What Do Freehand and Computer-Facilitated Drawings Tell Teachers About the Children Who Drew Them?

Abstract

A qualitative analysis of data was used to determine the scope and inter judge agreement of personality information communicated to computer-using classroom teachers through three types of children’s drawings (freehand, graphics tablet, and Logo). Each of 10 Logo-literate 9- or 10-year-old students was asked to draw pictures in the three different media. Each student, a parent, and the student’s current classroom teacher were interviewed to develop 10 vignette-style personality profiles. The information contained therein was then compared to what 13 Logo-using classroom teachers intuited about the children’s genders, ages, learning styles, and behavior patterns by looking at the drawings with no prior knowledge of the artists. Viewing teachers were not able to consistently detect artist gender or age by looking at pictures drawn with any of the three media, but 69% of the other statements made by the teachers agreed with information contained in the personality profiles.

Keywords:

• children’s drawings
• interjudge agreement
• teacher perceptions