Integrated arts

In education, integrated arts is a teaching approach that uses artistic work to help the learning experience in other subjects. It is mostly used in primary education.
It may also refer to inter-disciplinary art, art research, development, production, presentation, or artistic creation of work that fully uses two or more art disciplines to create a work for a specific audience.
Description
The Integrated Arts is defined as an activity which induces in the learner an emotional or kinesthetic state which is in some way analogous to the concept being taught, and which occurs through heightened sensory awareness on the part of the learner. The term integrated is used to denote the integration of the arts experience into the learning process. The Integrated Arts Experience provides opportunities for the following processes to occur:
# perceptual cognition
# metaphorical modes of thinking
# use of alternative forms of communication.
Implementation
In many schools integrated arts has been implemented and widely used to teach subjects that retain the attention of students. The rationale for implementing the integration of arts in the education system has been discussed by many of the art educators and others concerned with completeness of general education.
Approaches include taking the students to a museum, describing them about the paintings and telling them the background of that painting and then asking the students to write an essay on their visit to museum in English. Another example of teaching the students with the help of arts is making them to first read a chapter of history and then asking them to create a summary of the chapter through painting. Teaching of history can also be done by role play method where the students enact the characters in the class. One other method which can be used for students of first grade or below that for teaching about animals, can be done by making them hear the sounds of different animals and asking them to recognize.
Claimed advantages
Integration of arts in a classroom helps students to connect with the world they live in. The fundamental principle for integrating arts can be thought as follows:
* there is a similarity across arts and other subjects.
* incorporating arts into other subjects helps in accelerating and facilitating the learning process.
* art promotes creativity.
* integrated arts program are more economical than separate instruction in each area.
It is also claimed integrated art activities is it will help the child to connect his knowledge with the world outside and help him in transferring his learning about arts to many of his other subjects.

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