Learning Through Arts and Music

Transcription

1 Learning Through Arts and Music Research and Practice Seminar Early Childhood Ireland Conference Croke Park, Dublin Friday 17 th April 2015 Rachel Whelan, Early Years Specialist

2 How Can I Support Drawing as a Meaning Making Process in an Early Childhood Setting?

3 Introduction Literature Review Drawing provides children with their first means of making a permanent, tangible, concrete, and communicable record of their ideas so that most young children have a strong desire to draw (Brooks 2009, 9). Methodology Findings Conclusions

4 Context Background Rationale

5 Drawing the process and product of making 2 dimensional visual representations by line, using dry media (Hall 2010a, 23) Draw to Learn the movement from simple spontaneous concepts to more complex concepts (Brooks 2009,7). Meaning Making The ability of young children to use drawing as a communicative practice and a thinking tool, which supports learning and development (Anning and Ring, 2004). Drawing and Telling Combining what can be looked at (drawing) with what is said (narrative) to support children in a genuine meaning making experience which involves both body, mind, and heart. (Wright, 2007)

6 Developmental Perspective Deficit model of child development Universal Immature Without meaning Socio-cultural Perspective Child is competent, powerful, connected to others Socio-cultural semiotic activity Powerful meaning making tool

7 Froebel (1967) Montessori (1988) Piaget and Inhelder (1956) Kellogg (1970) Lowenfeld and Brittain (1987) Golomb (1981) Matthews (2003)

8 Vygotsky (1978 Kress (1997) Malaguzzi (Rinaldi, 2001) Anning and Ring (2004) Brooks (2009) Wright (2007) Hall (2010a)

9 Action research is a systematic enquiry that involves a cyclical process of planning action, observation, and reflection (Koshy, 2010). Action Research Model (Kemmis and McTaggart cited in Koshy, 2010)

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12 Personal ethics statement Parental Consent Child Assent

13 Action research is by its nature a subjective and intuitive process Reflective Diary Action research is both context specific and small in sample size, and therefore findings cannot be generalised Powerful knowledge base

14 Draw to Learn: How can I support drawing as a meaning making process in an early childhood setting? Two Cycles of Action Research Third Cycle incomplete Four Themes

15 Circle Time Learning environment Drawing Box Drawing and Telling

16 The Big Black Storm Child G 12/11/13 Child G: This is a big black storm Me: What is this here? Child G: The people s lying down Me: What is this beside the big black storm? Child G: That s blicks Me: What are blicks? Child G: They are blicks falling down, falling down, lots and lots falling down.

17 Action Research Diary 13/11/13 Big Giant Octopus Fish When Child A told me about her drawing of a fish I noticed that her language, like yesterday when she drew a maze, contained words like big, little, giant, in, out. She also expressed her ideas by using gestures she made using her hands and arms. This may indicate exploration of particular concepts Action Research Diary 15/11/13 The Big Maze Today the most significant thing I learnt about the children s meaning making was the fact that I was beginning to see some recurrent themes and a crossover of themes/meanings within their drawings. Child A was again referring to big and little and had again drawn a maze but this time she had more detail in her drawing. Again this may be an indication of schema, in, out, big, little. A possible opportunity for extending learning.

18 Mammy s Bed Racing Daddy s Rubbish Bombs

19 Action Research Diary 18/11/13 What has become apparent over the last six days is how well the children make meaning through their drawings, both their home, community and school life is reflected in what they draw and tell me about their drawings. It is evident that they are exploring different concepts about how the world works, they are trying out new vocabulary and expressing themselves both verbally and non verbally-big little, Typhoo, islands,- pointing, moving hands, making noises. By listening to what they say I have been able to assess both their learning and how that learning might be extended. However one thing that has struck me as significant from what I have collected so far, is the way the children are interested in each other s drawings, some following a similar theme or just listening to each other tell about their drawings. This last point indicates an idea for my next cycle of research. I have decided that what I plan to do to support the children even further in their meaning making will be to prepare another circle time activity in which we will review the drawings collected so far. Also during this activity I plan to suggest to the children the idea of buddy drawing and get some ideas from them on how I can support this kind of drawing activity.

20 Children Making Meaning Building Relationships Oral Language Development Peer Involvement

21 Circle Time Review Drawing Together Drawing Journal

22 Action Research Diary 26/11/13 On arrival this morning into the setting three of the children approached me with the drawing box and asked could they be drawing buddies today. I set them up with a large sheet of paper and asked did they want to draw while on the floor or at a table. They chose a table. As I observed their activity, I heard them discussing ideas about what to draw. Child C and Child B started to draw a dinosaur and Child J was overheard saying me too. As English is not Child J s first language it was nice to hear him Dinosaurs communicating his ideas and understanding to the other children in the group. After the children had finished the drawing they each told me about their dinosaurs, with Child J responding with me too, and then later in the session they got together again to draw some Snakes snakes.

23 Individual Small Group Action Research Diary 26/11/13 I am getting to that stage in this second cycle when I need to consider another possible intervention to support the children s meaning making. I have noticed that in the last couple of days some of the children are using the drawing journal to draw a picture together, helping each other complete sections of the drawing and then telling me about their drawing together.

24 Drawing Box and Drawing Journal supported spontaneous drawing activity, drawing together and drawing and telling Buddy drawing supported drawing together Drawing activity supported the children in joint meaning making.

25 Circle Time Review Daily Group Activity

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27 Themes Significance of Findings Limitations Implications for Practice and Policy Recommendations

28 Action research is a form of enquiry that enables practitioners in every job and walk of life to investigate and evaluate their work (McNiff and Whitehead 2011, 7). Hall states that in the context of the early childhood setting practitioners should attempt to appreciate the complexity and understand the communicative potential of young children s drawings (2010a, 386).

29 Anning, Angela and Kathy Ring (2004) Making sense of children s drawings. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Brooks, Margaret (2009) Drawing to Learn. In Narney, Marilyn, ed. Making Meaning: Constructing Multimodal Perspectives of Language, Literacy, and Learning through an Art- based Early Childhood Education. USA: Springer, Fletcher, S.S.F and Welton, J (Eds) (1912) Froebel s Chief Writings on Education. London: Edward Arnold and Co. Available from: /library/digital-collection/froebel-archive/froebelchief-writing/index.html [accessed 31Oct 2013]. Golomb, Claire (2011)The Creation of Imaginary Worlds: The Role of Art, Magic and Dreams in Child Development. England: Jessica Kingsley. Hall Emese (2010a) The Communicative Potential of Young Children's Drawings. Open Research Exeter (ORE): University of Exeter. Available from: [accessed 2 Sept 2013]. Kellogg Rhoda (1970) Analyzing Children s Art. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Pub Co. Koshy, Valsa (2010) Action Research for improving Educational Practice: A step by step.2 nd edition, London; Sage. Kress, Gunther (1997) Rethinking the paths to Literacy. London: Routledge Lilley, Irene M. (1967) Friedrich Froebel: A selection from his writings. London: Cambridge University Press.

30 Lowenfeld, Viktor and W. Lambert Brittain (1987) Creative and mental growth. 8 th edition, Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall. McNiff, Jean and Jack Whitehead (2011) All You Need to Know About Action Research. 2 nd edition, London: Sage. Matthews, John (2003) Drawing and Painting: Children and Visual Representation. 2 nd ed. London: Sage. Montessori, Maria (1988) The Discovery of the Child: The Clio Montessori Series; v.2.oxford, England. Clio Press Ltd. Piaget, Jean and Barbel, Inhelder (1956) The Child s Conception of Space. London: Routledge. Rinaldi, Carlina (2001) The Pedagogy of Listening: The Listening Perspective from Reggio Emilia. Innovations in early education: the international Reggio exchange 8: 4, 1-4.Available from: [accessed 29 Sept 2013]. Wright, Susan (2007) Graphic-narrative play: Young children s authoring through drawing and telling. International Journal of Education and the Arts 8 (8), Available from: [accessed 14 Sept 2013]. Vygotsky, Lev (1978) Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Havard Unversity Press. Available from: [accessed 20 Oct 2013].