Молодой учёный

174 Педагогика
«Молодой учёный» . № 5 (16) . Том II . Май, 2010 г.
at a fixed location and time. They offer a good frame in
which children and youth are able to develop and enhance
their artistic or handicraft skills in one or several areas. The
advantage of this form of work is that the participants are
interested in one topic and intensive group work can develop
from this. They target continuity. The range of offers of such
courses includes fine arts, theatre, work with new media,
dance and movement and so on. The difference between
individual institutions is that a group may include children
as well as adolescents. A group must not be made up of a
school class; participants of different ages might interact in
one group and might be split into very different groups after
the course ends. The group constitutes a social learning
environment, where participants can communicate, work
and learn together, discuss topics and encourage each other
or exchange information regarding the production process.
This form of work is therefore a basic principle among youth
art schools.
‘Project work’ must be mentioned as a significant method.
Different areas of play and praxis are available to the children
and adolescents under one overall topic. They are connected
by one overall topic; they interlock and are not separable.
This is the difference to workshops, where project work can be
classified in phases: goals, planning, realization, evaluation
and consequences [7].This form of work that connects the
different areas of experience for the children finds more and
more popularity in praxis. In general, project work is more
flexible and variable than courses, since it is not focused on
one specific topic or one specific material, but all materials
and techniques may be implemented to try to realize an
idea and participants of different ages, needs, interests and
abilities work together. Even the temporal introduction of
projects is flexible and depends on the progress of the work
and the participant’s wishes.
The numerous cultural events for children and
adolescents form another important part of the youth art
school. The children’s own experiences can be enhanced and
they can create insight into the broad palette of artistic and
cultural possibilities. A passive reception of the event should
be avoided, however, and activating forms of participation
should be initiated. Events, e.g. exhibits, theater
performances, readings, offer children the opportunity to
present the results of their work resulting from projects and
courses to the public.
The consumer. The consumer in German youth art
schools is very varied: children, adolescents, even adults.
There are youth art schools that have focused their offer and
method of operation to one specific target group, e.g. children
and adolescents of max. 4-5 years, up to 24 or 28 years
of age. But youth art schools will usually offer all kinds of
courses in the area of creativity and target their offer to apply
to everyone. The youth art school in Koenigstein, for example,
within the scope of early development: children from the age
of one and one half with an adult accompanying can attend
courses (music/rhythm/movement). Children from the age
of two half can visit the workshops and continuing courses
(color/form/material) accompanied by adult; children age
three and up may attend the workshops with or without an
adult accompanying them (music/rhythm/movement). The
workshops also offer different work groups, e.g. workshops
especially for children age 4 to 7 or 6 to 12, or workshops for
adolescents only. Adults age 50 to 60 can also be found in
workshops for adults.
In general, youth art schools must ask themselves how
to draw the attention of potential participants. Traditionally,
each youth art school prints an annual brochure listing the
offered programs and course description in detail. According
to a poll of the participants of the ‘Stoetteritzer Spielkiste’
in Leipzig, 39% of participants found the school through
friends, 14% through media, 5% through summer school
programs, 6% through projects, 12% based on placards and
24% through ‘other’. Approximately 20% of participants
come from kindergadens, 39% from elementary schools,
and all other participants are students in middle and high
schools. This shows that the target group of youth art schools
consists of children and adolescents. The gender-difference
of the participants at the ‘Stoetteritzer Spielkiste’ in 2007
consisted of 68% male and 31% female. The age ratio
of the participants of a youth art school is also very varied:
the following has been evidenced in 2007 in ‘Stoetteritzer
Spielkiste’:
Age in percent
4 3%
5 6%
6 12%
7 10%
8 17%
9 6%
10 10%
11 6%
12 9%
13 11%
16 6%
17 1%
18 3%
But the poll among participants of the folk art school in
Oederan shows the motivation of the participants in even
more detail: the answer to the question ‘What is your reason
for being involved in the youth art school?’ was: 78.7% of
participants stated their ‘interest’ as the reason for their
involvement in the youth art school; 54.1% explained their
participation in extracurricular activities with a lack of
opportunities in regular school classes. But 52.4% of the
participants listed ‘reasonable use of spare time’ as the most
important reason [4].
Love of the topic 37.7%
Interest 78.7%
Deepening knowledge and developing skills 29.5%
Career aspirations (artistic) 34.4%
Motivation by other persons 14.7%
(classmates, teachers)
Reasonable use of spare time 52.4%