UC Irvine

We explore the learning that takes place through the inner and interpersonaldialogues students engage in as part of the creative and expressive processes common to all arts disciplines. A writing-infused visual and performing arts curriculum is described, in which students carry out brief writing assignments as a prelude to classroom discussions and critiques of artwork. Two types of data—interviews with teachers and student written work—are used to demonstrate the effects of classroom dialogues. A descriptive quantitative study, in which pre and post essays written by urban high school students are compared, supports notions that such dialogues enhance students’ abilities to think through problems and express ideas clearly.