Art education fosters children's learning. One researcher delved into the 'why' and 'how' at a specific Philadelphia school.
Minimalist Dive into Kaleidoscope Preschool's Impact
Way back in the day, psychologist Ellie Brown — professor and director at West Chester University — embarked on a mission to study the effectiveness of an arts-focused Head Start preschool program. This was a time when research on music and arts was seemingly outdated. Skeptics advised Brown to steer clear of such a program, believing it would never gain academic traction.
Enter the Kaleidoscope Program at Settlement Music School, Philadelphia, which primarily caters to low-income families but welcomes all. The program incorporates usual preschool classes alongside music, dance, and visual arts lessons taught by certified instructors. Research by Brown revealed some compelling findings.
Students in the Kaleidoscope Program showed three times the growth in their vocabulary compared to peers in a more traditional preschool. This hinted at potential cognitive benefits hidden within the world of arts and music. Moreover, the preschoolers exhibited a vast array of positive emotions that far surpassed those seen in their counterparts at a comparison school.
Deeper investigation into the emotional well-being of these students revealed a fascinating finding: the arts program seemed to play a role in helping children manage their emotions better. The program, as it turns out, was working wonders — and Brown wanted to understand why.
With cortisol levels, a crucial stress hormone, as her focus, Brown and her team uncovered evidence suggesting that children experienced lower stress levels following music, dance, and visual arts classes in comparison to their regular early learning or homeroom classes. This was a particularly potent observation, considering the real-life stressors these young learners faced, often due to poverty or unstable home lives.
The findings added another piece to the puzzle, offering insights into the very mechanism that allowed the Kaleidoscope Program to thrive: the emotional regulation and cognitive development taking place right under the skin when the arts got involved. As more studies unfolded, the picture became clearer: the human brain learns best when our senses are engaged, which music and the arts naturally encourage. Moreover, these engaging classes allowed children to focus and learn, because they helped keep stress levels low.
Now, researchers, instructors, and support staff alike are working together to share this research-based approach with schools across the nation. Through initiatives like KWEST Arts, they hope to spread the joy and transformative power of arts education, bringing music, movement, and visual arts to more preschools and helping children grow into curious, resilient learners.
In light of these findings, a connection between science and education-and-self-development became evident, as the Kaleidoscope Program's emphasis on arts and music aided cognitive development and emotional regulation. Furthermore, health-and-wellness benefits of the program were substantiated, with lower cortisol levels detected in students after arts classes, thereby enhancing the overall lifestyle and emotional well-being of these young learners.
