UH Manoa Curriculum Research & Development Group participates in $1.1 million arts education program

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Helen Au, (808) 956-4949
College of Education
Posted: Oct 2, 2006

HONOLULU - The Program Research and Evaluation Office in the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG) at UH Mānoa‘s College of Education will collect and interpret data on the effects of arts education for the Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance, which was recently awarded a four-year, $1.1 million grant by the U. S. Department of Education‘s Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) program.

CRDG received $356,400 for the project and will conduct research that will provide them with opportunities to train young researchers, and to expand their repertoire of research capabilities.

The AEMDD program provides elementary school teachers professional development and in-class mentoring in how to use the arts (drama, dance, music and the visual arts) to teach reading and mathematics. The Alliance will oversee the grant and provide teacher training and mentoring. The project is part of the ARTS FIRST Strategic Plan. The ARTS FIRST group, comprised of the College of Education and the Arts Alliance, UH Mānoa‘s College of Arts and Humanities, the State Department of Education, Hawaiʻi Association of Independent Schools and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, is working to place art programs in every school in the state.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to partner with the Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance once again," said Dr. Paul Brandon, chair of program research and evaluation at CRDG. "Preliminary findings from research conducted in the first project suggest that the project had positive effects on student performance. It is hoped that findings from the study will have an impact on student success in arts education."

The research is designed as a quasi-experiment in which the Alliance will train and mentor teachers at four public elementary schools on Oʻahu. Two of the four schools will serve as the control group in the first year of the project and will receive project training thereafter. The researchers will compare schools at various stages of teacher training. Children will be followed over the course of the grant, and the effects of the project on their achievement, attitudes and interest in the arts will be measured. The effects on teacher skills in using the arts to teach reading and mathematics, and their attitudes toward teaching with the arts also will be examined.

For more information, contact the CRDG Program Research and Evaluation Office at 956-4928.

About the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG)
The Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG) is an organized research unit in the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi. Since 1966, CRDG has served the educational community locally, nationally, and internationally by conducting research and creating, evaluating, disseminating, and supporting educational programs that serve students, teachers, and other educators in grades preK-12. CRDG also actively contributes to the body of professional knowledge and practice in teaching and learning, curriculum development, program dissemination and implementation, evaluation and assessment, and school improvement. For more information, visit http://www.hawaii.edu/crdg/programs.

For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/crdg/programs