The purpose of this study was to examine an integrative art therapy program based on traditional plays in an attempt to suggest how to take advantage of art therapy in an inclusive way as part of elementary character education.
The subjects in this s...
The purpose of this study was to examine an integrative art therapy program based on traditional plays in an attempt to suggest how to take advantage of art therapy in an inclusive way as part of elementary character education.
The subjects in this study were 40 fifth graders in a class of K elementary school located in the city of Goyang. After an integrative art therapy program was conducted in 10 sessions, 90 minutes each, a qualitative case analysis was implemented.
The brief findings of the study were as follows:
First, while the children were engaged in the well-planned activities once a week, they got interested in traditional plays and were able to build a sound play culture.
Second, the group-play activities encouraged them to care about and respect one another, and their sense of belonging and attachment became stronger.
Third, the art therapy program that combined art, music, motion and play served to enrich their emotions and thereby facilitated their emotional development.
Fourth, the integrated art therapy program contributed to beefing up their confidence.
Fifth, they got to take pride in Korean culture by doing traditional plays.
The above-mentioned findings illustrated that the integrated art therapy program constituted by traditional plays was effective in expediting the personality development of the children. It suggested that integrative art, which is a medium related to different subjects, makes it possible to incorporate therapy into education and eventually take education to another level. So this study is expected to be of great use for the development of inclusive art therapy programs that could be appliable to academic education and prevent possible personality-related problems.