Wombat stew : enhancing self-concept through an integrated arts project

With a growing emphasis in schools on academic achievement, which is strictly limited to the core subjects of English, Maths, and Science, the arts offer a useful and creative system of learning, implicit with their own diverse range of skills that quite readily apply to everyday life and enhance children’s self-concept. This paper investigates the development of self-concept of children aged 8 - 12 years from diverse social and cultural backgrounds in a low socio-economic area, as they are involved in a quality Creative Arts program. Using Marsh’s self-concept questionnaire (SDQ1) for primary children, the study compares the development of academic and non-academic self-concept in children involved in an integrated arts program with those not involved in the program. Results indicated that overall, the general self-concept of those students involved in the creative arts program increased considerably more than that of the non-creative arts students.