In order to evaluate the impact of The Imagineerium, an arts and engineering based curriculum project, a pilot sample of 135 year 5 (9-to 10-year-old) students completed a battery of tests both before and after participating in the 10-week programme. The battery of tests included three measures proposed by the Trowsdale Indices of Confidence in Competence, Creativity and Learning (TICCCL), together with the three indices proposed by the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (abbreviated form), namely extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. In accordance with the hypothesised effect of the programme on student learning, the data demonstrated a significant increase in all three measures of confidence in competence, creativity and learning, but no change in the three control variables (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism). Highlights: Quantitative scales were tested for assessing confidence in competence, creativity and learning  Each scale has good internal consistency reliability . Each scale recorded a significant increase following an educational intervention designed to improve these areas. There was no change in the control variables. The data support the effectiveness of The Imagineerium project.

This paper considers the significance of the types of learning relationships developed between children and adults during a creative arts and engineering project: The Imagineerium. It focuses on data collected through observations, 18 interviews conducted during and six weeks after the pupils had been involved in the project, and 25 interviews conducted one year later. This is supported by reference to a wider data set gathered from questionnaires, field notes and journal analysis conducted with 72 pupils. A significant and recurring feature emerging from this data was pupils’ perception of the positive relationships they experienced within The Imagineerium project. The article considers the elements of the project that contribute to this relational experience. In particular, it argues the importance of this educational experience being located within a tradition of community arts, within the practice of art-making and involving adult facilitators committed to these practices.

In a dominant western tradition that reveres cerebral learning, embodied learning approaches have received limited research attention -and less in education than other disciplines. This paper draws on previously reported empirical data from a five-year Creative Partnerships study to argue that psycho-physical theatre practice can promote embodied cognition, has particular value for young people with learning disabilities ii in special schools and has potential for inclusive education in mainstream schools.The paper describes a psycho-physical actor training process developed with, and for, actors with learning disabilities. Its application within special educational contexts, which we call 'mimetics', has focussed more keenly upon physicalised interaction as the core communication. In this form of communication, reading, interpreting and responding to the individuality of others happens through the development of non-verbal dialogue. This focus has illuminated the importance of an intuited or 'felt' understanding which is generated by and recognises such communications.In special education settings, being different is inherent, and physicalised interaction more routine, so ways of working different to the mainstream are required. The paper suggests such settings are rich sites for research to develop, value and recognise the significance of embodied cognition and realise its potential for special and inclusive education.

Copyright and reuse:The Warwick Research Archive Portal (WRAP) makes this work of researchers of the University of Warwick available open access under the following conditions. Copyright © and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable the material made available in WRAP has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-forprofit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. AbstractWhilst the significance of the social model of disability for articulating inclusive approaches in education is recognised, the application of capability theory to education is less developed. We consider how a particular theatre based practice, here described as 'mimetics', can alter and extend the aspirations and achievements of children and young people with learning disabilities, and might be understood as applied capability theory or 'capability practice'.Mimetics has been crafted from experimental psycho-physical actor-training processes by Open Theatre Company working in collaboration with actors with learning disabilities, and adapted to support the learning and development of young people with learning disabilities.We draw upon an action research project set up by Creative Partnerships with Open Theatre Company and a special school, where children demonstrated increased motivation and capacity for communication and socialisation, improved well-being, learning and wider achievement. To illustrate the process we offer the case of one child with an autistic spectrum disorder.

The arts are recognised for their potential to humanise and enrich educational experience, but hold a lowly position in the hierarchy of school subject-based curricula. This limits the time, and thus the influence, they can have. Whilst schools welcome the idea of a curriculum rich with both arts and science subjects, resistance to realising this is often advanced in terms of the proportion of curriculum time required for different subjects. Arguments for STEAM education, whilst apparently challenging this and valuing the potential of the arts, have reinforced its servant role. Drawing on research into a particular project, where the perspectives of the arts and sciences inform and enrich how the other is experienced and understood, we reframe this problem. Firstly, drawing on Massey's conception of space-time, we argue that one can conceive of more than one subject occupying the same curricular space on a school timetable. Secondly, informed by Geertz, we consider what the culture of the arts and the sciences offers, suggesting that this appears to reflect what teachers have valued. We argue that foregrounding the culture of school subjects, and particularly the culture of the arts, as part of a multicultural frame can facilitate rich and engaging educational experiences. Rather than being positioned as competing for time or status in the curriculum, a focus on culture emphasises how the co-existence and interplay of multiple subjects broadens, develops and thus enriches children's educational experience. It also enables a different conception of, and thus role for, the arts in schooling.