Visual Arts and Social Studies: Powerful Partners in Promoting Critical Thinking Skills Available to Purchase

Drawing from research on art integration, we discuss why visual arts and social studies can be powerful partners in promoting critical thinking skills. Because this is an increasingly visual society, visual literacy is becoming progressively more important. Through the visual arts, students have the opportunity to analyze and evaluate information, which are critical academic and citizenship skills. The integration of these two content areas and skills facilitates effective use of the limited time teachers have with students. In order to demonstrate the integration of art and social studies, we provide a lesson plan on Western Expansion.