Using Drawings to Determine Library Perceptions of Primary School Students: Bilkent Erzurum Primary School Example
The library, with its printed and electronic resources and information services, is an institution that contributes to the information and learning of individuals of all ages. The habits of reading and using the library are acquired in childhood and continued in later life. The aim of this study is to reveal the attitudes and perceptions of primary school students toward the library through the pictures they draw and their expressions and comments. The data were collected through the purposeful sampling method by observing drawing and writing from 57 students aged 6–10 who were in the pre-schematic and schematic stage, at Bilkent Erzurum Primary School in Erzurum, Turkey. The children’s pictures and explanations were analyzed and interpreted. Phenomenology and qualitative art-based research designs were used in the research. We observed that the students included most objects and themes about the library in their drawings and written expressions and that they had positive perceptions, thoughts, and experiences toward the library.
İlkokul Öğrencilerinin Kütüphane Algılarını Belirlemek İçin Çizimlerden Yararlanma: Bilkent Erzurum İlköğretim Okulu Örneği
Kütüphane, sahip olduğu basılı ve elektronik bilgi kaynakları ve sunduğu bilgi hizmetleri ile her yaştan bireylerin bilgilenmesine ve öğrenmesine katkı sağlayan kurumdur. Kütüphane kullanma ve okuma alışkanlığı, çocuk yaşlarda kazanılan ve sonraki yaşamda sürdürülen bir davranıştır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, ilkokul düzeyindeki öğrencilerin kütüphaneye karşı tutumlarını ve algılarını çizdikleri resimler ve bunlara yönelik ifadeleri ve yorumlarıyla ortaya koymaktır. Veriler, amaçlı örnekleme yöntemi kullanılarak, Erzurum ilindeki Bilkent Erzurum İlkokulu’nda öğrenim görmekte olan şema öncesi aşama ve şematik aşama döneminde olan 6-10 yaş arasındaki 57 öğrenciden çizme ve yazma tekniği ile elde edilmiştir. Çocukların çizdikleri resimler ve resimlere ilişkin açıklamaları incelenerek yorumlanmıştır. Araştırmada nitel araştırma desenlerinden olgubilim ve sanat temelli araştırma desenleri kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda öğrencilerin çizdikleri resimlerinde ve yazılı anlatımlarında kütüphaneye dair çoğu obje ve temaya yer verdikleri ve kütüphaneye karşı olumlu bir algılarının, düşüncelerinin ve deneyimlerinin olduğu saptanmıştır.
Library habits can be explained as the individual's use of the library for different purposes and at certain frequencies. The habits around reading and using the library contributes to an individual's language and effective communication skills, development of intelligence, success in education, critical thinking ability, and a social personality. For the child, drawing can sometimes replace language. Children sometimes try to explain things that they cannot express verbally by drawing. Imagination has a significant effect on children's painting drawings. The child approaches the outside world, events, and objects without being bound by the rule of logic. Also, drawing is a language for children in which they use different symbols and shapes. While children may draw some objects to be smaller or larger than they are, they can also draw some things by likening them to different metaphors such as the star, the moon, and the sun. A child’s metaphors can provide very important information in perceiving the library and the librarian. In this study, to reveal the children's perceptions about the library, the drawings they have drawn and interpreted were used, and, accordingly, there was an attempt to discern how students reflect the library habits and library perception by drawing them.
In the study, students' tendency to read books, their library perceptions and usage habits, and their attitudes and tendencies in this direction were determined and evaluated with their drawings and expressions. The main purpose of the study is to reveal the attitudes and perceptions of primary school students toward the library, books, and reading through their comments and original drawings. The study was carried out by using qualitative research through art-based research techniques. In this study, primary school students' perceptions of the library and, accordingly, books and reading, were examined based on their own pictures and their overall comments on the pictures. The participants in the study are primary school first, second, third, and fourth grade students. Primary school students were chosen as the source of this data because they were most likely to express their feelings, thoughts, and perceptions about any subject through pictorial drawings.
The research included 57 students between the ages of 6–10 from four different classes at Bilkent Erzurum Primary School in Erzurum, Turkey. The data were collected through an art-based qualitative research method (in the context of students drawing and interpreting their perceptions of the library). To obtain the necessary data for the study, the students were asked, "What comes to mind when you say library?” They were asked to spend 40 minutes, or one class, period, drawing their perceptions of the library using crayons and A4 size paper. After the drawings were completed, the students were asked to interpret them. These comments were recorded and used to determine the perception of the library in the drawings of the students during the analysis of the data in the study. The data obtained from the students' pictorial expressions and their written expressions based on their drawings were evaluated and interpreted through document analysis.
This analysis showed that the students' drawings and comments were generally related to the library. Most of the students reflected the library spatially in their drawings. Generally speaking, students gave more space to books, shelves, and librarian items among the subtitles of the library theme. Under the “library material” theme, the first thing that comes to mind for all (100%) of the students when the library is mentioned is books. Second, 50 (88%) of the students included a shelf, and third, 32 (56%) of the students included library staff. Three (5%) students mentioned the library week activities under the main theme of “library activities.” The drawings and concepts related to the library perception that emerged in the pictorial expressions are proof that students have perceptions and knowledge of the library, but students, think of the library more in terms of place and building than its function. However, it has been concluded that the first thing that comes to students' minds when the library is mentioned is the book.
