EFFECT OF ARTS EDUCATION ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The current study aims to identify the factors that determine the effectiveness of arts education in terms of the improvement and advancement of students’ thinking skills and their performance in other school subjects. The characteristics of the students, the learning conditions: the level of support from families and the wider community, duration and intensity of the program, the degree of curriculums’ diversification, accessibility and equity aspects, nature of teaching efficacy – are all factors of a qualitative approach. Thus, the policy recommendations involve issues like differentiated evaluative approaches, involvement of the communities in resource allocation, the role of the politics in empirical research, cross-disciplinary issues, similar objectives and continuous professional training of the educators. Lastly, it is concluded that the follow up research is very necessary to know for how long the benefits of such a curriculum influence different areas of development in children has not been considered.