Draw Yourself Doing Mathematics: Creating a Prompt and Rubric to Probe Student Mental Images of Mathematics

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Draw Yourself Doing Mathematics prompt was developed to study university students’ mental model of their self-image of doing mathematics derived from work connected to student attitudes toward mathematics. Undergraduate students are given 10 minutes to draw, on physical paper, a picture in response to the prompt. A scoring rubric has been developed to analyze the drawings and comprises an overall impression scale (ranging from extremely negative to extremely positive) and three categorical scales (location, activity, and affect). While the prompt was developed with K-16 students in mind, the validity of scores produced by the prompt has only been studied with undergraduate students. Rubric use has proven reliable with faculty and undergraduate researchers; scoring the drawings produced by the prompt allows for several hundred drawings to be produced in a few hours. Scores produced by the rubric help paint a picture of the mental images of doing mathematics over time, after pedagogical treatments, at the beginning and/or end of a course, and as a snapshot in time during the course. The drawings themselves help open conversations between instructors and students about, especially, the emotional aspects of doing mathematics.