Evaluating the contribution of symbol literacy activity to Year 4 primary children’s learning

Abstract

The Symbol Literacy Project aims to educate children in symbol literacy especially at an early age and to gradually equip children with the skill of recognising, reading and interpreting symbols as well as metaphors. Children following the Symbol Literacy Project not only learn specific meanings and interpretations of given symbols but also develop the skills needed to analyse, evaluate and apply their meaning in different situations (Gellel, 2018). This study aims at evaluating the pedagogy put forward by Symbol Literacy mainly through the use of Art. The study intends to evaluate the learning gain achieved through a symbol literacy activity conducted with Year 4 pupils. In the first part of this dissertation, literature explored the concepts of symbol literacy, use of art in education, holistic education and role of symbol literacy in education. For this study, the researcher adopted a quasi-experimental approach for conducting this research and used a mixed method design concept for meeting the research objectives and addressing the research questions. Data was obtained by analysing the improvement in children’s learning through the use of symbol literacy by means of quantitative and qualitative methods. A pre-test and post-test were given to participants aged 8 and 9 from two different primary schools. Qualitative data was obtained through children’s participation in focus groups. Some recommendations and suggestions were put forth for educators, teachers and curriculum developers.