The drawing development stage assessment of second through eight grade students' art work (Diyarbakır case study)

The aim of this study is to evaluate the features of the stages of the graphical development of the students at 2nd and 8th grade. This was achieved through examining the pictures they made during the art class in terms of the variables of the age, gender, and the school. . The subjects of the this study, which was conducted during the education year of 2014 and 2015, consist of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students with different socio-economic backgrounds (low, mid, high) in Ergani Demirli Baran primary school and secondary schools, Yenişehir Mehmet Sabri Güzel primary and secondary schools and Yenişehir Mehmet Akif Ersoy primary and secondary schools, located in Diyarbakır province. The art work called "A Happy Memory With My Family" was administered to the subjects during a class lasting 40 minutes by using free painting technique. Five of these Works were randomly selected from each class in these schools. So for the study 105 works were gathered from 21 classes. The "descriptive research model" was used in this study. National and international resources regarding the graphical development of children were examined to attain a beter result and test the sub-questions of this search. Three different forms were formed as the tools to gather data by refering to some professionals. These forms include different numbers of questions for each term. 23 questions were determined for the graphical term, 21 for the reality term and 14 for the reasonal term. The means used for gathering data are capable of measuring the graphical development of the students. The study was conducted by the researcher in each school. The means of measurement were evaluated by three experts including a national education agency, a researcher at fine arts department of a university and the researcher herself. The works evaluated were converted into percentage and frequency rates through SPSS program. The schools were rated as "good, mid-level and bad" according to their physical conditions and neighborhood. The pictures were evaluated by taking into account to what extent the students have the pre-specified features appertaining to each term stated in means used for eliciting data The following findings were attained following the statistical analysis: • That the female students reflect the features of their graphical development levels in a much clearer and more conscious way than male ones was observed. • When it comes to reflecting the features of their graphical development levels to the paintings, it was seen that the students of the schools with high socio-economic level were more successful than the mid and low leveled ones. • It was observed that the female students were more coherent than male ones in terms of the gradual progress made in the graphical development levels. • It was seen that the students at high socio-economic level schools were more coherent than the students at mid and low socio-economic level schools at the stages of graphical development, and it was obvious that these students reflected the drawings more carefully to the paper. • It was seen that students passed the upper term by acquiring the features of each term at the end of the term. Keywords: Visual Art Education, The Development In Terms Of Art, A Child's Graphical Development, Evaluation of A Program, Primary and Secondary School.