The Leonardo Effect

Within this post it shall be considered The Leonardo Effect and its impact within education. The Leonardo Effect is heavily concerned with lifelong learning and the acquisition of new skills from this learning. This method concentrates on the learner not being passive within their education as often happens within the classroom. Hickey & Robson (2013), state that this method allows the learner the freedom to investigate their world utilising their scientific and artistic skills.

   

   This approach to teaching varies from the art vs science debate which often demonstrates the subjects as separate entities, this method encourages the use of art within science. Throughout this method the representation of steam education is heavily relied upon.

     It could be presented that the national curriculum does not allow for the use of the Leonardo Effect and the combination of art and science, however with the curriculum framework for Wales that has been proposed for Wales by Professor Graham Donaldson it seems that the use of the Leonardo effect will be more prevalent. This is because in this framework the subjects are cross curricular rather than a subject in its own being.

    In my own experience within education art and science were not often combined, except when having to draw a diagram to demonstrate the findings from a scientific experiment or to draw a diagram of a plant. The bringing together of the two subjects was not extremely creative and the learner was not the focus of the learning, therefore it was not a true reflection of the Leonardo Effect.

    In conclusion this post has considered the Leonardo Effect and its prevalence within education. The Leonardo Effect is similar to the art vs science debate which also aims to incorporate the stem vs steam debate. This method is highly demonstrative of the learner being at the centre of the learning opposed to being passive within their own education.