CLASSROOM CONTEXTUAL DRAWINGS AS PREDICTORS OF PUPILS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Abstract

Summary.-75 fourth grade children (29 boys, 46 girls) were asked to draw themselves in separate reading and math contexrs. Heights of drawing of self were significantly different for high and low achievers. Context and size of self-portrait in children's drawings are discussed as potential predictors of pupils' academic achievement. Children's art has a continuing fascination for researchers attempting to measure unobtrusively children's abilities and perceptions. Craddick has indicated in numerous studies that measurement of self-portraits can give insight into an individual's feelings and attitudes (3, 4, 6, 7, 8). Recent research further supports measurement of self-portrait as an alternative to holistic analysis. Analysis of children's drawings of psychologically salient contexts (pupil-teacher interactions) has indicated that children who exhibit a positive feeling about school draw themselves taller within a prescribed context than students who dislike school (1, 2). The use of context allows the researcher to focus on the exact aspects of school (or any other environment) to which the child may be reacting. Context provides a framework which is directly related to the child's creation of a product. The current investigation was designed to determine if interpretive procedures similar to those in the Craddick and Brooks studies could be applied to specific contexts of pupils' interaction with subject matter rather than a specific teacher. If American children who like school draw themselves as large, it was assumed that high achievers in reading and mathematics might also draw themselves larger than low achievers in each subject. METHOD The subjects were drawn from two schools located in a metropolitan area of the Southwest United States. They represented a lower-middle class economic distribution. The subjects were chosen at random from the fourth grade classes in each school. There were 75 subjects who ranged in age from 8 to 10 yr.; 29 were boys and 46 girls. Both schools had departmentalized reading and mathematics programs. All levels of ability were included in the random selection of subjects. The subjects were given one sheet of 12-in. X 14-in. manilla paper for each of the two contexts. The subjects also had six crayons (red, brown, blue, yellow, green, and black). These materials were used to respond to the following two requests: Draw a