Abstract
This study aimed to explore two research questions: (1) how is the performance of the early childhood pre-service teachers in “perception and exploration”, “expression and creation”, “response and appreciation”, “visual arts content knowledge” and “visual arts teaching methods” before and after participating in the practice-based activities of visual arts? (2) what are the features of the early childhood pre-service teachers in the design of visual arts activities? The participants involved 41 Junior-year students taking the “Materials and Methods in Early Childhood education” course. The strategies employed in this project included: (1) integrating practical experiences in visual art with six areas (language, cognition, body movement and health, social, emotion, and arts), (2) providing pre-service teachers with practice opportunities in visual arts, (3) implementing collaborative teaching with experts in art education, and (4) participating micro-teaching and field teaching. The data collection included questionnaire surveys, interviews, visual art works, designs of teaching activities, and reflective reports. The study found that the pre-service teachers do not have a strong foundation in visual art. After participating in practical activities in visual arts, they believed that their performances in “perception and exploration”, “expression and creation”, and “response and appreciation” had significantly improved. For example, they found improvement in being more sensitive to the perception of the beauty of life; more familiar with the use of various art mediums, able to consider the color scheme and the composition, and more willing to create artistic works. They also found appreciation of young children’s artistic works, and that they can obtain rich information from the feedback of others. The study also found that the pre-service teachers believed that they had significantly improved their “visual arts content knowledge” and “visual arts teaching methods”, and can design activities and procedures that are suitable for young children based on practical experience.