A Phenomenological Study of Children's Drawing
Traditional studies on children's drawing have become the standard for understanding children's drawing in art education, and have greatly contributed to the development of art education. The traditi ...
A Phenomenological Study of Children's Drawing
Traditional studies on children's drawing have become the standard for understanding children's drawing in art education, and have greatly contributed to the development of art education. The traditional studies of children's drawing have focused on categorizing and grading the characteristics of children's paintings according to their age, in order to analyse only eventual images separated from their personal experiences in artistic expression. In the study, therefore, there was a limit on definitely understanding and connecting their personal experiences in drawing to the formation of meanings.
Unlike the traditional studies on the development of children's drawing, this study was performed to explore how children's drawing could be shown in their paintings, by observing and analysing their personal experiences in artistic expressions. To do that, it seemed that a phenomenological study would be best suited to studying the meaning formation of subjects in children's drawing.
The following research questions were asked and answered in this study, so as to understand the meaning of children's drawing from the viewpoint of phenomenology. First, what makes children motivated to make a painting and What do children intend to express in their paintings Second, what is the connection between their experiences and paintings Third, what is the meaning of expressed characteristics shown in their drawing
The result of the phenomenological study was summarized as follows. First, it was shown that children's desire to either renew their previous experience or connect their current expression to the past made them motivated to express themselves with drawing. When children were motivated to express with the drawing, they clearly showed what they intended to express, and their intention of drawing was clearly shown as active subjects of drawing activities. Second, children's expression went through a procedure that signified and integrated their intention of expression, and the process made children not only recall and renew their experiences, but reform and reconstruct them in the manner of new expression intention. Third, it appeared that the eventual form of children's drawings was connected to their intended meaning, and that the stronger their intention, the more definite and characteristic the eventual form of their drawings.
The followings were discussed in this study. First, children voluntarily tend to participate in their drawing activities with a definite intention in most cases. Whereas the traditional studies insisit that children's drawings are limited according to their age, the findings of this study are different from the traditional ones. Children, like adult painters, are motivated to express what they are experiencing depending on their age. Second, children's perceptional judgements were made incessantly in the process of their drawing. Children tried to recall their own experiences in the process of drawing and express even the same experiences in a new way. The result indicated that even children's same experiences could lead to their different thoughts and expression. Third, the eventual forms shown in children's drawings were reflecting the meaning of children's experiences. It also appeared that the stronger their experienced emotion, the more definite and characteristic the characteristic of their drawing.
This study agrees with traditional studies on the understanding of children's drawing in that the form of children's paintings was diversified gradually with the increase in their age. It was found, however, that it was mostly diversified by their strong intention, rather than only the increase in their age. It seems, therefore, that the eventual form shown in children's paintings is based on children's individual intention and efforts, rather than the variables of their age. As a result, it is required to pay careful attention to their meaning