The Future of Education

The Potential of Student Drawings to Investigate New Learning Contexts

Sarah Nell-Müller, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (Germany)

Abstract

This article presents student drawings as a data source for exploring new learning settings from the students’ perspective. All drawings stem from the same assignment: students were asked to sketch themselves while learning in class. This task served as a prompt for reflecting on their relationship with the school environment. Methodologically, the analysis is based on the assumption that students can articulate and process critical or crisis-related elements through the act of drawing. Analyzing the

drawings thus allows for the identification of both the potentials and the pitfalls of a given learning context and provides deeper insight into the specific learning situation. The study employs a qualitative-reconstructive research approach aimed at uncovering latent structures of meaning within

protocols of spatially and temporally situated social practice. The methodological approach is outlined with respect to image analysis and illustrated through a selected case.

Keywords: Research on teaching and learning, qualitative research, drawings, objective hermeneutics, studentcentred

REFERENCES

[1] Münte, P., Piberger, J. & Scheid, C. (2022). Kinderzeichnungsanalyse als Chance für die Erforschung von Bildungsprozessen: Ein objektiv-hermeneutischer Zugang zu Kinderzeichnungen [Analysis of Children's Drawings as an Opportunity for Educational Research: An Objective Hermeneutic Approach to Children's Drawings]. In M. Kekeritz & M. Kubandt (Hrsg.), Kinderzeichnungen in der qualitativen Forschung (S. 129–155). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34885-4_5

[2] Tetzlaff, L., Hartmann, U., Dumont, H. & Brod, G. (2022). Assessing individualized instruction in the classroom: Comparing teacher, student, and observer perspectives, Learning and Instruction, 82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101655

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