The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of the integrated art exploratory play in which art, music, motion, and role playing are connected altogether with one another with the infants aged 2 as the research subjects since the infants’...
The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of the integrated art exploratory play in which art, music, motion, and role playing are connected altogether with one another with the infants aged 2 as the research subjects since the infants’ integrated art experiences are very important because infants play, explore, and understand through the senses and artistic elements of their surroundings.
In this research, the following research questions were established.
Research Question 1. What effects does the integrated art exploratory play have on the playfulness of the infants aged 2?
Research Question 2. What effects does the integrated art exploratory play have on the subordinate domains of playfulness of the infants aged 2?
A. What effects does the integrated art exploratory play have on the physical spontaneity, which is the subordinate domain of playfulness, of the infants aged 2?
B. What effects does the integrated art exploratory play have on the social spontaneity, which is the subordinate domain of playfulness, of the infants aged 2?
C. What effects does the integrated art exploratory play have on the cognitive spontaneity, which is the subordinate domain of playfulness, of the infants aged 2?
D. What effects does the integrated art exploratory play have on the expression of delight, which is the subordinate domain of playfulness, of the infants aged 2?
E. What effects does the integrated art exploratory play have on the sense of humor, which is the subordinate domain of playfulness, of the infants aged 2?
The subjects of this research are total of 28 infants who are composed of the experimental group of 14 infants aged 2 in B Municipal Daycare Center located in Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi-do and the control group of 14 infants aged 2 in D Municipal Daycare Center that has similar physical environment and age in months.
The integrated art exploratory play was conducted on the experimental group twice a week for 8 weeks for a total of 16 sessions, and free choice activity time and outdoor play in the ordinary routine of the daycare center were given to the control group.
For the test tool in this research, the Children’s Playfulness Scale (CPS) developed by Barnett (1990) to measure the playfulness of infants, which was revised and complemented by Kim Yeong-hee (1995), was used. By using SPSS 18.0 program in the collected data in this research, to grasp the homogeneity of the playfulness of the experimental group and the control group before the experiments were conducted, the mean and the standard deviation of the post-test of the infants’ playfulness of the experimental group and the control group after the experiments were conducted were calculated, and to grasp whether or not there were significant differences in enhancement between the two groups, the independent-sample t-test was conducted, and to grasp the pre- and post-test differences between the experimental group and the control group, the paired t-test was conducted.
The results of this research are as follows.
First, it was found in this research that the integrated art exploratory play had significant effects on the overall playfulness of the infants aged 2.
Second, it was found that the integrated art exploratory play positive significant made each improved in physical spontaneity, social spontaneity, cognitive spontaneity, the expression of delight, and the sense of humor, which are the subordinate domains of the playfulness of the infants aged 2.
In conclusion, since it was found that the integrated art exploratory play conducted in this research had positive effects on the development of the playfulness of the infants aged 2, the programs to provide the experience of the integrated art exploratory play for the infants aged 2 need to be developed and be more widely disseminated and practiced in the education fields.