The Effect of Using Art Activities in Improving Artistic Talent of Kindergarten Children

Introduction:

It is scientifically proven that the child's basic skills, especially in early age, are the first cornerstone in building his personality well; especially when they are guided in a correct educational manner, whether they are administrative, athletic or artistic ones. Moreover, when the child finds the community members around him believe in practicing such artistic activities freely, the environment around him will rife with freedom and will provide him with a kind of upbringing that creates a human being with artistic talent, unleashes his ideas, interests, and skills to benefit society.

A talented child can remember many mental images, visualize and imagine things through a special multifaceted logic. Additionally, he reflects these distinct abilities through his drawings and multiple artistic productions as a result of his high visual perception ability associated with some manual skills that reflect this visual ability. (El-Hinidy, M, 2010, 34).

Many studies have agreed on the importance of identifying talent at an early age for the benefit of society. Thus, childhood represents a fertile period for talent, where the child owns imagination as a distinctive feature that differs from adults and similar to creative people. Besides, multiple talents appear significantly and begin to fade and gradually disappear if it was not sponsored and supported.

Artistic activities play an important role in building a child's personality by helping the individual to achieve adjustment with his community, feel satisfied with himself and his abilities as they compromise between individual and social sides at the same time. While working in such activities, he feels not only a kind of personal pleasure but also group pleasure which comes through satisfying the community with what he produced. Arts also provide a kind of balance between the child's mental, emotional and intellectual attitudes within consciousness and unconsciousness. That no matter its' methods and techniques it is only a way for feelings, ideas, experiences self- expression, through which he learns a lot of knowledge and behaviors that in role help him to achieve psychological, mental and social development. ( El Sayeg,F ,2000,78)

In this context, artistic activities provide children with different life skills that enable them to rely on themselves and their psychological independence. Thus, they prepare them for a healthy life in the environment and society. (Sami, M.,2004,29)

Moreover, Ibrahim, L. (2004,111) argued that artistic activities can develop sensory perceptions through diverse art practices which help them to acquire technical skills to control the use of environmental raw materials, methods of formation and processing as well as linking such skills with the contemporary scientific and technological developments. Besides, they help to develop emotional aspects through the formation of positive attitudes towards social and artistic values.  

Many studies have agreed on the importance of artistic activities in developing various variables, as the study of Abdullah, R(2016) which revealed the positive effect of artistic activities in developing atheistic sense among kindergarten children and Al-Balushi, T (2014) which stated the effect of enrichment activities in art education on developing 74 primary school students' creative abilities and positive attitudes towards art in general. In addition to El-Bana, Y. (2013) a study that concluded with the positive effect of artistic activities in reducing depression which was mainly based on bringing joy, pleasure, fun, love of the other, love for oneself and self-confidence as they helped them to activate the positive energy of the child and express his internal emotions. Furthermore, Zuhair, R. (2008) study which proved the significant effect of artistic activities in developing artistic appreciation among kindergarten children.

So that, the researcher believes that artistic activities help to refine the self and modify behavior through acquiring many positive and natural personality patterns while emphasizing autonomy, self-reliance, a sense of trust and success as well as reducing frustration and failure. Furthermore, from the researcher's review of the literature and related studies, she found a scarcity in the studies which dealt with the use of a program based on using artistic activities and its effect on developing artistic talent. This, in turn, motivated the researcher to conduct this research as an attempt to use artistic activities and identify its effect in improving children's artistic talent.

The research problem

The research problem can be stated in the following main question:

What is the effect of the proposed program which based on using artistic activities in improving the artistic talent of kindergarten children?

Objectives:

The current research aims at designing a program based on using artistic activities and identifying its effect on improving the artistic talent of kindergarten children.

Significance:

Theoretical Significance:

1. Highlight the significance of artistic talent among kindergarten children.
2. The issue of artistic activities is an issue that the Arabic library suffers from its scarcity; so that the current research is one of the few attempts- according to the researcher knowledge- that dealt with artistic activities for developing kindergarten children artistic talent

Practical Significance:

1. The results of the research may help in drawing the attention of those who interested in management, planners, and decision-makers to stand on the importance of using artistic activities in developing artistic talent in early childhood education.
2. Proposed recommendations may be useful in providing kindergarten stakeholders in the formulating and designing artistic activities programs for developing artistic talent among kindergarten children.

Hypotheses:

1. There are statistically significant differences between the mean scores of pre and post measurement of the group under research in their performance on the artistic talent test for children.

2. The improvement percentage between the mean scores of the pre-post measurement of the group under research differs in their performance on the artistic talent test for children.

Delimitations:

Subject Limitations: a program based on artistic activities. 

Spatial Limitations: El- Minia Official Experimental Language Kindergarten, Adnan El-Maliki,

Time Limitations: The program was implemented in the second semester of the academic year 2018/2019 and took one month, (4: 6) times per week.  

Sample Limitations: The researcher identified the basic research sample randomly from El- Minia Official Experimental Language Kindergarten, Adnan El-Maliki. The exploratory research tool (Raven for successive Matrices) was applied to identify artistically talented children. Based on the results obtained, the sample was selected according to the highest quadrant in the Raven test which consisted of (32) children.

Methodology:

The researcher utilized the experimental research methodology with the semi-experimental design of one group through conducting pre/post measurements.

Terminology:

Artistic Activities: The researcher defined artistic activities procedurally as activities of an interesting and applicable nature that depends on the use of artistic tools and materials which stimulate the child and increase his desire to explore in depth through discovering the richness of such materials and tools. Those rely on non-traditional activities that aim to provide the child with an active learning environment that contributes to his development.

Artistic Talent: Ronald (2006, 11) defined it as a high specific readiness that qualifies an individual to achieve a high performance level in one or more areas of visual plastic performing arts. It helps in reducing stress and anxiety as well as increases an individual's autonomy and creativity.

Artistically Talented Children: They are children identified in the pre-school period as having proven and demonstrable abilities that indicate their ability to perform well, have specific intellectual, creative or academic abilities, have the art of leadership and can practice visual and scientific arts (Elsoror, N. 2003, 31).

Research Tools:

1. Raven's Colored Sequence Arrays Test (to measure intelligence) prepared by John Raven. It is a reliable and valid test as illustrated by previous studies that used it. That reliability coefficients in one study ranged from (0.91-0.62) and in another study from (0.44-0.99). Also, the Alpha coefficient of Cronbach ranged between (0.51-0.76).
2. Artistic Talent Test for Children (Prepared by the researcher). The correlation coefficients ranged between the score of each test question and the total score of the test between (0.43: 0.75), which are statistically significant correlation coefficients indicating the internal consistency of the test. Besides, the alpha coefficient of the test was (0.79) which was statistically significant and indicated the test reliability
3. Artistic Activities Program for Kindergarten Children: prepared by the researcher, this aimed to develop the artistic talent among kindergarten children through artistic activities.

Results:

Results of the first hypothesis:

There are statistically significant differences between the mean scores of pre and post measurement of the group under research in their performance on the artistic talent test for children.

Table (1)  Significance of the Differences between the Means of the Scores of Pre and Post Measurements of the Group under Research on the Artistic Talent Test for Children

*Significant at (0.05)                     **Significant at (0.01)

Table (1) revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of pre and post measurement of the group under research in their performance on the artistic talent test for children in favor of the post measurement.

The researcher attributed this result to the fact that a program based on artistic activities had led to the development of children's artistic talent. The activities of the program helped to improve the artistic abilities of these children and increased their innovation and creativity. They helped the child to understand and perform the required tasks and help them communicate more effectively with those around him. Moreover, they develop children's abilities of verbal expression, organize the environment and prepare them to cope with evolving changes as well as help them to perform their tasks successfully.

That art is the easiest way to express oneself and is a language without words in which a person enjoys. Thus, through practicing art, the child discovers the world around him, expresses himself and others. Therefore, art has a social characteristic, through which the individual communicates with others, and expresses his thoughts and concepts of the outside world with its beings and objects. So that playing with different materials also makes anyone feel free and enjoyable at the same time, regardless of whether they can draw or shape. Indeed, in times of fun, the individual easily acquires new concepts and possibly positive behaviors that help him to develop in all aspects.

Consequently, Artistic activities are the main objective of the educational process and science, which allows the child to improve his psychological life, and help to produce a conscious generation that can live with the circumstances in which he lives and be a good individual in the community.

This result was inconsistent with Abdul Alllah, R. (2016) results which concluded that there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the experimental group before and after applying for the art teaching program in favor of the post one, as well as Al-Balushi, T (2014) which stated the effect of enrichment activities in art education on developing 74 primary school students' creative abilities and positive attitudes towards art in general.

Results of the second hypothesis:

The improvement percentage between the mean scores of the pre-post measurement of the group under research differs in their performance on the artistic talent test for children.

Table (2) Improvement Percentage of the Group under Research on the Artistic Talent Test for Children (n=32)