Children' Perception about Art

National Art Education Association

Children' Perception about ArtAuthor(s): Bernard YoungSource: Art Education, Vol. 38, No. 6 (Nov., 1985), pp. 47-49Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3192879 .

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e have a tendency to ignore the intelligence, feelings, and general points of view of chil-

dren about their education. This is true in their general as well as their art education. Elementary schools in this nation have a great influence on the development of children's views and their educational levels of expression. Rarely, however, will educators ask students for their thoughts about the curriculum. This paper will discuss perceptions about art of over 100 sixth grade elementary school children in central Kentucky.

In our society, schools are a social world of extreme developmental importance for children. Typically, children are expected to remain in some

form of public or private schools for twelve or more years. In most settings, children have very little or no influence over development of content of the curricula they study. Children must be in and out of classrooms and manage various levels of relationships with their peers, teachers, and principals on a daily basis. Most children are expected to be high achievers and play their expected roles as students with a multitude of expectations and de- mands. In most of the existing literature and in many classrooms, we have a tendency to ignore the intelligence, feelings, and general points of view of children about their education.

Children realize that differences ex- ist in the world and realize this to a greater or lesser extent, depending

upon their mental development and chronological age. Children often know more about their perspective than they demonstrate and their active utilization of this knowledge in many situations is not as active as it could be. As children grow in age, they realize more clearly that their perspective (what they perceive, think, or feel in any given situation), need not be in agreement with what other persons, perceive, think, or feel. This is especial- ly true by the time children reach school age. It is very important that children at a young age utilize their capabilities to acquire and make choices about their views. A child's participation and working in art is an ideal means for de- veloping visual perspectives that are a part of the larger world.

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Photo by B. Young

The literature about social cognition, including work by Flavell (1977), sug- gests that children are active interpret- ers of realities in classrooms and are capable of drawing inferences about the causes and effects of their behavior. The literature also points out that many of these inferences are not rational and that children's views, and the views of adults about classroom realities, may not necessarily be equivalent. Many classroom teachers would certainly agree, but few would argue about the value of information children can sup- ply about their thinking about schooling and its contextual framework. It's not surprising that actual structures of classrooms are difficult and complex.

What do children learn about school curricula and how can their opinions and interests be included in classroom curricula are important questions that deserve serious consideration. Recently, on a field experience with an intro- ductory class of non-art education ma- jors, my students and I divided into several classrooms to teach a series of art activities for children in a local elementary school. In fact, the elementary school was noted as the best aca- demically ranked school in the county's school system. In my role as super- vising teacher for several groups of students serving as teachers, I had the re- sponsibility of visiting and evaluating each of the classrooms during their art lessons. The students and I learned very

soon that, before or after our arrival, several classes viewed one or several educational television programs on a daily basis. We also found that television viewing and art, not always seen as extremely important, were competing forces. I am pleased to report that children in each of the classes preferred classes about art and our group of visiting student teachers over electronic media. Several questions were asked about their views on art in the classroom. At a later stage, several questions were asked such as What is art? What do you learn in art? and What is the posi- tion of art in your school program? Art educators and classroom teachers op- erate classes on the premise that drawing, painting, sculpting, and general art activities are good for children. What children think about art and whether or not it is inherently good or how often they should receive art activities are questions students aren't asked. These and similar questions are debated by classroom teachers, art teachers, principals, and school board members con- cerning the art education of children though the views of children are not solicited. Sixth Graders And A Summary Of Their Views For several weeks, my students and I went to six elementary schools in central Kentucky to ask sixth graders about their views about art and its relationship to general elementary school education.

A total of 190 children participated in sharing their views with us and their views are presented in this paper; each child was asked to complete a ques- tionnaire. The data was gathered and put into percentages and frequencies. Some of the material could not be compiled in numerical form and was written into a summary.

The first question asked whether children had art in their particular school and responses could be listed as yes, no, or sometimes. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of the children checked "yes", that they definitely have art on a regular basis at school; forty percent (40%) checked that art was a part of school on some occasions but not regularly. Only 1.5% of the children claimed that there were no regular time periods for art in school. After reading individual answer sheets, it became clear that some children thought art included sketching in the back of one's notebook or coloring in ditto sheets that came with math assignments. With such wide definitions of art, it was clear that two students in the same class could possi- bly give different answers about the ex- istence and breadth of art in school.

We also asked whether students worked on art projects at home. Again, definitions of what art was, covered quite a wide range. Thirty percent (30%) stated that they never engaged in art projects at home. Thirty percent is quite large; if these children are not in- volved in any type of art activity at this age level, it's not very likely their interest will change as they get older. With the child's peers becoming more important, emotions and the realization of their environments increasing in importance, it seems that interest in art is quite limited. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of the children worked on art projects sometimes, and thirty-two percent (32%o) gave a definite "yes" for working with art projects regularly at home.

A related question about whether or not children drew pictures for enjoyment was asked. Although the question seems related to the preceding; responses are more positive. Seven percent (7%) claimed to never draw for enjoyment, 14 percent did draw on occasion, and an outstanding seventy-seven percent (77%) drew for enjoyment. It appears drawing is well appreciated and not seen as a project but a more casual, natural medium for children to enjoy and ex- plore. Teachers may want to take this

Art Education November 1985 48



into consideration. Drawing is very well liked and very often used by children. It is also usually one of the most in- expensive forms of graphic expressive media available.

Our fourth question asked whether children had a special art teacher in school. Obviously, they had no control over whether or not a specialist art teacher was in their schools. This question was to determine whether schools were served by specialist art teachers. Thirty percent (30%) of the students stated that they did not have a special art teacher; 15 percent (15%) indicated that a special art teacher came sometimes, and fifty-three percent (53%) claimed to have a special art teacher. This raises questions about the amount of time art teachers give to children. We followed our inquiry with questions about how often these children actually have art classes. Eleven percent (11 0%) had art every day, sixty-seven percent (67%) had art every week, five percent (5%) worked in art at least once every month, and fourteen percent (14'%) were not sure how frequently they re- ceived art in school. These results ap- pear to be combined results about whether an art specialist or classroom teachers taught art. It is reasonable to assume that much art is taught by classroom teachers rather than art special- ists. Question five asked whether children would like to have more time for art in school. Fourteen percent (14%) did not want to increase the amount of time, two percent (2%) said some increase would be acceptable, and eighty- two percent (82%) said they would definitely like to increase art in their schools.

Question 11 concerned whether an increase would make school a more tolerable or less tolerable environment to be in. Fifty-nine percent (59%) thought that increasing art would make school a better place to be; eleven percent (11 %) thought it would make school-life worse; and twenty-nine percent (29%) thought it wouldn't make a real difference - things would be pretty much the same.

On question 12, students were asked to indicate the area they would most like to work in. Responses about preferred media had a very wide range of variances. Fifteen percent (15% ) favored painting; forty-four percent (44%) se- lected clay; thirty-one percent (31%0) se- lected drawing; one percent (1% ) se- lected printmaking; five percent (5%)

papier-mache, and one percent (1%) se- lected collage.

Question eight asked students to de- fine an art class. Definitions given by children, for the most part, were very similar to descriptions traditionally used by art educators. Of course, sophistica- tion was lacking, but their answers were interesting and meaningful. First, it should be pointed out that art was not seen as a craft but as a time to be expressive, a time to aquire skills, improve techniques, and to learn to appreciate things that are beautiful. A few remarks were: "It's a place to be creative, a place to draw, or to learn about drawing"; "It's a fun, project time, a picture making time, a place to make stuff, a place for learning about art, to show artistic talent, to use your mind and imagination, a messy place, a place that includes crafts, a time to make something special, and a place to improve artistic abilities." From these responses, it is clear that art is taken very seriously by these sixth graders.

The final question asked children to describe how they felt while working on art project. Responses, for the most part, were extremely positive, even more than responses about whether there should be an increase in the amount of art in schools. More than eighty percent (80%) wanted an increase in time for art while even more students, during involvement with art activities, de- scribed their feelings as "great", "good", "accomplished", or many other encouraging adjectives. A few comments from children were: "I feel okay while drawing; happy, relaxed; very good, creative; art puts me in a good mood; challenged, excited; like I've accomplished something; sometimes bored." "It's relaxing" was ex- pressed several times. "Good about myself; artistic; comfortable, confi- dent; fantastic; sometimes it releases pressures; fine; I feel good about get- ting a break to improve my skills; talented; special; I feel different with different projects; a little unsure I can do well; joyful; serious; alert; proud knowing I made this, and no one else did." "Good, good, good" was re- peatedly included in remarks or listed as a one-word answer. It should be quite obvious that a subject that can elicit this positive feedback certainly merits education value.

Children were expressing some very important characteristics about art

education. These are somewhat common knowledge to art educators but not necessarily known to general classroom teachers. Some of the comments re- vealed that children are becoming more aware of themselves and their environments, and this is reflected in their art work. Their drawings are no longer accepted without some self-critical appraisal. Their representation of two and three dimensional space is gradually attempting to become more naturalistic.

Even with critical views coming from children themselves, art for these sixth graders is very enjoyable and important. Art experiences provide various opportunities in the development of emotional growth. Children without opportunities for experience in per- sonal expression of their feelings, creative activity perceptions, opinions, emotions, and various cognitive com- ponents of their development will have a difficult time being personally creative and self-expressive. Teachers of art would do their students and themselves a favor by seriously considering the perceptions of their students. Chil- dren can teach teachers about learning; and this can, in meaningful ways, change learning about art and the teaching of art.

All teachers know that some things they do will not be effective with some children, and the same holds true for various media of art and creative materials that teachers present to children. Some children simply don't respond favorably to certain materials, and others respond favorably; all student's perceptions and abilities should be noted and acknowledged by teachers for maximum educational effectiveness. It is increasingly apparent to educators and researchers that students and their variations in perception, preferences, individual aptitudes, styles, personalities, and traits influence in- struction and its outcomes as much as does the teacher (Bertiner, 1973). i

Bernard Young is an Assistant Pro- fessor of Art Education at the Univer- sity of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.

References Bertiner, D. C. (1976). Impediments to the

study of teacher effectiveness. Journal of Teacher Education, 27, 5-13.

Flavell, J. H. (1977). Cognitive Develop- ment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Weinstein, R. S. (1983). Student perceptions of schooling. The Elementary School Journal, 83, (4).

Art Education November 1985 49



Children' Perception about Art

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