The “Transfer Matrix” framework, which emphasizes the role of explicit instruction and practices in helping to transfer knowledge from one academic domain to another, indicates the importance of more explicit instruction and practice in failed learning across the art domain. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) can leverage the partnerships with local art organizations to strengthen their framework. In turn, MCPS will be providing improved educational opportunities for their students.
The local arts and humanities association, the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) is one of its largest partners and is critical in supporting arts advocacy and education. AHCMC is open to all educators for training via specific workshops designed for educational purposes. These sessions are aimed at coaches to provide them with a variety of tools to enable arts to permeate diverse fields so that, as a result, the content becomes more exciting and learners can easily comprehend the central concepts. To illustrate, the teachers will learn strategies that they can employ to integrate line and shape elements of visual arts into geometry lessons, thereby sharpening their spatial reasoning skills among students.
Furthermore, AHCMC(Art and Humanities Council of Montgomery County) also offers grants supporting school art-based initiatives. The grants allow teachers to initiate, conduct, and implement cross-subject projects, allowing students to take the skills and knowledge they have acquired outside the classroom and apply it to real-life situations. (Arts et al., 2023) Moreover, AHCMC enables artist residencies, allowing professional artists to stay in schools for an extended period. (Arts et al., 2023) These workshops provide students with direct experience of art-making and artistic processes and develop students’ thinking skills, teamwork, and communication abilities. Art teachers direct students in a way that gets them to create projects under various themes and then use those projects across disciplines, thus promoting the transfer of learning. Partnership involvement allows schools to synchronize various learning activities through the “Transfer Matrix Model” in different ways. Likewise, AHCMC workshops are expected to enable teachers to acquire and apply the knowledge and strategies of purposefully conveying arts concepts by highlighting the connections between arts and other subjects and thereby supporting intersupportinginary understanding. (Gibson & Ewing, 2020)
Another critical factor, the Montgomery County Music Teachers Association (MCMTA), is also a member of a community of successful music teachers who provide access to resources. MCMTA provides workshops and clinics for either the teachers or the students. However, the emphasis is placed on the musical concepts and their application beyond the music rooms and in life in general. These sessions foster links between music and math topics and make students understand them better. Not only that, but MCMTA also encourages students to showcase their talents at these performances, which adds to teamwork, collaboration, and self-expression. Such skills are useful both during academic and personal life. MCMTA clinics can be used to point out that musical themes are relevant to science principles and present how connections exist between science subjects. (Gibson & Ewing, 2020)
Through MTC, an Adventure Theatre professional theatre company, educational enterprises are offered to engage with the theatre world and promote critical thinking. Through its educational matinees equipped with study guide materials, Adventure Theatre endeavours to stimulate students’ minds and lead them to delve deeper into different characters’ lives to achieve critical thinking and interpretation skills. (Adventure Theatre – ATMTC Academy, n.d.)Through art workshops in the school, students cooperate with theatre artists to engage in such activities as creating things, problem-solving, and team learning, which are explored explicitly in specific productions. The Adventure Theatre workshop allows students to acquire a practical sense of problem-solving skills and makes them more adaptive in other areas of their academic interests(Gibson & Ewing, 2020)
In conclusion, partnerships with local art organizations offer valuable opportunities for MCPS schools to enhance the transfer of learning among students. By integrating arts into diverse subjects, providing hands-on experiences, and fostering critical thinking skills, these partnerships contribute to a well-rounded educational experience for students, preparing them for success in various academic and personal endeavours.
References
Adventure Theatre – ATMTC Academy. (n.d.). Adventuretheatre-Mtc.org. Retrieved March 3, 2024, from https://adventuretheatre-mtc.org/
Arts, Spring, H. C. of M. C. 801 E. D. S., & Fax: 301-565-3809, M. 20910 P. 301-565-3805. (2023, December 20). Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. Www.creativemoco.com. https://www.creativemoco.com
Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2020). Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Palgrave Macmillan.
MCMTA – Montgomery County Music Teachers Association. (n.d.). Mcmta.msmta.org. Retrieved March 3, 2024, from https://mcmta.msmta.org/
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