International Journal of Education & the Arts

Volume 14 Number 17

December 9, 2013

Wombat Stew: Enhancing Self Concept through an Integrated Arts Project

Deirdre Russell-Bowie
University of Western Sydney, Australia

Citation: Russell-Bowie, D. (2013). Wombat stew: Enhancing self concept through an integrated art project. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 14(17). Retrieved [date] from http://www.ijea.org/v14n17/.
Abstract
With a growing emphasis in schools on academic achievement, which is strictly limited to the core subjects of English, Maths, and Science, the arts offer a useful and creative system of learning, implicit with their own diverse range of skills that quite readily apply to everyday life and enhance children's self-concept. This paper investigates the development of self-concept of children aged 8 - 12 years from diverse social and cultural backgrounds in a low socio-economic area, as they are involved in a quality Creative Arts program. Using Marsh's self-concept questionnaire (SDQ1) for primary children, the study compares the development of academic and non-academic self-concept in children involved in an integrated arts program with those not involved in the program. Results indicated that overall, the general self-concept of those students involved in the creative arts program increased considerably more than that of the non-creative arts students.

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