Effects of a Special Art Education Course on Attitudes toward Omani Learners with Special Needs

Abstract

Visual arts are activities that contribute to educating learners with and without special needs. These activities provide an opportunity for learners with special needs (LSN) to freely express their feelings, conflicts, psychological problems, and their artistic creativity. Visual arts are considered as a source of satisfaction, development of the feeling of achievement, and happiness, and a means of activating thinking and learning. In the professional context, art therapy is one of the therapeutic interventions in special education programs. The aim of this research was to explore effects of a Special Art Education (SAE) Course on attitudes toward Omani LSN. Participants of 19 undergraduate students of Art Education Department (AED), Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) were involved in this research. Participants responded to the scale of attitudes towards the LSN before and after studying the SAE course. The scale consisted of 34 items distributed into three domains related to course instructor, course topics, and course teaching methods. The results indicated that these domains contributed to improving participants' attitudes. This improvement was demonstrated by the effects size of the SAE course on participants' attitudes toward Omani LSN.