Educational context and early childhood art-related problem solving.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Ideally, art activities motivate students to think and be engaged in purposeful action and interaction. This study was an attempt to get a closer look at a preschool which is influenced by the Reggio Emilia, Italy, educational approach, where symbolic expression is valued as a means for cognitive development. The purpose of this study was to examine the physical and philosophical context of the preschool classroom at the A. Sophie Rogers Laboratory School and its effect on children's problem solving. In a context of playing, expressing ideas and communicating, problem solving was part of the classroom's everyday life. Classroom activities grounded in children's interests and concerns and in attempts of negotiating understanding, led to situated problem solving and developed spontaneous, autonomous, responsible, flexible problem solvers. Socioconstructivist classroom problem solving was facilitated by teachers who developed a learning community and encouraged purposeful communication and interaction.
Through classroom observations, informal conversations with the teachers and content analysis of the fieldnotes, the types of problems that arise for young children during art-related activities were described and the main cognitive qualities during problem solving were identified. The data was interpreted through two levels of content analysis and provided evidence that, in their daily activities, children deal with interpersonal, conceptual and practical conceptual problems. Interpersonal problems can be caused by children's attempts to share objects, plan play themes for group play, communicate, draw peers' attention, and develop and maintain involvement in peer culture. Thinking strategies and qualities that were observed to be successful during children's interpersonal problem solving were reasoning, imagination, flexibility and communication. Conceptual problems were related to children's decision making and developing ideas, representational or expressive challenges, and differences between personal goals and ideas among individual group members. Problem finding, investigation and communication were important cognitive qualities during conceptual problem solving. Practical problems occurred with children's initial difficulty in using materials due to undeveloped sensorimotor skills, lack of experience and practice, and inability to organize them. Teachers' most commonly observed behavior during children's problem solving included providing resources, reminding children about classroom rules, emphasizing planning, and encouraging children to communicate and negotiate meaning.