This work is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution/NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0

International Public License - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-

sa/4.0/legalcode.es

Sinergias educativas

July - Septiembre Vol. 9 - 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

eISSN: 2661-6661

revistasinergias@soyuo.mx

Page 69-95

Received: January 10 , 2024

Approved: June 11, 2024

Incidence of arts education on cognitive

development. Case study: Eduardo

Laredo Institute

Incidencia de la educación artística en el desarrollo

cognitivo. Estudio de caso: Instituto Eduardo Laredo

Franklin Anaya Giorgis

Abstract

Recommendations for education in the 21st century focus on the

need to incorporate the arts into school education programs as a way

to strengthen interculturality and citizenship. There are also

experimental trends that link the arts with intellectual and cognitive

development. An empirical study on the subject is presented here,

showing the first evaluation results of the incidence of the arts on

cognitive development, in an educational institution that combines

them with the official programs of formal education, in a political

and administrative context of education, which historically has not

formally recognized arts education for children and adolescents. The

case study of the experience of the "Eduardo Laredo" Institute of

Cochabamba - Bolivia, allows us to reaffirm the positive impact of

incorporating the arts in regular education, as an element of

intellectual/cognitive development and social being.

Keywords: Arts, education, cognitive development, intellectual

development

B.A. and M.A., Psychology.

D. Candidate, Centro de Estudios Superiores

Universitarios - Universidad Mayor de San

Simón. Bolivia

franklin.anaya.g@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4721-153X

Article

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Resumen

Las recomendaciones para la educación en el siglo XXI se centran

en la necesidad de incorporar las artes a los programas de educación

escolar como forma de reforzar la interculturalidad y la ciudadanía.

También hay tendencias experimentales que vinculan las artes con

el desarrollo intelectual y cognitivo. Se presenta aquí un estudio

empírico sobre el tema, que muestra los primeros resultados de

evaluación de la incidencia de las artes en el desarrollo cognitivo, en

una institución educativa que las combina con los programas

oficiales de educación formal, en un contexto político y

administrativo de la educación, que históricamente no ha reconocido

formalmente la educación artística para niños y adolescentes. El

estudio de caso de la experiencia del Instituto "Eduardo Laredo" de

Cochabamba - Bolivia, permite reafirmar el impacto positivo de la

incorporación de las artes en la educación regular, como elemento

de desarrollo intelectual/cognitivo y del ser social.

Palabras clave: Artes, educación, desarrollo cognitivo, desarrollo

intelectual.

Introduction

In 2006, UNESCO held the World Conference on Arts Education in

Lisbon. Its objectives were to analyze ways to enrich the processes

of education for creativity and the exercise of an inclusive

interculturality. This conference was the platform for the discussion

of ideas that recommend the large-scale promotion of educational

programs that include artistic activities in their formal content. Some

of the questions that were raised there were the following:

• Does art education serve only to appreciate art or should it

be considered as a means to enhance the learning of other

subjects?

• Should art be taught as a discipline, for its intrinsic value,

for the body of knowledge, skills and values it conveys, or

for both reasons?

• Should arts education be aimed at a few students who are

especially gifted in very specific disciplines or at all

students in general (cf. UNESCO, 2006).

These issues generated a consensus that we consider fundamental as

a background. In the first place, the importance of academic and

scientific contributions to demonstrate the effectiveness of arts

education and serve as an argument for political decision-making

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

processes in the field of education was emphasized. Although it is

generally assumed that creative capacities and cultural awareness

must be fostered in the 21st century, it is necessary to strengthen the

theoretical scaffolding to support this assumption. It is therefore

necessary to promote the collection of data and cases that will form

a body of information aimed at influencing the formulation of

policies that integrate the arts into education systems (Cf. UNESCO,

2006).

Along these lines, the UNESCO report mentions a series of current

programs focused on the relationship between the arts and formal

levels of education in different countries as a starting point for the

development of theories and future recommendations, and mentions

numerous specific experiences originating in different countries

around the world. In general, the need to foster cognitive

development, in its intellectual, social and cultural dimensions, by

improving formal education through the arts was recognized.

For its part, the Organization of Ibero-American States for

Education, Science and Culture, in its Educational Goals 2021 (OEI,

2014) considers it important to improve the curricula of formal

public education, for which the arts are fundamental, due to their

importance in human development. In this sense, school spaces

constitute a great opportunity to contextualize the knowledge and

practices of the arts, in their functions for citizen culture, human

development and cultural diversity (Marchesi, 2009). "The

development of creative capacity, self-esteem, willingness to learn,

the ability to work in teams and the development of abstract thinking,

find in arts education a powerful strategy to achieve it" (Marchesi,

2009: 126).

In this sense, in this article we seek to note preliminary results of a

research guided by the question: Can the arts influence human

cognitive development in a way that formal education alone does

not? In order to approach an answer, we focus our attention on an

initiative undertaken in the city of Cochabamba (Bolivia),

specifically that of the "Eduardo Laredo" Institute, where formal

education is integrated with arts education. Based on sequential

mixed methods (surveys, interviews, focus groups and application of

the Wechsler WAIS IV test), we seek here to give a brief sample of

the positive impact of arts education on cognitive development.

The development of this article is structured in two parts: in the first

part we briefly outline a general panorama of the teaching of the arts

in the formal educational system of Bolivia, with a particular section

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

for the case of the "Eduardo Laredo" Institute (hereinafter, IEL),

which is different from the general one. In the second part, we

present the results of the field work undertaken in order to verify

whether arts education has an impact on cognitive development.

Regular education and arts education.

In this section we will briefly describe the situation of formal

education in Bolivia with respect to arts education, on the one hand,

and the educational model applied by the IEL, on the other hand, in

order to summarize the preliminary results of the field study.

Education policy in Bolivia

As in the Latin American context in general, literacy (of adults), the

optimization of access to school and the permanence of children and

youth in the educational system are also problems in Bolivia that are

accentuated by deep socioeconomic, gender and ethnic-cultural

inequalities. These structural problems are aggravated by the

inefficiency of the state bureaucratic apparatus, obsolete legislation

and educational reforms that are insufficient to propose long-term

solutions. Most of the scarce resources allocated to the field of

education by the States are allocated to the basic needs of the

education systems and there is no room for discussion of the benefits

that art brings to society.

However, a systematic inclusion of the arts in formal education can

be of help in responding from resilience and creativity to needs

arising from the context, as evidenced by various experiences. An

example of this is the Venezuelan experience of the social musical

training project El Sistema, which, being outside the formal

education system, included thousands of children and young people

in alternative spaces in music education programs in order to reduce

delinquency, generating a positive impact in their context (Cf.

UNESCO, 2016).

Given that the arts have the capacity to contribute positively to

society, the need for comprehensive arts education is explicitly

mentioned among the goals established by the OEI: "The learning

and experience of art in schools constitute the most powerful

strategies for the construction of citizenship. The presence of art in

education, through arts education and education through art,

contributes to the integral and full development of children and

young people" (OEI, 2014, p. 147).

Despite the recommendations of international organizations

regarding arts education, the inclusion of the arts in school curricula

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

has not advanced significantly in the region. In the Bolivian case, in

the history of the different educational policies implemented in the

country, the arts have not been treated as a relevant element of

curricular competence. Arts education subjects are seen as a space

for technical learning and a civic vehicle for the ideological

reproduction of values of the different political hegemonies (Cf.

Arze, 2015).

The economic and social conditions also did not allow for the

consolidation of another approach. The different educational reforms

focused on other problems rather than on artistic content. For

example, the education reforms of 1955, within the framework of the

national revolution, reflected other circumstances and their main

challenge was to enable access to education for the majority of the

population and "to expand the ruralization of Bolivian education.

The results were meager. In 1966 an evaluation was made with

UNESCO and other international organizations, and only 40 percent

of the rural school population had been covered, after 10 years of

implementation" (Galindo, 2023, p. 250).

The 1994 reform, through Law No. 1565, incorporates for the first

time elements of evolutionary, structural and social psychology,

conceiving the child as a being in cognitive development and not as

a recipient of content. Law N°070 of 2010 on educational reform

gives continuity to this line. However, in both cases, no progress has

been made in new perspectives in traditional education, nor has it

been thought of establishing a change of scenario that contemplates

the inclusion of artistic training in formal education. An example of

this is that the hourly load of the music subject for schools is from

one to two weekly periods of 40 minutes, time dedicated to the

repetition of civic songs with anachronistic contents.

On the other hand, certain contents drawn from isolated experiences

and/or private initiatives that, under the structure of the Ministry of

Education in force since 2017, have become part of the higher

education subsystem of the Vice-Ministry of Higher Education and

Vocational Training. This means that the few places where it is

possible to reach to cover an acceptable minimum of contents for a

training that can be considered artistic -in the areas of music, theater,

dance, plastic arts and cinema-, are exclusively destined to students

graduated from schools of the schooled education system of the

Vice-Ministry of Regular Education, being their access requirement

to be high school graduates over 18 years old.

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

At present, the arts are recognized as a technification or

craftsmanship, as it was in Bolivia during the 19th century, with the

difference that nowadays the prerequisite of the baccalaureate is

established to formally access a training in arts in the higher levels

that the formal system recognizes: Medium Technician and Higher

Technician. The instances in which this training can be accessed are

under the responsibility of the Directorate of Technical,

Technological, Linguistic and Artistic Formation, which in turn

refers the responsibility to a small and hard-working group of people

surrounded by the general bureaucracy of the ministry with the

impossible task of supplying the five branches that they requisition

and administer: music, dance, theater, cinema and plastic arts.

We mention this scenario with the intention of illustrating the scant

importance given to the arts in the framework of formal school

education in Bolivia. The political changes in the different

administrations of the Bolivian State have not generated and even

less consolidated an education focused on the optimization of the

teaching-learning process, but rather an education of reproduction of

the political forms of the moment. Part of the problem is a unionized

and pragmatic teaching profession that, focused on its own interests,

has not contributed - with the exception of individuals - significantly

to improving Bolivian education processes. Apart from this

structure, there are few initiatives emerging from civil society as a

response to this shortcoming, among which the IEL stands out, as

described below.

The IEL model of arts education

Located in Cochabamba - Bolivia, the "Instituto de Educación

Integral y Formación Artística Eduardo Laredo", is today an

internationally recognized educational model. Its foundation dates

back to the 1960s, when the brothers Rafael and Franklin Anaya

Arze, together with a group of citizens who supported the process,

created the IEL as a response to the educational context of the time

(Cf. Anaya & Del Granado, 2023). To this end, they established a

regular education school that, in addition, articulated theoretical and

practical principles of music, mainly choral and piano,

complementing this program with some additional musical

instruments and classical dance. As Bayá points out, "it is necessary

to recognize that Laredo is a product of the history of its country, but

also of the spirits that operated for this project to exist and be

possible" (Bayá, 2012, p. 120).

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Originally, the school was established with a few students and a

group of teachers and artists who worked ad honorem for three years,

until 1964, when it obtained state recognition and a small budget

allocation. However, since its inception it has been confronted with

state educational policies that put its own subsistence at risk. Being

a somewhat autonomous experience and having emerged from a

citizens' initiative, the school did not reflect governmental political

interests or those of the teachers' union in the country, but with the

passage of time it has consolidated itself as a local and legitimate

response to the educational needs of its context. In this sense, it is

located within the framework of circuits parallel to the formal field

of state policy, that is, in the "third sector" (cf. Roitter, 2005), which

is driven by associations in the exercise of citizenship.

The institutional development of the IEL has added important

achievements over the decades and its educational model has been

consolidated in an exceptional way in Bolivia and in the region. An

example of this is, among others, Law N°123 of the Plurinational

State of Bolivia in 2011, which protects this educational experience

in the cultural dimension. In 2018, Law N°839 of the Department of

Cochabamba was enacted, declaring the IEL Cultural and

Educational Heritage. Finally, in the year 2021 the IEL obtains

international recognition through the Res. 06 of the Andean

Parliament of South America that presents it as a Heritage and

Educational Referent of this Andean zone of countries.

The artistic training model developed by the IEL has a complete

curriculum for specialized theoretical and practical training in the

areas of music, dance and theater. The Music specialty contains a

wide range of academic possibilities: all families of instruments are

taught, there is a youth symphony orchestra and a children's

orchestra, as well as choirs and lyrical singing, modern

contemporary dance and performing arts in theater.

The design of the workload combines in similar proportions the

contents of formal education with the artistic training program.

Currently, 7 thousand academic hours are covered in each of the

specialties of Music and Dance, while the Theater specialty has an

hourly load of 4 thousand academic hours. These hours per specialty

are distributed over 10 years, from 3rd grade to 6th grade of

secondary school, the time the student spends from entry to the

formal humanistic baccalaureate.

The IEL student population is constantly exposed to the points of

connection that different artistic practices offer in their daily lives.

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

For example, the subjects of choirs, history of the arts or history of

music are spaces shared among students of the three majors.

Immersed in one of the three lines of arts, the students, each with a

specific artistic curriculum and parallel to the contents of the

humanities (exact, human and social sciences), dedicate the morning

and afternoon to cultural activities. What are the consequences of

this type of training? With this concern in mind, field research has

been conducted to establish the impact of this educational model on

the cognitive development of students, comparing with results

obtained from formal education processes that do not significantly

include artistic content.

Arts education and cognitive development.

In this study, we are interested in verifying whether the arts, in

addition to promoting inclusive social and multicultural processes as

recommended by international organizations, can have a significant

impact on formal thinking skills and cognitive development,

including aspects of resilience and emotionality of being. Given that

in Bolivia there is no research focused on the relationship between

arts and cognitive development, it has been considered pertinent to

conduct a field research as a starting point. We are guided by the

objective of recommending the inclusion of the arts in educational

policies and with the purpose of formulating a proposal in this sense,

the experience of the IEL was investigated from an approach that we

will now summarize.

Conceptual support.

The discussion on the relationship between the development of

intelligence and the artistic component of education offers ample

ground in 20th century psychology. Vygotsky understood the arts as

the productive and creative activities of human beings, so that

education in the arts is aimed at their development and maturity.

Several decades later, H. Gardner mentions that arts education is

fundamental for cognitive development, because it stimulates

sensitive, creative, expressive and practical abilities. As a

consequence, the arts should be incorporated into schools because of

the existing correspondence in cognitive development among the

multiple facets of intelligence.

We adhere to the definition of intelligence made by R. Sternberg, for

whom intelligence is a process in constant development, where we

find processes of acquisition and consolidation of skills generating

different levels of mastery in a certain field of reality that in turn

requires the development of certain skills (Cf. Sternberg, 1987).

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Complementing this definition, we rely on Piaget, for whom

intelligence is an instrumentation of the process of cognitive

construction, being what is used at the moment of improvising on a

given event, in reality. The evolutionary character of cognition from

these perspectives is clearly evolutionary, so we speak of the

cognitive development in which each individual participates. In

Gardner's words:

All individuals go through the same stages of intellectual

development, Piaget argued, not because we are "programmed" to

do so but because, given the interaction of our innate predispositions

with the structure of the world in which we live, we will inevitably

formulate certain hypotheses about the world, test them, and then

modify them in light of the feedback we get (in Gardner, 1997, p.

40). In this sense, we understand cognitive development as an

evolutionary function of intelligence, supported by the fact that

"many authors consider that the ability to learn is an important aspect

of intelligence" (Sternberg, 1987, p. 21). It is a process that, like

perception, responds to many different levels, both formal (as in the

case of education) and cultural, depending on the experience itself in

the social and physical context of individuals, i.e. in their different

ways of articulating reality to intellectual processes (cf. Sternberg,

1987, p. 21).

In this line, researchers such as H. Gardner or N. Goodman have

documented how the arts present a broad platform for the

development of the human being, understanding it as an

individuality, in which each particular gender learns in a different

way and multiple intelligences are expressed in this process. That is

to say, intelligence is not reduced to its logical-mathematical or

verbal expression, but includes musical, kinesthetic, bodily,

interpersonal, spatial and environmental aspects. The arts, added to

the formal content of education systems, diversify learning and

emphasize the individual, while developing cognitive capacities (cf.

Gardner, 1994). With the conceptual support of the aforementioned

authors, among others, this research aims to investigate the impact

of the arts on cognitive development in relation to the educational

process, for which we have resorted to a composite methodology that

combines quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Materials and methods

Taking into account that our objective is to find elements of

significant relationship in the incidence of the arts in cognitive

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

development, we had to assume some methodological challenges to

demonstrate that what we were measuring was the incidence of the

arts in cognitive development. We started by assuming the need to

compare groups exposed to the arts in their educational process

(coming from the IEL) with others who were not. We called the first

group the "experimental group" and the others "comparative control

groups".

However, it was necessary to ensure that the only variable that had a

differentiated impact on the cognitive development of the groups

was the arts, so it was necessary to control for other independent

variables that could have an influence. Among the most important

were the socio-economic and cultural origin of the students -

including their parents' occupation and level of education-, access to

languages, travel and contact with other cultures. Thus, for the

selection of students from other schools to integrate the

"comparative control groups", we investigated - based on secondary

sources - the characteristics of the schools in Cochabamba, to choose

those in which the students had characteristics similar to those of the

"experimental group".

The second stage consisted of recognizing the existing populations,

applying a general survey to describe socioeconomic characteristics

and cultural belonging. We applied 250 surveys in five schools in

the same district of the city -those identified in the first stage of the

research- and, based on the results (which showed similar

characteristics of the students in all groups, including the

experimental group), we established six groups: five "comparative

control groups" made up of a total of 72 students who had graduated

from their respective schools and had been there for at least 10 years,

without systematic and formal exposure to the arts during this time.

On the other hand, the "experimental group" was made up of 46

individuals graduating from the IEL.

A third stage consisted of getting to know the social and emotional

capacities of the young people through personal interviews and focal

group dialogues.

In the last stage, data were collected to measure intellectual and

cognitive development through the Wechsler Adult Intelligence

Scale (WAIS IV), to finally make a comparison of global and

specific results between individuals and groups in terms of cognitive

development, that is, personal and social abilities to identify

differences in the development of the different skills addressed.

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Results

Once the population that would make up the sample for the fieldwork

was selected, the second stage began, consisting of the application

of surveys that allowed us, at first, to select and distribute the sample

with homogeneous individuals in terms of age, access to services,

type of family and cultural relevance. With this information,

constant personal and family traits were identified (e.g., access to

languages, travel abroad, use of social networks, free time and

concerns), elements that -among others- provide the predominant

identity components in both groups. This is important to establish an

approach to material and cultural contexts leaving the arts as a

relevant and objective variable that can be identifiable and

associated with cognitive development.

Table 1. Characteristics of the study groups with a standardized

survey

Control Groups

Experimental group

Number of

individuals

Age

Average age: 17

years, 5 months and

16 days.

Average age: 17 years, 6

months and 14 days.

Place of birth

87% Cochabamba -

96% Total Bolivia

(including CBBA),

4% Foreign.

92% Cochabamba - 100%

Bolivia (including CBBA),

0% Foreign.

Access to basic

services

Water - Electricity -

Sewerage - Gas

Internet -

Transportation

Water - Electricity -

Sewerage - Gas

Internet - Transportation

Parental

vocational

training

79%

88%

Institutional

origin

Prestigious private

schools in the city of

Cochabamba.

Institute of Integral

Education and

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Eduardo Laredo" Artistic

Formation.

Institutional

characteristic

10 years in the

educational

institution, without

systematic exposure

to art education.

10 years in the educational

institution, with systematic

exposure to art education.

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

As a second moment, autobiographical surveys were applied, which,

as qualitative research methods, place the individual in a situation in

which he/she produces discourse with his/her own words, spoken or

written, expressing his/her evaluations of something determined,

from dialectical relationships (such as the daily negation between

fantastic ideal and reality, aspiration and possibility, creation and

acceptance), to obtain perspectives of behavior and understanding of

the social and cultural context that the individual will face in the

immediate future (Ruiz, 1999). The autobiographical account is

considered one of the best methods to know how people perceive the

world around them (Hernández, 2009).

In this way, data were collected through questions and the answers

were classified into categories and components according to the

frequency and belonging to each of the thematic axes established for

each question. This experience has generated valuable material

about the particular phenomenology, behavior, skills, social and

resilient abilities of each of the participants. Table 2 shows the

questions asked and the categories used to classify the answers.

Table 2. Structure of the biographical survey

Categories

Feeling of

satisfaction

and

accomplish

ment

(liking)

Feeling of

satisfaction

and

accomplish

ment

(liking)

Feelings of

security

Teachers

Positive

listening

sensation

Positive

perception

Feeling of

dissatisfact

ion

Feeling of

dissatisfact

ion

Feelings of

insecurity

Contents

Negative

listening

sensation

Negative

perception

Perception

of positive

academic

training

Perception

of positive

academic

training

Environme

nts

Negative

perception

academic

training

Negative

perception

academic

training

Educationa

l system

Positive

social

relationshi

Positive

social

relationshi

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Taking into account response trends in each focus group,

interpretative analyses of the dialogues were carried out, given that

each focus group elaborated a different narrative that encompasses

the values that are finally accounted for and contrasted between the

experimental and control groups.

Figure 2: Focus groups, factor 1: Perception training

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

One of the concerns that most motivates narrative production is the

theme of one's own training and preparation for the future, that is,

the feeling of security to face new challenges of students who, due

to the characteristics of the cultural environment, are heading

towards higher professional and university training. In this exercise,

the experimental group responded with a higher degree of

accomplishment and positive perception of the formative process,

showed a greater capacity for socialization and a lower sense of

dissatisfaction than the comparative control groups.

Figure 3 shows the results obtained in the dimension of self-

perception, belonging and social relations.

Control

Experimental

Sens. Realización

Sens. Insatisfacción

Percepción +

Percepción -

Re. Sociales +

Control Experimental

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Figure 3: Focus groups, factor 2: Self-perception, sense of

belonging and social relationships.

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

The perception of belonging and identification with the educational

institution is more pronounced in the experimental group, to which

is added a greater motivation for interaction among individuals for

the establishment of lasting social relationships. Undoubtedly, this is

the positive emotional consequence that the student registers in the

sum of his experiences with peers and spaces of academic

interaction. It should be clarified that this does not define the

objective quality of an educational institution, but rather the

individual's subsequent perception of it in terms of an ideal.

Control

positiva

negativa

pertenencia

rel. Sociales +

Control Experimental

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Figure 4: Focus groups, factor 3: Self-perception of academic

background

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

Figure 4 also shows the subjective and socialized feeling among the

participants of both groups about the evaluation of the training they

received at school and their feeling of preparation for the future. In

the control groups there is greater subjective insecurity in this regard.

As in the previous data, these elements are of a subjective nature,

based on idealizations, but here with the component of the real

situation in which the students find themselves, a situation of

graduation and the consequent passage towards new experiences,

which objectively question them.

Control

Experimental

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

0,5

0,6

0,7

Sentimiento seguridad Sentimiento

inseguridad

Control Experimental

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Figure 5: Focus groups, factor 4: Improvement - change education

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

Figure 5 shows the expression of students in terms of the desire for

change in teachers, content, environments and the educational

system itself. The control groups expressed less conformity and

greater desire for change, while in the experimental group, students

expressed greater conformity.

Figure 6: Focus groups, factor 5: Improvement - change education

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

The positive feelings of self-esteem and security in the context, both

cultural and educational, were expressed in the experimental group

with a greater sense of security of being listened to in an assertive

and positive manner; in the control groups, the demand for a space

Control

Experimental

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

Profesores Contenidos Ambientes Sistema

educativo

Control

Experimental

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1,2

sensación + sensación -

Control Experimental

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

in which to acquire greater legitimacy from listening and greater

significance in relation to the Other was identified.

Figure 7: Focus groups, factor 6: Problem-solving chapter

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

Figure 7 shows the ability to solve new problems presented in

different contingencies exposed playfully in the focus groups. The

results show a greater sense of security to face and solve problems

on the part of the experimental group.

Once the surveys were completed, we applied the intelligence test

on the Wechsler WAIS IV scale, a cognitive measurement and

evaluation instrument to describe the functioning of these abilities in

persons between the ages of 16 and 90. This test was considered

relevant because its conceptual and practical conception is current

and understands intelligence as the consequence of cognitive

development by stages with capacities distributed by age groups,

integrating the different intellectual dimensions. The Wechsler

WAIS IV test is also highly sensitive to creative and emotional

abilities, and provides quantitative data in the measurement of

intelligence and qualitative data in its expressive form.

The test is divided into 11 subtests (plus 4 optional subtests) and

basic functions of intelligence that, in turn, make up 4 structures:

Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI), Working Memory (WMI),

Perceptual Reasoning (PRI) and Processing Speed (PVI). The set

Control

Experimental

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

seguridad inseguridad

Control Experimental

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

presents an overall result, the total IQ, which is expressed as the final

weighted between indexes.

Table 5: Structure of the Wechsler WAIS IV Intelligence Scale

WAIS IV SUBTEST STRUCTURE

Verbal Comprehension Subtests

(VCI)

Similarities

Vocabulary

Information

Comprehension

Working Memory Subtests

(WMT)

Digit retention

Arithmetic

Succession of numbers and

letters

Perceptual Reasoning Subtests

(PTR)

Designs with cubes

Matrices

Visual puzzle

Curved weight

Incomplete figures

Processing Speed Subtests (PVI)

Symbol search

Keys

Cancellation

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

The application was carried out by a team of four professional

psychologists and the work was divided into three stages. The

theoretical and practical preparation included the conceptual

updating and homogenization of the application techniques,

minimizing the possibility of differences in the application between

examiners. In the second stage, the individual application of the test

was carried out in the educational institutions to which the young

people in the experimental and control groups belonged. In the third

stage, the protocols were reviewed and analyzed in detail.

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

A total of 72 tests were applied in the control groups and 46 in the

experimental group, making a total of 118 tests. The application

work lasted three months, similar to the time used in the process of

reviewing and interpreting the data. The results allowed a

considerable amount of comparisons between groups and subgroups

of each institution and between the general control and experimental

groups. For reasons of delimitation, only the most outstanding group

and global results of the research are presented here.

The comparison between groups shows that individuals exposed to

arts education have a higher development of cognitive abilities than

individuals in the comparative control groups in all four indices,

reaching an average IQ of 115 in the experimental group and 106 in

the control group.

Figure 8: Comparison of ICV, IMT, IRP, IVP indices between

control groups (separately) and experimental group.

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

Separating the averages obtained by each of the six control groups

(I-VI) into units, it is observed that in each case different contrasts

are established in comparison with the experimental group. It is

notable how group VI is close to the experimental group and it can

be anticipated that, reviewing in detail the educational characteristics

of that entity, it can be observed that it is a program that integrates a

greater number of hours dedicated to the arts than the other control

groups.

In all the subtests applied, the experimental group obtained higher

scores; however, balance was found between groups in similarities

and clues. Proximity was also found in the vocabulary and arithmetic

tests, as well as in symbol search. In the subtests where two or more

points of difference were found, the cognitive development score

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

was found to be significant. The subtests of Matrices, Digit

Retention, Cube Design, Visual Puzzle and Information express this

difference.

The Matrices subtest measures the ability to respond creatively to

problems without resolution certainty. The Digit Retention subtest

marks the ability to receive and process stimuli in a passive manner,

attention capacity, flexibility of thought and negative-positive

attitude to undertake a task. The Cube Design subtest expresses the

ability to solve problems creatively, reveals cognitive style, creative

capacity, as well as the management of anxiety when facing a new

task under pressure. The Visual Puzzle subtest measures motivation

and flexibility for task performance, abstract thinking, persistence

and stress management. Finally, the Information subtest generates

data on attention to the external world, cultural opportunities and

richness of the early environment, language ability, interests and

reading beyond school, curiosity and cultural interest.

Figure 9: Comparison of test scores between control groups

(separately) and experimental group.

Source: Own elaboration, 2024.

The last figure shows the comparative control groups (I-VI)

separately according to each educational institution. It is noteworthy

that the results are higher in the experimental group, although the

control groups are above the average of 90-110 on the intelligence

scale, corresponding to the age group of the individuals participating

in this test.

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Discussion

This research took into account the recommendations of multilateral

organizations for education and culture regarding the importance and

potential of the arts to improve the processes of formal education.

The motives that drive proposals and experimental practices in this

sense are related to the growing need of societies to generate

individuals with intercultural social skills and intellectual capacities

that allow them to understand the whole as the synthesis of the

variety that composes it. These skills must complement the

analytical and reflective capacities that allow individuals to express

themselves in their exercise of citizenship and in the capacity to

formulate solutions to the problems that contemporary society

contains in a global sociocultural paradigm in general and,

specifically, in the local framework.

Everything indicates that the recommendations in this sense are

pertinent, since it can be scientifically substantiated that the

substantial incorporation of the arts in formal education favors the

development of self-esteem, emotional resources, resilience and

adaptation capacity, as well as the control of anguish and stress and

critical capacity in the face of reality with a greater sense of positive

social relations. Each work of art, each creation or staging integrates

all possible knowledge and fosters the development of self-esteem

and personality of the individual, allowing the free expression of

emotions and the understanding of the space of otherness. In the

same way, it is evident that the exercise of the arts has an impact on

cognitive development, since it collaterally develops multiple areas

of intelligence, whether it is the relationship between music and

mathematics, dance and space and geometry, or theater and

emotional intelligence.

Consequently, this advance in the conclusions of the research

conducted highlights the importance that the arts have in the

development of the cognitive and emotional capacities of the human

being as a whole. It is affirmed that the arts, routinely integrated in

education, enrich the contents and provide a friendly context and

environment for learning. Based on this case study we suggest that

the arts can contribute significantly to the human goal of achieving

happiness.

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

References

Anaya, G., & Del Granado, J. (2023). "Educational cultural heritage seen

from constitutional law: the case of the "Eduardo Laredo" Institute

of Bolivia". Revista Imaginario Social, 6(3).

Arze, M. R. (2015). Education in Bolivia through the memories of the

Ministry of Education. Volumes I - VIII. La Paz: Ministry of

Education.

Baya, F. (2012). "Reflections on the ontognoseology of a Bolivian

educational heritage". Revista Municipal de Culturas Canata, N#15.

pp. 115-126.

Eisner, E. (2004) Art and the creation of the mind: the role of the visual

arts in the transformation of consciousness. Madrid: Paidós

Galindo, M. (2023) "Políticas educativas en Bolivia en aplicación del

modelo educativo sociocomunitario productivo. Three case studies".

In Yapu, M.; Velásquez-Castellanos, I.; Torres, L. (Coords.) (2023).

El estado de la Educación en el Estado. La Paz: Konrad-Adenauer-

Stiftung.

Gardner, H. (1994). Art education and human development. Paidós.

Gardner, H. (1987). The new science of the mind. Historia de la revolución

cognitiva. Buenos Aires: Paidós

Hernández, K. S. (September 11, 2009). El método historia de vida:

alcances y potencialidades.

http://www.gestiopolis.com/economia/metodo-deinvestigación-

cualitativa.htm

Eduardo Laredo Institute; CESU-UMSS. (July 14, 2022) "Economy and

Society: Educational Systems as Citizen Will". Youtube of the

Eduardo Laredo Institute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGjW-

4davWY&list=PL1j13_WSFKvb0BUbAdZ1fo0bkhzBu_4G6&ind

ex=6&t=69s

Jiménez, L.; Aguirre, I.; and Pimentel, L. (2009) Educación artística,

cultura y ciudadanía. Madrid: Santillana

Lichtenberger, E., & Kaufman, A. (2015). Clinical applications of the

WAIS-IV. Mexico: Editorial El Manual Moderno.

Marchesi, A. (2009). "Las Metas Educativas 2021. Un proyecto

iberoamericano para transformar la educación en la década de los

bicentenarios". Ibero-American Journal of Science, Technology and

Society, 4(12), 87-157.

Sinergias educativas

July - September Vol. 9 – 3 - 2024

http://sinergiaseducativas.mx/index.php/revista/

Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture

(OEI) (2014). Perspectives on education in Ibero-America 2014.

Advances in the Educational Goals 2021. (October 4, 2023)

https://oei.int/publicaciones/miradas-sobre-la-educacion-en-

iberoamerica-2014-avances-en-las-metas-educativas-2021

Republic of Bolivia (1964). Resolution #114/64. La Paz: Ministry of

Education.

Roitter, M. (2005). "The Third Sector as a Topographical Representation

of Civil Society." In: Arditi, B. (Comp.) (2005). post-liberal

democracy? The political space of associations. Anthropos.

Ruiz, J. (1999). Methodology of qualitative research. Bilbao: Universidad

de Deusto, 2.

Sternberg, R. (1987). Inteligencia Humana I. Paidós.

Tapia, J. (2012). "El Instituto Laredo: una posibilidad de acción conjunta",

(October 4, 2022), Cochabamba: Opinión

https://www.opinion.com.bo/articulo/opini-oacute-n/instituto-

laredo-posibilidad-accionconjunta/20120909010800431134.html

UNESCO (2006). World conference on arts education: building creative

capacities for the 21st century. Lisbon, 1(1).

UNESCO (2016). Recommendations for Educational Policies in Latin

America based on TERCE. 1(1).