ATI’s Kay Are is bringing creative-arts experiences into Arts classrooms as a novel way to increase student engagement and belonging. Faculty colleagues are welcome to get in touch to co-design a session with Kay.
An innovative mode of experiential inquiry, Art-Based Pedagogy (ABP) engages non-art students in creative-arts activities to offer embodied, sensory means of access to course content. Classes are led through short workshops in, for instance, observational drawing, narrative photography, collaborative weaving or site-specific sculpture. Co-designed with teaching staff, activities are steeped in the themes, topics and questions that animate a subject and sequenced to arrive at deeper class discussions of class topics.
ABP has been shown to:
- restore a sense of joy and pleasure in discovery;
- increase awareness of affect and embodiment as learning resources;
- build skills in collaborative problem-solving;
- nurture group trust and an appreciation of diverse approaches; and
- foster ‘sustainability-mindset’ skills including adaptability, solidarity, and tolerance for uncertainty
As a teaching modality that considers embodiment in/as education, ABP takes seriously the impact of bodily presence – and difference – on student learning and classroom relationality. This project develops an evidence base and practical framework to support integrating ABP into humanities, social sciences and languages teaching, in a way that can foster a sense of belonging and inclusion.
ABP sessions can look like:
- a one-off 30-minute workshop during a tutorial
- a weekly 10-minute warm up that progressively builds over semester
- an ice-breaking introduction to the subject
- a team-building exercise prior to group-work or group assessment
- a regular intervention, with 3-4 workshops over a semester
- a standalone activity or a tie-in with assessment
Arts colleagues are warmly invited to contact Kay Are to discuss the possibilities that might suit their own subject’s needs.
Further Reading
de Arriba, R., Girardi, G., Vidagañ, M. (2019). Contemporary art in higher education: Creative pedagogies in political economy. Thinking skills and creativity 33.
Hrach, S. (2021). Minding bodies: How physical space, sensation, and movement affect learning. West Virginia University Press
Luetkemeyer, J., Adams, T., Davis, J., Redmond, T. and Hash, P. (2021). Creative practice in higher education: Decentering academic experiences. Journal of education for library and information science 62 (4), 403-422.
Macrine, S. L. and Fugate, J. M. B (2022). ‘Embodied cognition and its educational significance’. In Macrine, S. L. & Fugate, J. M. B (Eds.) Movement matters: How embodied cognition informs teaching and learning. The MIT Press, 13-24.
Meehan, O. (2022). Discipline-led thinking through cultural collections and art. In J. Kedra (Ed.) Visual pedagogies in higher education. Brill
Schilhab, T., and Groth, C. (Eds.). (2024). Embodied Learning and Teaching Using the 4E Cognition Approach: Exploring Perspectives in Teaching Practices. Routledge.
Wagner, A. E., & Shahjahan, R. A. (2015). Centering embodied learning in anti-oppressive pedagogy. Teaching in higher education 20 (3), 244–254
Wall, T., Österlind, E., Fries, J. (2019). Arts-based approaches for sustainability. In W. Leal Filho (Ed.) Encyclopedia of sustainability in higher education. Springer.