The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

WHY USE ANIMATION IN THE CLASSROOM?
Animation is highly cross-curricular. It draws on a wide range of 
skills that can enhance the teaching of many different subjects.
In 
English
, students’ knowledge of fi lm and television genres, 
narrative structure and character development can improve their 
abilities as readers and writers.
The study of animation history
 
can support many of the key 
concepts that underpin the study of chronological, cultural and 
event-based 
history
. An understanding of people and places can be 

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4
The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
gained through a study of animation from different cultures around 
the world, enhancing the 
geography
curriculum.
Students can learn how 
music
can enhance or subvert the meaning 
of moving images, create moods and announce genres.
The 
art
curriculum makes increasing use of moving images and new 
media as key means of artistic expression.
A study of animation can also help students to engage with social 
and political ideas as part of the 
citizenship
curriculum.
Many 
science-
based concepts can be readily explained through 
animation and other moving image media.
Analysing stop-frame movement and pacing an animation require 
a solid grasp of numeracy and mental arithmetic, supporting 
mathematics
.
In more general terms, the research project clearly indicated that 
the integration of animation into teaching and learning helps pupils 
to engage positively with schooling and increases motivation. Our 
fi ndings also suggested that this promotes and engages a wider 
range of learning styles by:
providing the opportunity for young people to pursue their 
interests, enthusiasm and different abilities or talents
enhancing critical thinking, communication and 
problem-solving skills
requiring teamwork and negotiation
developing reasoning and risk-taking
opening up new and innovative ideas
increasing self-esteem
learning visual concepts and communication
learning new literacy to explore new terminologies
equipping pupils for their future lives or career choices
It is time to make the curriculum relevant to students’ lives outside 
schools and we hope this research helps bridge the widening gap 

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Introduction
5
between school and out-of-school learning experiences. Many 
students are immersed in the animation form via television, cinema, 
computer gaming and online content. They have an immediate 
connection to it and an intuitive sense, to some degree anyway, of 
how the form can function.
It is quite extraordinary that the majority of young people should go 
through their school careers with so little opportunity to study and 
engage with the most signifi cant contemporary forms of culture and 
communication.
(David Buckingham, Media Education, Polity Press 2003)
Animation is a vibrant part of our everyday popular culture, 
appearing on television commercials, online content, computer 
gaming and in fi lms. Animation can choose to mimic or step away 
from the world of realism. It’s up to you and your fi lmmakers as to 
how much you stick with or depart from the real world. Animation is 
a playful medium. It takes the diversity, excitement and mystery of 
the world around us and brings it to vivid life.
As a starting point, think about the following kinds of animation 
approaches which are all very classroom friendly: