Visual literacy studies in the context of the preschool visual arts workshop: A case study

In today's world where we are surrounded by visual stimuli, the development of visual language is a natural outcome. The visual language, which acquires an unlimited dimension, provides an explanation for the visual culture by giving meaning to what is seen and viewed. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of visual literacy studies when applied in preschool visual arts workshops on student work. Since the research is based on the teaching practices of visual culture studies in visual arts workshops, it has been conducted through case study, one of the qualitative research designs. The application of the study was conducted in Ankara Dadya Children's School in the art workshops for the 2019-2020 academic year. It has been applied to all 26 students whose age groups were 48 to 72 months, however 6 target students were determined. Research data; were collected using photographs, video recordings, and researcher journal tools. The analysis of documents obtained from audiovisual materials and research data were reviewed through descriptive analysis and the results obtained were interpreted in relation to the research questions. From the obtained data, five topics of artistic work, namely "Kandinsky", "Picasso", "Leonardo da Vinci", "Museum" and "Symbol" were reached. As a result of the results, it was found that children became aware of the understanding of the sub-disciplines of visual culture, began to use social and environmental images in their artistic works, their level of visual reading increased, and they were ready to raise awareness against visual images in society. Keywords: Visual culture, art education, preschool period