Art Education and Creations of Artistic Forms. Students’ Views on the Course and Its Combination with Cultural Heritage

The goal of this study was to appoint students’ views on the lesson, “Art Education and Creations of Artistic forms”. In this context, a research was carried out at the University of the Aegean, DepArtment of Primary Education during the first semester of 2013-2014. The lectures included pArt from the basic knowledge, students’ involving in Artistic activities and exercises in Traditional Art. Most of the activities were designed to promote Cultural Heritage through Art and the final work was for them to create training manual to be used by students of Primary Education, in order to learn about the local Cultural Heritage. The questionnaire was answered by 149 students pArticipated in the research before and after the lectures and Artistic works they had to carry out. In order to extract the research results, we used statistical software SPSS v.17 offered by the School of Humanities of the University of the Aegean. The analysis showed that most of the students are positive towards following the specific course at the University and believe that it promotes Cultural Heritage and in combine with the economic, social, cultural and sustained development of the country.


Introduction
After the Second World War and because of the experiences related to it, wittings on the Artistic treatment turned to the human possibilities of Art.Nowadays, in a world characterized from advertising, media, globalization and huge social changes, education must redefine its role and aim to a strong educational environment able to lead students to a balanced life (Matsagouras, 2003).The Artistic treatment can acquaint children with subtle forms of emotion countless values and life standards and also more insights about human spirit.Through Art Education a child can acquire specific knowledge which allows him/her to explore deeper meanings of visual forms and the importance of preserving Cultural Heritage.The lectures of the course intended to foster students' creativity, produce Artistic work, pArticipate in visual Arts and specially promote Cultural Heritage through Art (Kampouropoulou et al., 2011).

Combining Art in Higher Education with Cultural Heritage
In modern educational thought, Art is defined as "a body of knowledge" and meanwhile as a development activity.Many scientists believe that Artistic experiences are an average of maturity.Through the lectures students were introduced to the basic concepts of Art and research methods (Chapman, 1993).They were taught how to use materials, tools and resources in a variety of visual forms.They realized the sensitive responsiveness and critical approach and analysis of Artwork and generally the phenomenon of Art.They also understood the Cultural dimensions and contributions of Arts in Culture overtime and the holistic approach of teaching through Art.The lesson was considered more than simply providing Artistic skills, more than a specialization and accumulation of technical knowledge, but was an intellectual process correlation with alternative perceptions (Ardoin, 2002).
Students were trained to study topics related to the Cultural Heritage by getting information and learning, how to translate this information into new creations, so they were given the opportunity to approach the historical concepts (Balta & Demou, 2002) and also focus and emphasize in Cultural dimension of education, in order not only to create educational material as their last work, but also to prove how important is teaching Art in schools so that Cultural Heritage can be promoted (Fokiali et al, 2003).Meanwhile they studied different Artistic areas and got involved in learning experiences and adventures (Girtzi & Boutidou, 2010).

The Method
Modern Pedagogical trends based on the development of creativity and freedom of expression, have paved the way for a more direct, efficient cooperation between Art Education and Pedagogy (Dottrens, 1974;Mikropoulos et al., 1994;Robinson, 1990;Rogers, 1995).The Curriculum of the course was based on: Knowledgeexperiences, Production-Creation, Views-Observation, Cultural Heritage-Artistic Creations.In particular: -Students were taught the basic characteristics of creativity starting with the fact that all of them are creative persons in relation with their own personality (Bruner, 1966).They were also given the characteristics of creativity according to Guilford, such as, fluency thinking, flexibility, originality of thought, analysiscomposition, transformation, edit -output, organization-complexity (Guilford, 1952).As they will become teachers themselves in Primary Education, it was displayed the need to connect Art Education issues that promote creativity and critical thinking with life and children's' experiences and in authentic contexts and situations.The theory of the course included visual basic principles as, contacting colors, shading, using pencil and draw, tension, motion, space, principles of composition, etc.They also proceed in activities such as, drawing, painting, printmaking, three dimensional constructing, collage, illustration.Their first exercise was to draw and paint one of the arches of the central gate of the University.The purpose was, students to be able to use Visual forms making various or specific choices and to be able to recognize various forms of Visual Art -Techniques (Form Data) in the environment, objects and works of Art.
-They learnt about the several materials (pencils, markers, pastels, textiles, sponges, nature materials, computer etc.), they can use to their creations.Our purpose was for them to understand the characteristics and properties of the several materials and the capabilities of each and every one and the method of using them in combination with New Technologies (Kampouropoulou-Savvaidou, 2007;Kampouropoulou et al., 2011).Also to discover their skills, develop them and be able to use and transform materials to new creations.It was specially notified to them that colors have a symbolic function connected to the maximum extent with Cultural conditions of time and space created.They are symbolically charged in a constitutional level and that their juxtaposition creates meanings (Skarpelos, 2000).
-They were taught how to observe (describe, explore, study), the Cultural elements in the environment and how to combine Art with Cultural Heritage and the way to promote Art Education with it as future teachers in Primary Education schools.Our purpose was for the students to realize that Culture refers to all the levels of Social and Economic reality of a country, counted as one of the important elements of Economic development and Social cohesion (Giddens, 2001;Gross, 2003).Also that it is one of the main pillars of Sustainable development, through sustained and functional interdependence with it and also with the environment and economy (Kampouropoulou et al., 2010).For the reasons above, we visited the town of Lindos and students asked as an exercise to "Discover the traditional village of Lindos through Art and Geometry".They had to explore the houses which have features of the Aegean architecture, they follow a continuous building system and their architecture typology is consisted of geometric shapes (Kampouropoulou & Fokiali, 2011).

Students' Views on Art Education and Creations of Artistic Forms
149 students of the University of the Aegean, DepArtment of Primary Education, pArticipated in the survey before and after the lectures in the specific lesson.31 of them were men, 20.81% and 118 women, 79.19%.When asked "Do you think the course will help you to develop painting skills?" a 0.67.00% of the students answered "Strongly disagree", 08.72.00% "Disagree", 46.31% "Neither agree or disagree", a 32.21% "Agree" and 12.08% "Strongly agree".After the lectures, exercises and painting activities, the views above differed (Table 1, Figure 1).

Table 1 .
Variations on whether the course will help in developing painting skills