Transforming Education through the Arts

This timely book takes up the challenge of maintaining programs in the arts in the face of unrelenting pressure from two directions; the increasing focus on literacy and numeracy in schools, teamed with the cut-backs in public funding that often affect the arts most severely.
Drawing on the wealth of evidence already available on the impact of the arts, including the findings of a landmark experimental study in Australia, this text considers:


The social and educational impact of neglecting the arts


Research evidence on engagement in the arts


Why there is a need for educational reform


How to transform schools through engagement in the arts
This challenge to arts education exists at a time where an increasing number of students are becoming disengaged from the traditional schooling model that appears ill-suited to the needs of the 21st century and to the ways young people learn in a globalised, high-tech knowledge world. Transforming Education through the Arts provides illustrations from around the world that clearly show how the arts have transformed learning for disengaged students and established their worth beyond doubt in settings where the disengagement of students has hitherto been presented as an intractable problem.
Transforming Education through the Arts is an indispensible tool for policymakers and practitioners in school education and for academic and postgraduate students with an interest in the arts. It is also highly relevant to the work of individuals and organisations in the philanthropic sector and those in the wider community who place a priority in closing the gap between high and low performing students.

Brian Caldwell is Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Educational Transformations, Australia, and Professorial Fellow and former Dean of Education at the University of Melbourne.
Tanya Vaughan is a scientist and Senior Consulting Researcher at Educational Transformations, Australia, where she is Chief Investigator for the landmark Australian studies on student engagement in the arts.

1. The Challenge of Transforming Schools 2. Pitfalls in Educational Reform 3. Arguments for Engagement in the Arts 4. Methodologies for Breakthrough Studies 5. Impact on Student Achievement 6. Impact on Student Wellbeing 7. Studies of Schools Where Arts Interventions have Succeeded 8. Turning around Schools through Engagement in the Arts 9. A Policy Agenda