s About Arts Education and w Conference Proceedings from from Proceedings Conference the Soundbite: Beyond Actually What the Research Sho Outcomes Academic and Lois Hetland Ellen Winner Editors eles, California The Getty Center ugust 24–26, 2000 A Los Ang BEYOND THE SOUNDBITE: BEYOND Arts Education andOutcomes Academic BEYOND THE SOUNDBITE: Arts Education and Academic Outcomes Beyond the Soundbite: Arts Education and Academic Outcomes Conference Proceedings from Beyond the Soundbite: What the Research Actually Shows About Arts Education and Academic Outcomes The Getty Center • Los Angeles, California • August 24–26, 2000 Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland Editors Beyond the Soundbite: Arts Education and Academic Outcomes © 2001 The J. Paul Getty Trust 1200 Getty Center Drive Suite 400 Los Angeles, California 90049-1681 www.getty.edu/ Publisher Christopher Hudson Managing Editor Mark Greenberg Editors Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland Project Coordinator Josephine Ramirez Manuscript Editor Mollie Holtman Production Coordinator Elizabeth Burke Kahn Designer Hespenheide Design Table of Contents Preface vii Jack Meyers Acknowledgments ix Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland Conference Proceedings I. Meta-Analysis: Its Use and Value in Arts Education Research 1 Robert Rosenthal and Lois Hetland II. The Relationship Between Arts and Academic Achievement: No Evidence (Yet) for a Causal Relationship. A Summary of a Meta-Analytic Study 17 Ellen Winner COMMENTARIES Main Points in Response to “Mute those Claims: No Evidence (Yet) for a Causal Link Between the Arts and Academic Achievement” 32 James S. Catterall Response to James Catterall 38 Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland Comments on the Question of Transfer 41 Elliot Eisner What Research in the United Kingdom Shows About Transfer from the Arts 49 John Harland III. The Relationship Between Music and Spatial Reasoning: A Summary of Two Meta-Analytic Studies 55 Lois Hetland vi COMMENTARIES Research and Justification in Arts Education: An Ill-Fated Romance 71 Bennett Reimer Revolution in Math Education Fueled by Music Training 79 Gordon L. Shaw The Effects of Early Music Experiences 89 Richard Colwell IV. Strengthening Verbal Skills Through the Use of Classroom Drama: A Clear Link. A Summary of a Meta-Analytic Study 99 Ann Podlozny COMMENTARY Learning in Drama 108 John Somers V. Embracing Babel: The Prospects of Instrumental Uses of the Arts for Education 117 David Perkins VI. Future Research Directions What Are the Most Promising Directions for Future Research in Arts Education? 125 James S. Catterall A Heroic Effort to Make a Practical Difference in Art Education 129 Elliot Eisner I Can See Clearly Now: Possible Sequelae of the Reviewing Education and the Arts Project (REAP) 132 Constance Bumgarner Gee A Personal and Non-Academic Report on the Getty Center Reviewing Education and the Arts Project (REAP) Conference 136 Patterson Sims Following the Reviewing Education and the Arts Project (REAP) 140 Samuel Hope VII. Research in Arts Education: Directions for the Future 143 Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland Preface vii As part of its ongoing work in education and the arts, the Getty Trust joined with Harvard’s Project Zero to convene a conference at the Getty Center from August 24 to 26, 2000, entitled “Beyond the Soundbite: What the Research Actually Shows About Arts Education and Academic Outcomes.” The goal of the conference was to examine, in all their complex implications, the many answers that have been given by researchers to the question of whether and how the study of the arts can improve a student’s academic performance. The focus of the conference was a three-year study, Reviewing Education and the Arts Project, also known as . The study was directed by Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland of Project Zero, funded by the Bauman Foundation, and presented first as a series of papers in a special Fall/Winter issue of the Journal of Aesthetic Education. set out to evaluate the hundreds of studies examining the relationship between some form of arts study and some form of academic outcome. The project examined several key relationships, from broader issues, such as the relationship between the study of the arts in general and a student’s academic achievement as measured by standardized tests and grades, and the relationship between arts study and cre- ativity as measured by various creativity tests; to more particular effects, such as the relationship of music and spatial reasoning, and the relationship between visual arts and reading. The conference took up these same issues, but provided the opportu- nity for scholars from widely divergent perspectives to discuss critically and reflect upon the findings. What follows are the proceedings of this con- ference, including the talks, commentaries, and suggestions for further research. Although the points of view on the findings varied greatly PREFACE viii among the thirty-six conference participants, virtually all of the participants came to agree that the answers to the central question about the relationship between arts study and academic achievement cannot be characterized as simple or straightforward. In some cases, it was clear that positive relation- ships were demonstrated and in others they were not. Often, it appeared that more research was necessary before any definitive conclusions could be drawn or, in still other cases, that different questions really needed to be asked. Unfortunately, however, the desire, particularly on the part of the media and policy makers, for a single, definitive answer to the art-and- academic-achievement question is a powerful one. We can only hope that the conference, and this present volume of its proceedings, will act as a counter- weight by taking the issues beyond soundbite simplicity and by helping to convey the true complexity of the issues involved. On the Getty Trust’s behalf, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland for all their hard work in helping to organize and chair the conference, and to thank the conference participants for their thoughtful contributions. This conference represents the first in what we hope will be a series of convenings at the Getty Center that will examine cen- tral questions related to research in arts education, and we look forward to the opportunity to work with a wide range of scholars in this field. Jack Meyers Deputy Director Getty Grant Program The J. Paul Getty Trust Acknowledgments ix We would like to thank John Landrum Bryant, codirector of the Bauman Foundation, for funding the Reviewing Education and the Arts Project () work and Ralph Smith, former editor of the Journal of Aesthetic Education, for publishing the collected papers in a special issue. We express our special thanks as well to the advisors: Howard Gardner, John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Richard Light, Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education and John F. Kennedy School of Government; David N. Perkins, Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Robert Rosenthal, Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Harvard University, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Riverside; and Judith D. Singer, Academic Dean and Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education. We are most grateful that the President and Chief Executive Officer of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Barry Munitz, was intrigued enough by our work to offer to host a conference on the topic of arts education research. We are espe- cially grateful to Jack Meyers, Deputy Director of the Getty Grant Program, for his guidance in helping to plan this conference. We thank Josephine Ramirez, Program Officer, and Jenny Goto, Senior Staff Assistant, of the Getty Grant Program for their help in planning and running the conference on which this volume is based and for their assistance in preparing this publication. We would like to acknowledge the other researchers whose papers were drawn upon in the summary of the findings: Kristin Burger, Ron Butzlaff, Monica Cooper, Mia Keinanen, Erik Moga, Ann Podlozny, and Kathryn Vaughn. Additionally, we thank Ron Butzlaff for serving as the statis- tical advisor to the project. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x We also want to thank the research assistants who helped us at various times during the project: Kristin Burger, Lisa French, Kimberlee Garris, Nandita Ghosh, Maxwell Gomez-Trochez, Jessica Gordon, Joanna Holtzman, Jenny Martin, Elisabeth Moriarty-Ambrozaitis, Brian Moss, Melissa Mueller, Leah Okimoto, Nina Salzman, and Daniel Schneider. And finally, for their willingness to answer all our questions about details of their work, we thank the researchers whose work we reviewed. Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland I. Meta-Analysis: Its Use and Value 1 in Arts Education Research ROBERT ROSENTHAL University of California, Riverside LOIS HETLAND Project Zero, Harvard University The research conducted by the Reviewing Education and the Arts Project (), summarized in this volume, is a set of meta-analyses that synthesized empirical evidence about transfer effects from arts to non-arts cognition and learning.1 Because meta-analysis is a relatively unfamiliar tool in the field of arts education research, a description of the nature and value of this quantita- tive technique for synthesizing empirical research should help readers better understand the summaries that follow. The fundamental goal of meta-analytic procedures is the cumulation of evidence for the purpose of furthering understanding of past