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Drawing to Learn in Science

Article in Science · August 2011

DOI: 10.1126/science.1204153 · Source: PubMed

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Shaaron Ainsworth Vaughan Prain

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 EDUCATIONFORUM
SCIENCE EDUCATION
Emerging research suggests drawing should

Drawing to Learn in Science be explicitly recognized as a key element

in science education.

Shaaron Ainsworth1*, Vaughan Prain2, Russell Tytler3

S
hould science learners be
challenged to draw more?
Certainly making visual-
izations is integral to scientific
thinking. Scientists do not use
words only but rely on diagrams,
graphs, videos, photographs, and
other images to make discoveries,
explain findings, and excite pub-
lic interest. From the notebooks

Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on August 26, 2011

of Faraday and Maxwell (1) to
current professional practices of
chemists (2), scientists imagine
new relations, test ideas, and elab-
orate knowledge through visual
representations (3–5).
However, in the science class-
room, learners mainly focus on
interpreting others’ visualiza-
tions; when drawing does occur, Revealing understanding. Drawings by two 11-year-olds (left and right) of an evaporating handprint show representa-
it is rare that learners are system- tional choices that guide and communicate individual understandings.
atically encouraged to create their
own visual forms to develop and show under- tional topics reduce them to passive roles Drawing to Reason in Science
standing (6). Drawing includes constructing (7, 8). Reformers advocate more interac- To show conceptual understanding, students
a line graph from a table of values, sketch- tive, inquiry-based learning (9). Surveys of must learn how to reason with multiple, often
ing cells observed through a microscope, or teachers and students indicate that, when visual, modes (9). Understanding sound
inventing a way to show a scientific phenom- students drew to explore, coordinate, and waves, for instance, can involve being able to
enon (e.g., evaporation). Although interpre- justify understandings in science, they were coordinate a range of wave diagrams, time-
tation of visualizations and other informa- more motivated to learn than from conven- sequenced representations of air particle
tion is clearly critical to learning, becoming tional teaching (10). The use of drawing movement, and pressure variation. Different
proficient in science also requires learners caters to individual learner differences, as representations have distinctive attributes that
to develop many representational skills. We a drawing is shaped by the learner’s current both guide and constrain what learners do and
suggest five reasons why student drawing or emerging ideas and knowledge of visual come to understand (17–19). As they select
should be explicitly recognized alongside conventions. specific features to focus on in their draw-
writing, reading, and talking as a key element ing, learners reason in various ways, align-
in science education. We offer distinct ratio- Drawing to Learn to Represent in Science ing their drawing with observation, measure-
nales, although in practice any single draw- Students need to learn how scientists use ment, and/or emerging ideas (6, 20). Practice
ing activity will likely rest upon multiple jus- multiple literacies of this subject to con- in flexible manipulation of representations
tifications. Both old and new technologies struct and record knowledge, where reading, has been argued to be central for develop-
offer exciting opportunities. We conclude by writing, and talk are integrated with visual ing expertise (21). Classroom research shows
highlighting important questions yet to be modes (11–13). Generating their own rep- how students reason as they generate and
answered and key future research to extend resentations can deepen students’ under- refine models supported by expert teacher
teachers’ and learners’ use of drawing. standing of the specific conventions of rep- guidance (22, 23). This creative reasoning is
CREDIT: IMAGE COURTESY OF RILS (ARC DP070999)

resentations (e.g., “This is how a line graph distinct from, but complementary to, reason-
Drawing to Enhance Engagement works.”) and their purposes (e.g., the effec- ing through argumentation (24).
Many students disengage from school tiveness of line graphs for showing continu-
science because rote learning and tradi- ous quantitative information), as well as how Drawing as a Learning Strategy
representations work more generally (e.g., Effective learning strategies help learners
1
School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University
a representation is better when it is coher- overcome limitations in presented material,
Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. 2Faculty of Education, La ent, compact, and parsimonious) (3, 14, 15). organize their knowledge more effectively,
Trobe University, Bendigo 3552, Australia. 3School of Edu- Teachers can guide students to acquire the and integrate new and existing understand-
cation, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds 3217, Australia. visual literacies of science at the point when ing; ultimately, they can be transformative
*Author for correspondence. E-mail: shaaron.ainsworth@ they will see their relevance and appreciate by generating new inferences (25, 26). Draw-
nottingham.ac.uk their explanatory power (16). ing can be one such effective strategy (6, 27).

1096 26 AUGUST 2011 VOL 333 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org

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 EDUCATIONFORUM

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phenomenon. Through appraisal and refine- Studies (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999). Supporting Online Material
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dations for Research and Implementation, R. Duschl, R.
established some representational conven- Grandy, Eds. (Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, Netherlands,
tions, such as the circles reflecting particles. 2008), pp. 57–79. 10.1126/science.1204153

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 333 26 AUGUST 2011 1097

Published by AAAS
 www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/333/6046/1096/DC1

Supporting Online Material for

Drawing to Learn in Science

Shaaron Ainsworth,* Vaughan Prain, Russell Tytler

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:

shaaron.ainsworth@nottingham.ac.uk

Published 26 August 2011, Science 333, 1096 (2011)

DOI: 10.1126/science.1204153

This PDF file includes

Figs. S1 to S3
Fig. S1. Two typical (left-hand side, top and bottom) and one less typical (right-hand side)
drawings created by university students given instructions to draw for their own understanding
after reading the text, “Valves prevent the blood from moving backward or downward. These
valves allow blood to flow in only one direction through the veins.” [Image courtesy of S.
Ainsworth]

Fig. S2. Drawings created by university students after the instructions, “Draw, as if explaining to a
high school student, how the motions of large and small particles suspended in a fluid are
affected by an increase in temperature of the fluid.” The two related drawings on the left-hand
side demonstrate a greater understanding of concepts such as particle size and motion compared
with the picture on the right-hand side. [Image courtesy of Picturing to Learn, funded by NSF
DUE-0925110]
Fig. S3. Two examples of drawings by 12‐year‐old students who were challenged to explain
the meaning of the terms revolve and rotate in planetary motion. [Image courtesy
of Representation in Learning Science, funded by ARC DP070999]
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