Using Talking and Drawing to Design: Elementary Children Collaborating With University Industrial Design Students

In this study, Grade 3 (ages 8-9) children’s talking and drawing were explored as they worked with university industrial design students to design and redesign drawings of a piece of furniture and produce a poster of their work. The researchers proposed that ideas about talking and drawing derived from interactions between children and the design students could be useful for discerning possibilities for children’s classroom talking and drawing. The purpose of the study, therefore, was to provide insight into how talking and drawing could be used as tools for thinking about designs and how those insights could provide direction for teaching design technology in elementary classrooms.