The relationship between arts education, museum education and drama education in elementary education

Abstract

The Ministry of Education has taken a radical step and adopted the constructivist approach in elementary education since 2005. According to this approach, education is given in student-centered, experience based, multiple communication and learning environments and assessed in cognitive, affective and motor dimensions. In the Ministry of Education elementary school curriculum, the fields of art, museum and drama education are included as compulsory elective courses or instructional methods. Visual arts education and music education curricula (grades 1-8) were revised, and artistic activities (grades 1-8) were included as a course in the curriculum. Drama and museum education exist within these courses as a field or instructional method.The aim of this study is to establish how the fields of art, museum or drama are covered in visual arts education (grades 1-8), music education (grades 1-8), and artistic activities (grades 1-8) as a instructional method or course. It is a survey type study. The study will involve an examination of visual arts, music and artistic activities curricula and guidebooks for grades 1 through 8, as well as weekly class hours decided by the Ministry of Education. Content analysis will be used for the analyses.As a second dimension, visual arts, class and drama compulsory / elective course teachers (5 teachers in total) were interviewed to establish the situation about the practical problems in the fields of drama, art and museum education. The interviews were recorded and evaluated by using qualitative research techniques. It was attempted that to identify both curricular and practical problems in the fields of art, museum and drama education at the elementary level.