The development of visual perception in artwork in the primary school

Abstract

Visual perception and observational skills are an essential part of Visual Arts education, through which young learners, in the primary school, acquire important and necessary skills to create artworks during their creative projects. Unfortunately, many children in middle childhood are plagued by a self-imposed criticism to their own artworks, due to their inability to creatively express what they visually perceive. This may halter their creative attempts and lead to a creative slump. As an art educator, I noticed frustration and hesitation amongst my Grade 4 and Grade 5 learners to produce works of art. This research was designed to sharpen their visual perceptual skills and observational abilities, in an attempt to guide them through this challenging phase of their artistic development. A series of observational sharpening exercises were designed and administered as an intervention. A pre-test and post-test were completed to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. The conceptual framework that guided this research was grounded in the theories and concepts developed by Piaget (1952) and Edwards (1999), on the cognitive development and the cognitive –shift model. Textual data and visual data were collected throughout the study. The textual data were analysed in conjunction with the visual data to establish connections and themes. The themes that emerged from the research are creativity and the U-curve, creative and visual problem-solving, intrinsic motivation, and a shift to understanding and knowledge. The findings of this research informed the researcher that the development of visual perception and observational skills in Visual Arts education is critically important for children in the middle childhood.