Abstract

We know that arts-engaged teachers inspire arts-engaged pupils. How do we foster arts-engaged teachers for the future, whatever their disciplines? One way of doing this is through their initial teacher training (ITT). In a changing landscape of teacher training provision in the UK, with tight timeframes and a focus on literacy and numeracy, where and how can providers find the time and space to develop arts-based practice? Leeds Museums and Galleries (LMG) conducted a three-year action research project with 900 second year BA Education trainees from York St John University and Leeds Trinity University centered on the question, “how much object-based learning does a trainee need to make an impact in classroom practice?” The authors tracked “sticky learning” and found that using objects led to a 69 percent increase in confidence in using objects in teaching and museums as resources for learning, even with trainees studying nonarts disciplines. Over the course of the project, object-based learning was used to change the quality of teaching, focusing not just on subject knowledge and attainment, but also on the social value of art for creativity, well-being, and by telling stories from different perspectives. The interventions were aimed at developing the trainees’ own cultural capital.