MOSAICS VS MURAL: INVESTIGATING PRESCHOOL CHILDREN TACTILE MOVEMENT, INTERACTIONS AND PREFERENCE

Designing a suitable, natural-based and attractive outdoor decoration in a preschool environment is important to develop both children and adults’ aesthetic values. Compared to mural drawing, mosaics is a collaborative design in creating a particular picture or decoration made by setting small colored pieces of different natural elements such as stones, clay and glass tiles, which might develop the sense of appreciation to art and offers unique experiential learning to young children. This study investigates children’s interactions, tactile movements and preference between mosaics and mural drawing. A suitable mosaic and mural drawing for preschool children was designed. Two walls at a high traffic preschool outdoor and indoor area were selected for mural drawings of different designs. After the initial data collection, both murals were transformed into mosaics. This study involved forty children (n=40) who attended the preschool center on a regular basis. Children interactions and tactile movements on both mosaic and mural were observed and tape recorded. Children’s behavior was analyzed qualitatively and their words were transcribed to identify their actions and preference between mosaic and mural. Results show that different mural designs and the use of mosaics afford different interaction. The transformation of the murals into mosaics was much preferable among the children.