and performing stories are perfect manifestations of a richer, more meaningful definition of literacy.”
“When we engage in art-making, we learn to make representations, to experiment with and produce identities, and to collaborate. These outcomes serve as the foundation for how we can remake learning for the next generation of schooling.”
Excerpts from the book
Illustrations by Lyra Evans, adapted from photos of Whoopensocker Performances
Available October 15
How the Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning, & Instruction
By Erica Rosenfeld Halverson
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