This article reports on a study of the effects of an action research project that aimed to improve the practice of teaching art in elementary schools in Slovenia. The specific focus was on the planning and execution of art tasks relating to architectural design. The planned improvements were based on the process of architectural design from recognising a real problem to finding solutions to art problems. The subjects of the research were 80 10‐year‐old fifth graders and their art and classroom teachers from two elementary schools in Maribor, Slovenia. We evaluated the effects of the implemented changes on pupils' artistic creativity by testing the pupils before and after the action research by using an artistic creativity test with which we were able to monitor the level of pupils' creative development. Test drawings made by pupils before and after the action research were evaluated by monitoring six factors of artistic creativity: sensitivity to problems, elaboration, flexibility, fluency, originality and redefinition. By using a dependent t‐test for paired samples, we examined whether there were any statistically significant differences between the initial and the final tests for each factor separately. We found that the effects of all the implemented changes were positive, with pupils scoring higher in the final tests for each of the six factors of creativity. Findings from the action research suggest that changes to the architectural design classes yielded the best results in the last action step which enabled pupils to get a sense of space during an educational walk.

This article introduces the results of a research survey that involved 443 preschool and classroom teachers. The objective of the investigation was to discover teachers’ views on making picture book reading a part of the teaching process, how picture book reading was incorporated, and how a productive visual response to a picture book was designed. The results indicated that the surveyed teachers do consider picture books to be appropriate, not only for very young children, and they had no difficulties selecting an appropriate picture book. Half of the respondents noted that children or students visually expressed their impressions after reading a picture book. The replies also indicated that, as regards picture books within the teaching process, unused potential remains in terms of developing children’s visual and multimodal literacy.

Th e objective of the study was to establish the impact of illustration on the reading and interpreting of a poem in the case when only one illustration is provided with the text. Th e research study involved 408 students of the Faculty of Education and Faculty of Arts. Th e students were divided into two groups, of which one was given the poem Učenjak (Scholar) written by Niko Grafenauer and illustrated by Lidija Osterc, while the other had the same poem illustrated by Marjan Manček. Both groups had to answer a number of questions regarding personal traits of the literary character, his appearance and the environment he lives in. Th e results showed that the illustrations had a signifi cant impact on the interpretation of the physical features of the literary character and the environment he is set in. Th is in turn aff ected the understanding of the message of the poem.

Picture books discussed with pupils in primary school are considered multimodal texts, as they combine at least two communication codes (verbal and visual). A discussion involving picture books will normally be included in Slovenian language lessons, with pupils focussing mostly on the text. The visual aspect, which equally carries a message, is often neglected. The objective of the present case study that was conducted among fifth-grade primary school pupils in the 2018/19 school year was to explore how a cross-curricular approach to planning and executing the lessons in the Slovenian language and visual art can help pupils learn about the characteristics of the picture book as a multimodal text. We conducted a set of didactic activities entitled Getting to know the picture book, introducing selected picture books to pupils as part of their Slovenian language classes, which resulted in them developing their receptive skills while observing and defining the structure of the texts. In visual art classes, the pupils learned about the visual features of the picture book. As a productive response to the picture book discussed, the pupils were instructed to complete the following tasks: design a cover for their own picture book, design endpapers, illustrate their own poem, and produce their own leporello.  The survey involved 21 pupils, a generalist teacher, and a researcher in art didactics. The case study was completed in five weeks. The data were obtained by means of initial and final testing, questionnaires for pupils, and participant observation.

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v Mariboru Vse pravice pridržane. Brez pisnega dovoljenja založnika je prepovedano reproduciranje, distribuiranje, predelava ali druga uporaba tega dela ali njegovih delov v kakršnemkoli obsegu ali postopku, vključno s fotokopiranjem, tiskanjem ali shranjevanjem v elektronski obliki.

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