REFLECTIONS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON CHILDREN'S DRAWINGS

Abstract

In this study; it is aimed to determine the perceptions and approaches of the 4th and 5th grade students regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The phenomenology study, which is one of the qualitative research designs, was planned as the most appropriate method for the research. The study group of the research consisted of a total of 100 students studying at the 4th and 5th-grade levels in the city center of Van in the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. Fifty of the students are in the fourth grade and 50 are in the fifth grade. In order to determine the reflections of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's drawings, drawings of students and their own explanations of drawings were evaluated as research data. Data were collected from the students in the study group by complying with the pandemic conditions. In this process, students were asked to make a drawing explaining their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The obtained qualitative data (drawings) were analyzed by the content analysis method. As a result of the research, it has been observed that the news in the media has its counterparts in the world of children, and that this news have effects on the way the pandemic is reflected on the pictures. It was observed that there were descriptions of masks and distance in the paintings of both student groups. It has been observed that the pandemic, which children encounter in the early stages of their relationship with the environment, is transferred to the pictures as a reflection of fear, and expressed as the fear of getting sick and infecting their environment. It has been determined that children have learned the "14 rules" created in the early stages of the pandemic. Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic, children’s drawings, schematic stage children’s drawings, dawning realism children’s drawings