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dear jinan, sounds interesting - needs research. my wife is left-handed - she can read (and write with both hands), forward and back and upside-down. It's a party trick of no great significance. It upsets officials when she can read their documents upsidedown; it fascinates her students when she can mark their work upsidedown (reading and writing). She is stronger in maths than language. So what? cheers keith > On 6 Jun 2014, at 4:32 pm, "Jinan K B" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > Hello > We at the sadhana school have initiated research on drawing. > > We are exploring drawing as a cognitive tool - both as a tool to > enhance observation (content) and also as tool to develop internal > ability of abstraction. > We have created a space or condition that allow total spontaneousread > activity from children and after three years of observation and > documentation e have found very interesting possibilities. Drawing, > being clubbed with art, self expression etc has masked its real > potential. > > As a tool for enhancing observation > Observation drawing is an important activity to make children see > things around them in detail. It helps to root ourselves to the three > dimensionality of the world and this rooting would help us when we > occupy ourselves with the conceptual world. > As a tool for describing > As a tool for reflection > As a tools for abstraction > Drawing also enables abstraction from three dimension to two > dimension. Converting the three dimensional object in to two dimension > is a very important cognitive act. The abstraction that happens is > quite remarkable and this is very difficult for the educated person to > accomplish. It seems that children before they are caught by the > rational framework are able to see without the need for thought to > interpret what they are seeing. They are able to just observe and > draw. The educated goes through three steps. They see, think and draw > and quite often they are not able to draw where as children are able > to draw quite easily. > As a tool for developing pre writing skill > As a tool for imagination > As a tool for thinking > > when we started this initiative in june (2011) , the third day I came > across an event that totally challenged the way we deal with children. > As we had ‘let’ children do what they felt like that is what all the > children were doing. Some were playing, some were drawing, some were > reading etc. > One child was drawing in a drawing book and after few minutes another > child came in and started drawing along with her and then yet another > child joined and also started drawing in the same drawing. And in few > minutes the one who started the drawing left and the other two > continued. > We learned several lessons from that event. Foremost is that children > by nature are co- operative, are not possessive about ‘their’ drawing, > is able to accommodate others, one can also draw upside down (that is > what the second girl was doing because she sat on the opposite side of > the first child). Respect for autonomy is evident from the fact there > was no objection either to join the drawing or to leave. May be ‘self- > expression’ is yet another invention of the adults. They were least > bothers about any ones approval and individual ownership. They were > not keen to put them up on the notice board and even having their > names written on the drawing. I wonder then how do we end up becoming > so possessive, individualistic (my personal space) and selfish. Being > here and now was what mattered to children. They were fully involved > in the act yet detached. > We also noticed that children were drawing anywhere and everywhere and > was using anything they could find. They were drawing on the floor, > wall, ground, table, slate, paper and were using their own finger, > water, chalk, stick, pencil, paint, powder made by crushing chalk or > the readymade colour used for doing rangoli etc. So we consciously > began to make several changes to the ‘class room’ and to our rigid > minds. We replaced the black board and painted lower half of the walls > black and this enabled children to draw large pictures. Children were > any way using the ground for drawing and hence the black board also > found place on the ground. That act was a symbolic act of removal of > authority from our school. As we did not have rigid periods and time > table children were having opportunity for total freedom, self- > initiative and autonomy. > One this is clear that children know clearly what they are drawing and > there is always a concrete topic/ subject that they draw. They will > tell you clearly what they are drawing. One day we saw two children > were moving around and drawing on the floor, all over the class. They > were telling other children that they are drawing water flowing from > the water tap. > Yet another incident was of a girl sitting on the floor and drawing > with a chalk on the floor. As she was drawing a big picture she was > using her both hands. Even though she was using her right hand most of > the time when the drawing went over to the left side she would > immediately use her left hand. > may be this will help children to be ambidextrous which was always > the case among non literate cultures. > I am yet to compile the videos and drawings. But if any one is > interested in collaborating with us to study this further you are > welcome. > jinan > www.sadhanavillageschool.org > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> > Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design > Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design > ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------