I believe learners of all ages and abilities must be recognized, challenged, empowered, and actively engaged in learning. Learners deserve to be involved with course content in ways that temper the anxiety of new experiences and with the security of a scaffold, while harnessing natural engagement with personally meaningful tasks (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). I consider noncognitive factors, which encompass both social/emotional learning and executive functions, essential to human development (Lipnevich & Roberts, 2011). Through the arts, learners develop “habits of mind” (Hetland, Winner, Veenema, Sheridan, & Perkins, 2007) to help them navigate problems in school and life – communicating clearly, creatively, and in collaboration with others. The arts are my vehicle for engaging learners with these values across disciplines.

This series of scaffolded activities is a systematic, intentionally designed approach to supporting professional knowledge and skill development for future teachers; explicit instruction honors individual learning differences and prioritizes authentic engagement. Within the first week of course instruction, teacher candidates’ activate prior knowledge and immediately begin to engage with new models of arts integration teaching strategies appropriate for K-6 learners. Next, teacher candidates engage in collaborative practice in an environment that simulates a K-6 classroom. They receive timely, targeted feedback and reflect to revise their practices. Finally, they apply their professional skills in real-world settings with an authentic audience of K-6 classroom students. Throughout the process, a variety of technologies support interactions among teacher candidates, between teacher candidates and myself, and between teacher candidates and their classroom students. These technologies include Flipgrid, instructional videos, and GoReact, among other approved Google tools used commonly in the Hawaii Department of Education. The structure of explicit instruction also depends on ongoing reflection of in-class experiences, creative assignments, performance assessments, group activities, and evidence of learning produced by classroom students. Although the example described below is specific to teacher education, the strategy transfers to the development of confidence and competence for other professional contexts as well. The five steps of implementation are:

The assessment results show that all but one teacher candidate achieved the acceptable level or above on all final Integrated Lesson Plan evaluation criteria (see Summary of Outcomes). In particular, at least two-thirds of the teacher candidates achieved the excellent level on four out of the five evaluation criteria on the rubric. This level of achievement is remarkable especially considering that quite a few students in the course (40%) self-reported having learning differences. Teacher candidates’ comments on course evaluations also revealed positive learning experiences. A majority of the teacher candidates (64%) considered the course “fun” or “enjoyable” and commended the high quality of the content instruction. In relation to explicit instruction, teacher candidates particularly valued “explicit and exact examples,” “interactive teaching methods,” and “constructive feedback.” One student commented, “She [Jamie Simpson Steele] creates amazing lessons that are engaging and model strategies we are learning, she gives clear instructions for assignments, she pushes students to succeed.” These results suggest this approach to acquiring new knowledge and skills was effective, engaging, enjoyable for teacher candidates.