Abstract
As a common cultural activity for children around the world, drawing is viewed as an artistic or creative pursuit as well as a free play activity. In the ‘Children Draw Talking’ project, a specific guideline was given to parents or adults to invite their child/ren to draw themselves talking to someone. After drawing, children were asked questions such as: Who is in the drawing, and what are you talking about?
In the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0, asking questions is an important strategy as part of intentional teaching to extend children’s knowledge, skills and enjoyment in thinking and learning (AGDE, 2022). In the ‘Children Draw Talking’ project, meaning-making analysis was used to interpret children’s responses to the question: What are you talking about? Ten categories were developed and are depicted in a figure titled ‘What children are talking about in the drawings based on their reporting’ (McLeod et al., 2023).
However, little is known about how a specific guideline and a set of questions could support children’s drawing and thinking process, and eventually enhance higher mental functions. According to cultural historical theory, the development of higher mental function outlines development as qualitative change (Vygotsky, 1997), which emerges a new system of functions and cultural signs and sign mediation support to reorganise this qualitative changing process (Veresov, 2010).
From the total 166 drawings, ten drawings have been selected to represent each of the ten categories of what children are talking about in the drawings (McLeod et al., 2023). Children’s explanations of what they were talking about in the drawings are analysed using Hedegaard’s three levels of analysis (2008).
The presentation will discuss how drawing represents a cultural tool of children’s minds that supports the development of higher mental functions such as logical thinking and concept formation (Bodrova & Leong, 2018). It is argued that early childhood educators could set guidelines for children to draw, and a set of thoughtful questions might support children to think about their drawing, which will support the higher mental functions of children’s thinking and learning process.
In the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0, asking questions is an important strategy as part of intentional teaching to extend children’s knowledge, skills and enjoyment in thinking and learning (AGDE, 2022). In the ‘Children Draw Talking’ project, meaning-making analysis was used to interpret children’s responses to the question: What are you talking about? Ten categories were developed and are depicted in a figure titled ‘What children are talking about in the drawings based on their reporting’ (McLeod et al., 2023).
However, little is known about how a specific guideline and a set of questions could support children’s drawing and thinking process, and eventually enhance higher mental functions. According to cultural historical theory, the development of higher mental function outlines development as qualitative change (Vygotsky, 1997), which emerges a new system of functions and cultural signs and sign mediation support to reorganise this qualitative changing process (Veresov, 2010).
From the total 166 drawings, ten drawings have been selected to represent each of the ten categories of what children are talking about in the drawings (McLeod et al., 2023). Children’s explanations of what they were talking about in the drawings are analysed using Hedegaard’s three levels of analysis (2008).
The presentation will discuss how drawing represents a cultural tool of children’s minds that supports the development of higher mental functions such as logical thinking and concept formation (Bodrova & Leong, 2018). It is argued that early childhood educators could set guidelines for children to draw, and a set of thoughtful questions might support children to think about their drawing, which will support the higher mental functions of children’s thinking and learning process.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 17-18 |
Number of pages | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 08 Feb 2024 |
Event | 2024 AJEC Research Symposium: Listening, empowering and innovating - Online Duration: 08 Feb 2024 → 09 Feb 2024 https://web.archive.org/web/20240508100857/https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-AJEC-Research-Symposium_Discussion-papers_Final.pdf (Discussion papers) https://web.archive.org/web/20240331180710/https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-AJEC-Research-Symposium-Program-at-a-glance.pdf (Program) https://web.archive.org/web/20240331180424/https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/events/ajecsymposium/2024-program-overview/ (Symposium webpage on Wayback Machine) |
Conference
Conference | 2024 AJEC Research Symposium |
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Period | 08/02/24 → 09/02/24 |
Internet address |
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