Boosting Children's Abilities of Inference and Arts Appreciation Through a Visual Art Program

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Arts in Early Childhood Classrooms and Teacher Education

Abstract

In spite of attention to cognitive domains in arts education, in practice, there is incongruence between the arts curriculum and its implementation. To promote balanced development, it is crucial that arts education for young children is integrated between expressive activities and cognitive domains. Thus, this study examines how art appreciation activities using art images from well known visual artists influence children’s appreciation ability and inference ability with one hundred and twenty three kindergarteners. According to ANCOVA results, there were significant effects on all six sub-categories in appreciation ability and inference ability. This study reconfirms the importance of art education based on visual literacy theory in order to develop young children’s insights about the elements of art.

Authors

• Kyoung Jin Kim, Ball State University

• Su-Jeong Wee, Purdue University - Calumet

• Carolyn Ann Hitchens, Ball State University