The effect of distance differentiated visual arts education on field-specific skills and affective characteristics of gifted students

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of the use of differentiated instructional strategies in visual arts education provided to gifted students through distance education on field-specific skills and students' affective characteristics, and to determine teachers' opinions about the application. In this direction, the effects of gifted students who receive education in distance visual arts education by using differentiated teaching strategies on critical thinking, creativity skills, affective characteristics and visual arts practice skills were examined. This study was conducted with the convergent mixed method design in which quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used together. A total of 40 primary school 5th grade students, 20 of whom were experimental and 20 of whom were in the control group, who received support education in Konya Science and Art Center, and 5 visual arts teachers who were experts in their fields participated in the research. Experimental and control groups were determined by unbiased assignment. In order to collect the data in this study, Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X, Torrance Creative Thinking Skills Scale, Affective Characteristics Scale for Visual Arts / Painting Lesson and Task and Self Perception Scale were applied to the students. During the research process, participating students were asked to create a digital file, and they were provided to collect the visuals of the studies to be done in these files. Interviews were conducted to determine the opinions of the teachers about the applied differentiated visual art education. For this interview, a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher by taking expert opinion was used. The implementation of the research took a total of 44 course hours. In the experimental and control groups, the application process started and ended at the same time. Quantitative data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis. Based on these data, Mann Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests from nonparametric tests and relational statistical tests from nonparametric tests and related sample t test from parametric tests were used in the analysis of the data. Pearson's correlation coefficient, r, was calculated in the calculation of the effect sizes of the descriptive values obtained from the Mann Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test data, which are non-parametric tests. As a result of the research, "Fleiss' kappa coefficient" was used for the reliability of the data obtained from the student product files, since the number of observer teachers was more than two. Qualitative data were analyzed with descriptive and content analysis. As a result of the research, with the use of differentiated teaching strategies in visual arts education provided to gifted students through distance education, a significant improvement has emerged in students' critical thinking, creativity skills, affective characteristics and visual arts practice skills. It has been concluded that the applied education has a great effect on the critical thinking, creativity skills, affective characteristics and visual arts practice skills of gifted students. In this study, it was concluded that the use of differentiated instructional strategies in visual arts education provided to gifted students through distance education improves critical thinking, creativity skills, affective characteristics and visual arts practice skills of gifted students. In the study, it was concluded that all of the teachers found the use of differentiated instructional strategies in visual arts education provided to gifted students through distance education appropriate in terms of realizing the targeted gains, that the activities were appropriate for gifted individuals, that they included many perspectives, that they supported creativity, and that they were related to previous learning.