The opinions of primary school teachers related to the problems encountered during the practice of visual arts course and their suggestions concerning the solutions

Students in primary schools gain abilities to express themselves, to think creatively, to understand the value of the art, to read visually, and to gain aesthetic knowledge through the visual art courses. Teaching through art is an important element of contemporary education. Therefore, personal creativity powers of the students should be shaped and they should be encouraged to create aesthetic environments during their art education processes. One of the fundamental practice fields within the education process which enable the individuals to gain such skills is the Visual Art course that was formerly known as Drawing-Technique Course. The revised Visual Art course curriculum, which aims to enhance the artistic qualifications of the individuals who are the headstones of the contemporary societies, was promulgated on 14 May 2005 by 192 numbered decision of Education and Training Board. The aim of the present study is to figure out the primary school teachers? opinions related to the problems encountered during the practice of visual arts course and their suggestions concerning the solutions. The data of the study is gathered through surveying the opinions of 22 primary school teachers who work in Afyon Karahisar in 2006- 2007 Educational term. A semi structured interview model, which is a qualitative research technique, was utilized in order to gather the data of the present study. Descriptive analysis technique was used in the data analysis process and the findings are presented as numeric data. With reference to the findings of the present study, the overall perceptions of the teachers depict that the visual art courses enable the students to express themselves, improve the students? creative thinking skills, and advance the students? imagination skills. Regarding the learning fields of the curriculum, teachers believe that although learning fields are difficult and very detailed they are appropriate to enrich students? imaginations and also they are proper to teach the color concepts to the students. Concerning the activities that held within the learning and teaching processes, teachers state that they do some coloring and painting activities and they stated that students have incompetence on the subjects of lavi, printing, ink, gouache painting, still life, and stained glass. With respect to the evaluation process the teachers state that they evaluated their students? works concerning their on going processes. Concerning the problems that faced during the practice of Visual Art courses, the teachers believe that students do not pay enough attention to the course. Moreover they believe that the course hours in the recent programs are not satisfactory in the primary education curriculum. Concerning the solution to the problems that faced in the Visual Art courses the teachers believe that the visual art courses should be given by professional art teachers and the course hours should be expanded.