Drawing is a powerful process tool that supports learning in life science classrooms. Effective drawing activities frame drawing as a learning process and explicitly incorporate observation and communication. The goals of this article are to situate drawing as a valuable learning experience and to guide educators through designing and implementing…

This methods-focused article attends to the mechanics of participant drawing as a data collection tool in qualitative research. Writing studies researchers undertaking qualitative research benefit from a wealth of handbooks on how to design methodologically sound studies. However, despite interest in visual research methods, little guidance is…

Mathematical representations are 'visible productions' that embody mathematical ideas. The author guides teachers with suggestions for the use of representations in mathematical problem solving with students. Representations can be used to help make abstract mathematical ideas accessible, allowing teachers and students to interpret, communicate,…

Fractions are an important concept used throughout advanced mathematical ideas and everyday life. Students need a solid understanding of fraction concepts, such as magnitude, equivalence, and operations. However, many students, including students with learning disabilities (LD) in mathematics, struggle with fractions. In this article, the use of…

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is widely used in behavioral, social, and education research. Drawing publication-ready path diagrams for SEM is not a pleasant task with the existing software. The article introduces an open-source web-based graphical application, "semdiag," for drawing WYSIWYG SEM path diagrams interactively. The…

The educational benefit of the traditional didactic lecture to learners in Higher Education is hotly debated. Given increasing student numbers, existing technical set ups and many logistical concerns, lectures remain the norm in many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In this personal view piece, we discuss the benefits, opportunities, and…

Science diagrams are an integral part of science because they are an important means of conveying and visualizing abstract science content. In recent years, researchers have demonstrated the educational benefits of encouraging students to draw their own conceptual diagrams, rather than focusing on interpreting diagrams given to them. To help…

This article aims to outline the important role of the summary phase within a mathematics instructional model and provide six strategies to support teachers to move beyond "share time." By drawing upon good teaching strategies during the summary phase, teachers can enhance the learning experience for themselves and for their students.…

This article explores an inventive approach to teaching physiology that blends the use of the Notability app on the iPad with video-based learning to visually explain intricate physiological concepts in real time. The core idea is to offer students a more dynamic and interactive way to comprehend complex physiological concepts during review…

Concepts can provide researchers and communities with common ground for communicating and building understandings about the world. However, researchers who engage with communities often encounter unexpected interpretations of concepts in the field. This article introduces Community Concept Drawing (CCD), a participatory visual method aimed at…

Drawing is a teaching tool that provides numerous benefits to student learning, including enhanced knowledge retention, improved observation skills, and increased engagement with course content. However, these exercises also place high cognitive demands on students and require a considerable time commitment. To acknowledge and celebrate the effort…

This article provides a snapshot of assessment for learning in action. It introduces the drawings made by children who had been studying "Planet Earth and Beyond"--Matariki as a context in science in a New Zealand primary school. The visual data are drawn from the Te Ao Hurihuri project (The Changing World) in which students were offered…

Representation in science is anything that stands for something else--drawings, pictures, graphs, or other representational forms (Danish et al. 2020). Representations serve as public displays of phenomena that make aspects of those phenomena explicit (Gilbert 2008). They can serve to make the invisible visible, communicate ideas, display…

This paper describes a pictorial approach to Lenz's law that involves following four steps and drawing three pictures to determine the direction of the current induced by a changing magnetic flux. Lenz's law accompanies Faraday's law, stating that, for a closed conducting loop, the induced emf (electromotive force) created by a changing magnetic…

"Drawing Conclusions" explores the use of juxtaposed visual representations (JVRs) to help preservice teachers grapple with abstract concepts, theories, or complex controversies in education. Acting as both a learning tool and an intellectual spark, JVRs are two simple contrasted sketches that students produce on a divided sheet of…