ArtsSmarts' research agenda has emerged as a strategy for capturing instructive accounts and evidence that is meaningful and relevant to the goal of improving teaching and learning in Canadian schools.

Our research aims to help us strengthen the theoretical foundations of our approach, understand how to improve the impact of our work and generate new knowledge about the important contributions that creativity and innovation are making to the 21^st century educational change agenda.

Early development of our research agenda began in 2006 with the publication of Engaged in Learning: The ArtsSmarts Model, which developed the ArtsSmarts theory of learning centred on the concept of student engagement.  Based on a synthesis of research about student engagement, the results of prior ArtsSmarts project evaluations, and input from a variety of ArtsSmarts participants, we theorized that the presence of four factors in students' experience of learning would lead to higher levels of engagement: content, context, process and product.

Additional research on student engagement undertaken in 2007 further enhanced our research agenda by reflecting the growing potential of the multidimensional construct of engagement in learning across behavioural, affective and cognitive domains (Chapman, 2003 & Fredericks, Blumenfled and Paris, 2004).

ArtsSmarts Composite of Engagement