Alternative ceramic firing techniques and teachingmethods in undergraduate art education: A case study

It is known that workshop lessons which were done to support the therotical information has an important place for passing to the teacher profession while leading the Education Faculty students to their professions. In this research, in teacher training process, it is aimed to describe how to run the alternative firing techniques which advantage for developing creative applications, teaching and transfering art to the next generations. In this study, a qualitative research was carried out in which single-state status pattern was used in terms of revealing the applications. In the 2018-2019 academic year, six students who have the criteria for having essential readiness in terms of gaining prior knowledge and ability of ceramic training and got educated in the Spring term were determined in the Main Branch of Painting – Work Training at Bursa Uludag University Education Faculty Fine Arts Training Department. In the collecting data process of the research; sooty firing which is one of the techniques of alternative firing, raku firing, sagar firing and obvara firing techniques were applied in the content of this study. Main data of the research were based on the observation data in the process of the applications which were run by the researcher. Data set was completed with the semi-structured conversation forms, students diaries and researchers' notes. Data obtained were analyzed with the method of descriptive analysis. Findings based on the conceptual framework; therotical ground, application process, firing processes, theme topics in the form of gainings and evaluation were arranged. According to the results of the research, answers to the question of how to apply the alternative firing techniques taking part in the programmes of painting-work teaching were looked for. It can be said that teacher applicants gain different perspectives, obtain the thoughts aimed at the solution in terms of improving their creativity and abilities. With this research, suggestions were made to the teachers about the subjects of how to apply the alternative firing techniques in which circumstances, purposes and gainings. Suggestions were made to the teachers in the subjects of how to place education institutions in their programmes, why these techniques are important and how to apply these techniques considering the physical conditions of the schools. And for also the researchers, suggesstions were made about the subjects of which studies can be carried out from now on. Keywords: Fumed Firing, Obvara Firing, Raku Firing, Sagar Firing, Ceramic Education