Teaching With the Brain in Mind

(1997). Other schools in the area like Duxbury,
Clinton, and Fair Avenue are experiencing similar
academic success through an arts emphasis.
Norman Weinberger states emphatically that
the argument that art and music are frills “finds no
objective support.” He summarizes, “Teachers
should be encouraged to bring or increase music
in the classroom” (Weinberger 1996). But do they
need to be experts or music teachers? Music specialists
are preferred, but in the absence of an
expert, something is better than nothing.
Enrichment Through the Surroundings
Teachers often like to share their “enriched classroom”
with others. They proudly show off all of
the affirmations, mobiles, posters, colors, and pictures
on the walls as symbols of enrichment. Here,
the word enrichment is obviously being used very
loosely. Remember that enrichment comes from
challenge and feedback, not artistic merit or aesthetic
enjoyment.
Does this mean that we should encourage
bare-walled classrooms? Absolutely not! While the
busy, decorative classrooms probably have debatable
enrichment value, they do serve other very
valuable purposes. They can be a source of inspiration,
affirmation, and content. They can help learners
feel safe, comfortable, or keep up with the
learning (Debes 1974). Do you think it matters
what we look at? In hospitals, a controlled study
found that patients with “a view room” recovered
faster than those who stared at a brick wall. The
stimulation apparently affects more than wellbeing;
it also feeds the brain (Urich 1984). A rich
classroom environment full of posters, mobiles,
maps, pictures, and graphic organizers will be
taken in at some level by most students.
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Practical Suggestions
Enriched Environments and the Brain
We’ve come to understand the two critical ingredients
in enrichment are challenge and feedback.
Since what’s challenging for one student may not
be challenging for another, this makes a tremendous
argument for choice in the learning process,
including self-paced learning, and more variety in
the strategies used to engage learners better. Examples
of choice include the student’s option to select
the complexity or type of a project. In addition,
choice may include student decisions about computers,
videos, partners, seating, and the final format
of the expected end result. Variety means that
regardless of what students choose, it’s the educator’s
imperative to expose them to a wide variety of
methodology. This means rotating individual and
group work, drama, music, presentations, selfdirected
work, computers, guest speakers, and
travel to new locations, even if it’s just to another
classroom in the school.
To increase enrichment, it’s time to reaffirm
the integration of the arts and movement into the
curriculum. The national Goals 2000 statement
had little mention of the arts; that makes poor
sense in lieu of their long-term value. The arts
and movement are often excellent forms of challenge
and feedback. Norman Weinberger calls for
“widespread educational trials” in arts and music
education. In the same way that a new drug is
tested with controlled studies under the eye of the
FDA, schools ought to conduct systematic and formally
documented trials with art and movement
education.
To do that, we might
Form better alliances among schools and
local universities in order to get better studies initiated
and tracked.