An integrative arts project in preservice teacher education

In recent years, educators, education theorists and policy makers have become more interested in integrated, multidisciplinary educational philosophies and curricula as a means to remedy compartmentalization of the general educational curriculum, to reach beyond the boundaries of disciplinary studies and to cater for the world’ call for real capabilities within, across, and among disciplines. With a view that integrating the arts across disciplines will enhance the specific competencies and overall comprehension of the arts, an integrative arts project was administered in a group of art students receiving preservice teacher education. On completion of the project, the participants reflected that the process of artistic production was hard, but they were able to reach a new horizon in the area of the arts, they experienced valuable collaborative learning and they had more confidence in themselves as a result of having more understanding of their own abilities.