Pupils’ attitudes towards art teaching in primary school: an evaluation tool

concepts to be measured, the second constructed the items which comprised the scale and
the third tested and validated it. These three studies are presented next.

Study 1

Participants: the sample of study 1 included seventy-three sixth graders, 39 boys and 34
girls (mean age 11.7 years).

Instrument: An exploratory questionnaire was given to the participants in order to
identify the key dimensions of the concept ‘attitudes towards art experienced in school’.
The exploratory questionnaire included 38 items with a five-point response scale ranging
from ‘disagree a lot’ to ‘agree a lot’ and an open-ended question. The questionnaire
addressed a variety of issues about the nature and value of art, personal relation with the
art subject (enjoyment and confidence), teaching and learning processes, different types
of lessons (which corresponded to four orientations for art teaching referred by Efland,
1979, as expressive, mimetic, pragmatic and objective), different types of discussion,
perceptions of value, perceptions of support provided by teachers and parents, and
perceptions of ‘good’ artworks.

Procedure: Based on head-teachers’ descriptions about their school intake in terms of
familial socio-economic background and of the school’s catchment area, three classes
were chosen from three schools which reflected the full range of the social strata. The
questionnaire was administered to pupils by one of the authors after receiving permission
from headteachers and parents.

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