This study was aimed to examine the effects of integrated art and mathematics activities on drawing representation ability and spatial ability of young children.
The research questions for this study are as follows:
1. What are the effects of integrat...
This study was aimed to examine the effects of integrated art and mathematics activities on drawing representation ability and spatial ability of young children.
The research questions for this study are as follows:
1. What are the effects of integrated art and mathematics activities on drawing representation ability of young children?
2. What are the effects of integrated art and mathematics activities on spatial ability of young children?
The subjects of this study were 42 five-year-old young children from D and M Kindergartens located in K city. They were randomly assigned to either: the experimental group or the comparative group.
To assess the children's Drawing Representation abilities and spatial abilities, “Drawing Representation Evaluation scale” developed by Chi Sung-Ae(2001), and “Young Children's Spatial Ability Test” developed by Hong HaeKyung(2001a) were used. The experimental procedures consist of preliminary test and experiment, pre-test, experimental treatment, and post-test. It was carried out from August 28, 2006 to November 17, 2006, which is a total of 12 weeks. The results of pre-test to search the homogeneity between the experimental group and comparative group was no significant difference in young children's drawing representation ability and spatial ability between the two groups, so these groups are assumed homogeneous group. As for the experimental group, integrated art and mathematics activities were offered twice a week for 8 weeks, totals 16 times, and as for the comparative group, art activity once a week eight times and mathematics activity once a week eight times during the same period were offered. To examine the effects of integrated art and mathematics activities on drawing representation ability and spatial ability, collected data was analyzed with t-test using SPSS 12.0 program.
The result of this study were as follows:
First, it was found that experimental group showed higher improvement in young children's drawing representation ability than comparative group. Also, as for sub-factors of young children's drawing representation abilities, combination of lines and basic forms, use of colors, details, appropriative representation, use of figures, creative representation, completion of drawings, verbal representation drawings appeared that experimental group showed significantly higher improvement in drawing representation ability than comparative group. It means that the integrated art and mathematics activities are effective teaching methods to young children's drawing representation ability.
Second, it was found that experimental group showed higher improvement in young children's spatial ability than comparative group. Also, as for sub-factors of young children's spatial ability, eye-motor coordination, figure-ground perception, spatial reasoning, visual memory and recall, position-in-space perception appeared that experimental group showed significantly higher improvement in spatial ability than comparative group. It means that the integrated art and mathematics activities are also effective teaching methode to young children's spatial ability.
In conclusion, The integrated art and mathematics activities improve drawing representation ability and spatial ability. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that the integrated art and mathematics activities should be used in the field of early childhood education as a effective and meaningful teaching method for improving young children's drawing representation ability and spatial ability.