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Alexis Lloyd
March 1, 2016
UWRT 1103
Mrs. Caruso
Inquiry Synthesis Paper
AIBL, known as Arts Infused Based Learning, is a style of teaching used to teach
students through the arts like music, dance, drama and art instead of the traditional curriculum.
AIBL is the idea of concepts, creating or inventing skits or objects to create a connection for the
students. Teachers use this technique so they have a better way of connecting and reaching out to
students who have trouble in a traditional curriculum classroom. Not all students can learn
through the same learning styles, leaving the education system to go the extra mile to try and
reach out to those students so they dont get left behind and are able to keep up with the regular
pace of a classroom. In this research I have looked at how well it works against the standard
curriculum, the effects it has on students and teachers, how far it plans on taking off and also
what it is supposed to do during instruction.
During my first semester of college, I did clinical hours at Albemarle Elementary School,
also known as ARES. I was able to be interactive with a classroom and also present lesson plans
based on the five integral parts of AIBL: Community, Creativity, Communication, Collaboration,
and Critical Thinking. Students were supposed to be able to follow through each lesson plan with
one of these five themes being the main factor and would have to work to figure out how it all
was interconnected. As a student I can understand the difficulty of trying to understand the
standard curriculum just by reading out of a textbook or solving a couple problems on a sheet of
paper so when I was able to teach kids the same thing that I had once been learning, I was able to

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add in my own style and my own ideas in ways where I knew that students could understand and
take home at the end of the day. During a lesson on the American Revolution, I had my students
march around the room screaming NO MORE TAXES NO TAXATION WITHOUT
REPRESENTATION and even though to them it was simply just a fun activity that left them
giggly because they were allowed to use their outside voices, they were learning without even
realizing it. They understood who they were portraying in the activity and why, only because
they were interested in the material and I dont know about you but thats a pretty big step when
youre trying to get fourth graders to learn about the long history of the American Revolution.
According to Susan Riley, an Arts Integration Specialist, the concept of learning AIBL
helps push teachers and kids outside of their limits and help them build on skills that would
increase their academic performance. Skills like creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking are
some of the key skills that are produced when teaching AIBL but it can also affects students and
teachers individually on a more intellectual level. An inquiry article written about the effects of
AIBL in the subject of science talks about the studies conducted to test to see if AIBL can help
students with the general curriculum and it states that although there evidence cant fully qualify
to make that determination for that study, but that there was significant changes in science
literacy, science process skills and self-confidence in the students (Gormally & Brickman). This
shows that AIBL can be perceived on a case by case basis and that it may not work for other
students who are interested in the subject. They simply arent motivated to do the work and
follow through unless it is something that can hold their attention and keep them active.
Now while I was doing this research I came across a YouTube video called Infusion: Arts
in Education - using arts to learn made by an organization called 2010 Legacies Now and it
mentioned ways how it affected the teachers as well. Teachers mentioned how they would have

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to go out of their comfort zones to try and get into character for their lesson and they talked
about how it felt good to push the boundaries because it kept their students engaged, entertained,
and made it easier for their students to retain the information. I also found a blog that allows
teachers to discuss lesson plans with other teachers and things that they can improve on and in
one segment a teacher wrote this in one of her posts about AIBL and how it can affect teachers,
not just students: ......It affords the teacher the opportunity to learn more about how each student
thinks and to develop critical thinking skills in a non-threatening and engaging way. It is slowpaced, relaxed and yet it has a certain kind of intensity as it draws in the viewers and has them
constantly looking for something else to notice (Moore).
In an article written by Kerry Freedman and Patricia Stuhr titled Curriculum Change in
21st Century they talk about the plans of taking AIBL to larger domains. They focus on one
section called visual arts and how that the broader, more creative and the critical exploration
helps students can relate on a more local, state or national level. Students cant focus on the old
ways of teaching because right now it doesnt interest them and they need something that's new
and more modern to stay intrigued and thats exactly one of the main points for making AIBL
bigger in schools.
Right now students simply aren't motivated to do work that they perceive as boring so
they dont put any effort into it, effecting the scores of standardized testing and all of their other
assignments. We want students to WANT to learn, not just because theyre forced to sit into a
seat and listen to something they dont want to for eight hours but if we put the same historical
information in front of them but with just a different way of addressing it, I can guarantee that
they will retain the information and will see the art of learning in a completely new light.

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Works Cited
Freedman, Kerry , and Patricia Stuhr. Curriculum Change for the 21st Century: Visual
Culture Art Education. N.p. 114. Print.
Gormally, Cara; Brickman, Peggy; Hallar, Brittan; and Armstrong, Norris (2009) "Effects
of Inquiry-based Learning on Students Science Literacy Skills and Confidence," International
Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 3: No. 2, Article 16. Available at:
http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ij-sotl/vol3/iss2/16
Infusion: Arts in Education - Using Arts to Learn. YouTube. YouTube, 21 Oct. 2010. Web.
Moore, Diedre. Visual Thinking Strategies: A New Adventure in Teaching Art.
Education closet. N.p., 24 Feb. 2016. Web.
Riley, Susan. Use Arts Integration to Enhance Common Core. Edutopia. N.p., 30 Nov. 2012.
Web.
Wilson, Terri A. Infusion: Arts in Education. BC Teachers Federation . N.p., May 2012. Web.