Last modified: 2014-04-30
Abstract
The children’s experience on art activities depends on the adults’ guidance on children’s development and learning. The lack of teachers’ knowledge, experience and pedagogy on art education may lead to some problems in application process. The most important problem in art activities is teachers’ excessive focus on some basic abilities and the final outcome; rather than the art itself. The activities should be designed for children to be able to attend, understand and communicate with other during the activity process. Therefore, how and how much a teacher pay attention to art activities play an important role on the attitudes of children towards art.
This study is a descriptive study aimed to investigate how preschool teachers implement art activities. The sample is composed of 60 teachers who work in Istanbul city centers. The data were collected via the survey and the observation form which were developed by the researcher with the reference of related literature and expert opinion. The survey includes 5 questions of personal information and 38 questions of applications on art activities; with a total of 43 questions. Applications on art education questions are about how much time teachers spend on art activities, which materials they use in these activities and what they think about the benefits of the activities on children’s development. The data is still being analyzed.
The results will possibly suggest that preschool teachers should be the art education planners, monitors and guides to the children by opening the way for art in the classrooms, teaching the children how to use the material and talking with them about what they did, presenting and preserving the products. It will be proposed that teachers should use child-friendly applications while conducting art activities in their classrooms