Enhancing Children's Artistic and Creative Thinking and Drawing Performance through Appreciating Picture Books

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate methods of enhancing kindergarteners' artistic creative thinking and expressive drawing through an activity that involved appreciation of picture books. The study was conducted in a public kindergarten in southern Taiwan, with 27 children aged between 4 and 5. The researcher conducted the study in 16 weeks; data were collected via digital recordings of participants' appreciation and art‐making activities, artwork assessment checklists and questionnaires. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to process and analyse data. On the expression of and changes in children's artistic and creative thinking ability, findings suggest that ability is expressed through discussions that involve art vocabulary, including descriptive, analytical, interpretative and judgemental words. On‐site practice indicated significant use of descriptive and analytical art vocabularies. The results also showed that the collage series of picture books had more impact on children than did other picture books in terms of teaching efficacy by picture book appreciation. With regard to differences in children's reading and drawing behaviours between the beginning and the end of the study, findings indicate a significant and positive change in children's reading and drawing behaviours at home. The study also indicated that children's drawing behaviours could be cultivated by a series of art instruction activities. These findings should impact kindergarten educators’ instructional methods in visual art education in Taiwan, and may influence Taiwanese curriculum reform in early childhood art education.

Picturebooks in Teacher Education: Eight Teacher Educators Share their Practice

“…While there is not a great deal of existing literature concerning the use of picturebooks in preservice teacher education, a plethora of literature exists about the use of picturebooks in classrooms, suggesting that picturebooks can be useful in many curriculum areas for many purposes (e.g., Cho & Jeung, 1998;Hsaio, 2010;Jenkins, 2010;Pantaleo, 2008;Sneddon, 2009;Taliaferro, 2009). For example, Pantaleo worked with Canadian children in classrooms using post modern picturebooks and her findings showed the children developed strong visual literacy skills.…”

“…For example, Pantaleo worked with Canadian children in classrooms using post modern picturebooks and her findings showed the children developed strong visual literacy skills. Hsaio (2010) examined how effective the use of picturebooks was in working with children's creative thinking and drawing. Her study was conducted with 27 children aged between 4 and 5, in a Korean kindergarten setting, over a period of 16 weeks.…”

Influences of Visual Attention and Reading Time on Children and Adults

“…By exploiting visual, auditory, and tactile modalities, children can construct a reading context in which their interest and attention are enhanced and they can learn effectively (Briggs & Elkind, 1973). In addition, picture books can effectively help children develop their language, cognitive, and aesthetic appreciation abilities (Bus, van IJzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995;Elia, van Den Heuvel-Panhuizen, & Georgiou, 2010;Hsiao, 2010).…”

A Study of the Use of Picture Books by Preschool Educators in Outlying Islands of Taiwan

“…Extended activities for picture book teaching are abundant and diverse, and include independent, group, or class creative activities. The majority of extended activities are practical applications that involve a combination of art, music, dance, and drama (Hsiao, 2010). Regarding dynamic extended activities, suggested off-campus activities, such as cooking, playing in parks, and visiting markets.…”