Children's Drawings as a Source of Data to Examine Attitudes towards Mathematics: Methodological Affordances and Issues

Ascertaining young children's attitudes towards mathematics has its challenges. Methodologically, limitations exist regarding the type of research techniques that can be employed. The use of children's drawings as a data source has both methodological affordances and issues. The study was conducted with 106 children in Years 2 and 3 from three South Australian primary schools. This paper identifies some of the methodological affordances and issues of using children's drawings to ascertain and describe their attitudes towards mathematics. [This paper is the third in a symposium of three papers. For the first paper, "Drawings Reveal Young Students' Multiplicative Visualisation," see ED616196. For the second paper, "Investigating Students' Drawings as a Representational Mode of Mathematical Fluency," see ED616197.]