TITLE:
When Children Draw vs When Children Don’t: Exploring the Effects of Observational Drawing in Science
AUTHORS:
Jill E. Fox, Joohi Lee
KEYWORDS:
Observation; Observational Drawing; Scientific Drawing
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.4 No.7A,
July
12,
2013
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate how kindergarten children’s observational drawings impact their information retention. This research was conducted in an urban school in a large metropolitan area in the southwestern United States. Forty-two kindergarten children participated in this study; approximately 97% of them qualified for free and/or reduced lunch. For this study, children’s retention of factual information was compared using a paired t-test of when they drew and when they didn’t. Children scored higher on all 7 items—descriptions of observation, location, action, color, size, shape, and sound—when they drew than when they didn’t. Findings were statistically significant for descriptions of observation (t = 3.08, p = .00) and location (t = 2.36, p = .02).