By approximately the age of 12 children make the decision for themselves if they believe they are good enough at art to keep learning and practicing or if they want to give up due to frustration of accomplishing technical realism. For those that decide to give up, they are deprived of all the arts have to offer. They also no longer progress with their artistic techniques because of the lack of practice and their work resembles the artistic development level of a 12 year old. I was curious to see if my sister was consistent with this trend since she separated herself from the arts in seventh grade.
I texted my sister of age 19 asking her to draw a person the best that she thinks she can. Her immediate reply was “oh no”. I replied by asking “what?”. She questioned the task at hand saying “I have to draw?”. I encouraged her to “Give it a go!”. After the encouragement, I received a more positive response and she said “Okay, I shall!”.
I noticed after asking her to draw a person that the actual outcome, while still important, was not a reflection of her self-doubt as a part of the identity. I also asked my father of 48 years the same question. At first he questioned what to include in the drawing such as a head, bust, or whole body. I told him that I would give him no instruction on how to draw the person and to draw what comes to his mind when I ask him to draw a person. His next comment to me was “I’m not a very good artist, but I will hook you up”. I reminded him that technique is only one part of being an artist and not to sell himself short. Although my father’s initial reaction was not self-doubt, his second thought was self-doubt. Both of them responded with a negative perception of their ability to draw technically the same way many may feel when they are 12 and decide to leave art behind. This perception of technical ability strongly influences the way art relates to their identity.
Elementary art education is one of the most essential factors that contribute to further advancements in art or abandonment in the late figurative stage at age 12 in the stage-by-stage model. Elementary art teachers have one of the most important jobs in the art field. They guide children through the key developmental stages of their life and impact a child’s belief in growth mindset and beliefs about themselves. These teachers have a short amount of time in the person’s life span to help them realize the importance of perseverance to overcome failure. Children need to develop high self-efficacy because then they will believe that they are more capable of completing a task. This is a key to motivation children need during school and after they complete formal schooling. It is an essential factor to self-motivation.
Those who have low self-efficacy tend to be more anxious when working on tasks and tend to avoid some tasks in general similar to the way my sister and father respond to the task I gave them. The art classroom is the ideal place to build high self-efficacy through the use of language. The way art teachers communicate with children about their ideas allows for healthy identity development. Positive words shared independently with students and allowing time for individual feedback compared to a numerical scoring number are a few ways to foster high self-efficacy. This means creating people who are less anxious and more confident in their ability, but most importantly, people who will continue to try and try and try when they keep failing.
As you can see in the photo below, my sister, Mallory, does not have much more development than a 12 year old. Although the stages of development are not universal, Mallory does follow close to the trend. Her drawing also in underdeveloped and was completed quickly. She expresses that she was happy with her drawing, yet is unaware that she may be displaying some self-doubt through our conversation. She may have stopped taking risk by not further developing the drawing due to the fear of messing up the drawing she liked. Mallory acts as an example of someone who needs higher self-efficacy and shows advancement by being willing to take on the task of drawing after words of encouragement. This explains how important it is for teachers to have positive communication with their students as a means to let healthy identity formation flourish. Art specifically act as a noticeable subject for high and low levels of self-efficacy. If you notice students becoming frustrated in class, remind them that failure is part of the process in overcoming obstacles and by problem solving and thinking divergently they will master their artwork.
