The purpose of this study was to examine whether a feasible early childhood art curriculum could be developed by applying art psychotherapy that was used as a therapeutic medium for psychotherapy, and to explore the educational effect of it both in qu...
The purpose of this study was to examine whether a feasible early childhood art curriculum could be developed by applying art psychotherapy that was used as a therapeutic medium for psychotherapy, and to explore the educational effect of it both in quality and quantity.
The research questions were posed as below
First, what should make up the scope and content system of an early childhood art curriculum to which art psychotherapy is applied? Second, What kinds of instrument and activities of art psychotherapy could be applicable to the development of an early childhood art curriculum? Third, what effect does an early childhood art curriculum grounded in art psychotherapy have on the self-esteem of young children? Fourth, what effect does an early childhood art curriculum grounded in art psychotherapy have on the emotional development of young children? Fifth, what is the qualitative effect of an early childhood art curriculum grounded in art psychotherapy?
To address the research questions, relevant literature was reviewed, and experts and children were interviewed. After a survey was conducted, five young children were selected to make a case study to see how an early childhood art curriculum based on art psychotherapy affected the emotional development and self-esteem of children in quality.
The subjects in this study were 224 young children who were four and five years old in Western age and attended two different daycare centers and a kindergarten in the city of Gwangju. After an experimental group and a control group were organized with 112 children each, an early childhood art curriculum was applied. The experiment was conducted in 16 sessions from March through July 2006, once a week. The instruments used in the study were Kim Gyeong-hoi's Preschooler Emotional Intelligence Rating Scale for Teacher and Kim Yeoung-suk's revised version of Preschooler Self-Esteem Scale. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS Windows 10.0 program, and t-test and ANCOVA were employed.
The findings of the study were as follows.
First, in order to facilitate the self-esteem growth and emotional development of the young children, an early childhood art curriculum was prepared after confirming whether the art expression category of the 6th national kindergarten curriculum was in line with the general life theme segment of an yearly curriculum.
Second, in order to strike a balance between the physical, emotional and cognitive development of the young children, a wide array of art psychotherapy instruments and activities were incorporated into the early childhood art curriculum. The art psychotherapy instruments and activities were selected from a standpoint of psychoanalysis, cognitivism, developmental psychology, phenomenology, Gestalt and behaviorism.
Third, the activities of the early childhood art curriculum that applied art psychotherapy had a favorable impact on the self-esteem of the young children. The experimental group scored better than the control group in all the sub-areas of self-esteem, which included cognitive ability, peer reception, physical ability, mother reception and self-acceptance. When the two groups were compared by gender and age, there was a significant gap between the two according to their gender and age.
Fourth, the activities of the early childhood art curriculum that capitalized on art psychotherapy exerted a positive influence on the emotional development of the preschoolers as well. The collective averages of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group in every area except emotional control and oppression of impulsiveness. By age, that affected the emotional development of the five-year-olds in a favorable manner, but didn't impact on that of the four-year-olds.
Fifth, a qualitative case study was implemented by selecting five young children who lagged behind in emotional intelligence and self- esteem, and it is found that the early childhood art curriculum had a good effect on letting them build a self-image and on expediting their balanced emotional development. To track any qualitative change, Kinetic House-Tree-Person test was carried out before and after the experiment, and their emotional intelligence and self-esteem were tested as well. And they scored higher in post-test than in pre-test, which proved the qualitative and quantitative effect of the early childhood art curriculum.