The Study of Drawing and Painting Abilities in Preschool Children

The aim of this research is two-fold: first, to offer preschool children new learning situations in order to develop their drawing and painting abilities and second, to learn new techniques in a shorter period of time. The paper is grounded in the theory of creativity. Creativity is defined as the ability to propose something new, original and accurate. The research hypothesis states that if preschoolers are offered clear instructions on drawing/painting and are carefully monitored during fulfillment of the task, then they develop new drawing and painting abilities in a shorter period of time. The independent variable is the working task, while the dependent variable for this study is the final output. The sample consisted from 15 children enrolled during 2011-2012 at "Raza de Soare" Kindergarten Cluj-Napoca. The content of the drawings included specific topics related to natural sciences: flowers, leaves etc.. 12 experimental learning contexts were proposed. The research hypothesis is confirmed. We concluded that future research should consider fewer instructions in order to allow children to internalize the working tasks. Also, this will also facilitate the statistic measurement of the progress.