The document summarizes two studies: 1) a longitudinal study that examined how arts education can help develop artistic talents in economically disadvantaged urban youth, and 2) an experimental study that tested a treatment program to reduce stress in teachers. The first study followed students over two years using interviews, observations and assessments. It found that arts education helped students overcome challenges through skills, bonds with others, and rewards from instruction. The second study used a treatment and control group of teachers, and pre-and post-tests. It found the experimental group had lower stress levels than the control group after the treatment.

1. A Comparison in the
Research Methods Taken
By: Devita Villanueva
Marius Visser
Josh Van Lare

2.  Little information about
the development of
artistic talent, especially
among economically
disadvantaged students
from diverse cultural
backgrounds, exists.
 Concern with the serious
threat to teacher mental
health caused by
occupational stress.

3.  What obstacles face
economically disadvantaged,
urban students in pursuit of
developing talent in the arts?
 Can external support and
internal characteristics help
students overcome those
obstacles?
 What is the impact of serious
arts involvement over an
extended period of time on
students’ lives and capacities?
 Can high levels of stress
among in-service teachers
be reduced by the
development and validation
of a treatment program
designed to significantly
reduce symptoms of
stress?

4.  Bloom (1985); and Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, & Whalen (1995)
on parental support, instructional opportunities, and personal
commitment.
 Bruer (1993); Newell & Simon, (1972), Bloom, (1985);
Csikzentmihalyi & Robinson, (1986); Feldman, (1986); Gardner,
(1993) on phases of developmental progression
 Bandura, (1986); Zimmerman, (1996) on self-regulation of
students.
 Baum, Owen, & Oreck, (1997); Baum, Renzulli, & Hebert, (1995)
on students regulating their own learning when engaged in
challenging activities.

5.  Erikson (1963, 1980), and Reilly, (1992) on the process of working
toward reaching shared goals as a successful resolution of an
identity crisis typical of the adolescent years.
 Beaedsly, (1989), and Rutter, (1987) on resilience to bounce back
from adverse experiences.
 Ford (1994), on resilience being strengthened by
positive and strong relations with peers, family, and the
community.
 Bloom (1985); Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, & Whalen (1995),
Feldman, (1986); Olszweski, Kulieke, & Buesher, (1987), on
support of the family seen as critical for talent development
among students.

6.  Bloom, (1985) on teacher transition as essential to successful talent
development.
 Baum, Owen, & Oreck, (1996) on students, parents, or teachers being
aware of potential due to lack of instruction.
 Bloom, (1985); Csikzentmihalyi, Rathunde, & Whalen, (1993); Feldman,
(1986), on relationships with arts instructors essential to talent
development.
 Baum, Renzulli, & Hébert, (1995); Emerick, (1992); Hébert, (1993); Richert,
(1992) on at-risk youngsters’ relationships with arts instructors essential to
talent development.
 Baum, Owen, & Oreck, (1997) on artistically talented students being poorly
served by traditional instruction and testing methods in school

7.  Phillips & Matthew, (1980) on teacher stress being
recognized as a serious problem.
 Selye (1956) on establishing a common pathway of
physiologic responses caused by stressful events, leading to
research on identifying these causes of stress.
 Derogatis, (1987); Lazarus, (1966, 1981); Osipow & Spokane
(1983), and Pettegrew & Wolf, (1982) on a critical mass of
knowledge on the subject, allowing paradigms that relate
stress-inducing variables from previous research, to emerge.

8.  Derogatis, (1987) on evidence to suggest that stressors resulting
from the environment, nature, and emotions fuel one another.
 Goodman, (1980); Schnacke, (1982), and Schwanke, (1981) on
identifying the individual stressors present in the 3 sources of
stress as identified by Derogatis, (1987).
 Bergin and Lambert, (1978) on recommending multiple measures
of stress to be used in therapeutic research.
 Edwards, Lambert, Moran, McCulley, Smith, & Ellingson, (1984);
Lambert, Hatch, Kingston, & Edwards, (1986) on interviews by
experienced clinicians providing a more complete picture of a
subject’s stress levels, than self-reporting by the subjects
themselves.

9.  Derogatis, (1987), Osipow & Spokane, (1983), and Pettegrew &
Wolf, (1982) on developing the 3 stress level self-reports:
Derogatis Stress Profile (DSP), the Occupational Stress Inventory
(OSI), and the Teacher Stress Measure (TSM).
 Hendrix, Carter, & Hintze, (1978); and Linn & Slinde, (1977) on
reduced error variances between pre- and post-test scores when
gain scores alone are used.
 Borg, (1987); Borg & Gall, (1983), and Kazdin (1980) on raising a
concern about the validity of internal studies regarding regression
and treatment gains.
 Kazdin, (1980) on suggesting that further research is needed in
maximizing stress reduction within teacher populations.

10. Arts education institutions and
programs can help artistically
talented students (especially
among economically
disadvantaged students from
diverse cultural backgrounds) to
develop their artistic talents,
which relevance to their success
in school and future
opportunities.
The Null Hypotheses:
 There will be no difference between
the stress level of teachers who
complete the experimental
treatment and comparable control
group teachers.
 There will be no difference between
the pre- and post-treatment stress
level of teachers who complete the
experimental treatment.

11. Intervention:
(Quasi-experimental Design)
Study was based on sampling
procedures.
 Attempt was made to uncover a
casual relationship
 Researcher could not control all
factors affecting the outcome
 Problem was identified and
defined
 Hypotheses were formulated
 Sample subjects were selected
and grouped
Experimental Design:
 Used experimental design to
evaluate the validity of stress
reduction treatments by
demonstrating reductions in
stress symptomatology.
 A prototype treatment
developed to significantly reduce
symptoms of stress among in-service
teachers was tested in
this experiment.

12. Study based on sampling procedures.
The sample consisted of 12 females
and 11 males, and it involved 16
African Americans, 5 Latinos, and 2
Caucasians from low income
families.
Data Gathering Methodology:
In this longitudinal multiple-case
study approach, a variety of data
were collected over the course of
the two-year study in the following
4 ways:
Thirty participants selected for high
stress levels were randomly
assigned to treatment and
control groups.
They were assessed on:
 environmental,
 personality, and
 emotional variables,
 using self-report and expert-judge
measures, at both pre- and
post treatment.

13.  In-depth structured and semi-structured
interviews with students,
their families, academic teachers,
arts instructors, and members of the
Arts Connection staff.
 Repeated field observations
conducted by the project
researchers and outside experts
during talent auditions, talent
development lessons and individual
performances.
 A systematic collection of
standardized achievement scores
and art progress evaluations.
 Examination of records and awards
and ratings used in talent
development and scholarship
audition.
The experimental treatment was holistic,
incorporating all processes previously
found to be related to reducing
teacher stress.
The 12 treatment sessions concluded
near the end of the school year, a
period described by teachers as highly
stressful.
Various processes were used in the 12 2-
hour treatment sessions, including:
 lecture-discussion,
 small group sharing of progress and
problems,
 audio visual presentations,
 written test evaluation, and
 homework.

14. A longitudinal, multiple-case
study approach was followed
over a period of two years.
These multiple perspectives
allowed for triangulation of
data that could confirm or
disprove hypotheses.
The First Hypothesis:
Was examined using analyses of
covariance (ANCOVA) between-group
post-test scores from the
 DSP (Derogates stress profile),
 OSI (occupational stress
inventory),
 TSM (transcendental stress
management), and
 SCSI (structured clinical stress
interview),
with the pretest scores entered as
covariates

15. This analysis allowed the slope relating the pretest and posttest to
be estimated rather than forced to be 1, as when gain scores alone
are used as the dependent variable, thus providing a more
sensitive test due to reduced error variance (Hendrix, Carter, &
Hintze, 1978; Linn & Slinde, 1977).
The second hypothesis:
Was examined using correlated means t tests.
This analysis provided information on the direction of change (i.e.,
whether the treatment group improved or the control group
deteriorated), as the 12 sessions concluded towards the end of
the school year, when teacher stress-levels are considered to be at
their highest.

16. To determine whether the measures employed provided
comparable data for assessing treatment effects, an effect size
(ES) was computed for each measure.
Findings were thus transformed into a common metric (standard
deviation units), rendering an index of the magnitude of effect or
change.
To provide information concerning differences between the
experimental and control groups on the sub-scores obtained from
the self-report measures, ANCOVAs were computed between
groups on post-treatment means scores with pretreatment scores
entered as covariates.

17.  Many parents and teachers do not
recognize or appreciate the
importance of arts study or its
relevance to success in school and
future opportunities.
 Arts can help overcome the
challenges students and families
face, for example: dance or music
was their anchor amidst family
turmoil, or for recent immigrants
and families who moved frequently,
the arts were a primary means of
assimilation into the culture of the
school and the city.
 As many strategies as practicable
were included; some, perhaps, were
unnecessary or differentially
effective in individual cases.
 The experimental group indicated
higher stress levels than the control
group on all pretreatment measures
 A substantially lower stress level
was found to be associated with
participation in the treatment.

18. Ultimately, what fueled these
students’ development in talent
were:
 the skills and discipline they
gained
 the bonds they formed with peers
and adults, and
 the rewards they received through
instruction and performing,
all helping most achieve success both
in and
outside of school.
After the treatment, the experimental
group demonstrated substantially
lower stress levels than control
group members, while the control
group indicated a significantly
higher stress level at post-treatment
Ultimately, further research is needed
to develop a treatment strategy that
will vary specific aspects of the
treatment with respect to subject
variables to determine how to
maximize stress reduction within
teacher populations (Kazdin, 1980)

19. Artistic Talent Development for
Urban Youth:
The Promise and the Challenge
Barry Oreck
Susan Baum
Heather McCartney
National Research Center on the Gifted and
Talented
University of Connecticut, Storrs
Reducing Teacher Stress
Michael R. Bertoch
Elwin C. Nielsen
Jeffrey R. Curley
Walter R. Borg
Utah State University