Introduction

What is Naturalism?
1. According to Guterk (1988) “naturalism assumes that nature is the ground of reality.
Nature itself is a universal system that encompasses and explains existence, including
human beings and human nature” (p63).
This means that the focus on nature as a true force guides human behavior from within.
According to this contact a child needs to have the freedom to naturally growth and
develop without the interference of an outside force for example teachers.

2. According to Martinez (2013) “Naturalism refers to views that consider philosophical

method to be continuous with the method of science implying that at least some scientific
methods have an impact on whatever philosophy can say about the norms of inquiry”
(p.1). If someone thinks of science as a study of nature, then naturalism is a true
representation of science. “While science has always been taught in the classroom, still
some students have been subjected to a strictly naturalistic view of the world” (Reynolds,
2009 .p20).

3. According to Eames (1976) “Naturalism is a theory that is “Natural” universe, the

universe of matter, is all that there really is.
It is obvious that naturalism focuses on the physical world and disregard spirituality.
Students were taught of the natural world without any idea of the supernatural”
(Reynolds, 2009, p20).

4. According to Reynolds (2009) “Naturalism is a philosophy that has turned a balance

between human reason, man and nature into teeter totter that has diminished the very
existence of God and his creation” (p4).

5. According to Spencer, (1985) “Naturalism on the educational philosophy advocates the

concept that parents are teachers of the child/children
The educational goals of naturalism are:
Maintenance of self, securing the necessities of life, improving the students, maintaining
the social relations and enjoy free time. (Spencer 1988). The principle of this philosophy
are: education must adapt to nature, the education process should be entertaining for the
students, education should be based on the naturalness of the child’s activity, expanding
knowledge is an important part in education, education is to help the person physically as
well as mentally, teaching methods are inductive, students punishment, which should be
done compassionately, is based on natural consequences of making mistakes (Butler,
2012).
Rousseau who is the father of naturalism describes an early childhood educational
method with the hope of minimizing the obstacles of civilization and bringing man as
near to nature as possible (Gianoutsos, 2006 p9). Furthermore, “Rousseau contends that
man attain freedom and independence of thought through naturalistic education” (p9).

Three activities that will develop Naturalism

- Earth Art
In this activity the students will gather items belonging to nature that can be focused in
the environment. In this activity the teacher will tell a story and show the students the
pictures of nature art created by artists. The students will work in groups to create their
own Earth Art designs, using natural materials eg leaves, stones, feathers, sticks, flowers,
seeds. This activity can be done both indoors and outdoors where there is a large floor
space. At the end of the activity, there will be an Art Exhibition where each group will
display their creative piece of Art. Through this activity, the students will learn
cooperative skills, social skills, decision making, abstract vs. concrete designs and
practice offering compliments and comments about work done by peers.

- Projects – Make a habitat diorama

This activity indoors or outdoors. By making a habitat diorama students will learn
about plants and animal in their environments. This activity can also be done in small
groups, where students can use a big box and make some animal’s cards or 3D
models, using clay, then they will design box of their choice and decorate it with
grass, leaves, plants dirt, and water to create a suitable environment depending on the
habitat they want to show. When project is finished, they will have an exhibition,
where they will display the different habitats, the various groups created. From this
activity students will learn cognitive skills, social skills, decision making, problem
solving and the habitats of different animals and plants within the environment.

- Field trips
This activity can be an environmental friendly or related activity where students are
placed in groups and each group will be given a garbage bag and gloves, they will be
supervised by teacher, who will direct each group to go to different locations of a
particular area chosen. The students will then have to collect different items found in
that particular location and place them in the garbage bags, when finished they will
return to their classrooms where they would group or organize their collections
according to the materials, where they would count the amount of the different
materials collected, make comparison, identify biodegradable and non- biodegradable
materials, materials that can be recycled and their texture, scent. They also could plot
graphs, write a composition based on the trip and their findings and draw the items
collected, they also can have a competition among each group eg who got most
materials that are non- biodegradable, recycled etc. They will learn to socialize skills,
co-operative skills, decision making and to be responsible when outdoors and to
utilize time.
 What is Realism?
According to Phillips (1987, p. 2005) as “the view that entities exist independently of being
perceived or independently of our theories about them”.
According to Schcoandt “scientific realism is the view that theories refer to real features of the
world.” “Reality” refers to whatever it is in the universe eg. Structures that cause the phenomena
we perceive with our senses”. (1997, p.133)
Realism is an attitude of mind, a mode of thinking and an attempt to explain the nature of things.
(Dhiman 2008)
Realism is the belief developed by Aristotle that there is an absolute reality and educational
realism attempts to teach students how to find that reality through logical process. Study of the
national world as well as the skill of inquiry, and the scientific method are all important parts of
a realist classroom.
The philosophical position of realism holds that:
- External world is the reality
- Man will discover reality with the use of science and common sense through
education or learning
- Mind is functioning and is geared towards creativity
- Reality can be proved by observation, experience, experiment and scientific reasoning
- Values must be studied to be applied in the actual setting
 University of Guyana
Faculty of Education and Humanities
ART 3212
Second Individual Assignment
On:
“Schematic Stage”

Name of Lecturer: Mr. Michael Khan

Name of student: Samantha Persaud
Student USI: 1028356
Course code: Art 3212
1. Discuss how the environment can help in the developmental process of children in the
schematic stage.

The environment can help in the developmental process of children in the schematic
stage in many ways. “According to Viktor Lewenfield and Lambert Brittan in creative
and mental growth states; that after much experimentation, a child developed a
satisfactory symbol for a person and other familiar objects. This symbol is called a
schema, onceitis repeated over and over by the children, it can be a very rich concept for
them, while for others for example teachers, parents it is a fairly meager symbol.
However, the difference in schemata depends on the different things that would have
affected the individual as such no schemata are identical or the same. A child’s pure
schema in drawings would occur whenever the child’s representation restricts itself to the
object for example: this is “father or mother” “a tree” (environment).
The mental images a child has about objects in the environment are the result of his/her
thinking process, the drawing which the child draws on a paper would be the symbol of
the child’s mental image or thinking process for the object. The art product is a sign of
how the child comprehends and interprets space and objects in relationship to their
environment and its importance.
The environment influences the developmental process of children in this stage
(schematic stage) through their schematic drawings such as the human schema, space
schema, folding over, x-ray pictures and the meaning of colors and design. The human
schema describes the concept of a human figure after which the child has arrived after
much experimentation. A child’s drawing of a man may change form one day to the next,
until he/she gradually develops a symbol for a man which will then become his/her
schema,, until some other experience influence him/her to change. The average seven
year old schema may include a head, body, arms and legs, eyes, nose and mouth in which
their symbols would be different from each other, the child would also draw symbols for
hands, fingers and feet and even clothing using shapes example: triangle, square etc.
However, for some children they would draw the symmetry of the body, the two arms,
legs, eyes, ears and feet. These schemas are usually geometric which means that they
would lose their meanings when separated from the whole in the way the child would
have developed his/her concepts based on many factors such as the process of thinking,
the awareness of his/her own feelings for his/her perceptual sensitivities and his/her own
special interests and priorities of his/her experiences of the environment.
In the space schema, a child discovers definite order in space relationships; the child now
thinks “I am on the ground, the tree is on the ground; we are all on the ground”. This
consciousness of all objects having a common space relationship is expressed by putting
everything on a baseline. The baseline is universal and is more a natural development of
children as learning to run it also indicates the relationship between the child and the
environment also represents a floor or a street on which the child is standing, the line may
also be taught as a travel line where objects keep appearing in order along the line.
Another concept of space schema, is the sky above the ground below and air between is
just as valid as the concept that the sky and the ground meet
However, when a child is drawing or painting a scenery or an outdoor environment, the
base line in which objects stand and another time the surface of a landscape.
Another stage of development through which the child sees things differently are called
subjective space representation such as folding over, this stage of development is where
the child express his/her concept by drawing objects upside down, this concept can best
understood by folding the paper on the base line on which the child is standing so that the
child stands upright and faces the boat and also where they fold the other side of the bay
upright to get the model of the science which the child will develop the awareness or
understanding of the two skies, the child will now think that both sides of the bay is
important because he/she is the center of the scene. In this way the base line allows the
child to put people in a circle for example: sitting around a table.
At this stage of development, the child may have different views based on his/her
experiences with the environment and the use of the base line. The x-ray is another stage
of development of schema in this stage, the child will draw the inside and outside out a
house where everything that is inside will show, this is because everything inside are
more important which means the child has a mix-visual concept where both inside and
outside are transparent.
In the space time representation, one drawing different time sequences distinct
impressions, which is very important in story-telling example: comic books.
Another stage of development of schema is the meaning of color and design, where the
child discovers naturally that there is a relationship between color and object. The child
will now draw and color the environment more objectively and has developed definite
relationships; when the child use a definite color for an object and is constant repetition
are part of the continuing development of the child’s thinking process, where the child
would be able to group or categorize things into classes, where they will then make
generalization example: the sky is blue, the grass is green. In this stage of development of
schema is said to be found in a visual or emotional concept of color.