Heather Francis provides three examples of action research related to arts education and arts integration in the classroom. First, an example of a teacher studying their own practice of self-care; second, a teacher testing out mind-mapping and visual art strategies in the classroom; and third, a recording of a teacher describing their self-study research conducted for their master's thesis.
 

Heather Francis provides three examples of action research related to arts education and arts integration in the classroom. 

First, an example of a teacher studying their own practice of self-care. When a seasoned teacher nearing the end of her career experiences burnout, she turns to self-study: can practice of self-care help her handle the stress of life and a teaching career with greater resilience? Working with a critical friend, she sets goals to leave work, at school, reconnect with friends, and spend quality time with family on the weekends. Through the process of journaling and reflecting, this teacher learned the importance of setting aside more time to take care of herself, and she also needs to balance self-care practices with more time spent on daily prep time for teaching. Preparation reduces stress at school.

In the second story, Heather describes a teacher who tested out mind-mapping and visual art strategies in their classroom during their action research project. This teacher noticed the majority of his professional development hours focused on literacy to such an extent that other core curricular areas including social studies, science, and the arts were neglected.  He hypothesized that students could incorporate all these subjects using mind-mapping tools and that this strategy might even cut down on required planning and preparation time. This research led him to validate and encouraging results.

Tina McCulloch, a graduate of the Arts Integration Endorsement program, joins the conversation for the third part of this episode. In 2019, Tina McCulloch was recorded while presenting her self-study reasearch to a classroom of teachers enrolled in the Arts Integration Endorsement. As part of her master's thesis, she describes her self-study research by explaining the context of her classroom, the problems she faced, and how she found solutions in arts education to address those problems. Her description of her study is a great example of how to use critical friends and utilize self-reflection for a greater understanding of your practice.
 
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Don't forget to peruse the bank of lesson plans produced by the BYU ARTS Partnership in dance, drama, music, visual arts, media arts, and more. Search by grade-level, art form or subject area at www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons.