The relationship between artistic skills and academic engagement among artistically gifted non-specialist university...

This study aimed to investigate the level of artistic skills and academic engagement among artistically gifted non-specialist students at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. It also attempted to identify the relationship between students' artistic skills and academic engagement. The study followed a mixed methods design where both quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed. The participating students (102 students enrolled in the university's Gifted Care Unit) completed an author-developed questionnaire probing their artistic skills (cognitive, performance, and emotional) and academic engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption). In addition to its 30 Likert scale items, the questionnaire had an open-ended question about ways to promote artistic skills from the perspective of the students. Furthermore, the author electronically interviewed 14 members of the Gifted Care Unit and got them to respond to the same open-ended question in the students' questionnaire, i.e., what are your suggestions for promoting students' artistic skills. The quantitative data analysis via descriptive statistics revealed that the students had high artistic skills and academic engagement. Pearson correlations revealed a significant positive relationship between artistic skills and academic engagement. Standard regression analysis produced a significant model where artistic skills explained 11% of variance in students' academic engagement. Of the individual dimensions of artistic skills, only performance skills explained 13% of students' academic engagement. The analysis of students' and members' responses to the open-ended question revealed some shared themes, e.g., the students' need for more specialized training, contact with professional experiences, support from significant others, and creativity-stimulating competitiveness.. A number of implications are offered.

The important finding in this study is that ASs, especially performance skills, contribute to students' AE. This makes it important for specialized entities like the Gifted Care Unit to exert more efforts to identify artistically gifted students in all university programs. These efforts can identify students who are aware of their artistic skills and students who have artistic skills but are unaware of them. The art culture should be spread all over the university to attract more students to join the Gifted Care Unit. The artistically gifted students should be provided with specialized training, contact with outside sources of artistic experience, an art-nurturing environment, incentives to be more creative, and support, especially spiritual support.