Approaches

The Difference between Integration and Enhancement

1 Min Read  •  Arts Integration

What does integration look like to you?  If your first thought leans toward images of cute projects on Pinterest, shadow boxes or having your students sing a song to help memorize the names of the states, you might be confusing arts integration with arts enhancement.  This is such a common misperception, and one that even those trained in the arts integration approach have difficulty with occasionally.  In today’s video, I’m going to share with you the difference between integration and enhancement, and how you can use one to move to the other.

Key Notes from this Video:

  • The big question you need to ask yourself is “what standards am I teaching and assessing?” to discover whether  you are integrating or enhancing.
  • Arts enhancement is NOT an evil word!  Arts enhancement helps to encourage creativity in the classroom and can motivate students.
  • Arts integration takes the benefits of arts enhancement and super sizes them by deeply activating inquiry, application and evaluation cognitive demand levels in students.
  • You must teach and assess both standards equitably and intentionally for arts integration to occur.

What additional questions or comments do you have about this distinction?  Let’s start a discussion in the comments area below!