Artistic Expression Has Unexpected Benefit for Teens

In my teaching career, I have been fortunate to educate at the secondary level. My focus was on life sciences but most of my students were also learning English as a second language. One tool I used to help students conceptualize ideas like incomplete dominance in genetics or resource competition in ecosystems was art. If you aren’t familiar, teachers use a variety of visual strategies in English-language development, including drawings to go with vocabulary or sketching out the steps to a problem. Due to my classroom experiences, I have known for 10+ years that art can be used cross-curricularly in a secondary education setting to build English and subject matter fluency, but it goes beyond science or STEAM.

Recently, I came across a research study about another surprising benefit to artistic expression for secondary education - development of entrepreneurial skills. It makes sense and I’ve already written about the benefits of process-based art for creative problem solving and critical thinking. It just never occurred to me that art could also lend itself to the development of such a specific skill set like designing a business plan. Though there is certainly more nuance to this research, I find it intriguing to consider that by encouraging long term art exploration (past early and primary education), we may be shaping future business leaders, as well.

If you are interested in reading the article for yourself:

“Impact of Artistic Expression on the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills in Secondary Education”