Author: Lauren Stevenson and Richard Deasy

Publication Year:

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Third Space: When Learning Matters is based on a three-year research study and describes the process of transformation in ten elementary, middle, and high schools serving economically disadvantaged students in urban and rural regions of the country. It draws on current research in cognitive science, student engagement, and youth development to explore how and why the arts have enabled the schools to succeed where others often fail.

Abstract:

Schools with large populations of students in economic poverty often places of frustration and failure for students and teachers alike can be transformed into vibrant and successful centers of learning and community life when the arts are infused into their culture and curriculum, a new book reports.

Titled Third Space: When Learning Matters, the book is based on a three-year research study and describes the process of transformation in ten elementary, middle, and high schools serving economically disadvantaged students in urban and rural regions of the country. It draws on current research in cognitive science, student engagement, and youth development to explore how and why the arts have enabled the schools to succeed where others often fail.

The book suggests an alternative vision of both the process and result of school reform, Harvard researcher Steve Seidel, director of Project Zero at the Graduate School of Education, writes in a Foreword. Seidel points to reform that occurs not as a result of accountability measures, but as a natural transformation through the building of a new kind of community of learners, a community of creators.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Arts Education