Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet

Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Sharpening the gaze, sharpening the pencil: supporting observational drawing in primary education
Örebro University.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9233-3691
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science. (RECEUM; UmSER)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7273-5442
Linköping University.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8709-8551
University of Borås.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7357-0122
Show others and affiliations
2026 (English)In: Journal of Biological Education, ISSN 0021-9266, E-ISSN 2157-6009, Vol. 60, no 1, p. 46-59Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article explores how teachers can support students’ observational drawing skills in the biology classroom. The article is based on classroom data from a collaborative project involving primary school teachers, arts educators, and researchers. Together, we have planned and implemented classroom interventions, aiming to contribute knowledge about the pedagogical potentials of drawing in science. In this article, we analyse one teacher’s way of teaching observational drawing to 8-year-old students. Our analysis reveals two main teaching emphases: (1) the interplay between observing and drawing and (2) the visual characteristics of natural objects, particularly the shape, colour, and specific details of different species. Our findings provide valuable insights for educators who seek to integrate observational drawing into science education. First, we highlight the significance of the teacher’s content knowledge in biology, as it corresponds to the ability to guide students’ attention to specific details in natural objects. Second, we show the pedagogical potential of providing explicit feedback during the drawing process in terms of encouraging students to make detailed and realistic drawings while also making them visually engaging. Lastly, we show that the teacher makes use of verbal, bodily, and visual resources to create a collaborative space for communication around student drawings.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2026. Vol. 60, no 1, p. 46-59
Keywords [en]
biology education, social semiotics, species knowledge, teaching strategies, visual representations
National Category
Pedagogical Work Didactics
Research subject
educational work; didactics of natural science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-235117DOI: 10.1080/00219266.2025.2452188ISI: 001412978100001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85216795070OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-235117DiVA, id: diva2:1935384
Part of project
Drawing to learn and learning to draw in primary school science, Swedish Research Council
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2019-03429Available from: 2025-02-06 Created: 2025-02-06 Last updated: 2026-03-31Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(5618 kB)1 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT02.pdfFile size 5618 kBChecksum SHA-512
36f38e500c6958df20a134f1c42c2fd36ce72c3e50fd13f229e48383240d4bbd7d7aa93e33910cce9b0109fd68e6570933d103dbe41428a46960f683a3f352be
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Skoog, MarianneAreljung, SofieAndersson, JohannaHermansson, CarinaSundberg, Bodil
By organisation
Department of applied educational science
In the same journal
Journal of Biological Education
Pedagogical WorkDidactics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 88 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 460 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf