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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 4114 – 4118

5th World Conference on Educational Sciences - WCES 2013

A study into the effects of art education on children at the

socialisation process

Asuman Aypek Arslan*

Gazi Üniversity, Faculty of Vocational Education, Department of Applied Arts, Emniyet Mah. Muammer Yaşar Bostancı Cd. No: 15
Beşevler, Ankara 06500, Turkey

Abstract

While the education of art aims at making children people with creative minds, researchers, with self-esteem, productive and with
developed aesthetic perception and taste, it is likely to see that the effort of creating a modern and social community has the same
purpose. The stages of individuals’ attaining the values, behaviours and knowledge of the community they belong to define the
process of socialization. In this process, the child puts every experience he sees and acquires in his life. The fact that children
have an education of art to improve their personality and nurture them with aesthetic values of the future life will contribute their
professional and social lives to become more successful and systematic. It is clear that children having an education of art
improve self-esteem and the self-respect due to the feeling of success and satisfaction they get. A child being able to express
himself through art is able to develop healthy features of personality, participating in the social life actively and becoming
beneficial. In the research, the behavioural changes which the art education helped to improve at children in terms of adaptation
to their environment was investigated.
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Keywords: Art education, children, social adaptation.

1. Introduction

Art has been a significant phenomenon of the social and cultural environment where it grows and an important
instrument to go beyond itself. Art could provide people with unity and solidarity and lead to the awareness at social
issues, directly or indirectly. Art can explain the religious, political, economical and technological sides of culture
(Dixon & Chalmers 1990).
Regarding art as a necessity in order that human being can be aware of it and change it, Fischer (1990) puts an emphasis on
art in making human being understand the facts and make them resistible. The most natural and powerful necessity of human
idea is the effort of him to put things and events in an order aesthetically. Disorder guides human idea to seek a solution for the
related problems. On the other, order and composition is the prerequisite for the human being to understand himself. In this
respect, art is a phenomenon of order and intuition. Individual is in a versatile, detailed, complex and intensive communication
with the environment that is composed of natural, social and cultural components where he lives. It is expected that this

* Corresponding Author: Asuman Aypek Arslan Tel.: +90 312 2162896fax:+90 0312 2123640
E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.900
 Asuman Aypek Arslan / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 4114 – 4118 4115

interaction between the individual and his environment should be more healthy, balanced and ordered, more effective and
efficient through education (Uçan 1995). Education is the most effective process in forming, growing, developing, guiding and
preparing healthy individuals and the community made up of them for the future. However this expectation is firmly related to
the quality of the education which is planned and practiced. It is fact that artistic and cultural education of individuals and
communities is a reality.
Art education is a part of common education and includes intra and extra school artistic education. In general sense, it
includes the education given in educational institutions regarding all the fields of fine arts and art education out of institutions
(painting, sculpture, architecture, visual communication, photography, cinema, music, dance, theatre, literature, designing etc.).
In a narrow sense, it includes the courses related to the field given at schools (painting, three dimensional work, graphic, music,
art education, designing) (San 2004). Individuals in modern communities have to be equipped with necessary and adequate
knowledge in the fields of science, art and technique. In the absence or lack of one of these fields, it will not be so easy for the
individual to live a healthy, balanced and satisfied life in line with the life conditions he is in.
In the basis of art education is human being, a biological, social and cultural existence. Human being is a whole in his
cognitive, affectiveand kinetic sides. The knowledge of human being with a whole starts with the observation of the nature and
improves with memory. With the classification of the creatures and events, knowledge called science is established. It is
possible to train individuals being able to understand the community they live in, communicate with the environment and come
up with solutions by means of creative education (Buyurgan 1996). Therefore, in the preschool period when the basis of
creativity is formed and in the basic educational systems following it, art education is of great importance. These are the years
when human being starts to know the nature and his personality is formed and the most intensive teaching environment is
school. A true meaningful communication to be made between the educator and the person education both in terms of
knowledge regarding theoretical field and in practical fields will accelerate development. The most important purpose of this
developmental process is to grow up productive, creative, consistent and balanced healthy individuals (Ünver 2002)
Art education within education aims at putting child directly in artistic forming by experiencing the art and wants him to be
active in it. The child is provided to reach the forms by making emotional and mental processes of him active. Observation,
research, discovery, practice, trial, supervision and finalizing, which are all the processes of basic art education prepare the
child and the young for the scientific and technological world of our age since they are mostly the same as scientific researches.
Improvement and change within the social construction in the present time require training balanced, consistent and creative
people with self-esteem, who can criticize, know what to do instead of those who are passive and receptive things as they are
without questioning social cases and phenomena. In order to reach the targets, it is important for children to get to know art in
their early ages. In particular, when it comes to preparation for the future and formation of the life in the future, nurturing
personality with aesthetic values, training it in the young adulthood period when features of personality starts to be formed will
make them successful both professionally and in their social life, allow them to be neat and sensible. In this sense, art education
will help adolescents to get know themselves, live a more adaptive childhood period, become more creative and productive,
have a healthy personality with a large perspective that is attained through art education. The child bringing his ability and
creativity to the fore freely with art education will both have a personal satisfaction and participate in the community creatively
and efficiently. A modern society will only maintain its development and improvement when it is made up of people with
satisfaction, happiness and healthy way of life (Etike 1995).

1.1. Socialization at children and art education

Life is an adaptation process to the conditions where we live to a large extent. Adaptation is a dual process and consists of
the fact that individuals within a continual lifelong change and development accept biological, mental, social and emotional
changes within themselves and then exhibit behaviors and attitudes in line with these changes, and on the other hand make
positive connections with other people around them. The methods individuals face while overcoming the problems do not
change so much throughout the life and this case could be explained through the fact that adaptation methods and defense
mechanisms are formed in the childhood period and adaptation can be regarded as two dimensions, personal adaptation and
social adaptation (Özgüven 1992). Socialization comprises of the relation of the behaviors of an individual at a certain age,
gender and social status to the behaviors a community expects. Socialization process is observed in two sides. Parents could be
a component of socialization for their children while children could become an element of socialization for their parents.
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Socialization could be viewed both as a lifelong process and as a dual process (Dusek 1987, Eshleman 1991). Socialization is
based on learning, in particular social learning theory and reflects cultural expectations and cliché judgments.
In order that art education process could be performed in line with its objectives, there is a need for well-planned programs
and activities. Introduction of art in the artistic life of an individual will provide him with a neat life and a contribution to
become both enthusiastic and free (Erden 2004). Art education affects all the developmental fields. Children learn how to
express his ideas depending on their developmental levels and turn the concepts they learn into artistic forms. Such different
branches of art as painting, music, dance and drama offer significant opportunities for all the children from different age and
skill groups. Art help children express themselves, develop the skills of communication and problem solving. With the
participation of various artistic activities, children develop their social skills, their self-respect and self-esteem (Schirrmacher
2002).
Such activities as drama, dance, painting, drawing, cutting and sticking, drama games and finger games; such indoor and
outdoor games as climbing, skipping, jumping; playing with manipulative toys, using cardboard, chalk, play dough and clip art
are all are the works that require muscle work and are regarded beneficial for both large and small muscle development and for
hand-eye coordination.
According to Piaget, mental development mostly depends on physical knowledge and information coming from external
objects. Small children learn physically by tasting, smelling, feeling, seeing and hearing through the actions with objects. By
improving thesekinds of physical learning, such kind of relations as comparing, classifying, ordering with objects and action
can be understood better. As an example, in the work of “making a model out of play dough”, child can both mentally and
physically learn the concepts of “soft” and “hard” by touching the dough. After touching the dough, kneading it and producing
it by feeling its softness, he will perceive the hardness of the object after it is dried and it will provide him a more permanent
learning. Another example will be “collage work”. Here, a lot of pieces can be combined into one and it will allow children to
feel different feelings and textures, and some concepts can be taught in this process (Öztürk 2001). Artistic activities are
necessary and important instruments in terms of allowing him to express himself so attain the feeling of self-respect. When a
child paints a nice picture and shows it to his parents or teachers and friends, he will be praised positively and also have the
feeling of succeeding a task and becoming beneficial for others. These feelings will contribute to the child in forming a model
of productive and hardworking society (Şenbil 2002).
It will be possible to repair and improve the feeling of self-esteem for the children grown up at conditions with weak
emotional developments particularly through artistic environments and related activities. During art education, approaching the
child with love, attention and understanding, paying attention and respect to his personal and intragroup features, awarding him
when he succeed the activity is the first step in emotional trust and in developing him (Dilmaç 2002). Children mostly start to
learn the behaviors in their adulthood from their peers when they are a child. So, while working in a group, they should learn
such social skills of how to share things, how to listen to others, how and when to work. With artistic activities, the child learns
to finish a work he starts, the taste of working together and feeling respect to the ideas and works of others (Öztürk 2001).
Participating in group works by means artistic activities allow the child to learn to helping and social concept, benefit from
earlier experience by passing through the processes of searching, trying, discovering and getting to know and attain enjoyable
hobbies (Birsun 1993). Children talk to each other or adults about the painting or a sculpture while working on an artistic
activity. They learn to share the materials and the table they work on and give positive feedback to each other. They stories
about the symbols and sculptures they produce. They learn to listen to a song, accompany to it and tap slowly or fast. They
discover how music produced from a group of musical instruments sound good or disturbing. Through a drama game, they try
new roles and learn to compromise to carry on the game. They share their ideas through this game and express their ideas about
what the world means for them with the help of their imagination (Shirrmacher 2002). Getting rid of the energy accumulation
in the child in this way will prevent him to become a naughty child harming others and behaving badly.
It is necessary that a person improve his aesthetic environment consciousness in order that he has an influence in the
environment he is in and make his environment a maintainable surrounding. Giving a child the education of art will make him
attain the ability to approach his surrounding with an objective and critical behavior, to know historical relations, improve his
ideas and tolerate the ideas of others. In this way, the child will be able to perceive his surrounding consciously, organize his
personal surrounding and reach a position where he can evaluate visual phenomena objectively and critically (Buyurgan 1996).
Starting from the early ages, the individual taking an art education will be able to improve his talents and reach an aesthetic
level, and also attain the skill of choosing good, true and nice. According to Ataman (1995), the most critical age group in
 Asuman Aypek Arslan / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 4114 – 4118 4117

developing creativity is five – six. With the start of school age, creativity stops at the period when he gets to know authority and
rules. An art education with a good infrastructure will lead to success at other courses. Many researches show that children are
more attentive in the courses which are combined with art. A study carried out into brain show that music has an impact on
brain development and that reading contributes to other issues (Weinberger 1998).

2. Result sand conclusion

Environment is a part of human being. It is formed, grown and improved together with him. Just as human creates
environment, environment has an important part in the formation of human behaviors as well. The fact that people have
different personalities leads to perceptive differences. Environment which is made up of differences, contrasts and similarities
will form a community when it is regarded as a whole. No matter how social environment of a child and his features differ and
are various, the effects of the environment will stay neutral unless there is perception and awareness. However, it will be
meaningful when it is perceived that it offers significant sources in the development of environment. Awareness of social
environment starts with family and goes on with education. In that way, individual improves his skill to make a comment and
make things meaningful thanks to the perception he has. Visual perception of individuals comes with artistic development.
Therefore, students will be given examples from their surrounding at the education in their development process and it provides
them with vital affinity. The course can be made more concrete and individual can be made to put a connection between art and
environment.
A teacher in an environment of a suitable art education is in the position of an organizer, a person teaching how to use the
materials, speaking to them about what is being done, arranging the art education such as exhibiting and preserving things,
following the application and guiding when necessary. Therefore, it is necessary that educational process in art education
should be student centered not teacher centered. Children exhibit their creativity by working any of the materials they choose
which are prepared specifically for them. Teacher should be deal with how children carry out their activities, what they feel
while doing them, not in what way they do it and should plan the education based on this idea. Children should be made to
work on original ideas at art education as much as possible. On the other hand, children should sometimes be able to carry out
some specific works related to their life. Before starting such kind of art works, children should have some ideas to express
their feelings, ideas and experience. Lack of experience could lead children to draw same figures and cartoon and commercial
objects. Therefore, teachers should provide children with learning by doing in natural environment.
Taking children to exhibitions, museums, showing them slides, film and photographs, making them talk about pictures,
introducing them painters, arranging field works such as visiting nearby bus stations, ports, markets, winter sports centers,
farms, holidays lives will help children attain new experience in these fields. Making children attain experience through artistic
activities depends on the guidance of adults in their development and learning process. Teacher’s lack of knowledge,
experience and pedagogy in terms of art education could lead to some problems in practice. The most important problem is that
teachers focus on the product rather than the process of the work produced. The educator should focus on the activities, not on
color, shape, lines etc. The second problem is that art is not regarded as a discipline. Children should be able to participate in
any activity regarding art. Activities should be designed in a way that children can look at each other’s works, understand it and
talk to each other. At the end of the artistic activity, children can talk about why their works are different from each other even
though they use the same paper and materials by looking at each other’s works. Children should talk about other works of art
other than their works. Bringing paintings into classroom from time to time and making children examine them will enable
them to comment on these works. While preparing course plan for art courses, teachers should pay attention to the
developmental levels of children. Such activities that will raise the interests of students, those which they can manage and
enable children to concentrate and put them in a process to produce creative things should be determined. In addition,
theoretical and practical issues should be well-organized in order to create a permanent perception at art courses.

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