Perfect Patterns: Exploring the Relationship between Young Children’s Schemas and Artmaking; Evidence and Implications for Practice

Historically, the significance of visual art in early childhood education and the link to children’s cognitive development has been lacked consideration in the literature. The early years are widely acknowledged as critical in contributing to children’s development and providing an opportunity to establish strong foundations for lifelong learning. Using a qualitative, small-scale case study approach, this paper seeks to contribute to this discourse through an exploration of the relationship between a group of young children’s schematic behaviours and their explorations with visual art in a nursery setting. Documentation of the children’s schematic threads within observations revealed the ways in which children followed their schemas by autonomously engaging with open-ended art materials. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with children’s keyworkers in order to seek their knowledge, beliefs and perceptions of schema theory, supporting a consideration of the impact on practice and pedagogy. The findings presented here conclude that the children exhibited clear evidence of schematic behaviour patterns when utilising artistic materials. The practitioners in the setting, though in the possession of a good level of theoretical understanding in relation to schemas, were unsure as to how to develop practical opportunities to scaffold, support and extend children’s development in visual art context