The subject of this research is the creativity of children at early school age through artistic expression as well as an attempt to give an answer to the question which way under the existing program in the teaching of arts education can increase the effect of teaching and develop more creativity in pupils by introducing the examples of contemporary art practice. Reproductions of paintings by Serbian and world famous modern artists were shown to the children. Serbian artists are Mladen Srbinović, Lazar Vozarević, Radomir Reljić, Ljubica Cuca Sokić,Nadežda Petrović and Nedeljko Gvozdenović. The modern artists well konown from art history are Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. The children showed a great interest for the artworks.

Creativity in the arts is reflected in the creation of new works of art. Analyzing the problem children’s artistic expression at early school age it turned out to be a conclusion that creativity contributes to the universal development of personality. “Just as all children are not equally intelligent, all children are not equally creative. But just as all children exhibit behaviors  which evidence intelligence from birth, they also exhibit  behaviors which evidence potential for creativity ” [5, p.1]. Creativity occurs in a small number of adults and almost all of the children. It leads innovation in science due to divergent opinion, affect the success of the art products. It emerges new ways of thinking. Creativity factors are originality, flexibility, creative fantasy, the fluidity of ideas, creative generalizations and concept of relatively.

Problem of this research is to determine whether the works of art can enhance students' motivation to educate and encourage creative need and to express themselves creatively.

The goal of this research is to establish how do children  react to modern art (works of art created in the first half of the twentieth century) and whether that can be good incentive and  inspiration. Could displayed artworks be given in the form of regular didactic materials in class arts.

Method of research was based on the experimental procedure with longitudinal character with the experimental and control groups during the second half of the school year in the 2015 in two primary schools in Niš, Srbija. The plan of experimental procedure was the procedure was included determination of the facts in the initial and final state. The sample of respondents consisted of third grade pupils from both schools. From each school are taken four classes of third class. Two classes from both schools were included in the control group, and the remaining two classes were in the experimental group. Total number of third-grade pupils in both schools was 227. In the experiment it was attended by 213 pupils, which is a pattern divided into two sub samples. The first sample was the control (K) group with 104 children, while the second sample contained experimental (E) group of 109 children. A control group of children attend school art teacher on the classes of art education according to the curriculum prescribed by the Ministry of Education. During the process of regular classes, the pupils in the experimental group listened to lectures and watching playback on big painters of the twentieth century, and later drew and painted, inspired by their art works. The results of this study are related to present about 94% of the pupils on the art classes and the results of their work were taken into consideration. All the pupils were tested under the supervision of teachers and researcher., It was used sample of 213 respondents in order to get statistically significant research results.

Pattern variables

1. Variable for the evaluation of the social situation
2. Variable for assessing creative drawing
3. Variable for assessing the quality of art works

Hypotheses

H1- The pupils of  third grade in the experimental and control groups did not differ in social status

H2 Pupils of the third grade of primary school in the experimental and control groups did not differ in the creative drawing

H3 Displaying art works of famous artists of the third grade children have a positive effect on the development of creativity and facilitate the adoption of new art concepts.

SURVEY RESULTS

Descriptive statistics (oписательная статистика)

Тable 1

Schedule of pupils  per social situation

Таблица 1

Расположения по социальному обеспечению учащихся

In order to gain an insight into the social situation required data were as follows; occupation of father and mother, number of family members of the child, parents' education, financial situation (estimate of the child), the question whether a child’s family  dealt with art as amateur or professional, what is a number of books in the house (at the discretion of the child).

Social situation (социальная ситуация)

Table 2

Test results Vitnija-Man (Mann-Whitney)

for differences in social status

Таблица 2

Результаты тестирования Man- Vitnija (Маnn-Whitney)

различия в социальном статусе

Differences in social situation between the control and experimental group were tested by Mann-Whitney test. On the basis of this test of significance (p = 0.117) it can be argued that the two groups - K and E are uniform in term of social status. So, the hypothesis X1 is confirmed.

X2

Table 3 

Distribution of pupils by creative drawing (initial measurement)

Таблица 3

Распределение учащихся по творческому рисованию

(первоначальное измерение)

Test for measuring creative thinking with drawings (Milić and associates 2011)

Test has two forms (A and B), which set together or separately, and each represents a start drawing, which contains five elements in a large square (half circle, right angle, point, curve, broken line), while the sixth element (unfinished square) is outside the closed box. Form B is made from Form A and that is why the presented task is rotated 180 degrees. In both cases the respondents were asked to complete to start drawing. Creating drawings which is less or more based on simple figurative parts. The final product - a drawing, is estimated through categories developed by Urban and Jelen  in the context of Gestalt theory, with hoping to extent closer to basic creativity. The authors insist on the fact that their refer possibillity of consider the whole and complete person, not as someone who works only intellectually.

Table 4

Distribution of students according to the creative drawing

(final measurement)

Таблица 4

Распределение студентов по творческому чертежу

(конечное измерение)

Х₂

Table 5

Test results (Mann-Whitney), differences in the creative drawing

Таблица 5

Результаты испытаний Ман Витнија, различий в творческом чертеже

Differences in the creative drawing between the control and experimental group on the initial and final measurements were tested by Man Whitney test. Based on the significance of this test it can be argued that the control and the experimental group were uniform at the initial measurement (p = 0.179) but on the final measurement experimental group had significantly higher (p = 0.012) values, which confirms the positive effect of the experimental treatment . So, the hypothesis H2 is confirmed.

H3

The effect of the experimental treatment on quality of the artistic work of pupils and the effects on creative drawing were examined by comparing the results of the quality art works before and after experimental program. It was applied the Wilcoxon test for dependent samples.

Table 6

The Wilcoxon test for dependent samples

Таблица 6

Тест Вилкоксона для зависимых выборок

Based on the Wilcoxon test results it can be made conclusion that there are statistically significant differences in the quality of art works and creative drawing pupils before and after the experimental program. The experimental program has contributed to a significant improvement in these parameters. The hypothesis H3 is confirmed.

During this research it was noted that of the total of the experimental (E) sample are 5% very creative children. After a review of all the children art works during school classes and the results of all performed tests, it was found that only five showed and clearly expressed very high artistic creative level from 109 pupils experimental group (E). Two pupils were in the group with high intelligence, and three from the group with above-average intelligence.

Between the works of famous artists and developing creativity in children of third grade, there is a certain correlation. However, in the process of developing creativity, are concluded few another essential factors (creative thinking, talent, ability observations), which may not be sufficient if there not favorable conditions for creative development. Firstly is occurs divergent creativity in children. The convergent creativity requires knowledge of specific areas and experience. It was found that creative children learn faster abstract artistic creative expression, rather than specific in compare to other children. The experiment showed that the presentation of reproductions of famous artists, analyzing their work and meeting with their biographies can significantly to interest almost all children for Fine Arts. It should be determinated in a future what coses decline in creativity in people over a lifetime; is it a direct function of the aging process, in which case it will be difficult to change, or whether factors of health, access to information, and motivation are key. „In the latter case, the examples of Verdi, Titian, Picasso, and—in our own era—such individuals as biologist E. O. Wilson, linguist Noam Chomsky, composer Elliott Carter, painter Jasper Johns, or choreographer Merce Cunningham will be more common“ [3, p.22]. Artistic expression includes the development of physical and mental abilities in children, awakening their sensibility and perception; ability to develop children's thinking, nurturing and developing their ethical feelings, knowledge of the world as a good place to live, as well as developing children's ability to express themselves in specific aesthetic forms. Slower expression of creativity, causing the greater rigidity in children, compared to adults can be attributed to children’s fragile nature and vulnerability. On the other hand, many artists have managed to rise above the frustrations that they were experienced in childhood. They were used a negative circumstances as 'fuel' to create great artistic ideas. Creativity has many faces. Acording to Ivan Foht (Foht 1980)  a  content may have a lot of forms. Analyzing the problem of artistic expression of children of early school age,  it can be concluded that creativity contributes to the development of the child's personality. Artistic expression promotes the positive development of physical and psychological characteristics of children as well as development of perception, ability to develop thinking and moral feelings. This type of expression  experiencing the world as a good place and it enables children to express their personality and to experience the opportunity to feel the joy and satisfaction. This survey gives the possibility for teachers to utilize the given research, by bringing well forms of pedagogical work in the context of art education. "In that case art can become again a major challenge of humanity and get again an important crucial role”. 

THE CONCLUSIONS

The conclusion is that children who are artistically gifted apply easier the acquired knowledge and artistic elements that are used are more numerous and clear in their works of art. Almost all children are felt and expressed the need for artistic expression for this kind of teaching, which leads them in a different psychological state in a positive context. All the children have sought to demonstrate some of the "new-learned". „As in drawing, the nineteenth century first drew the more extreme conclusions from the representation of appearance, so later, impressionism went far beyond the baroque in handling of color. All the same, in the development from the sixteenth century, the fundamental difference is perfectly clear“ [9, p.51].Their artistic achievements are reflected in attempts to, for example, present a shading light (sun is no longer painted with rays, or as "laughing" and they began to reflect the sky more rich and tried to show the volume of clouds). The children with partial success started to use lighter and darker tones to paint various forms of pure color and to paint the distant mountains pale blue-gray color. “For Leonardo or Holbein, color is the beautiful substance which possesses in the picture, too, a concrete reality and bears its value within itself. The painted blue cloak obtains its effect by means of the same material color as the cloak had or might have in reality. In spite of certain differences in the light and dark parts, the color remains fundamentally the same. Therefore, Leonardo requires that the shadows shall be painted only with a mixture of black to the local color. That is the “true” shadow” [9, p.51].  The results of this study show that children in younger school age can offer even more complex educational material wich they will be happy to be overcome if the matter is interesting and be presented in an understandable way and if children are observed with respect. General conclusion is that the research process during period of four months gave significant results in the analysis and the search for creativity, as well as linking visual arts and children's creativity.