Collaboration, Teamwork and Service Learning Within an After School Community Arts Project

Students learn better when they can see, touch and visualize. This chapter documents the processes experienced by two groups of elementary students as they participated in a collaborative after school mural project within their school community. The collaborative visual art experience provided the students with a voice to express ideas as they were brought together with their community. Consequently, the students were able to focus while working together on their personal mural with unity and cooperation. Given the vehicle to communicate a message to the community by symbolic and abstract images with deep meaning, evidence indicated that students' confidence besides visual arts was elevated. The project also exposed the participants to teamwork, planning, brainstorming, organizing and collaboration as they worked together on the mural project.