American researchers have found that introducing activities such as rap, dancing, and painting into science teaching in schools will help students improve their academic performance. The research is published in the journal Mind, Brain, and Education.
When it comes to the learning process, we must first focus on memory issues. Science currently divides memory into 3 categories: sensory, short-term, and long-term. The first reception center for new knowledge is sensory memory. Here information from the senses is processed. The next stage is short-term memory, the most loaded during the day. Memorization occurs in 20-30 seconds, after which filtration occurs: something is forgotten, something is consolidated into a long-term storage. Material can be stored in long-term memory from a day to decades. However, the number of data processing levels is limited: information that is not used for a long time settles to the bottom. "Watson, understand: the human brain is an empty attic where you can stuff anything you want."
In one of the experiments that this review describes, the research team sought to determine whether an integrated curriculum with creativity has a direct impact on learning in general and student memorization in particular. The study involved 350 fifth-grade students from 6 schools in Baltimore, Maryland. Students were randomly assigned to one of two educational vectors: astronomy and physics or ecology and chemistry.
The experiment consisted of two sessions, each lasting three to four weeks, in which students attended both art and regular lessons in equal numbers. Integrating art into school activities consisted of rap, sketching and collage making. Regular lessons included reading paragraphs and filling out workbooks.
To analyze the effectiveness of memorization, the test results after 10 weeks were compared with the data before and immediately after the study of the material. It is noteworthy that 98% of knowledge was retained in the long term. The researchers explained this phenomenon by the fact that the students continued to sing the songs that they had mastered in their creative sessions, which allowed scientific facts to be better ingrained in long-term memory.
