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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Purpose of the Project
Let’s Learn in a Moving Way, focused upon the use of movement-based activities
as a vehicle for promoting active learning in the classroom and meeting children’s
developmental needs. This Project is an Alternative Culminating Experience for a Master
of Arts in Education: Curriculum and Instruction with an Elective Emphasis on Arts in
Education. It follows Pathway II: The art of teaching, focusing on the author’s
development as an arts educator, and Pathway III: The development of a curriculum
using the art of movement as a basis for a creative, daily interdisciplinary program. This
narrative research study looked at both the author’s teaching and the design of an
experiential program used to assist children’s growing needs. One of the goal areas was
to help children find deeper understanding of curriculum content along with the creation
of a classroom environment that promoted movement to benefit learning through the
established standards based curriculum. Sophocles said, “One learns by doing the thing,
for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.” The author
believed there are many benefits in the “doing of things” and that there is a wide array of
movement activities that can be utilized during the educative day to get kids motivated,
balanced, centered, and learning naturally in the classroom.
Active learning is more likely than rote learning to foster a lifelong love of the
learning process. Getting kids moving throughout the school day promotes self-control,
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listening, understanding, and concentration. In addition, the human brain learns in
multiple ways, as years of research and theory have attested. Educators know the
importance of learning modalities and multiple intelligences (Howard Gardner, 1999),
but many are unaware, as the author will elaborate, that moving is learning. Dr. Gerald
Brickley (1980) believed that there are so many different structures in the brain involved
in motor functions that some people even say that practically the entire brain contributes
to body movement.
The Challenge
Play and active learning are key tools to address and facilitate children’s early
education Kindergarten through sixth grade. This author believed that the opportunity
existed to develop a movement-based curriculum that could be used across these grade
levels. The biggest issue revolved around what we are mandated to teach versus what
works for children. The integration of physical activity into other curricular content areas
was not new, but there had been renewed interest in the topic as school districts across
the country suffered cutbacks in programs, often seen in the elimination of preparation
subjects like Art and Physical Education, and as evidenced by recent publications on
childhood obesity rates. According to the Federal Centers for Disease and Control (2001)
childhood obesity rates have more than doubled to 12% since 1980. The author observed
that movement integrated into content instruction could enhance learning and promote
physical activity. The American Alliance for Health in Interdisciplinary Learning (1987)
explained that movement components of physical education could be used as a medium
through which children are provided opportunities to practice and strengthen language
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skills, movement, and learning. Movement contributes to a child’s alertness, energy,
clearer thinking in class, and academic achievement.
Statement of the Problem
The author wanted to provide students with opportunities to learn through a
movement-based, supported curriculum. Learning should be an active process for
children. Too often in schools we see the more sedentary, passive experiences that do not
stimulate many parts of the brain. The focus on testing and statistics, through mandates
like the No Child Left behind (NCLB) and the Academic Performance Index (API), has
created a dilemma in education. Most modern classrooms are required to focus primarily
on teaching math and reading concepts. However, there is no longer just one language or
intelligence. Elliot Eisner, Professor of Education and Art at Stanford University (1998)
stated:
When we include forms of representation such as art, music, dance, poetry, and
literature in our programs, we not only develop forms of literacy, we also develop
particular cognitive potentialities. What one does not or is not permitted to use, one
loses. (p. 16)
Teaching of the arts accesses different domains of literacy. In an age of academics,
accountability and budget cuts, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for students to be
exposed to the arts unless the teacher is well versed on its benefits, and has the tools and
knowledge to incorporate the arts. Why don’t teachers use more movement-based
activities? The author believed that allowing for play and fun with children is absolutely
essential, and that any curriculum that excludes it is not meeting the needs of the whole
child. The author’s challenge was how to choose games, songs, and movement-based
activities that would enhance curricular areas, and have the rationale needed to convince
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parents, at a parent participation school, and administrators of the benefits. The activities
needed to be adapted, categorized, and aligned to fit subjects and themes in alignment
with both academic and Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) standards.
Why is Movement Important?
The author believed that movement is important and if educators could tap into
the way in which a child learns best, that more good would come of it both present and
future. Generally, if you enjoy doing something you’ll continue to do it. Thinking back
on this author’s school experiences one thing is clear: anytime movement, most
particularly dance, was a part of the classroom experience the author felt more involved,
tuned into learning than during other parts of the academic day. Connecting these early
experiences carried the author through to the present and the design of this proposal.
Having spent years in movement-based activities like dance and singing; the author
planned to show how the inclusion of movement could also help all students.
Significance of the Project
Why movement? The author felt strongly that everything we do involves
movement and believed that it has the most significant and therapeutic influence on the
brain. Movement can help spark memory retention that is important to grasping
understanding of concepts. Movement helped children to make connections especially
those kinesthetic learners. In addition, the author hoped to illuminate how learning and
coordination are linked. Children naturally engage in spontaneous play, involving
themselves in all kinds of patterns and activities. Why not take what comes so
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instinctually and build upon it with an eye toward learning, as well as look at what was
happening neurologically, creating appropriate opportunities to indulge these natural
abilities?
Framework for the Project
The author conducted the research for the culminating project while teaching third
graders, eight to nine year olds, at Mission Avenue Open Structure School in Carmichael,
California. The school had a population of 400 students in a Kindergarten through sixth
grade setting.
On the pathway towards becoming an arts educator, the author researched, read,
and became enlightened about movement-based theorists in education who supported this
project. She also gained exposure to other avenues of teaching movement in the
classroom. Areas of interest explored included participating in a yearlong workshop in
Education Through Music (ETM), and attendance at the ETM Summer Colloquium held
at Sacramento State University in June of 2009. The author enrolled in a Children’s
Theater course at Sacramento State University. She continued her training in teaching
children’s yoga.
Towards pathway three, the development of curriculum, the researcher created
opportunities to include in the classroom, movement techniques in the forms of, but not
limited to; dance, song, exercise activities, yoga, drama, or a combination there of.
During this study the author compiled a list of many movement-based activities to be
utilized in conjunction with academic curriculum for the third grade classroom. Published
resources were read and activities tried from them. Many works like Rae Pica’s book on
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Games for Children and Active Learning, and Sandra Milton’s book, Using Movement to
Teach Academics: The Mind and Body as One Entity, were explored.
Careful observations about these activities were crucial for the researcher and
helped guide her in the choosing and scaffolding of activities, as they related to the
curriculum, to support the children’s growth. The third graders of Mission Avenue Open
School were exposed and educated throughout the year by participating in the movement,
song, and play activities that the researcher brought into the classroom. Narrative
journaling followed these experiences with reflection built in to the process for both the
teacher and the students.
Questions and Research Methods
One thing the researcher learned was that human beings are at their best when
they are laughing, dancing, singing, and pretending. A substantial body of research
supporting the impact of arts on learning is readily available through publications such as
Champions of Change: The Impact of Arts and Learning (Fiske, 1999). Many studies
have shown that the mind and body are connected, and that physical activity is not only
good for the heart, but good for the brain too. This writer’s questions included: What
were the effects and benefits of movement on the learning brain? What did the theorists
say? What kinds of movement-based activities could be used directly with the established
standards based curriculum?
Developing a strong theoretical framework was important in establishing a project
that would endeavor to inform others. The purpose of the literature review was to support
the assumption that movement positively affects brain development in regard to cognitive
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processes. Theorists like Lev Vigotsky, Jean Piaget, and Maria Montessori were studied.
Many authors, including Renate and Geoffrey Caine, Eric Jensen, Howard Gardener,
Patricia Wolfe, and David Sousa, who have taken some of the latest scientific medical
findings related to the brain and learning were read. This researcher delved into the study
of the natural processes of learning and the development of the creative, motivated minds
of children. She also wanted to continue to illuminate and refine her established methods
and tools in the classroom, and to investigate other kinds of programs to help in creating
a developmentally sound, movement based program for the classroom.
Definitions of Terms
Amygdala-the almond-shaped structure in the brain’s limbic system that encodes
emotional messages to long-term storage.
Axons-a long fiber emerging from a neuron that carries nerve impulses to other neurons.
Bloom’s taxonomy-a model developed by Benjamin Bloom in the 1950’s for classifying
the complexity of human thought into six levels.
Brain-based learning-a comprehensive approach to instruction using current research
from neuroscience about how the brain learns naturally and what we currently
know about the actual structure and function of the human brain at varying
developmental stages.
Cerebrum-the largest part of the brain composed of the left and right hemisphere.
Corpus callosum-a white-matter bundle of 200-300 million nerve fibers that connect
the left and right hemispheres, located in the mid-brain area.
Cortex-the thin, tough outer layer of cells covering the cerebrum that contains all the
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neurons used for cognitive and motor processing.
Dendrites-branched extension from the cell body that receives information from other
neurons.
Episodic memory lane-responsible for locations, events, circumstances, “Where were
you when?”
Education Through Music or ETM-the study of artful teaching and the process of
learning through song and play. ETM activities build the imaging system and
symbolization process through the synergy of language, song, movement, and
interactive play.
Haptic-relating to the sense of touch.
Hippocampus-a crescent shaped structure found deep in the temporal lobe that compares
new learning to past learning and encodes information from working memory to
long-term memory.
Immediate memory-the ability to hold on to items, from a few seconds up to a minute, to
accomplish a particular task.
Limbic system-structures at the base of the cerebrum that control emotions.
Long term memory-includes explicit memories that have been processed and the
implicit learning (including skills and conditioned responses), the brain’s
storage system.
Memory-is what helps us learn by experience, it is essential to survival.
Mind body relationship-the relationship between a human body and its unique mind.
Movement education-an approach to teaching physical education that involves an
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analysis of movement types.
Multiple intelligences (MI Theory)-Howard Gardener’s theory that humans possess not
just a unitary intelligence but at least seven intelligences, and that an individual is
predisposed to developing each of the intelligences to different levels of
competence.
Myelin-fatty substance, which surrounds and insulates a neuron’s axon, and help cells be
more efficient and allow electrical impulses to travel up to 12 times faster.
Neo cortex-A portion of the brain involved in conscious thought, spatial reasoning, and
sensory perception.
Neuron-basic cell making up the brain and nervous system, consisting of a globular cell
body, a long fiber called an axon which transmits impulses, and many short fibers
called dendrites which receive them.
Proprioceptive-the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with required effort,
as well as where the various parts of the body are located in relation to each other.
Reciprocal teaching-refers to an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a
dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text. The dialogue is
structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating,
clarifying, and predicting. The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of
teacher in leading this dialogue.
Relative lateralization-ability of certain areas of the brain to perform unique functions.
Semantic memory lane-pathway for words, symbols, abstractions, video, textbooks,
computers, and written stories.
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Somatic sensations-relating to or affecting the body, especially the body as considered to
be separate from the mind.
Stimulus-something that encourages an activity or a process to begin, increase, or
develop.
Storytelling-the conveying of events in words, images, and sounds often by
improvisation or embellishment.
Tactile-capable of perception by the sense of touch.
Thalamus-part of the limbic system that receives all incoming sensory information,
except smell, and shunts it to other areas of the cortex for additional processing.
VAPA Standards-the Visual And Performing Arts standards in California that guide
curriculum and give information that represents students, skills, knowledge, and
abilities in dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts that all students should be
able to master from pre-kindergarten to grade twelve.
Whole Child-achievement and accountability that promotes the development of children
who are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.
Working memory-the ability to hold items long enough to consciously process and reflect
on them and carry out related activities during processing, which can take from
minutes to hours.
Limitations
The greatest limitation is that movement is the only perspective presented while
other factors that impact brain development are not explored. Other confines of the
project with reference to the classroom include: time to schedule movement activities, the
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space to play indoors or out as weather permits, and the commitments to grade level
sharing among three third grade teachers who may or may not participate in movementbased activities.
Organization of the Project
The project is organized into the following chapters; Chapter One is the
Introduction and serves as an overview of the entire project. Chapter Two provides a
Review of the Relevant Literature, which includes sources from the disciplines of
educational theory as an experiential, child-centered process, neuroscience and brainbased learning, physical education and the benefits of movement. Chapter Three
describes the methodology and details the process for the completion of the project. It
gives the background of the researcher and the participants who shared in this process.
The activities used are explained. Chapter Four summarizes the process for the project
and the possible implications. Also there are recommendations made for anyone who
would like to use these activities. The Appendix includes diagrams of the brain. The
project concludes with a list of references that were used in the research for this project.
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Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE
The ideal of education is not to teach the maximum,
to maximize the results,
but above all to learn to learn,
to learn to develop, and to learn to continue to develop
after leaving school.
-Jean Piaget, The Child and Reality
Theory and Philosophy of Arts in Education
What do parents, educators, and members of society want from today’s schooling
of children? This educator agreed with Piaget, a noted developmental theorist, that it is to
develop the whole child and to foster a love for learning in them. Doing this would have
far reaching benefits for society. John Dewey (1932), noted educational reformer, said,
“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want
for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon,
it destroys our democracy” (p. 7). Nothing counts as much as the time children spend at
school; it is an extension of what they learn at home only on a grander scale. Schools are
cultures. They are cultures for growing minds. The direction this growth takes is
influenced by the opportunity these schools provide. Elliot Eisner (1998), professor of
Art and Education at Stanford University stated, “We are born with brains, but our minds
are made, and the shape they take is influenced by the culture in which that development
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occurs” (p. 78). Beyond the home that experience happens in schools. Thinking
individuals, able to handle anything the world may throw their way, is what parents,
educators, and society want to foster in children through quality learning experiences.
Education enhances life. How do we educate all children and accomplish this in
schools during times of heavy regulations and adherence to a standards based education
that values only the three R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic)? America needs citizens
prepared for the 21st century. In the forward of Champions for Change: The Impact of
Arts on Learning (1999), Richard Riley, Secretary for the Department of Education,
discussed an America in transition. He said, “We are a more diverse society facing
daunting demands from global social and technological innovation.” For this our young
people must be tough-minded critical thinkers, creative problem solvers, effective
communicators, and flexible team collaborators; beyond just reading, writing, and math,
citizens who can express meaning through all forms of literacy. William W. Purkey,
(1991), author and professor at University of North Carolina-Greensboro explained:
There is a growing awareness that education is not about ‘normal’
distributions, standardized test scores, labeling and grouping of students,
relentless and ruthless competition, and certainly not about ‘being number
one.’ The revolution is underway because growing numbers of people realize
that education is about inviting every single person who enters a school to
realize his or her relatively boundless potential in all areas of worthwhile
human endeavor. It is concerned with more than grades, attendance, and
academic achievement. It is concerned with the process of becoming a decent
human being. (p. 45)
Children should be valued and see themselves as able, important, and responsible.
Parents wish that their children would grow up equipped for professionally and
personally rewarding careers. This educator believed this could be accomplished by
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going beyond the basics, celebrating the differences within a classroom culture, and that
teaching children to be independent thinkers was vital. School should not be considered
just a place where children learn to read and write, but one that prepares them for their
future in a democratic society.
Teaching standards, developing citizens of the world, encouraging young minds is a
tall order for teachers. In simple terms, going beyond the basics is vital for our schools.
Eisner (1998) talked about the education of vision as an integration of the mind and body,
and that we must think of ways to reach a child’s sensory system through all forms
towards learning any subject: art, history, physics, social studies, as well as the basics. He
stated further, “…that learning these subjects must not only be through text but through
resources on which students can place their hands and eyes” (p. 76). Long before Eisner,
John Dewey’s revolutionary work, The School and Society (1932) affirmed, “Only by
being true to the full growth of all individuals who make it up, can society by any
chance be true to itself” (p. 7). Dewey (1932) advocated in favor of children. Written
very early in the 20th century, his work argued against the way traditional knowledge
was transmitted from the passivity of attitude and the mechanical massing of children, to
its uniformity of curriculum and method. No longer, he believed, could we teach for
teachings sake but the child’s life needed consideration as well. It was Dewey, and his
progressive movement, that began to take educating the whole child into full perspective.
Historically, the evolution of curriculum and how to teach was examined and
discussed by Herbert Kleibard (1982), a professor of Curriculum and Instruction and
Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in his article,
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“Education at the Turn of the Century.” He made the point that what is embodied in the
curriculum reflects what society values and that it is hard to imagine a culture where the
knowledge deemed to be valuable for whatever reason does not find its way into what is
deliberately taught. After many major forces towards reform there began a shift of
gravity. Dewey, and much later Eisner, believed that though pedagogical ideas and
advancement of theories abound, there was truly no mystery in who should be the
beneficiary of what schools do. It was the child. Taking what we know about children
and designing an environment where we can draw out the child and not simply pour in
what we want them to internalize should be the priority of today’s educational process.
Dewey (1932) suggested, “The moment children act to individualize themselves; they
cease to be a mass and become the intensely distinctive beings that we are acquainted
with out of school, in the home, the family, on the playground, and in the neighborhood”
(p. 33).
The tragic weakness of most of today’s schools is that they endeavor to prepare
children, as future members of society, through government mandates like No Child Left
Behind. The NCLB was signed into law on January 8, 2002. NCLB is built on four
principles: accountability for results, more choices for parents, greater local control and
flexibility, and an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research. According
to the Department of Education website (http://www.ed.gov), NCLB endeavors to push
education forward through increased accountability based on standardized test scores as
the only measure of success of the school. It states that all children can read and be
proficient in math by 2014. This is not only tied to monetary compensation for those
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districts meeting their goals, but sanctions and the threat of the political system taking
over the school system if they do not. Margaret Spelling (June, 2008), former Eighth
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education under president George Bush, stated, “the
focus is on results, not the aspirations approach to teaching.” There are many reasons
why this law is being strongly threatened for reauthorization. One important point, for
this review, was that the law doesn’t take into account the differentiated instruction that
must be addressed in all classrooms as well as the many styles of learning encountered
among today’s students. Certainly children must be held to high expectations as
Secretary Spelling pointed out, and be prepared in schools to be successful, productive
members of our society, but this cannot and will not be achieved through just the teaching
and assessing of only math and reading.
Eisner (1998) conveyed further, “When curriculum as a whole is so heavily
saturated with tasks and expectations that demand fealty to rule, opportunities to think in
unique ways are diminished. When carried to an extreme, the school’s program becomes
intellectually debilitating” (p. 82). Piaget, Dewey, Eisner and others, all believed and
advocated for the arts to be taught to help improve human life. The last thing modern
parents and teachers want in America is a class full of standardized children being
validated only on standardized tests. Young students need to be offered a variety of ways
and tools in which to master any particular subject. Arts should be included because, as
John Dewey (1934) discussed in his book, Art As Experience, “Art is prefigured in the
very processes of living as a way to connect form and content that is accessible for all
types of learners” (p. 25). Howard Gardner (1999), psychologist, and pioneer of the
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Theory of Multiple Intelligences [MI Theory] agreed. He wrote:
I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is
fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that
they will be positioned to make it a better place. Knowledge is not the same as
morality, but we need to understand if we are to avoid past mistakes and move
in productive directions. An important part of that understanding is knowing
who we are and what we can do... Ultimately, we must synthesize our
understandings for ourselves. The performance of understanding that try
matters are the ones we carry out as human beings in an imperfect world which
we can affect for good or for ill. (pp. 180-181)
Gardner (1983) believed that the best practices in teaching the whole child were knowing
the different ways in which they acquired knowledge. He asked: How do children learn?
How do they process that information? And, how do they think about their thinking? He
questioned the idea that intelligence is a single entity. Through the understanding of the
seven intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, and spatial, many educators have embraced his theories as a
way to structure curriculum and address the plurality of learning styles in any given
classroom.
According to Americans for the Arts (2005), (www.americansfortheatrs.org), there
are far reaching benefits for teaching arts in the classroom. Students who are actively
engaged in arts education are more likely to have higher test scores, thus improving their
academic performance and developing skills needed by the 21st century workforce. The
arts help teach children tolerance and openness to trying different solutions to problems.
The arts also allow them to express themselves creatively and bolster their selfconfidence. In addition, the arts keep children engaged in school and thus they are less
likely to drop out. Eisner (1998) suggested the same approach. He also believed that a
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school in which the arts are absent or poorly taught was unlikely to provide the genuine
opportunities children need to use the arts in the service of their own development (p.
129). Whatever we can do to help bring every child to success we must do. The arts
should be studied for what they can and do offer to the whole educational experience.
William Purkey (1991), in his publication, Invitational Teaching, Learning, and
Living, noted that our aims as teachers should also be to create classrooms that are the
“most inviting place in town” (p. 6). It is the job of teachers to create the conditions for
learning to occur and that engagement for students comes from having a personal stake in
the action. Learning is not what is done to them but what involves them in the process.
To have engagement there needs to be an overall sense for students that they can do it, it
is important to their life, they are close to the teacher and liked, and, best of all, they can
make mistakes. Barbara Inman (1998), a practicing educator and author of the resource
handbook, Making Your Classroom the Best it Can Be, said further:
That a right answer is based on a normed level of compliance and this stands
alone. There is no impact on others. We need learning to be more than just
what is important in the classroom but how it can be applied to what happens
beyond the four classroom walls. Substantive conversation comes from an
environment where the sharing of ideas is promoted, not scripted or controlled.
(pp. 3-19)
Education is too often a “banking” process where people with knowledge “deposit”
that knowledge in others. The student is passive. The aim of education should be to
celebrate thinking, not standardization. Options exist for expression and discovery taught
in many forms of representation that will help to develop different cognitive skills in our
students. Active children are what we want. Eisner (1985) argued for broadening our
view of what it means to think and expanding what if means to know” (p. 63). Norman
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Cousins, former editor of the Saturday Review, explained:
Practicing one’s profession successfully calls for skills in dealing with people,
for being able to comprehend the connection between cause and effect, and the
ability to carry burdens placed on the individual in a free society. The arts help
prepare the human mind for such needs. (April 2005)
Through the arts we can teach children a way to express themselves, and to tackle
problems for which they must find solutions. In addition, it is a way of assigning values
to things humans think about and do, a way of imparting meaning to life and life to
meaning. Art teaches us to be reflective and helps create full experiences. It is through
having an experience, as Dewey (1934) called it, that humans make thoughtful
connections and derive purpose to what they are learning. In Ways of Seeing, John Berger
(1972) suggested, “That art does many things: enables us to look critically at our histories
as a window through which to understand the past, helps to create full experiences of
aesthetics, of history, and encourages critical thinking” (as cited in a lecture by Dr. Lorie
Hammond, October 1, 2008). Education is an enterprise concerned with enhancement of
life in all its complexities and should include many options for expression and discovery.
Parents want the arts for their children. In 2001 the non-profit organization
Americans for the Arts conducted a public awareness campaign. The campaign included
a nationwide study regarding the importance of the arts in education. Americans for the
Arts (2005) reported that 95% of the parents believe the arts are important in preparing
children for their future. Parents view the arts as contributing positive attributes in their
children, and 91% thought the arts were an important part of a well-rounded education.
Arts enrich children and help them succeed on so many levels that parents can appreciate
their inclusion as a vehicle with which to enhance a meaningful school experience. In
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addition to the many attributes sighted in this review, the inclusion of the arts helps build
imagination. The development of imagination and memory is critical to educating the
whole child.
This educator sought the knowledge to create a stimulating environment for
students, to be competent at fulfilling the hopes of parents, and most importantly
to speak everyday to every child in a way that would engage them and drive their
learning forward towards the future. Arts in education can be used to inform, stimulate,
challenge, and satisfy tomorrow’s citizens of the world. Eisner (1998) suggested that we
must broaden our views on what it means to think and what it means to know. As
teachers, we can foster the acquisition of knowledge and skills using the arts
intentionally, meaningfully and in conjunction with what we are mandated to teach.
Using dance, music, visual arts, drama, and storytelling can create an aesthetic experience
for both students and teachers. Learning can and should go beyond textbook work and
questioned response towards artistically crafted curriculum that can and should reflect a
diversity of learning. This educator believed this was how best to instruct and guide the
children of tomorrow. One influential American Psychologist (as cited in Newman,
1991, p. 38) agreed:
The goal of education must be to develop a society in which people can live
more comfortably with change than with rigidity. In the coming world the
capacity to face the new appropriately is more important than the ability to
know and repeat the old. Better courses, better curricula, better coverage, better
teaching machines, will never resolve the dilemma in a basic way. Only
persons, acting like persons in their relationship with their students, can even
begin to make a dent on this most urgent problem of modern education.
-Carl R. Rogers
Movement and the Brain
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Teaching with the Brain in Mind
Recent developments in cognitive science and neuroscience help explain the power
of the arts as enhancing teaching in numerous ways. Boring is not good for the brain. The
question is, which teaching practices maximize learning? In her book, The Brain
Compatible Classroom: Using What We Know About Learning to Improve Teaching,
Laura Erlauer stated, “The field of education has entered an exciting and crucially
important era-the brain era” (2003, p. 1). This researcher found that a great deal of
knowledge exists about the human brain and the biology of learning. This knowledge
explosion is especially important for anyone who works with children. Although we do
not know all there is to know about the brain and learning, there is much data to consider
when planning and implementing good teaching strategies with the arts in mind.
As scientific, medical, and educational fields’ specialists are discovering volumes
of new information about the human brain and how it learns, many recommendations of
brain-based learning strategies are being conveyed to educators. This researcher believed
that applying the biology of learning, instead of using traditional teaching methods,
would help free her from the pendulum swing of instructional practices, and new
curriculums that come and go. Dr. Maria Montessori, who’s early work in The Secret of
Childhood, revolutionized the way we look at children as important contributors to
society. She believed educators need to look at why particular teaching practices have
always worked and what new teaching and learning methods would be even more
successful (1966). This author’s undergraduate training focused more on what she should
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teach through old models of instruction. Reward and punishment were taught to be the
most “effective” way to motivate children to learn. This educational model, which has
dominated much of history, has been fairly uncomplicated; more of a factory model with
the three R’s and rote learning at its heart. Dr. James Humphreys (1990), educator and
researcher in the field of physical education, stated:
Teachers should understand the principles of growth and development of
children as well as the fact that learning takes place better when learning
activities operate in real experience. There is a need to round the three R’s out
with science, social studies, and other subjects. Some subjects have been
exalted and emphasized to the extent that some curriculums have become
subject centered, with subjects being thought of as the end product rather than
a means to an end. (p. 5)
It is time to study how and why children act and how learners learn instead of
having educator’s hands tied to curriculums that do not effectively teach children. “The
principle goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new
things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done -- men who are creative,
inventive and discoverers” (Piaget quotes, n.d.). We are discovering at an unprecedented
rate about the brain and learning. “Many authors, including Caine and Caine, Jensen,
Sylwester, Wolfe, McGeehan, Gardner, Goleman, Kovalik, and Sousa, have taken some
of the latest scientific medical findings related to the brain and applied them to learning”
(Erlauer, 2003, p. 15). Eric Jensen, brain-based researcher, founder and President of
Jensen Learning Corporation Inc., (1998) explained that brain-based learning is best
understood in three words: engagement, strategies, and principles. Techniques used in the
classroom should include active engagement, purposeful strategies, and principles used
that are derived from neuroscience. Brain-based education is learning in accordance with
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the way the brain is naturally designed to learn. By using what is now known about the
brain, teachers, such as this author, can make better decisions and reach more learners in
the classroom.
Considering how the brain learns best is the endeavor of this section of the
literature review. A more brain-based approach would increase classroom engagement,
create connectedness with students, and boost learning across the curriculum. “The brain
does not learn on demand by a school’s rigid, inflexible schedule. It has its own rhythms.
If you want to maximize learning, you need to discover how nature’s engine runs”
(Jensen, 1998, p. 14). The author’s reading and research helped her to begin this journey
of understanding how children best learn by starting with some brain basics.
Basic Brain Structures For Teacher Understanding
It’s All in the Hard Wiring
The brain is a self-organized structure that is highly connected (see Appendix A).
Movement, like running, skipping, jumping, activates the brain’s neural wiring
throughout the body, making the whole body the instrument of learning. What the human
brain does best is learn. “Learning changes the brain because it can rewire itself with each
new stimulation, experience, and behavior” (Jensen, 1998, p.13). Scientists are not
completely sure how this happens but have some ideas. Knowing the fundamentals, as
educators will help us to better understand how students learn.
Stimulus to the brain starts the process. This could be internal (knowledge already
attained) or a new experience. This stimulus is sorted and processed at several levels.
Finally, a memory begins to form. To the brain we are either doing something we already
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know how to do or it is something brand new. When an activity is repeated, the neural
pathways begin to myelinate, causing the brain to be more efficient. Piaget called this,
“Knowing it without knowing you know it” (Randal McChesney, lecture notes, June 29,
2009). More of your brain, however, is used in the learning of new stimulus. “While
exercise is doing what you already know how to do, stimulation is doing something new”
(Jensen, 1998, p. 13). In a classroom the teacher needs to repeat lessons and skills again
and again to cement ideas and concepts as well as present new ideas to simulate learning
and keep the brain moving. New knowledge then is converted to nerve impulses
that travel to sorting stations like the thalamus, which is located in the middle of the
brain. Freeman (1995) argued that, “In intentional behavior, a multi-sensory convergence
takes place and a ‘map’ is quickly formed in the hippocampus” (as cited in Jensen, 1998,
p. 13). From there signals are distributed to specific areas of the brain.
In layman’s terms, once this input is received, each brain cell (see Appendix B) acts
like a tiny electrical battery. Through a complex process of electrical to chemical to
electrical, neurons (axons and dendrites) make connections and form dendritic branches.
When a neuron is stimulated, it sends an electrical impulse down its axon to the terminals
at the ends of axon branches. This releases chemicals (neurotransmitters) that cross the
synapse between the axon terminal and the dendrite of the receiving neuron. The action
within the cell is electrical; between the cells it is chemical (Wolfe, 2009). “These
branches help us make even more connections, until whole “neural forests” are formed
which help us understand better and, maybe, someday make us an ‘expert’ on that topic”
(Jensen, 1998, p. 10). Learning takes place at the meeting of these cells where synapses,
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or the junction communication point where neurons interact, have occurred. As the brain
goes through these physical and chemical changes it stores new information as a result of
learning. “Repeated firings of neurons make successive firings easier and, eventually,
automatic under certain conditions. Thus memory is formed. Storing the memory gives
rise to new neural pathways and strengthens existing pathways” (Sousa, 2003, p. 22).
Developing neural circuitry through repetition and stimulation increases the speed of
learning.
“The key to getting smarter is growing more synaptic connections between brain
cells and not losing existing connections. It’s the connections that allow us to solve
problems and figure things out” (Jensen, 1998, p. 15). Challenging sensory stimulation is
“food” for the brain. Many kinds of movement activities can be used throughout the
school day that are rich in sensory experience. This educator designed lessons with this
knowledge in mind.
The “Little” Brain is Movement
The brain is a self-organized structure that is highly connected. So
many different structures in the brain are involved in motor functions that practically the
entire brain contributes to body movement. The cerebellum (Latin for “little brain”)
coordinates every movement. Although it is just one-tenth of the brain by volume, it
contains over half of all its neurons. “Because the cerebellum monitors impulses from the
nerve endings, it is very important in the learning, performance, and timing of complex
motor tasks including speaking” (Sousa, 2003, p. 17). From babyhood on our bodies
strive to interact with the world. We crawl, squirm, pull ourselves along the floor, and
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finally learn to walk. In their book, Movement Stories, Landalf and Gerke (1996) stated,
“Each stage of development in mobility correlates to a developing area of the brain. Our
brains cannot properly develop without movement - the two are inextricably linked”
(p.1).
Just how important is movement to learning? Movement affects the use of all our
senses, how we understand and use language, our ability to think, read, problem solve,
and organize our world. The cerebellum is responsible for procedural learning, reflexive
learning, and conditioned responses. Incorporating activities that help build balance,
posture, coordination, and muscle movement are very important. Newer research has also
linked it to cognition, novelty, and emotions. The cerebellum also stores the memory of
rote movement, such as tying your shoe, riding a bike, walking, reading, brushing your
teeth and so on.
Memory and Feelings
Learning requires efficient use of the brain to acquire information and make
memories. Memory and recall are extremely important for all our students. The only way
we know how to tell if students know something is to demonstrate it with recall.
According to Jensen (1998), “Memory is a process, not a fixed thing or singular skill.
There is no single location for all our memories” (p. 100). Many areas of the brain play a
role in memory. The cortex handles our working memory and other semantic retrieval.
Neural efficiency also plays a very important part in memory. Two of the major players
for educators to be familiar with are the hippocampus and the amygdala. The
hippocampus is active in the formation of spatial and other explicit memories like
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speaking, reading, and recall about an emotional event. The amygdala mediates
emotional threats, and fears. Your fight or flight response is centered here. Sprenger,
(1999) in her book Learning and Memory, tells her students, “The hippocampus tells you
who someone is, and the amygdada tells you how you feel about that person” (p.55). This
educator endeavored to make a classroom that was safe emotionally, trusting, and that
had structure and ritual with these specific brain functions in mind when designing
lessons.
“There is almost no long-term retention without rehearsal” (Sousa, 2003, p. 28).
The brain goes through three stages of memory. First it notices information in the
immediate memory. The working memory then reacts, followed by long-term memory;
this is when you can do something about it. “Some stimuli that are processed in the
immediate and working memories are eventually transferred to long-term memory sites,
where they actually change the structure of neurons so they can last a lifetime” (Sousa, p.
28). Different parts of memory are stored in different places and will reassemble when
our memory is recalled.
LeDoux (1993) argued that, “Emotions are a critical source of information for
learning” (as cited in Jensen, 1998, p. 78). Daily, humans make decisions based on
emotions that run the gamut from calm to rage, pain to pleasure, relaxed to threatened.
When an individual responds emotionally to a situation, the limbic system, which is
stimulated by the amygdala, takes a major role. If a negative situation happens and a
student experiences fear, this can inhibit cognitive functioning and long term memory as
the body shuts down to deal with the threatening situation. On the other side, emotions
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can enhance memory. When the experience is a positive one, good hormones release that
stimulate the amygdala to signal brain regions that strengthen memory. Sousa (2003)
explained:
How the learner processes new information presented in school has a great
impact on the quality of what is learned and is a major factor in determining
whether and how it is retained. Memories, of course, are more than just
information. They represent fluctuating patterns of associations and
connections across the brain, for which the individual extracts order and
meaning. Teachers with a greater understanding of the types of memory and
how they form and can select strategies that are more likely to improve
retention and retrieval learning. (p. 32)
In recent times neuroscientists and psychologists have identified and listed different
memory lanes in which to store different types of memory (Caine & Caine, 2005;
Sprenger, 1999). The five memory lanes are declarative, procedural, episodic, semantic,
and emotional. Their functions are as follows: Declarative memory-memory for facts,
Procedural memory-memory for skills and procedures, Episodic memory-memory of
events in one’s life, Semantic memory-memory for the meaning of words, and Emotional
memory-memory involving emotions. They are located in specific parts of the brain and
understanding of these lanes may help teachers to better understand and plan lessons
according to how their students think and feel. Education acknowledges the critical role
of memorization in learning and that there is more to memory than just remembering the
facts. The essential point is that understanding these memory pathways can help this
educator enhance student learning.
Because of the close ties between memory and emotions, this author believed it was
important to promote positive emotions while learning in the classroom because it
strengthened the opportunities for remembering academic concepts. Conversely, as
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Erlauer argued, “Teachers who cause and allow stressful, threatening, or fearful
occurrences in the classroom are building issues rather then important academics.
Students like this are acting in the limbic system rather than the higher-level neo cortex,
making learning more difficult” (p. 13).
In the classroom, however, much of what is learned is not transferred that quickly
into long-term memory. A new concept or skill must be understood and usually related to
prior knowledge or experience. Then the information must be practiced or manipulated
and used or applied numerous times before it becomes ingrained in the brain’s long-term
memory. In her book, More Theatre Games for Young Performers, Suzi Zimmerman
(2004), suggests that theatre is one way to balance knowledge and comprehension
through hands-on learning. She references Bloom’s Taxonomy (1950) of learning as a
guide to enhance memory and understanding. She relayed:
The higher levels of learning include application, analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation; in other words, students can use the knowledge (apply
it), break it down into parts (analyze it) and also build from it (use it to
synthesize a new whole), and lastly, they can assess its value (evaluate it). It is
our jobs as teachers to ensure that these loftier levels of learning are taking
place in our classrooms. It means our jobs will be more difficult and our
creativity will be working overtime, but the rewards will be priceless. (p. 3)
That is why Let’s Learn in a Moving Way was an important study for this author, as she
became more familiar with employing techniques and practices that helped her students
ingrain their learning in an engaging way.
The Left and Right of It!
The thinking brain, or the cerebrum, is divided into two hemispheres (see Appendix
C). Although they are separate, the right and left cerebrums are almost mirror images of
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one another. The right brain controls the left side of the body, and the left-brain controls
the right side of the body. Traditionally the right brain is responsible for our procedural
knowledge. It is the orienting system that takes everything in; sensory shapes, colors,
imagination, patterns, music, and intuition reside here. Declarative knowledge happens in
general in the left-brain which processes things more in parts and sequentially. The leftbrain is involved in analysis, math, logic, and language. Ornstein and Sobel (1987) also
pointed out that, “The right hemisphere recognizes negative emotions faster; the left
hemisphere notices positive emotions faster” (as cited in Jensen, 1998). Thin bundles of
nerve fibers, the largest of them called the corpus callosum, connects the two
hemispheres, and allows each side to exchange information freely. Everyday classroom
curriculum should include activities that require the left and right brain to “talk” to each
other. Gone are the days when people believed if you were logical you were left-brained
and labeled right-brained if you were creative. “Scientists now use the term relative
lateralization: the brain is designed to process spatially from left to right hemisphere, but
it processes time (past to future) from back to front. In short, on any given day, you’ll use
most of your brain most of the time” (Jensen, 1998, p.19). Traditional teaching methods
have created a deficit of cross-referencing the two halves of the brain. Past practices have
emphasized the left-brain and its strengths for numbers, sight words, and facts for tests,
while leaving out the operational right side of the brain. Intelligence is the development
of the workings of both sides of the brain, and they must be hard wired together. By
cross-referencing sense data (visual, tactile, auditory, and kinetic) in the right and leftbrains we expose children to a complete understanding of an experience.
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Two big factors work against the utilization of educating to both brain hemispheres
in school. One, the NCLB has caused the left-brain to be hijacked. An unintended
consequence of this law has been the narrowing of curriculum, where rote learning and
consistently teaching words has been emphasized, thus reducing student learning and
performance to a test score (McCabe & Flannery, 2009, p.38). Second, is the proliferation
of hand held games and the increased sedentary nature of these kinds of activities.
McChesney (2009) explained it is like immersing children in a “cold water bath”
teaching symbol (left-brain) without reference (right-brain). Intelligence is the
development of the workings of both sides of the brain (lecture, June 29, 2008).
Vestibular Activation
Just how important is movement to learning? “Movement can develop balance and,
ultimately, reading skills. What the developing brain needs for successful movement and
cognitive growth is sufficient activation of the motor-cerebellar-vestibular system”
(Jensen, 1998, p.77). According to Carla Hannaford, a neurophysiologist, “The vestibular
(inner ear) and cerebellar (motor activity) is the first system to mature” (as cited in
Jensen, 1998). This connection helps us to keep our balance, turns thinking into action,
and coordinates moves. This author believed young children should not be made to sit in
desks or circles for long periods of time. They and their brains want to be moving!
Children need spinning, leaping, crawling, rolling, rocking, pointing, and matching
activities to strengthen this cerebellar-vestibular system. Without it, teachers see
problems in learning including attention deficit, weak memory skills, emotional
problems, reading issues, slow reflex skills, lack of classroom discipline, and impaired or
32
delayed writing skills. Stimulating this vestibular system helps to stabilize it.
Learning and the Optimal Brain
Students’ brains and bodies need to be in optimal condition in order for the
acquisition of knowledge to take place. The types of food, amount of water consumed in
a day, oxygen, sleep, and exercise all have important ramifications for good learning to
happen in the classroom Jensen (2000); Howard (2000); and Sousa (1995) determined,
“When the body and brain are in optimum physical condition, well rested, well fed, alert,
and active, the learner will benefit from more clear understanding and longer-lasting
memory of the concepts” (as cited in Erlauer, 2003, p. 29).
Educators are in the business of learning. This author practiced sharing with her
students how their brains and bodies learned and worked together. Being knowledgeable
about how they learned was just as important a part of their school day as the academics
being taught. Educators are faced with many challenges as students from all kinds of
backgrounds step into the classroom. They show up undernourished, sleepy, stressed, and
threatened. Homework assignments aren’t completed. Teachers are like a surrogate
family for their students and they must help them prepare to learn each day. Although it
is the parents’ job to do this, educators today cannot afford not to take action. This author
believed she could educate her students and their families about the benefits of food,
sleep and water towards better brain learning.
Are there specific foods particularly good for the brain? “There are but
children rarely get enough of them. They include green leafy vegetables, salmon, nuts,
lean meats, and fresh fruits” (Connors, 1989, p. 45). The brain also needs a wide range of
33
vitamins and minerals. “Calpain has been found to act as a ‘cleaner’ for the synapses,
dissolving protein build up” (Howard, 1994, p. 16). The best source of calpain is in dairy
products like yogurt and milk. Most kids just eat to get rid of hunger and lack the right
kinds of information they need to increase their optimal learning. “This is a concern
because the essential myelination and maturation of the brain is going full speed up until
25 years of age” (Jensen, 1998, p. 26).
How much sleep do young children need? The brain may become more easily
fatigued when a deep physiological rest is not achieved. In addition, a good sleep is
needed at night to process and consolidate all the learning from the day. The old saying,
“Let me sleep on it” has some validity. Sleep, among other factors, influences a child's
temperament. Poor sleep, too little and/or poor quality, is associated with behavior
problems like aggression, defiance, non-compliance, oppositional behavior, acting out,
and hyperactivity. Young children ages 7-12 should have at least 10-12 hours of sleep a
night. In his book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, Marc Weissbluth, MD, sums up,
“What you may find in children who routinely do not get the sleep they need, with a bit
of a Catch 22: School achievement difficulties were found more often among poor
sleepers compared to good sleepers.... Young children who have difficulty sleeping
become older children with more academic problems. But children who are academically
successful risk not getting the sleep they need!” (as cited on WEB MD, October 4, 2009).
Drinking to learn is an apt saying. Dehydration is a common problem and is linked
to poor learning. Teachers may not recognize that there can be a loss of attentiveness, and
lethargy that sets in because of dehydration. Ornstein and Sobel (1987) stated, “When we
34
are thirsty it’s because the water level has dropped increasing the salt levels in the blood.
Higher salt levels increase blood pressure and stress” (as cited in Jensen, 1998, p. 26).
Teachers should keep encouraging students to drink water throughout the day. The author
concludes this section with a quote from Caine and Caine (1994):
Teaching in the traditional way, dependent on content and the textbook, is
demanding but not very sophisticated. Teaching to the human brain, however,
based on real understanding of how the brain works, elevates teaching into a
challenging field requiring the finest minds and intellects.” (p.98)
Movement’s Role in Learning
An active body enhances an active mind. In Educational Psychology, Lev
Vygotsky (1926, 1996), a pioneering psychologist who worked extensively on ideas
about children’s cognitive development, made a fundamental assertion about learning
that was quite new and radical for his time. He said, “The educational process should be
active on three levels: the student is active, the teacher is active, and the environment
created between them is an active one” (p. 24). For decades, many have engaged in the
notion that movement is good for children and the learning process. This researcher
found volumes of books related to movement and physical activity. A great deal of
research has been done using widespread field-testing and experimentation showing that
a well administered movement education program, one that is integrated with all subjects,
can promote good health, a sense of well being, the development of the sensory motor
skills, and self awareness (Frostig, 1970, p. 71). The author, concerned with the topic,
researched articles and documented position papers. Since Maria Montessori’s
groundbreaking book, The Secret of Childhood, and the research she began in1917, we
35
have come to realize that child development is hooked to physical movement (1966).
Today, we also have considerable research proving that movement, play, and physical
activity contribute to brain and intellectual development (Pica, 2006, p. 10).
A brief history of movement
For the most part, curriculum through the years was geared towards meeting the
needs of the times. Looking back across the history of movement based education in his
book, Integration of Physical Education in the Elementary School Curriculum, James
Humphreys (1990) summarized:
The Greeks felt that physical education activities might be a welcome adjunct.
Plato over 3,200 years ago suggested that all early education should be a sort
of play and develop around play situations. In the 17th century Locke, the
English philosopher, felt children should get plenty of exercise and learn to
swim early in life. Rousseau, a notable French writer, held much the same
opinion believing that learning should develop from activities of childhood. (p.
27)
The three R’s, reading, writing, and arithmetic, were sufficient seemingly for a bygone
era. “By the end of the 19th century it was clear that only teaching the three R’s would not
be sufficient to meet the needs of a changing America” (Humphreys, p. 27). In the 20th
century the greatest single change was curriculum organization. Proponents favored a
child-centered vs. subject-centered curriculum. In modern times the thought was that
learning which resulted from experience in various subjects rather than just the subjects
themselves was better for students.
John Dewey believed in the principle of the mind body relationship and the
education of the whole child. He introduced a Physical Education program in his
University of Chicago Laboratory early in the 20th century, which included games and
36
dancing as part of the children’s educational experience. Dewey (1919) commented,
“Experience has shown that when children have a chance at physical activities which
bring their natural impulses into play, going to school is a joy, management is less of a
burden, and learning is easier” (p. 228-229).
“Movement education was a term that was coined around the mid 1950’s that
maybe started in England but most believe was a product of the thinking of American
physical educators” (Humphreys, 1990, p. 30). Humphreys generalized the definition
as…“the development of the total human movement potential.” There were differing
camps at the time. “Traditionally, physical learning had been the providence of PE and
vocational education” (Armstrong, 1994, p.74). Students only moved during physical
education classes a few times a week in a game type of format. The second camp was the
movement education method, an integration of movement throughout the day.
Humphreys (1990) argued that any approach should be seen for what it is and then for
how it fits with our children’s best interest in mind. There were several considerations:
One, does it meet their needs? Two, is it compatible with the learning process? Three,
how do children learn?
The more or less “new discovery” of the importance of movement in the lives of
children has contributed to better elementary programs, starting in the 1980’s to the
present time. Despite this, some educators have said there is no time for movement and
play in their curricular day because there are so many standards to meet and tests for
which they must prepare the children. With the implementation of the NCLB, emphasis
has shifted to seatwork and high-stakes testing preparation. This shift in educational
37
priorities has been detrimental to children and contrary to what is known about how the
brain learns. As a result, play, physical activity and educating through the arts are in
grave danger of disappearing.
Physical Movement and the Brain
Why movement? In their book, Movement Stories, Landalf and Gerke (1996)
explained:
Movement is the currency of life. Even when our bodies are at rest there is
movement in the slow rise and fall of our breath and the coursing of blood
through our veins. We move to survive, to learn; to discover where we end
and the outer world begins. (p. 11)
Neuroscientists have discovered that the brain’s cerebellum, involved in most
learning, operates at a high capacity during times of movement. Sylwester, (1995)
commented, “Some studies have shown that participation in frequent, aerobic exercise
increased students’ reaction time, creativity, and short term memory” (as cited in Erlauer,
2003, p. 46). Enriched, active environments stimulate the growth of dendrites and
promoted faster recall. “Early movement experiences, in fact, are essential to neural
stimulation (the use-it-or-lose-it principle involved in keeping or pruning brain cells, or
neurons) needed for healthy brain development” (Pica, 2006, p. 9). A child’s brain is
chock full of neurons at birth. In fact you are born with 100 billion neurons (Wolfe,
2009). Over time these brain cells can form hundreds of thousands of connections,
synapses, with other brain cells. Learning is not growing new brain cells but making
connections between the ones we have. Synapses that are not used often enough are
eliminated. “Experts like neurophysiologist Carla Hannaford tell us that physical activity
and play during early childhood have a vital role in sensory and physiological stimulation
38
that results in more synapses” (as cited in Pica, p. 10). Eric Jensen (2008) related further
that:
In spite of the data on exercise, an astonishingly low 36% of K-12 students in
the United States participate in a daily physical education program. We know
exercise fuels the brain with oxygen, but it also triggers the release of
neurotrophins, which enhance growth, impact mood, cement memory, and
enhance connections between neurons. In fact, it is the best thing you can do
for your brain. (p. 39)
The answer is clear. Active participation in learning experiences encourages brain
growth. The brain should be involved in everything we do at school, with daily subjects
being infused with physical activity in a number of ways.
In addition to what happens neurologically, Humphreys believed that by using
movement, the child’s naturally physically oriented world became a positive
factor in facilitating further interest and more involvement in attending to learning tasks
(1990, p. 83). Fortunately, educational researchers and neurobiologists are showing that
children sitting in chairs for long periods of time, quiet and obedient, while knowledge is
being “given” to them does not promote long lasting learning. The brain is not made for
this kind of physical boredom. Time on task is a real, perplexing issue for teachers. What
has always been thought that children who can pay attention a long time are the “good”
students is misleading. The human brain is simply not designed for long periods of
attentiveness. Following a 20-minute period or less, the human brain naturally shifts
attention (Sousa, 1995). Erlauer recounted in her book (2003):
Some teacher’s expectations for the length of time on task for students have
been inappropriate and unreasonable. I remember hearing a rule, in an early
childhood development course, that a child’s attention span is no longer in
minutes than their age in years, so a 5 year old can pay undivided attention to a
task for no more than five minutes. (p. 53)
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Reasonable periods of engagement followed by brain breaks on a regular basis will keep
students motivated and at the peak of learning. This doesn’t mean to stop mid academics,
but for instance, after a lecture the teacher might show some slides, or ask students to turn
to one another and discuss what they just learned. In a lecture from her book Brain
Matters, Patricia Wolfe (October 24, 2009) cited two strategies that match how the brain
learns best: Reciprocal teaching, where partners A/B turn to each other and share what
they just heard, and imbedding the material in storytelling. Both of these strategies help
to solidify knowledge and begin to transfer it into memory, and are fun to do with
students. To avoid off task behaviors the teacher can change the activity after twenty
minutes allowing their brains to shift from steady concentration to a new behavior still
focusing on the academic content of the subject.
Children don’t know that they learn through movement if you plant the intellectual
task within its context. For the young child, movement and physical experience provide
the foundation for higher-level cognition through the integration of the brain’s sensory
association areas. Incorporating physical play with formal instruction can be very
beneficial for children. “Language, foresight, and other cognitive intelligence are
connected in the brain through rapid movements in sequence and by developing a bodily
sense of beat” (Healy, 2003, p. 95). The brain areas responsible for playing the piano,
doing needlework or building something, forming words into meaningful sentences,
understanding language, or tackling a math problem, all require a specially ordered
sequence of movements and thoughts.
Children who have opportunities for movement on a regular basis also improve
40
their gross motor skills, develop strong flexible muscles, and increase stamina. They can
release pent-up energy from sitting tasks, which increase the blood flow throughout the
system increasing oxygen to the brain. “Physical activity is the most accessible and
natural vehicle to use in the promotion of the development of children’s intellect” (Jones,
1989, p. 167).
Why movement? The answer is clear. The brain is involved in everything we do at
school, and thus benefits from physical activity in many ways.
Movement and Emotions
One cannot run good schools without acknowledging the power of emotions in
learning and integrating them into daily operations. The old thinking was, first you had to
have control of the students before you could do any teaching, but today neuroscientists
say that engaging emotions appropriately will help moderate behavior. Any time a child
uses movement as a form of self-expression, this uses his or her emotions. University of
California, San Diego, neurobiologist Larry Squire (1987, 1992) said emotions are so
important that they have their own memory pathways (as cited in Jensen, 1998, p. 91).
Emotional memory takes precedence over any kind of memory. Engaging emotions
should be intrinsic to our teaching and not an afterthought. It is important to also note that
movement regulates many of the body’s hormones, the good chemicals that enhance
emotions and memory.
Movement for Memory
Learning is the act of making and strengthening connections between thousands of
neurons forming neural networks or maps. Memory is the ability to reconstruct or
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reactivate the previously made connections. “Neurons that fire together, wire together!”
(Lecture, Wolfe, 2009). When children move and experience their learning in many kinds
of modalities their dendrites are firing. Building dendrite connections make memories
stronger.
Memory is an important component of daily lessons in the classroom. Teachers are
always troubled by what a student remembered one day and forgot the next. Finding
ways to help students integrate learning can be very important for their retention and
understanding. Knowledge is more than the use of just explicit skills based solely in the
linguistic and mathematical realms. Caine and Caine (2009) remarked, “Almost all
standardized tests are concerned with the retrieval of “stuff” that has been archived in this
way” (p.189). Measuring a child’s intelligence based solely on this is far from the whole
picture.
Helping children retain what they learn is one of education’s most pressing issues
as a good number of classrooms rely heavily on semantic, or word, memory. Howard
Gardener suggested further that we tend to value and emphasize “good memory” in just
the linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, thus labeling students’ with “bad
memories” who actually may have other intelligence specific memory avenues. He said
(1983):
Thus, one may have a good memory for faces [spatial/interpersonal
intelligence], but a poor memory for names and dates [linguistic/logical
mathematical]. One may have a superior ability to recall a tune [musical
intelligence] but not be able to remember the dance step that accompanies it
[bodily-kinesthetic intelligence]. (as cited in Armstrong, 1994, p. 146)
Educators can help students to gain access to good memories through knowing what their
42
individual intelligences are and how best to utilize them in the planning of curriculum. In
his work using Howard Gardener’s MI Theory in the classroom, Armstrong (1994), gives
some examples of how the it can be used to enhance memory. One example was the
weekly memorization of spelling words, usually the providence of the linguistic only
intelligence. To enhance retention he also suggested using the other intelligences:
Musical-words could be sung, Spatial-spelling words could be visualized, Logicalmathematical-the words can be coded, Bodily-kinesthetic-they can be translated into sign
language or whole-body movements, Interpersonal-the words can be spelled by a whole
group of students, and Intrapersonal-students spell words developmentally (p.148).
The task of the teacher is to make students aware of all the ways in which memory
can be strengthened. Using the components of the different MI intelligences is one
technique. Understanding the five memory lanes is another. Educators can approach
active memory retention through motivation and the broad use of different modalities like
using pictures, words, musical phrases, social interactions, personal feelings, and
experiences. Effective teachers try anything that provides movement, for example, roleplaying, debate, quiz shows, dance, marches, songs, stories, monologues, and games.
Keeping it light with a positive atmosphere of fun helps students be creative. They are
forced to make choices that matter and connect cause and effect. This kind of crossindexing will help store memories of all kinds, and the movement and fun will make a
big impression on students’ brains. Eventually students will be able to identify and use
these strategies independently and know that they are building their own strong
memories.
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Kinesthetic Learning and the Arts
Since the publication of Frames of Mind, Howard Gardner’s pivotal work on
Multiple Intelligences, his theory of cognitive functioning that proposed each person had
capacities in seven different kinds of intelligences, the scope of human potential has
broadened. He suggested that one kind of intelligence is often put on a pedestal, but that
actually there is a plurality of them. He believed that the practice of having children do
isolated tasks was not a natural learning environment. “Intelligence,” Gardner suggested
(1983), “has more to do with the capacity for (1) solving problems and (2) fashioning
products in a context-rich and naturalistic setting” (as cited in Armstrong, 1994, p. 2).
Agreeing with Gardner’s theory, in their book Making Learning Visible, Project Zero and
Reggio Children (2001), stated, “No longer just one intelligence, said Gardner, but seven.
Apart from the specific number, the important elements were the concepts of plurality,
possibility, richness, expansion, and dialogue” (p. 30). In Reggio Children (2001) their
view of the child was closely aligned:
Once again our thinking was along the same lines: a child who is competent, a
child to whom we must offer many opportunities, so that each and every child
can find possibilities for his or her individuality and subjectivity to be
expressed, enriched, and developed. School, therefore, is viewed as a very
important place, a decisive place for giving all those involved the possibility to
be themselves, in rich originality and the wholeness of each individual. (p. 30)
Too often in education we begin with symbols (rote learning) without children having
any prior experience. There is no longer just one language for the classroom. The fact
spectrum of different kinds of intelligences can and should be exploited by teachers in the
classroom. Honoring different learning styles can deepen the understanding of all
children. Once the students know how they learn best educators can make use of this in
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immeasurable ways.
As part of this culminating project, the intelligence of the “kinesthetic learner” or
the child who learns best through movement is noteworthy. This intelligence includes
specific skills such as coordination, balance, dexterity, strength, flexibility, and speed, as
well as proprioceptive, tactile, and haptic capacities. Finding ways to integrate this kind
of learning style is very important to increasing students’ retention and understanding.
Physical movements can be used to represent a specific process or idea. BodilyKinesthetic learners learn best through somatic sensations. They love dancing, running,
jumping, building, touching, and gesturing. Then by repeating these movements they will
gradually internalize the process or idea. “In reality, children are born with a desire to
learn; and good, old fashioned play and movement are the best contributors to brain
development” (Pica, p.13). These kinds of learners need role-play, drama, movement,
things to build, sports and physical games, tactile experiences, and hands-on learning.
What is so different about kinesthetic learning? Jensen (2001) discussed this and
explained that there are two broad areas of learning:
One is explicit, which I call “labeled learning”-what we commonly read, write,
and talk about. It includes textbook learning, videos, lecture, pictures, and
dialog. The other type is implicit, which includes “hands on” approaches, more
trial and error, habits, role-plays, life experience, drama, experiential learning,
games and active learning. I call this “unlabeled learning.” Researchers believe
that implicit learning is, in fact, much more reliable than the old-style
classroom education that emphasizes reading textbooks and memorizing facts.
(p. 74)
Instead of the talking head, implicit learning is more robust, varied, and lasting
learning. More implicit learning is needed in our classrooms. What might that look
like? In the classroom the use of more role modeling, trial and error,
45
experimentation, peer demonstrations, reciprocal teaching, and cross tutoring could
be implemented. Implicit learning is, “Intelligence independent; we learn implicitly
in a surprising number of ways. Implicit tasks show little concordance with
measures of intelligence like an IQ test” (Jensen, 2001, p. 47).
“Kinesthetic arts deserve a strong, daily place in the curriculum of every K-12
student” (Jensen, 2001, p. 71). There is strong evidence that they contribute to the
development and enhancement of critical neurobiological systems, including
cognition, emotions, immune, circulatory, memory, and perceptual motor systems
(Caine and Caine, 1994; Jensen, 2001; Sousa, 2003). Hands on learning is brains on
learning.
Summary
To summarize the literature review this educator found a very relevant quote
from Caine and Caine (1994) who said it best:
The brain’s capacity to learn is vast, and it is constructed for much more
demanding intellectual activity than that in which it is usually engaged. The
key to appreciate the interconnectedness of all the facets and to grasp the facts
of learning is a product of everything we are. Physical health is important. So
is emotional health. Relaxation and stress play a part, as do the ways we
communicate and or sensory preferences. The body is, in fact, ‘in the mind.’
Experiences actually shape our brains and, therefore, shape future learning.
Thus, we use the brain better when we enrich our experiences so that our
brains can extract new and more complex ways of communication and
interacting with the world. (p. 39)
The intention of Let’s Learn in a Moving Way was to bring together the current research
on brain based learning with the notion that nearly everything could be taught using
movement as a way to connect the brain and body for optimal learning opportunities.
Any of the curricular subjects taught daily could be enhanced, ingrained, made
46
pleasurable and fun for students by infusing movement. This educator learned a great
deal through this research.
47
Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY
“Intelligence grows in a happy mind.”
-Chinese proverb
Introduction
My focus for an Alternative Culminating Experience for a Master of Arts in
Education: Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Arts in Education, was to
develop the knowledge, skills, and disposition to teach creatively using the art of
movement as a discipline and to integrate it with other subject areas. The purpose of the
study was to increase awareness of (a) how movement will directly enhance a child’s
brain development, (b) the importance of movement integrated into the curriculum, and
(c) to begin to develop a compilation of varied activities that could be used in the
classroom. This project was conducted through a narrative inquiry approach. The
narrative, or story telling, has documented human existence from very early times.
Narrative inquiry is a reflective process.
First, I examined my own experiences and knowledge of the field as the initial step
to improving and informing my own practices. I wanted to establish a meaningful
connection between what kinds of learning were good for the brain, create experiences
that would enhance daily curriculum, and help develop in my students a disposition for
learning by making their day in school fun, fast moving, and meaningful.
A review of the relevant literature was completed and documented. This review
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consisted of extensive research in the neuroscience of brain-based learning, physical
education, and movement theory. Next, I began the study by pouring through volumes of
edited books that yielded a plethora of primary source information. These resources
provided the games, songs, and play activities, which could substantiate the stated
assumptions and provided the tools for formulating the project. This chapter is written
from the teacher’s perspective in the first person.
My Story
This is my twelfth year of teaching in elementary education. I have taught fifth
grade (five years), fourth grade (two years), and now third grade (currently in my fifth
year) at three different schools. Becoming a teacher was always on my radar but, as a
fresh-faced 18-year-old college student back in the mid 1970s, I had no immediate future
of teaching because there was a glut of teachers and not enough jobs to go around. I came
to the profession much later in life, beginning at age 42, thanks to my own children’s
wonderful school principal. He saw me in action organizing an extra hour of physical
education at my son’s school, and recognizing the “teacher” in me, then mentored and
encouraged me to become an intern.
Going to school, teaching in a classroom, raising three boys, and maintaining a
home with my husband, made my first few years in the profession very challenging. The
first two years I really operated in survival mode only, just barely keeping my head above
water. I had heard that you really started to know teaching around your seventh year and I
believe that was true for me. By years eight and nine of my career I became strong
enough with the daily nuts and bolts of the curriculum and behavior management that I
49
could begin to branch out with my craft through continued professional growth. I was
also lucky enough to have good teaching partners and supportive principals along the
way to help me.
Three years ago I attended my first Education Through Music (ETM) conference
and that experience opened the door for my development as a “movement teacher” using
song experience games in my classroom. Through ETM I began to understand the
connection between how the brain learns best, and that movement is a part of this
exciting and critically important era-the brain era. I began to think differently about my
teaching towards how the child learns best rather than just what I needed to teach. This
led a year and a half ago to pursuing my Master’s degree as a continuation and expansion
of my belief that children learn best through the use of the arts and that the more I
understood about the brain, the better able I’d be able to design instruction to match how
my students learned best.
Setting and Participants
My research year took place in a classroom of 23 third graders at Mission Avenue
Open Elementary School. Mission Avenue has been my home for the past seven years
and is an alternative, public school located in Carmichael, California. Mission is a school
that focuses on individuality, values the process of learning, and believes that hands-on,
experiential learning strategies are what are best for children. The basis of the school’s
philosophy adheres to the ancient Chinese proverb: “I see and I forget, I hear and I
remember, I do and I understand.”
Parents are collaborators who help make the school inclusive and family-like
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through their mandatory two hour service a week to the school either in the classroom or
outside of it through a variety of committees and organizations. The teaching team
designs a classroom budget, and donations are agreed upon and approved by the parents.
This money allows us to go out into the community for a variety of field trips and
experiential learning.
The four hundred plus students who attend Mission have applied from across the
district and until this year were accepted through a lottery system. Now enrollment has
been centralized through the San Juan Unified District office. The school houses
kindergarten through sixth grade. The student population is 84.1% white (not Hispanic),
7.8% Hispanic or Latino, 4.7% Asian American, 2.1%American Indian/Alaska Native,
0.7% Filipino/Pacific Islander, and 0.5% African American (San Juan Unified School
District, 2009, p. 1).
Because the author works at an Open Structure School, where the focus is on
doing, there is more freedom and ability to stray from “traditional” ways of teaching to
explore alternatives. I worked with twenty-three third grade students, twelve boys and
eleven girls. The students ranged in ages from eight to nine years old.
Procedure
Below is a short discussion of several programs and some of the most valuable
resources I drew from to incorporate into my classroom. I had several criteria I followed
in choosing activities. One, the movement activity had to help enhance the curriculum
through a hands-on approach. I was looking to generate enthusiasm and energy about the
subject we were studying. Two, I searched for games that were brain compatible, synapse
51
strengtheners used to increase meaning and the retention of the material. Third, they had
to be high interest and fun. These elements lead to the development of an expanding list
of resources from which to draw upon. So, the goal was to design each day’s curricular
agenda with brain-based activities that would increase the understanding of the standards
being taught, enhance memory, and make learning a happy and fun experience.
Education Through Music
ETM is a refreshingly different way to approach learning through song- experiencegames. Founded and developed by Mary Helen Richards it has been developed, tested,
and implemented for more than 40 years in many schools across the U.S., Canada, and
Japan. It provides a gateway for contemporary understanding of learning, motivation,
child theory, and cognitive development. I have been enriched by the spirit of learning
and the regard I develop with each of my students in the classroom through its practice.
The play that accompanies the music leads to the enhancement of the emotional and
social bonding that we all, as humans, need. ETM is a heart and mind connection, a
whole body experience that makes learning fun!
I have been involved in two Winter Courses: These classes were the primary means
of learning the philosophy, techniques, and Song Experience Games of ETM. These
courses were offered in Sacramento during the traditional school year. Also I have
attended three Colloquiums. This summer event is a weeklong intensive study of ETM. It
is designed for, but not limited to, those who have already taken at least one course in
ETM. Unlike other offerings, the Colloquium is an international event. I have been to two
colloquiums in Sacramento and one in Chicago.
52
Yoga
Teaching Yoga to kids once a week not only helps meet physical fitness minutes
but also develops a great sense of play. Although it may seem difficult at first for
children, yoga is actually natural movement. In fact, it is just like children’s play time:
absorbing, engaging, relaxing, and replenishing. Some of the benefits of Yoga include:
increased coordination, balance, and flexibility, tones muscle, regulates breathing, fosters
discipline, sharpens the mind, encourages focus and calm feelings, and boosts
confidence. The students really enjoy this activity. Kids tend to absorb everything that’s
going on around them, which can lead to over excitability and hyperactivity. Yoga helps
to filter out unwanted or distracting stimuli by encouraging them to concentrate on their
breathing as they practice each posture. We practice just once a week for 20 minutes on
our short Thursday. I attended a class for teaching Yoga to children through my local
university.
Children’s Theater Games
There are many good reasons to include theatre games in your classroom. I learned
this by taking Theater 118-Children’s Theater at Sacramento State University in the
Spring of 2009. This course explored the many ways to use the theater arts as an
enhancement of children’s development, education, expression and recreation. In
addition, I read Suzi Zimmerman’s book, More Theatre Games for Young Performers,
and pulled activities and games that used movement, vocal exercises, and improvisation.
Zimmerman (2004) states the Top Ten reasons to use theatre games on page two of her
book. I’d like to quote her Number One reason:
53
You are being observed by your principal or educational evaluator
and need a fun, energetic, hands-on activity that will impress even
the stuffiest red pen and make you look an awful lot like the next
‘Teacher of the Year!’ [So don’t forget to use the discussion circle
too]. (p. 2)
Several of my most used games from my class include:
Zip, Zap, Zop
Imaginary ball
Pass the object
Three level statues
Body machines
Space walk
Vocal warm-up
Killer
Mirror
Books
Movement Stories by Helen Landalf and Pamela Gerke are for kids 3-6 and an invaluable
resource for teachers who seek to enrich the lives of children through creative
experiences. The ten Movement Stories in this book are active, imaginative tales to be
told by a teacher as children act them out. Each story gives children an opportunity to
experience a basic movement concept such as levels, direction, or size of movement.
Integration of Physical Education in the Elementary Curriculum by James Humphrey

Word Change (p. 102) vocabulary

Number Man (p. 133) math

Back to Back (p. 140) practicing any kind of facts or concepts

Triangle Run (p. 145) triangles and polygons

Word Race (p. 147) geometric figures
315 Activities: Moving and Learning Curriculum and Great Games for Young
Children: Over 100 Games to Develop Self-Confidence, problem-Solving Skills, and
Cooperation by Rae Pica
54

Wonderful resources for games and motor activities
Lively Learning; Using the Arts to Teach the K-8 Curriculum by Linda Crawford

An excellent guide for integrating arts into every subject.
Tunes That Teach by Kris Thurgood and Kim Christopherson

A collection of language arts, math, science, and health
songs.
Active Bodies, Active Brains by Mary Clancy

Ready-to-use activities that foster the movement-learning
connection for students. She breaks down each game by standard,
intelligence type, thinking skills, movement skills, and the
movement-learning connection. Great stuff!
Brain Matters by Patricia Wolfe

Part III matches some instructional strategies to how the brain
learns best.
Let’s Do It Again: The Songs of ETM compiled by Mary Ellen Richards

This new edition is an update of the repertoire of Education
Through Music songs. It contains song experience game sequences,
described, illustrated and diagrammed in consistent and simple
form; rounds illustrated and diagrammed and songs that 'go
together'; story-songs and ballads, folk dances and form books. All
the songs are from English and American folk literature, approved
by music and classroom teachers from many different teaching
55
situations in Canada and the United States, pre-school through 8th
grade.
More Theatre games for Young Performers by Suzi Zimmerman

Improvisations and exercises for developing acting skills.
36 Games Kids Love to Play by Adrian Harrison

Indoor and outdoor playground games.
The Brain-Compatible Classroom by Laura Erlauer

Lots of examples of how to implement brain compatible strategies
in the classroom. There are lessons along with assessment and
feedback components.
99 Activities and Greetings by Melissa Correa-Connolly

Tried-and-true greetings and activities for morning meetings or
circle time grades K-8.
The Laughing Classroom by Diana Loomans and Karen Kolberg

Techniques to bring laughter and learning into your classroom.
Planning
Movere is the Latin word for move. Each day I looked at what needed to be taught
and where I could include add movement. Since experience is the ultimate
source of knowledge for children, I wanted them to be able to make their own
connections to what was being taught. Planning took a great deal of legwork as ideas and
activities came from many resources. I added the activities I wanted to explore into my
daily planner. Below is a sample-planning sketch of how I accomplished this:
56
Opening
After a writing or math exercise, I’d choose an ETM song to explore all week
during our morning circle time for about 10-15 minutes
Reading
To further enhance the weekly literature I’d incorporate some of the following:
 Have children act out the vocabulary words and parts of the story
 Move with verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, and walk the punctuation
 Sing the spelling words
 Act out the reading strategies with characters
Math
 Write and act out a problem solvers
 Play math fact freeze tag for a few minutes
 Sing songs like Tony Chestnut before a test to get the brain ready
Science and Social Studies
 Movement stories to show concepts like gravity, matter, oceanography and other
hard to grasp concepts
 Sing historical songs and play games that children of the time would have
played
Transition Time
 To energize and decrease noise, I would sing short, familiar tunes from the ETM
book to facilitate smooth transitions
What a Day Looks Like…
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At 8:05 in the morning the third graders roll into room B4 at Mission Ave. chatty
and excited. The day begins with a greeting from me: a handshake, hug, or a high 5. They
check the morning meeting board to sign in and look over the day’s agenda. A lead in
activity awaits them at their desks while homework is checked and the morning’s
business is taken care of. Then they all come to the carpet for circle time and we engage
in the first movement activity of the day, usually a song experience game from the ETM
handbook. We sing together for about 10-15 minutes.
During language arts time the children will act out the vocabulary words
associated with the week’s story. We read the story whole group and assign reading
strategy “characters” to practice comprehension. One student moves around the room as a
Questioner with a microphone, another “pumps iron” as she Predicts what will happen
next, Clara Fly (clarify) dons a feather boa and cat eye glasses and swings her boa around
to show winding forward or rewinding when a passage is confusing. There are parts for a
third of the class and we switch around each day.
At 10:15 we begin math. After a pen and pencil warm-up, we get up and move with
our latest division song. Skip counting the math facts is practiced with a ball relay. Each
team has to pass the ball to the next team member as they are calling out a math fact. The
cross-lateral movement serves to organize brain function. This kind of game activates the
nerve pathways between the two hemispheres. Not only do the children gain skill in rote
counting while engaged in this fun competition, but also the exercise unites the cognitive
and motor regions.
We form a “conga” line and dance our way down the hallway to lunch or play
58
Come Follow Me In a Line (ETM, p. 26).
In science we explored gravity through a movement story. The concepts of weight;
strong, light, and directions; forward, backward, sideways, up, and down, were explored
as I read the “science fiction” tale of astronauts encountering space travel. The kids loved
this activity and gave it high marks as we discussed it afterwards. They felt as if gravity
had taken over! They were doing all the work and thus growing the dendrites. Concrete
experience is one of the best ways to make these long lasting neural connections. We
could have just read about gravity or shown some slides, but this story really illustrated
the point of gravity. Next week they will make up their own jeopardy questions for a
game show format and review. I’ll ask them to act out a few of the principle words we
used.
As the afternoon continues the kids have to write their weekly paragraph. First I ask
them to fill out a graphic organizer with their ideas. Next they move out of their seats to
find a partner they can tell their story to. This refocused their attention with a new
activity and helped to cement what they wanted to say. After about 20-30 minutes they
stand to read what they have written.
Between subjects I’ll often have them sing a song we know to help keep the noise
down, or ask them to take a quick walk three times around the room before they get out
their books. I love to put on a Disco song and just ask my students to dance around. It is
amazing how a quick 2 minute break can get them settled right down to the tackle the
next task.
As the day in B4 comes to a close the students meet with their Native American
59
group to finish up a mural they have created to show what a typical village of that region
would look like. For the last 25 minutes of the day they are completely immersed in
drawing, coloring, and negotiating where things will go. When I ring the bell to clean it
up, stack it up, and pack it up, someone says with surprise, “You mean it is time to go
home already?”
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Chapter 4
REFLECTION
Summary
The process for completion of this project was rewarding and stimulating, yet very
time consuming. A plethora of literature abounds. Reviewing and choosing material from
so many resources was challenging. Fortunately, today nearly all of the research
conducted that is associated with brain development and movement continues, and this
researcher can carry on building what I have begun here. One thing is clear, enriched
environments help grow better brains, facilitate cognition and memory. This research
suggests that movement activities are integral to the learning process and further, learning
is more pronounced when the body is involved. The activities presented and tried in my
classroom served to validate this connection between brain-based research and the
assumption that movement affects brain development and learning.
Today’s standards are so extensive, with students being exposed to such an
overwhelming amount of information, that they are not able to fully learn all of it.
Although a brain-based approach doesn’t provide a recipe it asks that you consider the
nature of the brain in decision making. The challenge is how to assess and implement
strong, engaging, challenging, and integrated programs to strengthen this learning with
the brain in mind. We must explore the possibility that more activity makes its way into
today’s classrooms and in those of the future. In the preface of his book, Arts With the
Brain in Mind, Eric Jensen (2001) remarked, “Arts are not only fundamental to success in
61
our demanding, highly technical, fast-moving world, but they are what makes us most
human, most complete as people” (p. 7).
Recommendations
It is suggested that other teachers could use this project as an introduction, and be
purposeful about adding movement activities into everyday learning. Many books can be
easily accessed through the public library along with current periodicals and magazines.
The list of resources used in Chapter 3 and the project references, outline a number of
terrific programs and useful books. Researchers like Eric Jensen and Patricia Wolfe
bridge the gap between theory and practicality in a way that is understandable and easy to
follow.
Challenges
Selection of materials must be hands-on activities. It is important to emphasize that
the purpose of these activities is to enhance learning within a rigorous, relevant
curriculum and must be “minds on” (p. 188) as Patricia Wolfe describes it.
Most educators know that something is wrong with the system of outmoded book
learning and simply relying on standardized testing. We must think differently or have to
want to think differently about how we teach the subjects and standards throughout the
course of a six-hour day. Justifying the arts will be of the utmost importance. The art of
teaching the arts takes a dedicated teacher who is willing to put in the extra planning
time, and a certain expertise at integrating it with other disciplines. Professional growth is
so very important. Exposing educators to workshops and teacher trainings to promote
efficacy is the providence often of administrators, who tend to have their own agendas.
62
Although applied study takes time after school and during vacations, the advantages of
aesthetic expression are endless. We now know that learning through the arts makes
education intriguing and captures the imaginations of our students. Why not explore this?
In view of our ever changing world we also need to keep in mind what Caine and Caine
(1994) reported:
We must not forget that much of what happens in the school is
in the context of a larger society in action. The media, politicians,
local businesses, traffic, weather, pollution and clean ups,
entertainment industry, clubs, behavior of parents, and so on
all contribute to students’ experience. The impact of the world
beyond the school cannot be underestimated. In terms of immersion
and how the brain learns, all of society participates in education.
We need to begin to think in new, global ways about education
Generally. (p. 133)
The Future and This Research’s Effect
As an educational leader and advocate for Let’s Learn in a Moving Way, this
researcher will make connections with other educators and show how the incorporation of
the arts in education can improve, accentuate, and enhance any curriculum. The plan
included sharing the researcher’s findings first, at the school site level through the avenue
of professional growth, and by collaborating with grade level partners, as curriculum is
planned. In addition, the researcher provided a copy of this master’s project to the
district, and planned to share these findings in any other public forums that presented
themselves. Ultimately, the researcher endeavored to become a teacher of teachers either
as a mentor coach or as an educator at the college level.
63
APPENDIX A
Brain Areas Involved in Movement
Corpus Callosum
Thalamus
Hippocampus
Cerebellum
Amygdala
Hippocampus
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APPENDIX B
Neurons: The Brain’s Connectors
Cell Body
Myelin Sheath
Dendrites
Axon
Synapses
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APPENDIX C
The Left and Right of It!
Corpus Callosum: Nerve bundle that connects the two hemispheres allowing an
exchange of information.
Left Side
Right Side
Declarative knowledge
Sequential and analytical
Mathematical operations
Spoken language
Routine operations
Reasoning and logic
Logic
Procedural knowledge
Holistic and abstract
Imagination, insight, intuition
Interprets language
Sensory shapes and color
Relational operations
Music
Although the hemispheres have specific functions and process information
differently, the left and right sides work together and need to be cross-referenced daily.
66
REFERENCES
Americans for the Arts. (2005). The PSA survey findings. Washington, DC: Americans
for the Arts. retrieved November 19, 2008 from the World Wide Web:
http//www.americansforthearts.org/public-awareness/campaign-info/.
Armstrong, Thomas. (1994). Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Arnstine, D. (1967). Philosophy of education: Learning and schooling. New York:
Harper & Row.
Berger, John. (1972). Ways of seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and
Penquin Books, Ltd.
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