Integration of visual arts to promote students’ critical thinking and creativity in social studies classroom in a primary school Hunza
Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Master of Education (MEd)
Department
Institute for Educational Development, Karachi
Abstract
This study aims to integrate visual arts with the social studies classroom at grades 4&5 to promote students’ critical thinking and creativity, which is the core objective of teaching social studies in the curriculum. Moreover, this study responded to overcome one of the common existing issues of teaching social studies. It was commonly observed that the teacher’s used textbook read method to teach students at the primary level due to which students become passive learners and do not show interest in learning social studies. The study used design-based intervention framework derived from Reeve (2006) to explore how I can integrate visual arts in social studies at the primary level classroom to promote student critical thinking and creativity. The intervention was based on three steps the first step was the use of VTS (visual thinking strategy), the second step was to engage students to create the product, and in the third step, students demonstrate their understanding by creating a local climate booklet. The data collection tools which were used for this study are semi-structured interviews, student feedback, a reflective journal by the researcher, and a student’s work sample. The finding of this study relieved that integration of visual arts with social studies has an effective strategy to promote students’ critical thinking and creativity. Moreover, it was also evident from students’ responses that drawing and painting are an alternative way of presenting ideas and thoughts.
Recommended Citation
Afser, S. (2020). Integration of visual arts to promote students’ critical thinking and creativity in social studies classroom in a primary school Hunza (Unpublished master's dissertation). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.