The effect of Islamic visual art education on social development of preschool children

Abstract

The art education is seen as important in children’s early childhood education and it is extensively acknowledged. This study emphasizes the value of Islamic visual art among preschool children and explores the methods of teaching art in preschools as well as on the approaches used to support the children’s learning, particularly on the development of social skills. The method was intended to consider the implications of Islamic visual art education in a qualitative view. Classroom structured observations were conducted mainly on the Islamic visual art painting and drawing activities among children participating in Islamic visual art activities to gauge the social skills development in the children according to their age level by referring four main attributes in social skills; communication, group, support and conflict resolution. The identified emerging findings include the importance of Islamic visual art education in order to develop social skills for children and in considering the positive relationship between children and teachers to support children’s development in their early childhood settings. Hence, Islamic visual art activities could be considered an essential tool of the pedagogy in addressing problems regarding children’s development and learning in early childhood, where the revision of art curriculum is required across the subject and holistic development of children.