By Cally Flox

Human beings are born curious with a drive to understand the world around them and to improve their lives. Our commitment to engaged learning through nurturing pedagogy inspires two questions that help us tap into that innate ambition:

            • How can we educate our young people in a way that ignites their passion and optimizes their natural propensity for wonder?

            • How can we evoke deep learning in the many content areas available in schools while teaching emotional competence and bringing joy?

            In the BYU ARTS Partnership—in which ARTS stands for Arts Reaching and Teaching in Schools—my team and I work with teachers across the BYU–Public School Partnership to improve student learning and school culture through the arts. We provide professional development in the arts and arts integration.

            For example, during a visit last summer to the Primal Forces: Earth exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art, the nuanced language from each work of art spoke to each individual. Teachers were invited to express what they were feeling and learning from the works through movement. As they stretched, twisted, and traveled across the floor, language emerged to describe the power of the quilted images representing the “nurturing and destructive powers of the earth.”

            Having “lived” the art, teachers returned to their students with driving questions and thinking routines to help them experience looking at works of art with emotional nuances, complexity, and ambiguity so students might better understand themselves, others, and the world around them. Then, as makers and creators in the arts, students may find their own preferences, develop their personal voice, refine areas of excellence, and see the outcomes of their choices. Like the arts, inspiring subject matter in all content areas may awaken the spirit in each of us with awe-filled moments that teach us from the inside out. Facilitating a learner’s innate curiosity and desire for continuous improvement drives our commitment to engaged learning through nurturing pedagogy.

 

Portrait of Cally Fox

Cally Flox is the assistant director for arts education for the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling (CITES) and a teaching artist, educator, administrator, and lifelong dancer. She holds an MEd in educational leadership and is the founding director of the BYU ARTS Partnership, which improves student learning and school culture through educator professional development in the arts. She is the lead author of Teacher’s Guide to Resilience Through the Arts and has extended knowledge in human development and neurophysiology with brain-compatible, multisensory teaching strategies. She has three decades of experience teaching creative dance and integrated arts to people of all ages and has taught and presented in private studios, professional organizations, public schools, and professional development programs across the country. She serves on the Utah and national boards of Dance and the Child International (daCi). She has raised a family of outdoors-loving artists with her husband, Scott, and enjoys traveling, learning new art forms, and dancing with her grandchildren.