Role of contemporary visual art in developing artistic creativity and environmental awareness among pupils of second educational period

Society increasingly encourages the tendency to protect the environment; the range of environmental issues and problems is expanding. To be able to take appropriate action, we need to have the necessary knowledge, which adults obtain more easily (through media, literature, education and the like) than children who develop such awareness through education, both at home and at primary school. Teachers who guide students and encourage their sensitivity and criticism of their own environment are often in a dilemma on how to do so. Art classes provide various possibilities and a space where pupils can gradually develop environmental awareness. In doing so, we can successfully help them by including contemporary art in art classes. Using carefully selected artists and works of art as well as students' own artistic activity, we can present certain ecological issues to students. Those who react with an emotional response will develop environmental awareness; they will strengthen their environmental awareness by embracing and internalizing this kind of experience as much as possible. By taking into account the phases of the creative process in art, we enable students to bring their creative ideas to life, we develop and promote their artistic skills. In this master thesis we tested to what extent and in what way can contemporary art based on ecological topics and messages encourage artistic creativity and artistic design of fifth grade pupils. We included content dealing with ecological issues in art class under normal teaching conditions. We developed artistic creativity and artistic design factors in the experimental group and measured them by using the LV2 test, known as the Four drawings. The results were compared with test results of the control group. The comparison showed that the students in the experimental group were more environmentally aware than the students in the control group. We ensured that all content included in the art class was based on interdisciplinary integration. In doing so, we took into account the principles of the art teaching profession and developed the students' respect for one's personality, environment and others in a discrete way. This method of teaching is not very common in early education in primary school. The results of the survey and the proposals for preparation of learning content can contribute to the improvement of art pedagogy practices. The study shows how the integration of environmental issues as a permanent part in the practice of teaching art develops artistic creativity and artistic design and environmental awareness among students. With this we confirm the theoretical bases of art didactics and strengthen them with modern findings and results that contribute to the quality of contemporary art didactics