Drawing, Visualisation and Young Children’s Exploration of “Big Ideas”

It is in the visualisation of ideas, and the expression or representation of our ideas, that we can bring something more clearly into consciousness. A drawing might be seen as an externalisation of a concept or idea. Drawing has the potential to play a mediating role in the visualisation of ideas and concepts in relation to young children exploring scientific concepts. This paper explores how drawing and visualisation bridges the gap between perception‐bound thinking and more abstract, symbolical thinking. It demonstrates how drawing, and the related visualisation that results from drawing, helped children to construct meaning for themselves as well as share their ideas with others and across contexts. A socio‐cultural framework is used to examine the dialogic engagement with drawing in relation to young children’s exploration of scientific ideas. Drawing and visualisation can assist young children in their shift from everyday, or spontaneous concepts, to more scientific concepts. Drawing also assists young children’s interactions and competencies with spatial visualisations, interpretations, orientations and relations. When young children are able to create visual representations of their ideas they are then more able to work at a metacognitive level. When children are encouraged to revisit, revise and dialogue through and with their drawing they are able to represent and explore increasingly complex ideas.