Research on Teaching Methods for the Professional Development of Childcare Workers: Using the Plastic Arts Subjects

Abstract

The author of this paper conducted a study of an active learning program in the field of plastic arts subjects for the purpose of professional development of childcare workers. As pointed out in the August 2012 Report of the Central Council for Education, undergraduate students are now required to engage in their studies independently, and to achieve this goal, various active learning programs have been implemented at the university level. A large body with prior research on active learning programs in the field of arts and plastic arts subjects has been accumulated, with a particular emphasis on workshops and practical learning. However, comparatively little research has been done on speaking activities, such as group discussion and debate, probably because of the lack of readily manageable active learning methods for such activities in the field of arts and plastic arts subjects. Therefore, this paper discusses the implementation of active learning that includes speaking activities in the plastic arts expression subjects, taught by the author.