Investigating the attitudes of the students at the division of painting education and the division of music education towards art education: The sample of Erzincan

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the attitudes and opinions of the students at the Division of Painting Education and the Division of Music Education related to the art education they received throughout all their undergraduate education. The universe of the research consisted of the students at the Division of Painting Education and the Division of Music Education. The sample included 225 students (from 1st to 4th class) who were studying at the Division of Painting Education and the Division of Music Education of the Fine Arts Education Departments in the Faculty of Education in Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University. "The Mixed Research Pattern" was employed in the study. This pattern is the exploratory sequential pattern. The quantitative research (closed-ended questions, screening) method was used in the first stage and the quantitative research method (open-ended questions) in the second stage. Two different ways were followed to collect the necessary data. The first consisted of the "Attitude Scale towards Art Education" developed by Ayaydın., A, Kurtuldu, K., (2010), the second included the "Interview Form Consisting of Open-ended Questions" aiming to get student opinions with the questions in the "Attitude Scale towards Art Education". Within the scope of the data analyses in the quantitative part of the research, the statistical operations such as the Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient, KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) coefficient, the Mann Whitney U-test for the variable of the division, Kruskal Wallis H test for the variable of the class level were applied in evaluating the data gathered with the developed scale. The SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) program was used in the statistical operations. The descriptive analysis, among the data analyses types, was used in the analysis of the data obtained in the qualitative part of the research. In this context, the analysis of the research data was constituted in three stages according to the research questions and conceptual framework of the research. In the first stage, the students filled the interview form via Google Form. After that, the data were handled and analysed. In the second stage, considering the themes, determined in the conceptual framework dimension of the research, the opinions of the students were analysed. In the third stage, which is the final stage, the gathered findings were analysed and interpreted. In conclusion, all the findings demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the attitudes of the students at the Division of Painting Education and the Division of Music Education of the Fine Arts Education Department in the Faculty of Education in Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University according to the division and class-level variables from the "Attitude Scale towards Art Education". In line with the answers of the students to the "Interview Form Consisting Open-ended Questions", their opinions related to the art education, that they got throughout their all post-graduate education, were handled. These results demonstrate the significance and necessity of art education, its gains, reflection on daily life and limitations, and suggest that art education will support the creativity, the interaction of the students and is crucial in educating conscious art teachers. Keywords: Art Education, Necessity of Art Education, Attitude, Art Students