If you have more questions for the teachers, visit the forum in the Thinking Classroom and send them a note. Of course, we like the idea of helping students become better thinkers. We've found that students tend to relate more to the ideas and concepts presented from subject to subject. Students often have very little knowledge in the arts at the elementary level. Kids get triple the exposure to the ideas and themes, because we all address those ideas and themes across the board in art, and music, and in poetry.
Kids acquire a basic vocabulary and begin to learn how to talk about the their learning in the arts.
Once kids have a knowledge base to work from, then we find we can push students to deepen and broaden that knowledge which brings with it the types of understanding we want. There is this thinking-centered goal that runs through all of our classes now. It has helped us consider and teach toward the big picture in all areas. I guess we still wonder if there is some proven formula for fostering transfer most effectively that we haven't discovered yet - the Holy Grail of teaching for transfer. So as teacher-researchers, I think we're learning how to look at the theories and think through the problems and issues involved in implementing them.