Enhancing Children's Artistic and Creative Thinking and Drawing Performance through Appreciating Picture Books

The purpose of this study was to investigate methods of enhancing kindergarteners' artistic creative thinking and expressive drawing through an activity that involved appreciation of picture books. The study was conducted in a public kindergarten in southern Taiwan, with 27 children aged between 4 and 5. The researcher conducted the study in 16 weeks; data were collected via digital recordings of participants' appreciation and art‐making activities, artwork assessment checklists and questionnaires. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to process and analyse data. On the expression of and changes in children's artistic and creative thinking ability, findings suggest that ability is expressed through discussions that involve art vocabulary, including descriptive, analytical, interpretative and judgemental words. On‐site practice indicated significant use of descriptive and analytical art vocabularies. The results also showed that the collage series of picture books had more impact on children than did other picture books in terms of teaching efficacy by picture book appreciation. With regard to differences in children's reading and drawing behaviours between the beginning and the end of the study, findings indicate a significant and positive change in children's reading and drawing behaviours at home. The study also indicated that children's drawing behaviours could be cultivated by a series of art instruction activities. These findings should impact kindergarten educators’ instructional methods in visual art education in Taiwan, and may influence Taiwanese curriculum reform in early childhood art education.