Developing the art criticism skills of primary school 4th grade students in the visual arts course through Feldman's criticism classification and philosophy education for children (P4C)

This research was prepared to examine the effect of teaching Feldman's criticism classification through philosophy for children (P4C) education on the 4th grade primary school students' art criticism skills and attitudes towards the course, and to determine the students' opinions on Feldman's criticism classification and teaching practices. In the research, a convergent parallel design from mixed methods research was preferred. In the quantitative dimension of the research, a pre-post test single group experimental design was used. In the qualitative dimension of the research, case study design was used. While determining the study group of the research, maximum diversity sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used. The research was carried out in the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year at Elikesik Şehit İlyas Güzel Primary School, affiliated with Alanya District Directorate of National Education. 25 students participated in the study. In the study, activities planned and carried out with philosophy for children (P4C) education were carried out for 10 weeks to teach Feldman's criticism classification in order to improve students' art criticism skills. Pedagogical art criticism competence perception scale and visual arts attitude scale were used as quantitative data collection tools in the research. In the analysis of quantitative data, due to the low number of samples, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, one of the non-parametric tests, was used. In the qualitative part of the research, data from student opinions, student and researcher diaries, session videos and process evaluation forms regarding Feldman's criticism classification and philosophy (P4C) education-based teaching practices for children were used. The analysis of qualitative data was done by content analysis. In the study, with the quantitative findings obtained from both scale data, it was concluded that students' art criticism skills improved through Feldman's criticism classification and philosophy for children (P4C) education in the visual arts course and that the activities positively improved students' attitudes towards the visual arts course. As a result of the qualitative findings, students in the visual arts course, according to Feldman's criticism classification; People, animals, inanimate objects, shapes and the name of the work and the artist are the first features they notice in the work; They examine the work according to the colors and materials used, perspective and the relationship between living or inanimate objects; They interpret the emotions that the work creates in them, such as fear, happiness and joy, and the artist's reason for making the work; They make judgments about whether the work is valuable, special and unique; In Feldman's criticism classification, the most difficult ones are at the interpretation stage; They stated that during the 10-week course carried out with philosophy education for children (P4C), they learned to pose questions according to Feldman's criticism classification, think reasonedly and respect different ideas. As a result of the research, considering the effect of teaching Feldman's criticism classification through philosophy (P4C) education-based activities for children in the visual arts course on students' art criticism skills; It is recommended to work on different skills with P4C training in visual arts classes, and to work on different groups by integrating P4C training with Feldman's criticism classification.