Examining the opinions of prospective preschool teachers and classroom teachers on the visual arts course according to their personal characteristics

The purpose of this study was to examine if the opinion of prospective Preschool and Classroom Teachers on the Visual Arts Course was affected by their personal characteristics. The study was conducted in the academic year of 2013-2014 at the Karadeniz Technical University in Trabzon, with 344 participants who were prospective Preschool Teachers and Classroom teachers at the time. The data were collected by using an İnformation Collection Form and Visual Arts Course Attitude scale, both developed by the researcher and the Personality Test Based On Adjectives, developed by Bacanlı, İlhan and Aslan. This is a quantitative study in which an exploratory factor analysis was used to measure the psychometric scale. Comparative statistics and correlation techniques were used to analyse the obtained data. The result show that prospective Classroom Teachers have a more positive opinion on the Visual Arts Course, compared to the prospective Preschool Teachers. The higher the grade points of the prospective Preschool Teachers for openness to experience and tendermindedness are, the more positive their attitudes are towards the Visual Arts Course. The higher the grade points of prospective Classroom Teachers are for extroversion, openness to experience, tendermindedness and accountability, the more positive their attitudes are towards the Visual Arts Course. No relevant difference is seen when the gender variables of prospective Preschool Teachers are compared. However, prospective female Classroom Teachers' grade points are relatively higher compared to the grade points of prospective male Classroom Teachers. As a final result it can be said that there are significant differences between Preschool and Classroom Teachers when the variables of department, personality and gender are taken into account. Keywords: Art, Art Education, Preschool Education, Importance Primary Education, Classroom Teacher, Personality.