The present study aims to analyze what effects integrated activities of mathematics and art give on children's spatial and geometric abilities, and mathematical attitude, and based on this analysis, provide basic materials for seeking an effective tea...
The present study aims to analyze what effects integrated activities of mathematics and art give on children's spatial and geometric abilities, and mathematical attitude, and based on this analysis, provide basic materials for seeking an effective teaching method utilizing integrated activities of mathematics and art.
Study themes were established for these study goals as follows.
Study theme 1
1. What effects do integrated activities of mathematics and art give on children's spatial abilities?
Study theme 2
2. What effects do integrated activities of mathematics and art give on children's geometric abilities?
Study theme 3. what effects do integrated activities of mathematics and art give on children's mathematical attitude?
The subjects of the present study, were 40 children of five years old from 'S' kindergarten in 'G' city. 20 of them were randomly assigned into an experiment group, and the other 20 into a comparison group.
As test tools for the present study to measure children's spatial and geometric abilities, a spatial ability test and a geometric test were used, which were adopted from 'the children's mathematical ability test tool' developed by Hong Hye Gyeong, Lee Jeong Wook, Jeong Jeong Hee(2006). To test children's mathematical attitude, a test was used, which is based on 'The Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children' by Harter and Pike (1984), modified and supplemented by Ward (1994), adapted by Hwang Jeong Suk (1997), and then modified for pictures and terminology by Yoon Eun Gyeong (2005).
The present study was conducted in order of preliminary study, pretest, experiment treatment, and posttest.
The two groups were regarded as a homogeneous group because no significant difference was shown between the experiment and comparison group in a pretest about children's gender, age, spatial and geometric abilities, and mathematical attitude.
Experiment group carried out integrated activities of mathematics and art, and comparison group carried out mathematics and art activities separatedly total 14 times, second times a week for 7 weeks respectively.
Average and standard deviation were calculated from the collected data after pre- and posttest using the SPSS statistic program, and group difference was compared and analyzed by t-test, to find out what effects integrated activities of mathematics and art give on children's spatial and geometric abilities, and mathematical attitude.
The results of the present study is as follows.
First, an analysis of difference between experiment group and comparison group in terms of children's spatial ability showed that experiment group children's spatial abilities scores were higher with statistical significance than those of comparison group.
The experiment group which carried out integrated activities of mathematics and art showed more improvement in 'direction', 'visual symbol', and ‘spatial reasoning' among subfactors of spatial ability test than comparison group which carried out activities of mathematics and art separatedly.
Second, an analysis of difference between experiment group and comparison group in terms of children's geometric ability showed that experiment group children's geometric abilities scores were higher with statistical significance than those of comparison group.
The experiment group which carried out integrated activities of mathematics and art showed more improvement in 'plane figure' and 'symmetry and transformation' among subfactors of geometric ability test than comparison group which carried out activities of mathematics and art separatedly.
Third, an analysis of difference between experiment group and comparison group in terms of children's mathematical attitude showed that experiment group children's mathematical attitude scores were higher, with statistical significance, than those of comparison group.
The experiment group which carried out integrated activities of mathematics and art showed more improvement all of 'preference', 'confidence', 'enthusiasm for study', 'sense of ability', and 'awareness of evaluation by others' among subfactors of mathematical attitude test than comparison group which carried out activities of mathematics and art separatedly.
In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that The experiment group which carried out integrated activities of mathematics and art had more positive effects on improvement of children's spatial and geometric abilities, and mathematical attitude than comparison group which carried out activities of mathematics and art separatedly.
Accordingly, it is suggested that integrated activities of mathematics and art is worth utilizing in the field of early childhood education, as a meaningful teaching method that can improve children's spatial and geometric abilities and mathematical attitude.