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Qualitative Research Paper

Sarah Bippen

University of Missouri-Columbia
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Qualitative Research Paper

Art is obviously extremely subjective, but there is a huge benefit of observing and

categorizing students artistic development to better understand their inner emotions and their

personality as a student in all content areas. According to Brittain and Lowenfeld, there are

multiple stages of artistic development that a child can fall between from ages two to seventeen.

The first stage is known as The Scribbling Stage this happens during the beginning of self-

expression, usually around the ages of two-four. The next stage that is discussed is The

Preschematic Stage that is normally around age four-seven and occurs when the child is trying

to represent objects, people, etc. The next stage is The Schematic Stage, and usually happens

from ages seven-nine and is described as the achievement of the form of a concept. The next

stage is The Gang Age. This stage is described as the dawning realism and occurs usually

around the ages of nine-twelve. The next stage is The Pseudo-Naturalistic Stage. This stage is

described as the age of reasoning and usually occurs around the age of twelve-fourteen. The next

stage is Adolescent Art known as the period of decision and usually occurs around the age of

fourteen-seventeen (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 474-479).

After conducting my interview and research with Carrie (pseudonym), a 4th grade student

who loves to draw, I believe I am able to place her in the stages of artistic development that

Brittain and Lowenfeld describe. The following includes my method, evidence, and conclusion

about my interactions with Carrie.

Method

For this study I asked Carrie (pseudonym), a 4th grade student, to draw me a picture of

one of her favorite things. I explained that it could be nature, an animal, her family, etc. I chose

Carrie for this task because I noticed her love for drawing in the normal classroom setting.

During read aloud time Carrie always asks her teacher if she is allowed to draw during that time.
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When allowed, Carrie looks up photos of creatures, animals, and people on Google and practices

drawing them with her pencil on a plain sheet of scratch paper. This reminded me of a quote that

stuck out to me during one of our assigned readings. The author Daniel Pink says, You know,

I'm not a huge fan of the concept of 'passion' when it comes to careers. Instead of trying to

answer the daunting question of 'What's your passion?' it's better simply to watch what you do

when you've got time of your own and nobody's looking (Pink, 2012). Carrie may not believe

she has passion for art, but every spare moment she has she is drawing and creating something;

maybe even when she is not supposed to be.

For this study I asked Carrie if she would like to help me with my Art assignment. She

cheerfully agreed, as she knew this meant she would get to be creative. I sat down with Carrie

and for the last 20 minutes of her Art class, she and I talked as she drew. As she was drawing I

asked her a few questions that I thought would better help me understand her artistic

development. I asked questions like, what is your favorite thing to draw? and why did you

shade this area?

Findings
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Carrie took her time drawing during the last 20 minutes of her Art class. Carrie, her table

partner, and myself talked about her choice of drawing. She chose to draw Bulbasaur, a

Pokmon character. After further inquiry on this character, Carrie informed me that Bulbasaur

was a Japanese Pokmon and was a combination of the words bulb and dinosaur. Carries

picture is drawn using only pencil and the two-dimensional image is about the size of a hockey

puck (for scale.)

There was a lot of interesting dialogue going on during her drawing time that I took note

of. After I asked what type of creature she was drawing she explained to me, This Bulbasaur is

too big, but thats okay. I also noticed her table partner watching her draw and admiring her

work. He said to her, That is a really good Bulbasaur, Carrie. She responded with, I have been

told that before, but I dont think so. After watching her draw for a few minutes Carrie started to

shade areas and really get into the details of her drawing. I decided to figure out where and how

she learned to draw this creature. After inquiring Carrie responded, I have a guide of all of the

Pokmon. It is sort of an anime guide that tells you the profile of the Pokmon. So I used that to

learn how to draw it.

After observing Carrie and asking her questions as she was drawing her Bulbasaur I

gathered some insights not only on Carries drawing capabilities and her artistic development,

but her personality as well. Carrie seems to be a light-hearted, creative, and down-to-earth young

girl. The way she drew reminded me of an article by Eisner. The author states, Education can

learn from the arts that slowing down perception is the most promising way to see what is

actually there (Eisner, 2009). Carrie took her time drawing and creating her creature, really

stopping at each curve to observe and think about her next move. Her persona gave me the

impression she took her time and truly cares about every single art piece she creates. This gives
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me the inclination that she takes her time in other subject areas as well, wanting to fully

understand what she is learning.

However, my observations of our conversation and Carries conversation with her

classmates, has led me to believe that Carrie is not quite confident with her talent and has a

difficult time recognizing her skill and capability as an artist. As a teacher, this type of insight

could help me better instruct Carrie in all subject areas. Once I knew that Carrie needed help

with confidence I would make sure to encourage her with her projects and tasks. This insight also

reminded me of the first time I was introduced to Carrie when we all sat in a circle and

introduced ourselves. Everyone in the group was to say their name and their favorite subject in

school. Carrie stated, My subject is math but I am a little bit slower at figuring out my

problems. As her teacher I would make sure to take note of this and offer Carrie more

encouragement with her assignments and daily tasks. This would help to build Carries

confidence and help her succeed as a student as well as an artist.

Through conversation and deeper analysis I have come to believe that Carrie is in The

Gang Age of artistic development. I also think she has a couple of characteristics from the

following artistic stage, Adolescent Art. Although only being ten years old, Carrie shows most

of her drawing characteristics following under The Gang Age but her ability to shade and

shadow also put her under the Adolescent Art stage. Visually minded students may get

pleasure from visual details, light and shade (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 479). This proves

that Carrie falls under more than one stage of artistic development. Some of the characteristics

that lead me to believe that Carrie falls mainly under The Gang Age is her awareness of detail,

and that events are characterized rather than drawn naturalistically. From just looking at the

examples of The Gang Age drawings I can tell her picture would mostly fit under this
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category. I decided this because her drawing was two-dimensional and was randomly placed on

the page, like some of the other Gang Age drawings. One of the most interesting things I noted

from Carrie and my interactions was that she was very aware of the things she was doing wrong.

This relates to the characteristic Self conscious of own drawings in The Gang Age stage.

(Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 477). Carrie believed that she was not as good as the others in

her class portrayed her to be. Something else that I noticed was that Carrie drew Bulbasaur in the

center-right side of the paper and did not add a background or scenery behind her creature. This

leads me to believe she is dipping into The Schematic Stage as well. I believe this because of

the space representation characteristic that states students use Two dimensional organization of

objects (Brittain & Lowenfeld, 1970, p. 476). The Bulbasaur stands alone on the page and has

no other overlapping or three-dimensional shape in the background. (Brittain & Lowenfeld,

1970, p. 474-479). Through these descriptions I was able to place Carrie largely in The Gang

Stage with a few characteristics coming from the Adolescent Art stage as well as the

Schematic Stage.

Conclusion

I believe that Carrie will be able to progress through the The Gang stage and move

forward, fully, into more complex stages as she grows older. My hope is that she becomes more

confident with her work and learns to accept herself and her talents.

I have found through this study how important it is for teachers to be aware of their

students artistic development, as it can be a window into their life. This type of information can

be beneficial for the student and the teacher. It gives the teacher more knowledge of how to

better instruct the child in all content areas and then the child will receive the better instruction

and relationship with their teacher. My belief is that the arts have a huge impact on the way we
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teach and the way our students learn. I will end with this quote that I believe to be even more

relevant after my observations. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no

other source (Eisner, 2002).

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References

Brittain, W. L., Lowenfeld, V. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York: MacMillan.

Eisner, E. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Eisner, E. (2009). What education can learn from the arts. Art Education.

Pink, D. H. (2012). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York:

Riverhead Books.