Within the context of the increasing interest in play in art education, this study began with the question on how one can connect play and art creation, and play and learning. The researcher found the idea of connecting students' voluntary play to art...
Within the context of the increasing interest in play in art education, this study began with the question on how one can connect play and art creation, and play and learning. The researcher found the idea of connecting students' voluntary play to art creation and learning in H.-G. Gadamer's concept of play. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of a new approach in play-centered art education based on the characteristics of Gadamer's concept of play.
As specified in recent art curriculum, play is treated as an important learning strategy that emphasizes creative and diverse experiments and self-directed performance, in order to achieve the purpose of art education, such as understanding of oneself and the world through art. In the field of elementary art education, play is mainly conducted in the form of artistic play and integrated arts play, and in the field of early childhood art education, education is conducted mainly based on the ontological characteristics of play. In reality, however, teachers in the field of play-centered art education are experiencing many difficulties in implementing students' voluntary play as a curriculum.
According to Gadamer, during the transition process to art, play allows the player to gain excellent knowledge, that is, an understanding that cannot be acquired by theoretical learning. Therefore, from Gadamer's point of view, play, art, and understanding are the same fundamental activities that occur
sequentially or simultaneously, and the original aspect of Gadamer's concept of play explains the relationship between play, art creation, and learning.
Among the implications of Gadamer's play and understanding, the concepts, such as 'prejudice', 'conversation', and 'selfunderstanding' in particular, give a new insight for the preparation of alternatives to the difficulties and limitations of play-centered art education. Based on these three concepts, the researcher proposes a new possibility in play-oriented art education, by conducting research on the following didactic transposition. Firstly, by transposing the concept of 'prejudice' contained in Gadamer's play to the concept of 'respect for teachers', the researcher suggests a play-oriented class, in which students' voluntary play develops into works of art through the guidance of the teacher. Secondly, by transposing the concept of 'conversation' contained in Gadamer's play to the concept of 'transformative interaction', the researcher suggests a play-oriented class, in which each student's voluntary play creates a transformative interaction with each other and develops into a blended work of art. Thirdly, by ransposing the concept of 'self-understanding' contained in Gadamer's play to the concept of 'self-education', the researcher suggests a play-oriented class, in which students write their daily record of play and perform self-directed tasks in the process of developing their voluntary play into works of art. In this way, the researcher proposes the playcentered art curriculum and class examples that demonstrate the three characteristics of play-centered art education and analyzed them from Gadamer's point of view.
It is the 'self-reflection attitude' that consistently penetrates the three implications of Gadamer's concept of play and understanding, the content of its didactic transformation, and the art curriculum and examples to which it is applied. This is the attitude that students must learn to transpose their voluntary play to art creation and excellent learning in play-centered art education. This 'reflective play' transcends the limits of education from a traditional point of view and a deconstructive point of view. Such play does not exist merely as a means to convey the content of the subject, nor does it remain in a state of neglect for free expression of student's self. This is because despite the fact that the reflective play is conducted voluntarily, its infinite imagination is controlled through horizontal fusion with various conversation participants that the students meet in the play. In this way, play is transformed into a work of art, while producing a superior understanding.