Maybe, this article was useful .

(Art as a Human Behavior - Ellen Dissanayake)

Maybe, this article was useful .

(Art as a Human Behavior - Ellen Dissanayake)

Dear Pris,

If by art you mean all the art forms I have had a great deal of experience working with adolescences in both expository writing and poetry. I can send you some information on this if you send me a message through RG.

The work has been done in the juvenile justice system, jails, and prisons. I designed the workshops based on the idea in critical theory of giving voice to the voiceless. Speaking from the margins if you will and received a rather nice grant from the National Endowments of the Arts. 

Poetry has been used in many other areas but not much in the population I believe you are focused on. Poetry has a way of letting the emotions begin to be exposed and a door is opened into the adolescence and his/her pain comes spilling onto the paper. 

I have found over the decades of teaching and my workshops that pain and anger are the driving forces behind most behavioral issues. The anger at not being herd and the pain of rejection is a very real phenomena in which drives the rejection of authority figures as modeled by those who have done the rejection to them.

Here are some links in general as to art therapy and behavior. 

Hope this helps

Douglas

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07421656.2000.10129706#.VNExn53F_fI

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197455609001233

Hi Douglas,

Thank you for posing this question. I note that you use /have used poetry with adolescents in the juvenile justice systems.

You may be interested in the work of Christopher Barnett, an Australian poet/playwright, who has worked in Nantes, France, for the past twenty years. Prior to leaving Melbourne, Australia, for France he worked in mental health centres and prisons to help participants write prose and poetry. His work method was to help identify those words which were useful for participants in putting a name to their dilemma, obsessions, oppressions, etc. He has continued and refined this approach in France to the extent that he now also coaches medical, penal and psychiatric staff in how to talk with their clients as part of government support for his studio's program.

As to the specifics of your question on art programs and problem behaviour; three years ago I had a literacy gig in a high school to work with problem behaviour boys in years 7 and 8. As you can imagine putting them all in the same class was a nightmare. It took two sessions to be able to negotiate with them on what we might do. Which was that we would leave our class room and go to the local park to write. It took another 2 sessions to "train" them to walk out of the classroom, on their own, go down two flights of stairs and wait at the school gate, all without disturbing the rest of the school.

The brightest ones figured they would be able to spend most of the class standing at the gate while I negotiated with the remainder. And so we went playing this game of "a fox, a goat and some beans" - whom could I move first and how. Each time when we returned to class they wrote something for me about what we had done. Their experience was their content. They wrote things like "the feel of the sun and the air on my skin as I went out the school doors..." Gold! Over the 10 weeks of the program I managed to get the whole of the class to walk out of the class room, out to school gate, to walk around the school perimeter, and finally we were able to walk to local park and spent the class time sitting in the sun and writing about sitting in the sun.

Rafe Esquith in his book "Teaching Like your Hair is on Fire" is an example where all the elements of a teacher's interaction with their students are considered, so as to help students and their education. And he puts on an annual student production of Shakespeare!

Lots to talk about in this topic!

regards,

Arpad

Dear Arpad,

Great personal story, it sounds like one of those feelings only teachers can get win one truly knows that the work penetrated the armor of a child. There is noting like congratulations! There is something about poetry that youth seem to get straight of. There is just a connection between feelings and song/poetry/expository writing that works. Don't know how else to put it OR KNOW WHY OR HOW because it will take the magic away.

Douglas

I can't help at all... But I just wanted to say what an interesting research topic this sounds like. All the best! =). 

Thank you very much for the contributions! All of it is helpful, appreciated and supportive. Yours too, Simon :-)

The interesting part about it, is that A. the arts hold no judgement and therefor no pressure. If a learner 'feels' yellow, you'll teach him to paint yellow, so he'll end up feeling less 'blue'. Or if you're feeling sad, you'll make minor chords available to him. It's all good, regardless. B. because of that judgement-free zone, it's safe for creating a shared vision and group projects, which supports social emotional learning outcomes. C. learners are trained in making unbiased observations and work with what is, which is very useful in society these days. D. in theatre there's the option of role play, which can help with building identity and empathy. And E. there is an immediate result and award when a learner created something and/or gets applauded. 

With the absence of pressure, people tend to be much more tolerant, fertile soil on which ethics thrive. So I'm really curious to learn if the schools withart education would have less problem behaviour in their schools than the schools without. Would there be any evidence of relatively immediate impact there? 

It does cover a large area, going from neuroscience to sociology to even economy if the art education solidified creative thinking processes in learners. 

(Such exciting matter to study!)

Dear Douglas, I'm trying to send you a message, but I'm hopelessly failing... I would love to learn what you know about poetry and expository writing. Please forgive me my awkwardness, but would you mind messaging me instead, please? Thank you!

-Pris

Dear Pris,

I will send you a message tonight.

Ti get started on your research I would suggest you first make a list of schools around your area, find out which schools have art and which do not, then ask for general discipline records. I am sure they cannot give your names but they will have a list of offences and this will allow you to get a feel for what is next on your project.

Hope than helps

Douglas 

Pris,

Looke over here...

http://www.districtadministration.com/article/putting-%E2%80%9Ca%E2%80%9D-steam

There is much more I can share with you... we are workin similar subjects, I'm open for a Skype discussion if you are up to it.

Pedro

 Hi Pedro,

Thank you for your response. I'm very very very tight for time at the moment, as deadlines are about to kill me (pun intended, yes). But at a later stage, I'd be happy to Skype with you. For now, it'd be really helpful of you'd have referrals to papers that researched the relation between (practising) the arts and neuroscience. Much appreciated, thanks!

Look into Neuroaesthetics... Wiki as a good base to startup...

Chatterjee, A. (2014). The Aesthetic Brain. How we Evolved to Desire Beauty and Enjoy Art. Oxford University Press, New York.

My research subject is structured around the relationship between cogntive styles (brain structures) and formal elements of visual arts. 

We are all very busy, believe me I understant... :)

You are so helpful, thank you so much. I will come back at you at a later stage, thank you for your understanding.