Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts

Offers an alternative view of how arts benefits society based on understanding individual, intrinsic benefits as the gateway to more public benefits. Argues that efforts to sustain the supply of the arts should be balanced with a focus on building demand

Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts, and the Brain

Excerpts presentations and discussions from a May 2009 conference on the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, the arts, and learning -- the effects of early arts education on other aspects of cognition and implications for policy and practice

When the street becomes a pedagogue

I've long been interested in the way that public space comes to be used to present the ideas of private concerns. I've never quite understood why a fast food chain can blatantly display their ideas in the streetscape, yet graffiti and street art is considered the work of criminals. I've found much of my professional activity, including PhD research, devoted to the exploration of how signage is deployed and appropriated and want to draw on a couple of these research projects to explain how I see the public pedagogical intent of urban signage functioning in the street-scape

Writing as a mode of teaching and learning in secondary discipline-based art education

This study examines the use of writing in art education and its possibilities for use in the four disciplines of DBAE. Teacher attitudes and associated behaviors with regard to these and related topics are assessed. It was expected that some teachers would favor a creativity- or art production-centered approach to the teaching of art over DBAE. Because writing can be viewed as an academic mode of learning, some apprehension was also expected from those who favor creativity and art production. Despite teachers’ lack of training in DBAE disciplines other than art production and in using writing in the art room, teacher attitudes and behaviors were positive with regard to these areas. The teachers surveyed expressed support for DBAE and the use of writing in art education. Of the four DBAE disciplines, art production was viewed by the surveyed teachers as least suitable for the use of writing. The teachers also supported creativity and cultural literacy as goals of art education. These study results were very positive and led to the conclusion that differences exist among teacher training program philosophies and methodologies and actual teacher attitudes and teaching practices. Because of the differences among teacher training programs and art teaching in reality, teacher training programs should consider changing in order to reflect art teachers’ beliefs and the prevailing trends in art education accurately. Other implications for education and further study are also discussed

On knowledge bases and maps of knowledge : some guiddities on getting to know in contemporary higher education

The article briefly introduces a normative and epistemological backdrop to our institutional mapping of knowledge. The assignment given to higher education may be said, in very general terms, to contribute to our knowledge of how to cope with life locally and globally in acceptable and possibly innovative and better ways. Our knowledge bases put to use through institutional maps of knowledge are challenged as our coping is questioned. New relations between practise and theory, transdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, are requested. The central paragraph of the Norwegian Act relating to Universities and University Colleges is used as case of institutional mapping and a pretext for discussing knowledge bases put to use. It is argued that the Act’s provision of alternative career tracks might provide an opportunity bridging gaps between theory and practise. The alternative track of «førstelektor» is seen to comply with the international trend towards designing professional doctorates, and additionally to meet the challenges of contemporary society

Higher education provision in the United Kingdom: an analysis of HE workforce data

"This report is an analysis of Higher Education (HE) provision in the United Kingdom. It brings together information about the HE workforce from diverse sources, and provides an authoritative and comprehensive set of facts, figures and insights relating to the UK higher education sector." - Page 3

Review of practice-led research in art, design & architecture

This review report sets out the outcomes of a 10 month investigation to describe the landscape of practice-led research in Art, Design and Architecture (ADA) in the UK and beyond. We were asked for a qualitative review but of course it has been important to gather some numbers to check and illustrate our observations. We have consulted widely, both face to face and in the virtual world, with experts and novices in the UK and around the world. We have tried to strike a balance between the natural desire of our colleagues to debate the more contentious aspects of this territory (they were never going to forgo that opportunity) and the equally strong wish of the AHRC that we should provide a clear description of what is happening. We have collected some diverse examples of research and subjected them to various examinations. We have also examined a selection of research projects funded by AHRC and other projects by creative practitioners, funded by a non-research organisation. From all this we have been able to describe the landscape in a straightforward sense: We have measures of the proportions of ADA academics involved in practice-led research. We have clarified differences in the ways that the different ADA disciplines engage with practice-led research and identified some problems that indicate possible future support strategies. We have discussed some problems with general definitions of research and identified issues that should be addressed to ensure that the AHRC definition can be applied to the full range of practice-led research. We have picked out some specific case examples that illustrate the range of contexts, methods and contributions made by practice-led researchers, and more are described in detail in Appendix F. We have also sought to assess how this research relates to the wider international picture in which the UK appears to have a strong position in both volume and development of research. We have also set out some issues that affect this community of researchers: What strengths and weaknesses have we observed and where is there a need to support development? Do the AHRC definition of research and guidance on practice-led research provide an effective framework? We have illustrated the state of development of research in ADA, and some reasons why it is less robust than might be expected from such long established disciplines. We recommend that the career path of researchers in ADA needs some attention and make some suggestions about how that could be achieved. We have also indicated some areas of inquiry that might be supported to advance the theory and methods of practice-led research. In particular we have come to the conclusion that conventional ideas of contribution to knowledge or understanding may not be serving us well. This is significant to fine artists but we believe that it relevant across ADA and a shared effort to develop appropriate new models would be a constructive development. The full set of recommendations can be found in chapter 5