Home PublicationsJRTEPast IssuesVolume 28 Number 5

Edited by Diane McGrath

Volume 28 Number 5 Summer 1996

What do Freehand and Computer-Facilitated Drawings Tell Teachers About the Children Who Drew Them? Data–Case Reports Waterman, Watt

University of Texas at Austin

Case Report: Herb Williams

Created with a Touch- Sensitive Graphics Tablet	Created with  Logo Commands	Created with  Handheld Tools

Herb Williams is ten years old, and a fifth-grade student. If there were to be a movie made about his life, Herb would include a segment on his special academic activities, like the university-sponsored enrichment program in which he participated during the summer when his interview took place. He said that this should be included "just to show how...gifted I am or was." When asked if he thought that he might stop being gifted at some point in his lifetime, Herb said that he didn't feel that he would ever change in this way, but "you never know what will happen."

Herb's mother describes him as "very bright," but

a little bit insecure when he finds himself in a challenging situation. He doesn't like to be pushed into trying things that he doesn't feel comfortable with.

I guess I'm just seeing it from a different angle here. He takes any criticism or negative feedback very personally. And he would be afraid that somebody doesn't like him. I guess he can't see himself as popular when sometimes he's getting negative feedback from kids.

Academics. Mrs. Williams is convinced that Herb was aware of his special academic talents before he was labelled gifted and placed in the school district's pull-out enrichment program. His older brother was accepted into the program several years before Herb was, and Herb wanted to participate so that he could "get out of the classroom one day a week," not because he wanted to call himself special in any way. Mrs. Williams and Herb both expressed his dissatisfaction with everyday school activities, because they include such a lack of student choice in learning content and process. Herb's enrichment program was structured so that the students had many options for how they could learn, and that delighted Herb. Herb's teacher did not mention any perception that reflected an awareness of this preference.

Mrs. Williams mentioned many examples of Herb's wanting to have some choice and control of his learning during the interview. In one instance, she described one side of this behavior as an

unwillingness to want to take a challenge that someone else is trying to give him if he's not ready for it. He was almost expelled from nursery school because he wouldn't sing.

education in the public schools...doesn't work that way....They won't let him accelerate when he is ready, and make him do things that he doesn't want to do. At the moment he still [wants good] grades and teacher acceptance is still important to him, so he is succeeding. And I hope that will continue to be the case until there is some kind of special school for him.

He was more the 'what if'...It's more insight into a problem, or what we could do to solve this, and it wasn't just giving me the facts out of the book. He read between the lines. (Ms. Monroe)

We worried about it. That's with the crying and all. I always felt that somehow something was connected there with feeling pressure at home. They would work with him a lot at home...and I always wondered if being upset like that [was caused by that kind of] pressure. I worry, I really worry sometimes down the road what's going to happen. When he gets his first 'B' on his report card, what's he going to do?

I remember him being really excited in Math about something...I just remember seeing that excitement in him; this big smile and was a motor mouth. He just couldn't stop talking.

Herb's favorite school subjects are Math (because he likes "creative things," such as "games and patterns you can find") and Physical Education ("if you could call this a subject"). His mother named Math and Lunch as favorite subjects for Herb, saying that the creative aspects of Math that he enjoys most are "mental math" processes. She supposed that he likes Lunch because he enjoys "not having to work." Ms. Monroe agreed with Herb and Mrs. Williams in her perceptions of Herb's enjoyment of Math. She said that Herb enjoys solving problems logically, especially those which involve use of drawings as part of the data supplied or needing to be generated.

Herb said that his least favorite school subject is English, because he doesn't like writing a lot of sentences and having to wait while grammar ideas that he comprehends are explained to classmates who don't understand them. He also doesn't enjoy the act of writing, because his "hand gets dirty because [he's] lefthanded," and "it tires your arm out". Herb also does not like to copy sentences from the blackboard; he would much prefer to go to the library. Herb's mother named English and Social Studies as his least-favorite subjects because of his distaste for "drills" and writing. Herb's teacher was not aware of any subjects that Herb disliked, but she did mention his impatience with the act of writing, and logically concluded that he must not enjoy the Language exercises that she assigns.

Herb's favorite activities are mostly sports- related: swimming, soccer, and basketball, for example. He mentioned a "state report" that he enjoyed researching and writing, stated that he likes reading non-fiction books (especially those about snakes), and said that he also enjoys drawing three-dimensional objects. Mrs. Wilson was aware of the sports that Herb loves, but listed different academic activity preferences: using computers, building model airplanes, and reading about aviation. Ms. Monroe named computer work, the state report, reading (both fiction and non-fiction), and playing visual recognition games as Herb's favorite activities.

Mrs. Williams said that Herb "regarded homework as an imposition [upon] his free time." Neither Herb nor his teacher mentioned this feeling, but Ms. Monroe did recall some difficulties getting Herb to submit his completed homework punctually in the middle of the school year, a situation for which a parent conference had to be called. She felt that the problem was not one of motivation or resistance; rather, a lack of organizational skills, which a simple daily check-up system solved.

When solving academic problems, Herb reads the problem first, looking for key words that will give clues as to how to begin work on the solution. This type of data collection helps him to decide what kind of problem it is that he has been given, and therefore, what solution method to use. This allows Herb to solve the problem, after which he "check[s] it most of the time" by "doing it again," to see if he arrives at the same answer. Mrs. Williams said that she couldn't tell how Herb goes about solving problems, because he does most, if not all, of the work in his head. "I don't see him solving problems. I see him all of a sudden coming up with the answer." When there is a problem that Herb feels that he can't solve, his mother says that he "runs away" from it. Herb said that he prefers to solve problems by himself, but will sometimes ask his teacher for assistance when a particular problem is difficult to do.

Ms. Monroe observed a process similarly cryptic to Mrs. Williams' depictions. She, too, said that she couldn't say how Herb solved problems, since he does so much of the work "in his head". She has the impression, though, that his thinking is very well-structured in logical terms, but his idea generation is quite intuitive and wholistic. Ms. Monroe noted that correct answers seem to be very important to Herb, since he would check his work several times, and, in the beginning of the year, might cry if he got a few problems incorrect.

Interpersonal Relations. Herb said that he "get[s] along with [his] teachers, basically." He considers them to be "O.K." in terms of likability, and he enjoys helping them with clerical and housekeeping tasks, which he does without their having to ask him to do them. He likes teachers best who are "enthusiastic." Mrs. Williams said that Herb seems to prefer teachers who are "positive," and who

seemed to understand his intellectual needs...they would give him enrichment and acceleration when he was ready for it; when he wanted it.

Ms. Monroe acknowledged Herb's voluntary assistance, but feels that some strain might have been placed on his relationships with teachers because Mrs. Williams pressures teachers, guidance counselors and administrators to accelerate Herb's education, especially in Math, and never seems to think that his intellectual needs are being met.

Herb prefers the company of a large group of children, involved in some sort of organized sport, to a few friends standing and talking, which he does less often. He says that sometimes the other children "spread rumors around" about "things that I did that I really didn't do...things that they thought I was bad that I did." He copes with these infrequent situations by ignoring them, since he says that they don't bother him. Mrs. Williams feels that her son is fairly adept at socializing, behaving much more like an adolescent in this domain than a ten-year-old.

...he has developed some pretty good social skills, to balance people, and balance his own behavior to fit in well at the same time, not giving up the things that are important to him.

Like Herb mentioned, Mrs. Williams recognizes that he likes to be part of a group, and wants to participate in whatever the group activity is. He becomes very upset over what he might consider to be a "bad call" by a referee in a sports game, and often will remove himself from the group activity because he is so upset. (Herb said that the way that he and his friends usually solve such disputes is to flip a coin and forget the argument).

Herb's teacher also noted Herb's preference for active involvement in large-group activities, but did not mention any incidents which expressed any kind of interpersonal friction. When queried about this, she reasoned that, since Herb seems to feel that a few good friends are important, he doesn't seem to need to be liked by everyone; an idea almost directly counter to what Herb's mother expressed. Ms. Monroe described Herb as a very loyal and sensitive friend, who garners much respect from his classmates in academic, athletic, and citizenship realms.

Herb described a fair amount of sibling rivalry between himself and his older brother. He said that he and his brother "fight" often when there are no adults in the house, and these spats are seldom resolved. Many of them, according to Herb, occur because his brother tries to change the rules of games that they are playing to suit his own advantage. Mrs. Williams said that Herb gets along fairly well with the members of his family, but that the "squabbles" between him and his older brother are mostly over perceived unequal distributions of material goods or privileges. Mrs. Williams said that Herb will seek out the company of his parents when he is in need of emotional support, and is still very physically affectionate ("[although] I don't know how much longer that will last"). Ms. Monroe feels that Herb's relationships with his family members are close- knit and beneficial. She didn't sense any of the sibling rivalry that Herb and his mother described; Ms. Monroe said that Herb spoke frequently about his brother with pride and fondness.

Classic Anecdotes. Mrs. Williams' chosen story about Herb reflects his unique problem-solving method.

He was the typical age kids are when they learn to ride two-wheelers. I don't even know what age it was anymore, but we got him this little bike and it was the right size and all, and we were going to teach him to ride it. Some of his other friends had already started to ride bicycles. It was about time and he had pretty good coordination. So we had every reason to believe that he could ride this bicycle. And he refused. Absolutely would not get on the bicycle. And that bike hung around here for four to six months...and in the meantime, he watched other kids ride their bicycles. Then one day he said, "I'm ready to learn how to ride my bicycle now." I think his father held it for him, and he got on it and rode it. Just like that.

...one of his friends was moving to Germany, and they had known each other, I think, since kindergarten, and Herb came in and was very quiet and he had this little photo album thing that he had put together of the times that he had shared with the other little boy....I didn't realize what good friends they were. And then Herb started crying, and I said, "Well, Herb, what's wrong?" and he said, "I don't want Michael to leave..." and it was so-- it was just so neat. There I saw a boy who was nine or ten years old, not someone like we were saying earlier that was a little bit more mature. I saw the boy in him and it was really touching. I just 184 wanted to hug him and say, "It's all right. He'll be back." I thought that was so neat. I've never seen any child do that....That's one memory that I'll probably carry with me the rest of my life... And then the two of them were looking at the pictures in the photo album...and sharing it with the other students and Herb had a big smile on his face after that.

Viewer Conjectures. Of the 67 total comments that were inspired by Herb's artwork, 10 described emotional aspects and 4 referred to interpersonal aspects of Herb's character. Twelve depicted intellectual attributes, another 12 specified school subject preferences, and a final 24 described Herb's work habits. His freehand and graphics tablet drawings told two viewers that he was "happy." He was also described as "somewhat rigid" and "self- confident" with a "well-adjusted center." While looking at Herb's graphics tablet drawing, Teacher M suggested that the artist was an "intense individual with definite goals," and Teacher H saw a "child with a strong personality." Of all of the emotional attributes suggested, these were in closest agreement with interview data. All of Herb's pictures inspired comments about his interpersonal behavior. Teacher G looked at both the freehand and Logo drawings and described Herb as "quiet." Teacher N saw that Herb was "easy to manage" when she was looking at his graphics tablet drawing.

Teacher H described Herb as a "linear-sequential thinker" twice, looking at his graphics tablet and Logo drawings. His Logo drawing also suggested that he was a "good technical person," "not particularly creative," and a "logical thinker." His graphics tablet creation told Teacher G that he "likes structure and organization." Seven conjectures about Herb preferring and enjoying Math were offered by five different teachers, inspired by Herb's work in all three media. His Logo and graphics tablet pictures suggested an interest in Art to two teachers.

Nine comments were made in response to Herb's three drawings suggesting that he was "organized." His computer facilitated pictures inspired four comments on his neatness or precision; these works also suggested good planning abilities, "attention to detail," "persistence," "self-disciplined behavior," and "methodical" work habits. Only one teacher suggested that Herb may be "slightly disorganized," despite interview evidence to the contrary.

Case Report: Harvey Wilson

Created with a Touch- Sensitive Graphics Tablet	Created with  Logo Commands	Created with  Handheld Tools

Harvey Wilson is ten years old and in the fifth grade. Harvey described himself as a "nice guy" who likes to make a lot of friends and doesn't like "hard times." He likes animals, and enjoys studying Science and Math in school. Harvey's father described him as a "very bright, very quick" boy who gets bored very easily and can disrupt class by talking when not given sufficient academic challenges. In his father's eyes, Harvey is persistent in pursuing things that interest him (such as piano playing), and has "things to say, but will not often offer them;" he can be shy, even though he is a leader with his peers. According to his father, Harvey can behave quite competitively with other children, but has a lot of sensitivity to their feelings. Mr. Wilson also said that it is very important to Harvey to perform well in school; he has gotten very frustrated in the few instances where he could not master a concept or skill quickly, but did not give up trying.

Ms. Jarnell, Harvey's fourth-grade teacher, noted the same high standards and impatience with less-than- perfect performance in Harvey. She noted that Harvey wants to excel in all areas; "...and when I say excel, I mean he likes to be the best." Like Mr. Wilson, Ms. Jarnell described Harvey's very emotional reactions to grades that he perceives to be anything less than excellent performance. She also noted that Harvey could display quite an explosive temper with his peers and his teachers that can sometimes be perceived as a lack of respect for either or both.

Harvey's teacher described him as a very gifted, talented, and bright boy with a wealth of knowledge, who has some difficulty getting along with his peers, is emotionally demonstrative, but who is generally a happy child, and quite helpful to his classmates. Ms. Jarnell was aware that she disagrees with Harvey's parents about the causes of Harvey's occasional misbehavior. They maintained that Harvey "gets into trouble" when he is bored or not sufficiently supplied with things to occupy him; Ms. Jarnell concedes that that may be one part of his motivation to misbehave, but said that Harvey's parents are "defensive" of him. She feels that a general lack of respect for others' wishes may also cause some of the behavior problems. Yet Harvey's teacher sees him as "a nice kid" and predicted that he will be very successful as an adult professional.

Academics. Harvey, Mr. Wilson and Ms. Jarnell all named Math and Science as two of Harvey's favorite school subjects. Harvey and his father also recognized that Reading is a favorite subject, but Ms. Jarnell named Reading as a least favorite. This is probably not indicative of a disagreement, though, since both Harvey and Mr. Wilson equated the subject Reading with the act of reading, and Ms. Jarnell referred to Reading as practice exercises in grammar, vocabulary, and similar skills. All three informants agreed that Harvey loves to read, and does a lot of it.

When asked what it is about Math that makes him like the subject, Harvey explained that he likes solving word problems because "it's easy for me to interpret what they mean." When asked if he generally likes to do things that are easy for him, Harvey said "yes." This may be another expression of the same attribute that his father and his teacher describe as a desire to excel. When asked why Harvey prefers Math to some other subjects, Mr. Wilson specifically said

There's a competitive piece there. He likes knowing that he does it well and probably better than most of the kids in his class, and so he likes being able to do it fast; he likes the confidence piece of it, I think. He likes doing something well and he knows he does [Math] well.

While all three informants said that Harvey likes Science because he enjoys doing experiments, there was some variation among the three concerning what Harvey's specific areas of content interest are. Harvey mentioned animals and crystals; his father named animals, the outdoors, and space, and his teacher listed animals, space and chemistry. All informants said that Harvey enjoys working with computers, which is facilitated by his having a personal computer to use at home.

When asked to name his least favorite subjects, Harvey said that he does not like studying Health in school because it isn't interesting to him. His teacher seemed to notice this when she said that Harvey doesn't seem interested in classwork about different body systems. Harvey also said that he sometimes doesn't enjoy Social Studies, depending on what is being studied in this area. Mr. Wilson named Health and Social Studies as Harvey's two least favorite subjects for reasons of lack of interest in these topics. Ms. Jarnell did not seem to be aware of the way that Harvey feels about these two subjects.

Harvey, Mr. Wilson and Ms. Jarnell agreed that Harvey enjoys doing research and building things out of popsicle sticks, paper machier, and clay. Both Wilsons also named swimming as a favorite activity. Ms. Jarnell noted that Harvey seems to enjoy anything that includes an element of oral discussion in school activities. The information that Harvey supplied about preferences for general work habits disagrees with what his father and teacher said; Harvey maintained that he likes to take his time with schoolwork, because "[he] usually do[es] things wrong when [he] rush[es]." The two adults interviewed said that Harvey likes to finish things very quickly, and rarely takes his time with any activity. His father elaborated, saying that Harvey

needs to be wherever it is he has to be...first. [He] has to be early....He hurries. He wants to get things over with....he has to be the first one at the bus stop in the morning....He was thrilled we got him a watch for his last birthday...he did not like not having a watch.

This preference for getting things done quickly seems to apply to Harvey's homework habits. All three informants said that homework is not a problem for Harvey, either in difficulty or any time-consuming capacity. Harvey does homework because it is required, and does not struggle to complete it accurately and punctually.

Harvey and his father disagreed when describing his problem-solving processes. Harvey and Mr. Wilson both maintain that he reads problems carefully first, gathering all available information in an organized, analytical way before attempting a solution. Harvey then said that he does a lot of self-checking (especially on test problems) to make sure that he has solved problems correctly; his father said that he might try twice to master a skill or solve a problem, but that if he is not met with immediate success, he will become angry, expressing these feelings with tears or angry physical actions.

I think that if he doesn't get it the second time, he gets mad....[T]hat's true with the piano... [h]e'll keep going back. He'll be furious. He'll be pounding. He'll kick the piano, but he's not going to quit. He--it's not a sense of "Oh, golly, I got it wrong and I'm going to keep trying," it's "I'm going to beat this thing, no matter what it takes....I'm going to do it when and how I want to do it.

Harvey also said that if he has difficulty with a problem or skill, he will ask his parents or teacher for assistance. Both his father and his teacher said that Harvey seems to be reticent to ask for help; this is a last resort that arises from feeling much frustration. Ms. Jarnell did mention that Harvey frequently requests assistance in ascertaining whether his answers are correct, but only after he has completed the problem- solving process. Ms. Jarnell and Mr. Wilson also agreed that Harvey works quickly; Harvey implied that he likes to take his time in problem-solving activities.

Interpersonal Relations. Harvey said that he generally likes his teachers, and that they "get along pretty good as long as [he's] good." When asked to explain that statement, he said

...as long as I turn in my homework, do my work on time, don't talk out of turn, or don't be real mean to all the other kids, then we're okay.

Well sometimes you tell them something and they say, "No," and you like know it's right and they just keep on persisting that it's "No"...I usually just stop because if I keep going she'll probably get mad.

...where he would not raise his hand, he would shout out answers, he would shout out a corrected pronunciation of things that I would do or whatever; that I just felt were disrespectful. And I explained to him and his parents that I felt that respect came in two parts: one, you got respect because of your position, and the other way was respect earned. And that I hoped in time that I earned his respect, but whether I earned his respect or not, I expected him to have respect for me because of my position.

He's just not sneaky. He doesn't know how to do it. But he tries...He gets caught. It doesn't work. It's not him.

Yet, Harvey's teacher said that there were several instances when Harvey stole items from classmates or the classroom, then persistently lied to try to appear right. Ms. Jarnell felt that this represented an abnormal frequency of this type of behavior for a child of Harvey's age, and said that the lying seemed to be another expression of Harvey's need to excel in every area of performance and character. Harvey's father did not mention these incidents or patterns. Indeed, his comments above may indicate a direct contradiction in beliefs.

Harvey mentioned two good friends with whom he spends a lot of after-school time. Both were not in his fourth grade class. He also mentioned that when he first came to class after moving in from another state, some of the children whispered about him. He said that he ignored the whispering, and that after a few days, it stopped. Harvey did not mention any friends in his class in public school, but did say that he "sticks up" for his friends, and they return the favor in similar fashion. His father gave a specific example of this.

He's got a little friend--a big friend--who is very much overweight...and kids tease him about that. Harvey will take it upon himself to protect [his friend.] He gets very, very upset when the kids tease David, and David will say, "I'm just fat," and Harvey will say, "No, you're not, you're just"-- I don't know how he puts it--"you look fine to me" or something like that....he can be very sensitive to the other kids.

Harvey seemed to express similar ideas when he mentioned that it upsets him when there is internal strife among different members of the class. Ms. Jarnell seemed to think that what upsets Harvey is less that people in the class are unhappy, and more that he perceives that some classmates are not following the rules of a game or adhering to general conduct standards. Mr. Wilson also mentioned that occurrences such as these upset Harvey. Ms. Jarnell felt that Harvey needs to learn to bend rules so that children who are less talented than he can be encouraged to feel good about themselves; she said that Harvey is not very "tolerant" of those types of interaction.

Harvey and Mr. Wilson both said that Harvey is a good team member; Harvey described it as "always cheer[ing] for my team." Ms. Jarnell said that Harvey had some trouble with "sportsmanship," especially in the beginning of the school year.

[T]here were several times when I had told my class that if I saw acts of bad sportsmanship that we would turn the class around and come immediately inside, and we did that because of Harvey. And he got very upset and very much in a huff about it and would often even want the opportunity to backtalk, but I just didn't give him to opportunity.

Ms. Jarnell did mention that Harvey is very helpful academically to his peers, but, unlike Harvey's father, she does not feel that Harvey is tolerant of his classmates' "attitudes,...their feelings; just them." Ms. Jarnell added that she has known Harvey since kindergarten, and that he has seemed to be this way since that time.

Harvey describes his relationships with his family members as "real close," even though he does fight with his sister rather often during the school year.

I really love my mom and dad. My mom and dad are both there for me when I need help, usually....I love spending time with my dad [playing sports], and I like spending time with my mom a lot, too.

He is, especially in the last couple of years, very affectionate, though. He likes hugs [and] a lot of appropriate touching. Wanting when we get out of the car at night...he'll grab one of our hands to hold it as we walk in[to the house]. A lot of nice, warm, affectionate kinds of things.

Ms. Jarnell made similar observations when she related a story about a field day activity to which Harvey's parents were late. He was very upset at first, seeming like he was ready to cry, but after he and his parents talked in private, he gave them hugs and kisses before they left, which is not behavior that his teacher observed in many other boys in Harvey's class. Ms. Jarnell described Harvey's family as "tight," attributing that partly to a strong religious interest. Neither Harvey nor Mr. Wilson mentioned that aspect of the Wilsons' family life.

A Classic Anecdote. When asked to supply the story or stories from Harvey's childhood that best communicate "the essence of Harvey," Mr. Wilson mentioned several incidents that communicate Harvey's special relationship with the family's dog.

[If they were going to make a movie about Harvey's life,] they would have the dog sleeping under his crib protecting him. We got the dog just before [Harvey] was born, and they grew up together. Harvey was this dog's baby. They would have [Harvey] on top of the refrigerator...throwing dog bones to the dog, saying that's where they were, so that's where he went to get them, because the dog was hungry...[w]hen we were in [another state] potty training Harvey and it was hot out...he took his pants off to pee into the flowers. We asked him why was he doing that and he said the dog did that. The dog and he had a very special relationship.

Viewer Conjectures. Of the 53 comments made in response to Harvey's freehand, graphics tablet, and Logo drawings, 12 addressed emotional or interpersonal attributes, 13 described intellectual characteristics, 12 suggested school subject preferences or favorite topics of study, and 16 delineated work habits. Harvey was seen as "happy," "outgoing," "straight-forward," and "content with self," although lacking in maturity and "fragmented" by four teachers looking at his three pictures. Comments upon his interpersonal skills were scarce and contradictory; his freehand and graphics tablet pictures reflected a "verbal" child, a "quiet" child, and a "child who is interested in people" to three different viewing teachers.

Harvey's intellectual abilities were apparent to teachers viewing all three of his pictures. He was described as having talent in reading, writing, problem- solving, and "see[ing] others' point[s] of view." His freehand and graphics tablet drawings told two teachers that he was "experimental," "inventive," "creative," and "not interested in detail." Four teachers looking at Harvey's freehand and graphics tablet drawings correctly deduced his interest in Science, and four comments were specifically made regarding his interest in animals and nature. His freehand drawing told two teachers of his interest in reading, and his graphics tablet drawing Teacher I that he "illustrates/writes stories."

Suppositions about Harvey's work habits were quite contradictory. His graphics tablet picture told three teachers that he was "disorganized," "impulsive," "experimental," "in a hurry," and "not interested in [the] final product," as was stated in interviews with his father and teacher, but his Logo picture made three teachers suspect that he was "methodical," "persistant," "attentive," a "good planner," and a "careful worker," unlike what the adults who knew Harvey reported. Interestingly, Teacher L, when looking at Harvey's freehand drawing, wrote that he "wants to 'get it right,'" much as his father and teacher emphasized.

Copyright © 1996, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.