Drawn to Science Education: Studying Science Teaching and Learning through Drawings

Findings

Drawing of a teacher presenting a flip-chart of a flower.

Our experiences using drawings as a form of evidence have led us to believe that this methodology could be beneficial to others in the education research community. In particular, we found that the use of drawings as a data collection method helped us to:

  • gain insights into teacher candidate thinking that had not been visible to us before in written or verbal data;
  • open discussion in interviews and emails about our insights taken from the drawings with the teacher candidates;
  • encourage teacher candidates to reflect on aspects of their developing teacher identity that they had not previously realized; and
  • give the teacher candidates a mode of expression that they enjoyed and was novel to them as a data collection strategy.

As with most qualitative research, multiple data sources lead to stronger inferences and conclusions. Unlike the Draw a Scientist Test (DAST), we are not looking for a socially constructed generalization of a type of person, but rather personal reflections, expressed in drawings of one's own role. In addition, our use of drawings is not episodic, but longitudinal, allowing us to see similarities and differences within and among participants' images over several years.

We believe that drawings can contribute to developing evidence in science education to:

  • gain insight into teachers' thinking about science teaching and learning;
  • gain insight into learners' thinking about science teaching and learning;
  • study personally generated drawing as a methodology;
  • gain insight into teachers' thinking about curriculum, instruction, assessment;
  • gain insight into teachers' thinking about science education policy;
  • gain insight into teachers' thinking about science content; and
  • gain insight into learners' thinking about science content.

If you are interested in keeping up with our research, please join our Drawings in Education Research Interest Group (DERIG) by sending an email to jmcginni@umd@umd.edu. In your email include your name and institution. In your email please indicate that you would like to be added to the DERIG email list. Feel free to add any comments about our research, website, or your work.

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