Art Activities, Attitudes, and Achievement in Elementary Mathematics

Abstract

The sixties and the seventies produced a surge of narrative essays citing the use of art with various school projects. Many of these essays emphasized the importance of art activities as a reinforcing agent in teaching reading (Bookbinder, 1975), language arts (Kaiser and Lowery, 1975), social studies (Eschliman, 1968), science (Foreman, 1970), and, pertinent to this study, concepts in mathematics (Forseth and Adams, 1970; Forseth, 1973, 1974). Art experiences have often been used in elementary mathematics classes to enhance the concrete-to-abstract experiences children encounter while learning mathematics. Art activities have also been used to develop problem-solving skills in children and to provide pleasant experiences for them in mathematics (Swartz, 1968). Yet, no research has appeared dealing with the effects these art experiences have on attitudes held by children toward mathematics and art, their effects on achievement in mathematics, or on the enhancement of creative thinking, which is frequently claimed as a benefit of art activity. Many observers have noted that favorable attitudes toward mathematics and art begin to decline in the elementary grades and that this decline continues well into college. To engender a favorable attitude toward any subject, success experiences must be provided for elementary school children. Natkin (1966) has shown that students who have pleasant associations with math may come to have more positive attitudes and less anxiety toward math even though their achievement may not change. Comparable research on attitude and achievement in art is relatively small. One study (Anderson, 1971) indicated students may have a favorable attitude toward art itself, but an inferiority complex about their own personal art behavior. Knowledge about art and actually doing art appear to be two separate behaviors. In the field of communication, mathematics and art are believed to deal with two separate modes of symbolic thought. Both modes are types of mental coding systems for retaining knowledge. Gross (1974) indicated that the major goals of education are to provide the child with the opportunity for the acquisition of competency in five thinking modes of symbolic behavior. Two of the five modes are the iconic mode, which is found in art making, and the logico-mathematical mode associated with mathematics. The iconic mode is represented by images emerging from the manipulation of concrete media in image making. The logicomathematical mode is represented by abstract symbols emerging from abstractions of mathematical operations, such as addition or multiplication which operate on a numerical system. Rohwer (1972) and Salomon (1972) postulated that as the acquisition of new or different modes or coding systems increases in a child, the mental capacity for new knowledge and various communication systems increases. Rohwer points out that with the acquisition of knowledge in each mode, children become able to handle more domains of information affiliated with that mode. Salomon states that these internalized skills serve as mental tools in the acquisition of new knowledge. This research suggests that a variety of learning experiences normally associated with one mode, such as the iconic mode, might be beneficial for children. Thus, using art activities normally associated with the iconic mode in a mathematics class may increase knowledge in both thinking modes and enable a child to communicate acquired knowledge in the logicomathematical mode more effectively. Paralleling this research in communication, studies in art education support an interdisciplinary use of art as a medium for coding information from other subjects. Clark (1973) has shown that children