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September 4, 2023

How Drawing Unlocks Creativity and Problem-Solving

Drawing is a universal form of expression that transcends language barriers and taps into the innate human desire to communicate visually. Beyond its artistic allure, drawing possesses a remarkable ability to enhance problem-solving skills and unleash creativity. The act of problem solving drawing by putting pencil to paper isn’t just reserved for artists; it’s a cognitive tool that can spark innovation and lead to novel solutions.

In this article, we will explore how drawing contributes to problem-solving and the ways in which it can be harnessed as a powerful thinking tool.

When faced with complex problems, the act of problem solving drawing forces you to externalize your thoughts and visually map out connections, making abstract concepts more tangible. This visual representation often reveals patterns, relationships, and gaps that might not be as evident through traditional verbal or text-based approaches.

Problem solving drawing enables you to approach challenges from a fresh perspective, breaking down barriers that hinder innovative thinking. ‘

You might also like: 151 Drawing Ideas with Examples for Inspiration

A problem-solving chart is a visual framework that organizes information and ideas related to a specific problem or challenge. It can take various forms, such as flowcharts, mind maps , or concept diagrams.

These charts serve as dynamic tools to capture and analyze the various elements of a problem, providing a clear overview and aiding in identifying potential solutions.

The process of creating a problem-solving chart encourages structured thinking and encourages you to explore different angles of a problem.

Basics of drawing and sketching for beginners

Drawing for Beginners

The Art of Public Speaking

When faced with complex problems, the act of problem solving drawing forces you to externalize your thoughts

Using problem solving drawing to create a diagram involves several steps:

Define the Problem: Clearly articulate the problem you’re trying to solve. This will serve as the central focus of your diagram. Gather Information: Collect relevant data, ideas, and concepts related to the problem. Jot down keywords, phrases, and concepts that come to mind.
Choose a Format: Depending on the complexity of the problem, choose a suitable format for your diagram. Mind maps are great for brainstorming, while flowcharts can illustrate processes and decision trees.
Organize the Information: Begin placing the collected information in the diagram. Connect related ideas with lines or arrows, indicating relationships and dependencies.
Analyze and Iterate: Step back and assess the diagram. Does it highlight potential solutions? Are there gaps or missing connections? Make adjustments as needed.
Identify Solutions: Use the insights gained from the diagram to identify possible solutions. The visual representation can help you see connections that lead to innovative ideas.

Problem solving drawing offers a myriad of additional benefits. It enhances focus and concentration, allowing you to immerse yourself in the creative process.

Drawing also serves as a stress-relieving activity, providing a means to unwind and detach from the demands of everyday life.

Moreover, it boosts visual thinking skills, enabling you to grasp complex concepts and information more readily.

Absolutely not.

The beauty of drawing as a problem-solving tool is that it transcends artistic skill.

You don’t need to create intricate masterpieces; your goal is to externalize your thoughts and ideas visually. Simple sketches, doodles, or diagrams can effectively convey your thinking process.

The act of drawing is more about engaging with the problem and unleashing creativity than producing gallery-worthy art.

You might also like: 21 Best Drawing Courses

If you’re new to drawing but eager to enhance your creativity, there are several exercises that can help kickstart your artistic journey.

Begin with basic shape doodling.

Set aside time to doodle various shapes, lines, and patterns. This exercise not only gets your hand accustomed to the motion of drawing but also encourages your brain to think visually.

Another exercise is blind contour drawing.

Choose an object and draw it without looking at the paper. This exercise improves hand-eye coordination and forces you to observe details.

Additionally, try drawing from memory.

After studying an object or scene, put it out of sight and attempt to draw it from memory. This exercise sharpens your observation skills and encourages you to focus on essential details.

Lastly, experiment with negative space drawing .

Instead of drawing the object itself, draw the spaces around and within it. This exercise challenges your perception and helps you see objects in a new light.

By engaging in these drawing exercises regularly, you’ll not only improve your artistic skills but also ignite your creativity in various aspects of problem-solving and thinking.

Drawing isn’t solely reserved for those with an affinity for art; it’s a potent tool that can unlock creativity and enhance problem-solving skills. Problem solving drawing enables you to approach challenges from a fresh perspective, providing a visual representation of intricate ideas and connections.

As you craft problem-solving charts, you organize information, identify patterns, and explore innovative solutions. Beyond its cognitive benefits, drawing offers stress relief, improved concentration, and heightened visual thinking skills.

Embrace drawing as a thinking tool, regardless of your artistic prowess, and harness its potential to transform the way you approach problems and ignite your creative spark.

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Can art make us better problem solvers?

In the search for novel ways to hone our problem-solving skills , spending time with a work of art may be the simplest and most effective training, according to the art historian Amy Herman.

Herman has been teaching professionals —homicide detectives, medical students, lawyers, and engineers—to read paintings as a way to improve their analytical faculties. “Art provides a safe space outside of ourselves to analyze our observations and convert those observable details into actionable knowledge,” Herman writes in the introduction to her new book, Fixed. How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem-Solving .

Doing so can help us understand how and why things go wrong and, more importantly, how to fix them, she explains.

Putting the lesson into practice

In her book, Herman explains how to navigate a complex composition, step by step.

Consider Théodore Géricault’s grisly painting, The Raft of the Medusa .

Herman writes:

Take in its scope, notice its details, count things, catalog what you think might be going on. Then, take a breath and let your mind wander. What did the chaos of the preceding scene bring to mind? A natural disaster? A human-made catastrophe? The current state of your country? Maybe you were reminded of more personal scenarios: office drama, an argument at home that got out of hand, Zoom Thanksgiving.

No matter who you are or where you live, chances are you can relate to the desperation depicted above.

A crucial skill in Herman’s approach is the art of noticing—the ability to quell the impulse to pick up our mobile devices and to pause long enough to ruminate on the details of a visual spectacle before us. This is particularly salient in the age of short attention spans , where the average museum-goer spends less than 30 seconds looking at a work of art .

Looking at art also attunes us to nuance and ambiguity, explains Herman. It’s a skill that’s critical for hostage negotiators to managers trying to read the room.

“The optimal way to look at art, whether alone or with others, is to look at the object first, speak after looking, and only then, read the label,” Herman tells Quartz. “My hope is that by learning to look at art in a structured way inspires and refreshes critical inquiry and that same model will be applied to when confronting problems in need of solutions.”

Herman, who once led the education department at the Frick Collection in New York City, insists that there’s no shame in “using art to study ourselves and the problems we face every single day.” “Art can be many different things to many different viewers,” she argues. “If the power of a work of art can be channeled to enable a viewer who does not have a background in art or art history to approach their vocation in a different and more expansive way, why not unleash that?”

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How to solve your problems through drawing (w/ Liana Finck) (Transcript)

Listen along.

How to Be a Better Human How to solve your problems through drawing (w/ Liana Finck) October 9, 2023

[00:00:00] Chris Duffy: You're listening to How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy. When I think about the artists, comedians, writers, when I think about the people that I admire the most, they run the gamut when it comes to the topics that they cover and their styles and the formats that they work in, but the thing that ties everyone who I admire together, the thing that they all share is that they found a way to be distinctly and uniquely themselves. That is the trait that I admire the most.

And, and that is why I am so excited about today's episode of our podcast, because our guest, the cartoonist Liana Finck, makes work that could only be made by her. You can see her cartoons in places like The New Yorker, but her style is so distinct from what a classic New Yorker cartoon is. You would never mistake her work for something by anyone else. Because Liana's drawings, they're much simpler, but they're also more impressionistic, and they convey so much emotion.

And they're also very, very, very, very funny. Liana is hilarious and her humor comes from this deeply honest confessional place. It's some of the best proof I've ever seen that the more specific and the more true to yourself you go, the more universally your jokes will connect. Whether it is Liana overthinking what to say at a party or analyzing the pressures of adulthood or motherhood, she is always so funny, and she is always 100 percent herself. If you can't already tell, I am a huge fan and I'm so excited to talk to her. Here's a clip from Liana's TED Talk.

[00:01:26] Liana Finck: When I first started making cartoons for The New Yorker about a decade ago, I kept my ideas light and quirky. I didn't draw anything too personal. I figured I was too specific, too hard to relate to, and read possibly too female.

It took a breakup to get me to start drawing more autobiographically. The pain I was feeling, although objectively pretty run of the mill, was impossible to ignore. I knew that drawing was my strongest problem solving tool, so I decided to diagram what I was going through.

By making these drawings, I could see how my ex and I had hurt each other and move on. Drawing from my own life was a revelation to me, not only because it helped me understand myself better, but because it made me see for the first time that people could relate to me. Now that I had this amazing tool, there were so many problems I wanted to solve with it.

[00:02:39] Chris Duffy: We're going to be right back with much more from Liana after these quick ads. Don't go anywhere.

[00:02:47] Chris Duffy: Today we're talking about humor, creativity, and cartoons with Liana Finck.

[00:02:53] Liana Finck: Hi, I'm Liana Finck. I'm a cartoonist, which in my case means that I make New Yorker cartoons and graphic novels and a lot of random freelance stuff.

[00:03:03] Chris Duffy: One of the things that is kind of the driving idea behind the interview, which is also a big part of your TED talk, is how drawing and how art more generally can help you to figure out who you actually are and be more yourself. So could you talk to us a little bit about that journey of how your cartoons let you be more yourself or figure out who that self really is?

[00:03:28] Liana Finck: I think for me, drawing coincided with wanting to figure out who I was. I'm not sure that they need to go together for everyone. I think some people draw, and some people are on a desperate quest to figure out why they are the way they are, and some people are both. And some people are neither and there's room to be creative in all, in each of those quadrants.

[00:03:56] Chris Duffy: Where do you put yourself in those quadrants between, uh, just drawing and just really trying to figure out who you are?

[00:04:02] Liana Finck: I'm both of those things for now. I, lately I feel like I've done enough figuring out, and I don't really need to do that more, so I'm trying to figure out… I, I really hope drawing is a throughline in my life. So I'm trying to figure out new reasons to draw.

[00:04:19] Chris Duffy: One of the challenges of being in the public eye, especially the way you are, I imagine, is that you get known for one particular thing, and people feel really connected to you. But then when you change, it’s hard to figure out if you're allowed to be a different person than your audience expects if they got to know you a long time ago.

[00:04:44] Liana Finck: Yeah, I, I feel that, and it's hard to talk about ‘cause, like, everyone has a different, like, journey with their art career. So yeah, mine is that I was known in this very flimsy way as, uh, I’m not sure this was the main thing, but I felt like the main thing was that I was an Instagram personality, and I posted a lot of drawings every day on Instagram, and they were somewhat autobiographical, and I feel like that is ending for me to some extent. I don't, I don't know if I chose for it to end without admitting it or if it ended and I was forced for it to end, but I feel like I'm being forced to choose something new like, like I can't go on the way I was going on, even if I wanted to. I'm hoping there is something new that I'm allowed to choose. I'm not sure yet.

[00:05:39] Chris Duffy: Does it feel like it was a choice in the first place? Like, did you choose cartoons and drawing as your medium?

[00:05:45] Liana Finck: I chose drawing. I drew as a little kid and I was always kind of praised for it. And I think as a sad teenager, I wanted to be a writer, but like, I used the tiny shred of canniness that I had to realize that I had a better chance at getting into art school than getting into school to write.

Um, because I had nothing to show for writing, so I, I like chose, I chose drawing, even though it was something that I had done as a younger and not sad kid. And I'm, I think I'm glad I did, although graphic novels are kind of cumbersome.

[00:06:24] Chris Duffy: Yeah, it's also interesting because the drawings in your cartoons, I think sometimes people get really hung up on the idea that everything has to be, like, photorealistic, and you have to draw, like, a hand that perfectly resembles the photo of a hand and, and—

[00:06:37] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:06:37] Chris Duffy: It’s clearly not what you're going for when you draw your cartoons.

[00:06:40] Liana Finck: No. Yeah, I'm against that ideologically, but I think also I can't do it, so it's lucky that I don't want to.

[00:06:49] Chris Duffy: That's my favorite kind of ideological stances.

[00:06:51] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:06:51] Chris Duffy: I both technically can't do this, and I am ideologically opposed to it.

[00:06:55] Liana Finck: It's a little self serving. But also, who has the time to draw like that? Why? Why would you draw like that?

[00:07:03] Chris Duffy: Like, because I think for a lot of people, like me included, I think if you draw something that doesn't look, I'm just going to put this in quotes, right, “perfect,” it feels like, well, I'm not a good artist.

[00:07:12] Liana Finck: Yeah. I really disagree. So, I don't remember actually, if I read the new Temple Grandin book about different ways of thinking, but I do know maybe from reading about the book or maybe from reading it without realizing I was reading it, that she puts visual thinking in two categories.

One category is, like, people who think in very involved photorealistic pictures, and she puts herself in that category. And then she has another visual category of people who think in symbols and kind of boil that, like they're like idea people, but they put visuals to each idea, and, like, the simpler and more direct the better.

And I resonate; that, that category resonated with me. I don't know if the categories are real, but I like that. And, um, I think that's what I use drawing for. And that's a really good thing to use drawing for if that's your bent.

[00:08:09] Chris Duffy: It also makes your work feel approachable, I think? Because there's this sense of, like, people can relate to not just the ideas that you're conveying, but the way that you're conveying it also feels approachable. I don't know if that’s, that's something you consciously think about or not.

[00:08:27] Liana Finck: I think consciously about drawing the thing you want to get across and not cluttering up your drawing with things that you're not caring much about. So, like, I care a lot about emotion, so if I'm using body language or facial expression or some kind of symbol to convey the emotion or the point that I'm trying to get across, that's all I need for my drawing.

I think, though, there’s a lot to be said for using drawing to explore a little bit. And I think you need diff—a slightly different mindset for that. You need to be able to just kind of chill and not know where you're going with something, which has never been good for me. But, um, 'cause I freak out and I overwork things. But, um, I've been reading Goodnight Moon several times a day for the past year.

[00:09:23] Chris Duffy: Uh huh.

[00:09:24] Liana Finck: There’s just more and more details that you see in that book every time you read, every time you look at it. And, and that's like a very novelistic way to draw, just where, like, there's all these details and the reader can learn more and invent more every time they see them.

So I, I think neither of these is a photorealistic thing. I just think of photorealistic drawing as, like, really different. It's more like some kind of engineering or something where you’re, like, crafting something. And it's not, it's very foreign to me. I admire it, but it's not, to me, you don't need that to get ideas across.

[00:10:06] Chris Duffy: So, if someone is listening, and they have this sense, like, “It would be fun to try to make cartoons. It would be fun to draw. It would be fun to express myself in that way.” What are three things that they should keep in mind as they get started? What would you tell someone who's just getting started, even if they were like a kid?

[00:10:28] Liana Finck: Okay. I think there are a lot of different ways to do this, but the ways that I do are one, when I have something that I want to get across, and two, when I just want to make a cartoon and I don't have anything in mind. So for the first way, when there's something that's just eating you up and you need to solve it. And, and you want to maybe solve it by drawing. It could be a drawing, or it could be words. If there's a problem you're trying to solve in your life, to tell yourself, “I'm going to solve this by summing it up and understanding it and how can I diagram it for myself.” And, I used to draw them the minute I had those ideas, but lately, I put them in words just because it's more convenient for me, so I email myself an idea when there's something I'm trying to figure out, and I'm like, “Why is this stressing me out?”And then I'll think about why, and I'll, I'll write it down in a line, and maybe I'll turn it into a drawing later.

The other way that I make cartoons is when you want to be a cartoonist, so you have to make cartoons. Um, I like to be somewhere where I don't, where I feel like I can just sit still and doodle.

And in my case, I love to sit in a cafe or on a train or somewhere where people are just allowed to sit and kind of observe the scenery without getting out of people's way all the time. And then I'll just doodle. And, like, maybe after an hour or two of doodling, something will happen and the ideas will start to make sense.

Um, and then those ideas that make sense, they, it takes a lot more, like, pushing and pulling before it's actually a good cartoon. But I like to do the ideas all, all in one day and do the pushing and pulling another day.

[00:12:18] Chris Duffy: I love that. I’ve had I think about the idea first and then try and sum up the this thing that is troubling you in your life or that you're struggling with trying to sum that up in its simplest form. It, by the, by the drawing, those feel like there's so much more doable than when someone is like, “Start by drawing three orbs and then connect the orbs with an oval. And eventually you'll have a horse.”

How would you describe your visual style? Do you have like a, a words that you use to describe it?

[00:12:48] Liana Finck: I have a few different styles, but lately they all, they're all really the same style. It's just a question of whether I magnify it before presenting it or not. My more complicated and illustration-y drawings are not magnified, so they're drawn at the same scale that someone would see them. And my New Yorker drawings and my graphic novel drawings are usually like that.

But my Instagram drawings, the, um, really essential, really, really simple drawings, I draw them like let's say one to two inches tall, and then I magnify them either by photographing them up close with my phone or by scanning them in and blowing them up so it looks like they're drawn much more confidently than they are. It looks like they're drawn with, like, a big, a thick line, but they're actually drawn with this, like, thin pen, or like a Muji gel pen.

[00:13:46] Chris Duffy: Nice.

[00:13:46] Liana Finck: But everyone is different. I don't feel like pen recommendations really transfer from person to person.

[00:13:53] Chris Duffy: Yeah, it also feels like, um, I feel like it's kind of counter to the whole thing that we've been talking about, which is the idea that, like, if you get the perfect tool, then you'll be the perfect artist.

[00:14:02] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:14:02] Chris Duffy: As opposed to just, what do you like and what is the thing you're trying to express?

[00:14:06] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:14:06] Chris Duffy: And that is, the closer you can get to that is the closer you get to perfect.

[00:14:09] Liana Finck: Yeah, I think so. I think if there's something that makes you feel like you're speaking in your normal voice in a way that people can understand you, but with drawing, then that's a good tool for you.

[00:14:27] Chris Duffy: Okay. Well, we're going to take a quick break for me to speak in my not normal voice. Instead, I'm going to switch over to my ad voice and we will be right back with more from Liana after that.

[00:14:43] Chris Duffy: And we are back. I want to go back to something you said earlier, which is that if there's something that you want to explore through drawing, you send yourself an email. I'm always really interested in how people, especially people who are doing work that is comedy or, or funny, which many of your cartoons are, although some of your work is really serious too.

But as a comedian myself too, one of the things that I, I tell people when they ask, like, “Oh, I want to do this. How do you do it?” is that the biggest thing is actually, like, keeping track of the things that make you laugh or that you think are funny. ‘Cause—

[00:15:16] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:15:16] Chris Duffy: You think that they'll stick with you, and they just disappear. Like, I have a, a notes app on my phone that I just, like, have a running doc and I always start a new one, and it gets too long because just in the course of a day, there'll be, you know, 30 things that I, are the seed of something. And when I look back, most of them are worthless and don't even make sense, but a few of them are. So is that how you keep track of your own ideas or the little seeds? You send an email to yourself?

[00:15:40] Liana Finck: Yeah, I send an email to myself. I, I’m experimenting with having a separate email address just for ideas so that I don't like have to see—

[00:15:48] Chris Duffy: Oh.

[00:15:50] Liana Finck: And what emails I have to write back to.

[00:15:50] Chris Duffy: I love that. I’m, I'm so tempted to ask what that email address is, but that would be a horrible thing to do 'cause then people start emailing you ideas to that email address.

[00:15:57] Liana Finck: That's so funny. Yeah, I've never, I've actually never told anyone that I ha—even have this email address,

[00:16:04] Chris Duffy: But I think that the important part is that it's like something that is, like, clean and separate, where it's like you go in and it's just ideas. It feels like it is a way of keeping it almost like sacred, like that sacred space for just the ideas and the possibilities.

[00:16:18] Liana Finck: Do you have seasons when you have a lot of ideas and then seasons when maybe you're too busy and you don't?

[00:16:23] Chris Duffy: Absolutely.

[00:16:23] Liana Finck: And like, how on earth do you save your ideas for that, the time when you need ideas?

[00:16:32] Chris Duffy: Oh yeah, well I actually feel like right now I am in one of those seasons where I have fewer ideas and I'm just trying to execute, and so these days when I'm like I have, should find something funny to put up online, I’m, like, scrolling back so far and it—

[00:16:46] Leana Finck: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:46] Chris Duffy: It’s not a good feeling to me.

[00:16:48] Liana Finck: No, it’s not.

[00:16:48] Chris Duffy: I’m like, "Oh my god, I'm not… I’m not creative at all. I have to go years back before I find something good that I haven't put out yet. And the reason I didn't put it out then is because it wasn't good enough. And, but now I think it is.”

[00:16:58] Liana Finck: It's really confusing for me. I wish I had, like, I could find a math person to, like, really diagram it.

[00:17:06] Chris Duffy: Yeah. What type of season do you think you're in right now?

[00:17:09] Liana Finck: Eugh. I, I just took, like, you caught me at the end of I think the longest period I've ever taken without doing any work because I just, I have a residency in Berlin and I have a little kid, and I'm alone here with him. And so I just spent one week being a tourist with my husband and kid, and then one week getting my kid acclimated to his daycare here, which is this whole process in Berlin that usually takes eight weeks. But they fast-tracked me, and then one week of, like, a lot of formal meetings at the residency. They’re really nice. But also it's been too, too many reasons to not work.

[00:17:52] Chris Duffy: Yeah.

[00:17:52] Liana Finck: So, I can’t, and I have all these different streams of work that I'm supposed to be doing. Like, technically I'm here to be working on a book that isn't serious, but I'm pretending it's serious. It's supposed to be like a funny, a funny, light book, but also I make cartoons every week. So I really want to have ideas for my cartoons every week. And those aren't coming. I wish they would come. So I'm not, I'm in a no phase right now. There's nothing happening.

[00:18:22] Chris Duffy: How do you think of the balance between, like, finding that perfect inspiration and using it for something versus making the inspiration come ‘cause it's that day of the week where the inspiration has to come?

[00:18:36] Liana Finck: I'm very much in the camp of making it come, but I have really, really mixed feelings about making people read it.

[00:18:44] Chris Duffy: Uh-huh.

[00:18:44] Liana Finch: I think I'm like, I'm pretty weak, and I don't think I would make anything unless I knew I had an audience. So, I end up, like, roping ra—nice people into looking at my stuff when it's not good.

And I feel so bad about that, and it kind of spirals into badness. And I also, like, feel that I, I owe The New Yorker a weekly batch of cartoons. And, so I feel less guilty about sending in bad cartoons every week because I know they're asked, they, they like that I send things in every week, and if they're bad, at least I made them.

But then, if they don't buy a cartoon because they were bad, that makes me spiral also because I'm like, “I'm worthless. I was supposed to send them good cartoons and they were bad and everyone knows.” And yeah, a lot of mixture of guilt and shame.

[00:19:39] Chris Duffy: And I think it feels like sometimes when you get to the end of the line and you don't have the cool, impressive idea and you just have to be honest about where you are, those are the most authentic ones.

Um, you wrote one a few weeks ago that literally is just called “If I'm Being Honest” and it's like, “I've been feeling really blank lately,” and then you have, you don't even have the word. You’re like, “I can't quite figure it out. Is it empty? Is it closed? Is it dense, internal, not verbal?”

[00:20:06] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:20:06] Chris Duffy: And you talk about how when you feel like that, it's really hard to come up with anything to draw. And so this is, it's kind of a meta thing where you're sending out a drawing that is of how hard it is to—I couldn't relate to this more. This is so funny, but also so clearly you being honest about, like, sitting in front of the computer and going like, “What am I going to put out? How do you get yourself over that hump of like, “I'm going to put out a cartoon that's about not knowing what to write in a cartoon”?

[00:20:34] Liana Finck: For me, the hump with that kind of cartoon is not, like, admitting failure, but it is this fear of repeating myself. I'm pretty, n—I've been, that, the one you described was on my Substack newsletter. So it's like a three-page car comic, let's say, as opposed to a single panel cartoon. And I find, I think one can really repeat oneself with single panel cartoons, but it takes a while. Like, I feel like I'm just starting to, like, hit that wall after making cartoons for over 10 years, but with the longer comics, you get to kind of explore a feeling you have. And I don't know about you, but I think I have about 10 feelings ever.

[00:21:22] Chris Duffy: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:22] Liana Finck: So I'm like, I think, like, I'm sure I've made that cartoon, that comic several times already because it's a strong feeling; it makes for a good comic. But like, that, like that kind of, kind of essential feeling comic gets really repetitive if you're making a new comic every week And I've been making these for, like, a year, I think, and I'm already really repeating myself. So that's really interesting, and that's an argument for making like an even longer comic because then you can kind of sink into one idea instead of pretending that you have a new idea each week.

[00:21:58] Chris Duffy: It's interesting because even that sense of repeating yourself is also a really relatable idea. I… Even someone who's not an artist in any way.

[00:22:05] Liana Finck: I think in therapy, like, when you, or with a diary or something, it's really freeing to realize that the problem you have is the same problem you've always had. And then, like, recognizing that can help you just sidestep it. But if the problem is your art, like, what are you going to do? Like, sidestep, what does sidestepping it mean?

[00:22:24] Chris Duffy: But then also, yeah, if you put the pressure on the art of to always have a revelation, right?

[00:22:32] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:22:32] Chris Duffy: Like sometimes it's not necessarily going to be revelatory, it's just going to be a drawing.

[00:22:36] Liana Finck: Yeah, I do feel a little bit like I could be at the point where I just stop drawing because I've solved the problems that I wanted to solve through drawing.

[00:22:43] Chris Duffy: And what, what was the problem that you were originally trying to solve?

[00:22:46] Liana Finck: One was social anxiety, just like figuring out the, I don't know, the hundred forms of social anxiety that torment me. And then one other thing had to do with, like, gender stuff that I think I've had, like, a thread of, like, ra—like, feminist rage in me that has… I, I’d like to make a longer project exploring this, but I think, um, I think it has a few aspects.

One is, um, like being, it, like feeling expected to live for others and then one is eating issues. Like I had, I was kind of ruled by eating stuff for a decade there, and I think I'm still dealing with it. So, I talk about it like it's universal. I think it's pretty personal. One was dating. Like, how are you supposed to have a partnership with another person that you love?

Like, if the history of such partnerships are really, really unequal, like, if you're in a heterosexual relationship, it wasn't working smoothly for me, and I was trying to figure it out. And I'm not saying I figured any of these things out, but, like, I think I outlined the problems for myself to the point where I don't need to keep outlining them.

I think, like, comedy and honesty probably come from the same source. But like, okay, I think here's a really wonky theory that, um, comedy is a, maybe all comedians actually know this, and it's boring, but that comedy is a one-two punch, and honesty is a one punch.

I always think of, like, a New Yorker cartoon with a picture that's a setup, and then the caption that's usually the punchline as a one two punch, but then when you just make a single, simple drawing, it's just honesty, it's not funny, because it's all, it’s all there, and there's no saying one thing and then shifting it.

[00:24:54] Chris Duffy: We talked about, like, how sometimes, um, sometimes drawings will come to you from like an idea or an emotion that you're trying to express or, or something that you're processing. You put a cartoon out that has, it's basically a, a chart or, no, a graph and on the—I’m really pushing my math understanding to the test—but on the Y axis is rage.

[00:25:18] Liana Finck: Oh. Mm-hm.

[00:25:18] Chris Duffy: And on the x axis is age, and you have it going down. Rage is decreasing with age.

[00:25:24] Liana Finck: Yeah. So I've been told that I do all my axes backwards, so... Perhaps it's, it should be age on the Y and rage on the X, but I can't fathom why.

[00:25:33] Chris Duffy: You are certainly asking the wrong person for that one, but it seems right to me. I think time is supposed to go on the, on the X. Yeah, that seems right to me.

[00:25:42] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:25:42] Chris Duffy: Do you feel like your rage has been decreasing just as a natural product of getting older or also as, like, moving and all of those other things?

[00:25:49] Liana Finck: I know it's really different for everyone, but I think I had some things that I wasn't dealing with that were bad, and then I had a crisis and started dealing with them.

So I had this like, like glowing pinnacle of clarity and rage for a while, and that's where my Instagram drawings came from. And I think I've worked through that thing and it's, I think I'm seeing a bit more broadly, but a bit less, like, arrow-sharp. So for me, rage has decreased with age. Maybe it'll be back. Like, there's lots and lots to be enraged about.

[00:26:26] Chris Duffy: Yeah, it makes sense too, right? I think sometimes the more that you know about life and situations, the more rage there is to have, but—

[00:26:33] Liana Finck: I think sadness has increased. So it's not like I'm like just very Pollyanna. But yeah, I think I feel more helpless about the things that I'm angry about right now.

[00:26:44] Chris Duffy: Yeah. Well, we crossed paths at the TED conference, and at the, the in-person TED conference, which I don't know about for you, but for me is always like, uh, I've only been twice, but it was extremely, it's extremely, like, intimidating and overwhelming.

[00:27:02] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:27:02] Chris Duffy: Because I checked into my hotel and genuinely, this was the line checking into the hotel. The person in front of me is an astronaut and the person behind me is—

[00:27:10] Liana Finck: Where they rang the thing?

[00:27:12] Chris Duffy: No, he was not wearing his bubble suit, but I, someone said like, “Oh, that's an astronaut.” No like some, like they were like pointing it out. And then the person behind me was Esther Perel, the famous therapist.

[00:27:23] Liana Finck: Yeah. I love her.

[00:27:23] Chris Duffy: And then I'm in the middle and I, you know, it's like impossible to be in that situation and not be like, “Why am I here?” And the thing that I'm, I guess I'm asking is like, you sometimes end up in situations where it's like everyone else kind of is, feels big, and some of the power of your work is like admitting that you feel small and not confident.

[00:27:52] Liana Finck: Yeah, totally.

[00:27:52] Chris Duffy: And I wonder how you navigate the like, the disconnect between, like, being in a place where it's like everyone is impressive and confident and then you're like, but that's kind of not my thing.

[00:28:03] Liana Finck: There's not much of a precedence for it for be, for, like, maintaining a career on speaking a lot, like saying a lot of things in kind of a small, normal voice. I want to outline the problems and the benefits. I think together, I'm going to add something to the benefits category. And that is that I don't have too much, like, imposter syndrome because I've, I take pride in being an imposter.

[00:28:32] Chris Duffy: Mm. Tell me more about that. How do you take pride in that?

[00:28:33] Liana Finck: Like when people tell me I draw badly, I’m like, “What kind of a bougie are you who wants to, like, who cares about drawing?That's so weird.” Like, like, it, it, it wouldn’t even cross my mind to try to draw better. And like, be—I think because of that, I believe that I could draw really, really well if I wanted to, which isn't true.

[00:28:56] Chris Duffy: Uh-huh.

[00:28:56] Liana Finck: Yeah. I think you could be burdened by too much, by too much skill in something. Although I really wish, like… I don't have an MFA in writing, I have no idea how to structure a longer piece, and I do wish I had a little more knowledge without all of it, but I don't know how to ask for it.

[00:29:16] Chris Duffy: You have a cartoon that, that's kind of got me thinking about that, that, um, idea of like being in spaces where people are really impressive, which is it's, uh, it's two people talking and one says to the other, “Why aren't you bragging? Are you some kind of loser?” That's really relatable to me, and I bet you it's relatable to a lot of other people is the idea that, like, if you're not bragging about yourself, that you might as well, like, it means that there's nothing to brag about.

[00:29:44] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:29:44] Chris Duffy: Or that like the only way to be out in the world is to be like loud and impressive and big. How do you find, how do you balance those? Or, how do you find the spaces where you don't have to feel like you're a loser for not bragging? Or what do you do when you feel like you have to brag?

[00:29:56] Liana Finck: I'm really bad at bragging. I was really bad at dating. That was part of why I was bad at dating is that I think on a first date, people just inher—or even on their, like, dating profile, people inherently want to show their best side. And I inherently want to show my worst side.

[00:30:13] Chris Duffy: Uh-huh.

[00:30:13] Liana Finck: Because I think it’s, like, more connect-y, but it does not work. And I did feel that at the TED conference, I don't present myself well. And, like, yeah, my husband's a good photographer, and he is good at being photographed, and I find, like, when I compare myself to him, I find that I'm absolutely the opposite.

And I almost hope to look terrible and to photograph things so that they look terrible. And it's some kind of defense mechanism. And don't look at me. I look terrible. So don't even judge me. Like, don't even compare me to other people.

[00:30:49] Chris Duffy: Mm. I think there's the defense mechanism part that makes total sense to me. We've talked a lot about your cartoons that have been about, like, social situations or emotions, but you also have done a lot of work that is about faith. And your most recent book, Let There Be Light, centers around, uh, a God that's a woman, but also an artist with self doubt. And you talked a lot about that. I love that.

Um, and I just, I guess I'd wonder how the idea of believing in something bigger than yourself and struggling with that belief, how does that tie into your work and into things that make you laugh?

[00:31:28] Liana Finck: Ooh, that's a really good question. I've never believed in God. I'm of the Jewish sector that I don't, I don't even know how to pinpoint it. I think it's like a specific part of Eastern Europe that we come from, or at least that like some of our Jewish souls come from, um, where it's not an issue. And like, we don't talk about that. It's like in bad taste to like even consider God, but, um, we believe in custom, and we talk about God, but we don’t think about whether we believe in them or not, but, um, it was important to me to not believe in a female god rather than a male god.

[00:32:09] Chris Duffy: My mom is Jewish, so I have a, an Eastern European Jewish background as well. And, um, my wife was like, got really interested in Judaism. And so she took like a Judaism 101 class, which I've never seen my mom and aunt happier in their lives. Two Jewish women being like, “Oh, she's going to learn about Judaism.”

[00:32:24] Liana Finck: Yeah.

[00:32:24] Chris Duffy: And something that the rabbi said in the Zoom class that I just, like, happened to walk by as he goes, “In Judaism, we believe there is at most one God.” And I was like, I love that that's what the rabbi said.

[00:32:35] Liana Finck: That is so funny.

[00:32:35] Chris Duffy: He’s like, “Look, there's definitely not two. There might not be one, but there's certainly no more than one.”

[00:32:42] Liana Finck: That's amazing.

[00:32:44] Chris Duffy: Yeah.

[00:32:44] Liana Finck: I want to take that class.

[00:32:46] Chris Duffy: I love the idea of it being important to you to not believe in a female god. That's fantastic. That's a, that’s a perfect sentence.

[00:32:51] Liana Finck: I think there have been moments in my life where I believe in, like, art and eternity and things, and I think I'm not in one of those moments, for better or for worse. I think when one is, like, sad, one is more likely to believe in something m-more mystical. But, yeah, it does affect your art when you're believing in something.

[00:33:15] Chris Duffy: Well, Liana, it's been such a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for making the time to be on the show. I really appreciate it.

[00:33:19] Liana Finck: Thank you so much. This has been an honor and a huge joy.

[00:33:26] Chris Duffy: That is it for today's episode of How to Be a Better Human. Thank you so much to today's guest, Liana Finck. I am your host, Chris Duffy, and you can find more from me, including my weekly newsletter and upcoming live shows, at chrisduffycomedy.com.

How to Be a Better Human is brought to you on the TED side by Daniella Balarezo, Cloe Shasha Brooks, and Joseph DeBrine, who are, all kidding aside, genuinely each creative and unique artists in their own right. This episode was fact checked by Julia Dickerson and Matheus Salles, who frequently reject my excuses that I am not going for, quote, “hyper-realistic audio facts”, but instead trying to make impressionistic line drawings for the ears. They do not accept that, and neither should they.

On the PRX side, our show is put together by a team that is almost mystical in their God-like powers to create podcasts. Morgan Flannery, Noor Gill, Patrick grants, and Jocelyn Gonzales.

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And if you're listening on the Spotify app, answer the discussion question that we've put up there on mobile. I love to see your answers. We are always so excited to see what you have to say. So please put up your thoughts there. We will be back next week with even more How to Be a Better Human.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

When can making a drawing hinder problem solving effect of the drawing strategy on linear overgeneralizations and problem solving.

$\r\nJanina Krawitz*$

Department of Mathematics, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

The strategy of making a drawing has been claimed to facilitate mathematical problem solving. However, De Bock et al. (2003) surprisingly found that drawing negatively affected performance in solving non-linear geometry problems, in which the area or volume of similar figures or solids had to be determined by a given scaling factor. The authors suggested that making a drawing increased the number of overgeneralizations and negatively affected students’ performance. Our study involves a partial replication and also an important validation and extension of this study by addressing two factors: low-quality drawing strategy and poor visual monitoring, both of which might explain the negative effect of drawing. First, we expected that improving the quality of the drawing strategy by prompting students to highlight important information in their drawings would diminish the negative effect of the drawing strategy. Second, we expected that fostering visual monitoring while drawing, by offering problems with small scaling factors, would diminish the negative effect of the drawing strategy. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 180 students (ninth- to eleventh-graders) to investigate the effects of drawing and visual monitoring on solving non-linear geometry problems. Our results replicated the previous finding that drawing negatively affects performance. We confirmed that linear overgeneralizations are a prevalent reason for this finding. Elaborating on previous findings revealed that the quality of the drawing strategy but not visual monitoring was responsible for the effect of the drawing strategy on linear overgeneralizations. Furthermore, an exploratory analysis of students’ awareness of linear overgeneralizations indicated that improving the quality of drawing strategy and enhancing visual monitoring did not lead to a greater awareness of the mistakes learners made because of linear overgeneralizations. We conclude that the way the drawing strategy is used determines whether it is useful or damaging, and more efforts are essential to enable students to apply it appropriately.

Introduction

Making a drawing is considered a powerful strategy in mathematical problem solving ( Pólya, 1945 ). According to the theory of external representations ( Cox, 1999 ), it can support problem solving by helping problem solvers organize the information, and it can make missing and implicit information (e.g., relations between objects) explicit. Therefore, it deepens understanding and facilitates self-explanatory activities. Empirical evidence for the benefits of drawing for problem solving has been found in various studies (e.g., Van Essen and Hamaker, 1990 ; Hembree, 1992 ; Zahner and Corter, 2010 ; Rellensmann et al., 2016 ). However, the drawing strategy does not seem to be helpful for solving some types of problems, and surprisingly, it can even be disadvantageous by decreasing students’ performance in solving non-linear geometry problems ( De Bock et al., 2003 ). It seems that drawing leads to an increase in students’ well-known tendency to engage in linear overgeneralizations, which means that learners tend to apply linear models to non-linear situations ( Van Dooren et al., 2005 ). From a broader perspective, this finding demonstrates the need to investigate the processes elicited by the drawing strategy and the key factors that determine the beneficial use of the strategy. On the basis of these considerations, the goals of the present study are twofold: (a) to replicate De Bock et al. (2003) surprising finding that drawing hinders students’ ability to solve non-linear geometry problems and (b) to find explanations for this unexpected phenomenon. On the basis of prior research, we suggest that the insufficient quality of the drawing strategy and a lack of opportunity to use the drawing strategy for monitoring purposes are crucial factors that have contributed to the negative effects of drawing. Our aim is to clarify whether these factors come into play while students solve non-linear geometry problems and, more specifically, whether it is possible to diminish the negative effect of drawing by addressing these factors.

Drawing Strategy and Linear Overgeneralizations

Self-generated drawing.

External visual representations are omnipresent in contexts of learning and education. Thus, they serve different functions. First, the ability to deal with external visual representations such as drawings can be considered a learning goal on its own because in many situations in class and everyday life, it is necessary to interpret, construct, and work with them ( National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010 ). Second, they have been claimed to enhance learning by relieving working memory, promoting self-explanation activities, and leading to a deeper understanding of the learning material ( Cox, 1999 ; Mayer, 2005 ; Van Meter and Garner, 2005 ). An important distinction has to be made between ready-made and self-generated external visual representations. For the latter, learners construct representations on their own, which means that they are actively involved in externalizing their mental representation, which includes the processes of organizing, selecting, and integrating the information given in the problem ( Van Meter and Garner, 2005 ). In the present paper, we focus on self-generated drawing. We define the drawing strategy as the process of constructing an external visual representation that corresponds to the mathematical problem structure and is aimed at solving the problem ( Van Meter and Garner, 2005 ).

Self-generated drawing influences the process of problem solving, as it guides the learner’s attention and directs or even determines his or her actions. Theories of cognition assume that when beginning to solve a problem, humans construct an internal representation of the problem situation called a mental model ( Johnson-Laird, 1980 ). While drawing, the mental model is transformed into an external visual representation (i.e., a drawing). This process is more than a simple translation because it involves a re-organization of the given information and dynamic iterations between the mental model and the externalized model in order to match both representations ( Cox, 1999 ). Re-organizing the information can make key elements of the problem and its relations visible so that the information can be more easily processed after a drawing is constructed (see section “Quality of Drawing Strategy”) ( Larkin and Simon, 1987 ). In order to successfully solve the problem, it is crucial that the structure of the problem be adequately presented in the external visual representation. Otherwise, drawing could cause perceptual and cognitive biases, which might guide the problem solver away from the goal ( Zhang, 1997 ; Cox, 1999 ).

Studies investigating the effect of drawing on problem solving performance have arrived at divergent findings. A number of empirical studies have found that drawing positively affects problem solving in mathematics ( Van Essen and Hamaker, 1990 ; Hembree, 1992 ; Zahner and Corter, 2010 ; Rellensmann et al., 2016 ). Strong support for the benefits of the drawing strategy were provided by the meta-analysis conducted by Hembree (1992) . Training students to draw was identified as the most effective treatment for improving problem solving performance compared with training them to use other strategies such as handling extraneous data, verbalizing concepts, or using guess-and-test procedures. However, several factors seem to determine whether the drawing strategy is helpful or not. For example, Van Essen and Hamaker (1990) found that drawing showed a positive effect for fifth-graders but not for first- and second-graders, indicating that the benefits of making a drawing depend on the specific difficulties learners encounter while solving problems. Another important factor seems to be the type of problem because, for some types of problems, drawing was shown to be beneficial [e.g., probability problems ( Zahner and Corter, 2010 ) or arithmetic word problems ( Van Essen and Hamaker, 1990 )], whereas for other types of problems, in particular non-linear geometry problems, no effect ( De Bock et al., 1998 ) or even a negative effect ( De Bock et al., 2003 ) was found. The most important factor that determined whether making a drawing was beneficial or not seemed to be the quality of the drawing strategy, which we address in the next section.

Quality of Drawing Strategy

The quality of the drawing strategy refers to the correctness and the explicit presentation of key information. Accordingly, the high-quality use of the drawing strategy means that the drawing as the product of the drawing process is correct and complete with regard to the important elements and their relations. Both criteria need to be met so that the rapid processing capabilities of a learner’s visual system can be used to make perceptual judgments instead of depending on difficult logical inferences ( Cox, 1999 ).

Research on self-generated drawing has shown that the benefits of drawing are strongly related to the quality with which the drawing strategy is applied ( Van Garderen and Montague, 2003 ; Uesaka et al., 2007 ; Schwamborn et al., 2010 ; Mason et al., 2013 ; Rellensmann et al., 2016 ). Learners who apply the drawing strategy in a high-quality way perform better on problem solving and learning outcome tests than learners who apply the drawing strategy in a lower quality manner. Problem solving research has shown that students often fail to use a high-quality drawing strategy because they tend to generate pictorial representations with merely a decorative function instead of depicting important elements and their relations ( Hegarty and Kozhevnikov, 1999 ; Van Garderen and Montague, 2003 ). For non-linear geometry problems, a qualitative analysis of students’ solutions indicated that the quality with which the drawing strategy was applied was usually too poor – regarding correctness and the explicit presentation of key information – to help students solve the problems ( De Bock et al., 1998 ). Hence, the request to draw is probably not enough, and it might be necessary to give students support that will render the drawing strategy more helpful for problem solving. Empirical indications for this claim have been provided in studies of text-based learning. In the study by Van Meter (2001) , applying the drawing strategy was more effective for conditions in which students’ drawing process was supported by providing illustrations or prompts to compare the illustrations with self-generated drawings. It was found that supporting students’ drawing activities had a positive effect on the performance of comprehensive free recall but not recognition items. These results indicate that improving the quality of the drawing strategy is essential for students’ performance if the assessment requires them to build connections between the information given in the problem, as is the case when students solve non-routine mathematical problems.

Visual Monitoring

Another important factor in the context of research on self-generated drawing is that the drawing strategy can enhance monitoring processes. Monitoring has been claimed to be essential for problem solving ( Flavell, 1979 ) and plays an important role in detecting incorrect intuitions and misconceptions such as linear overgeneralizations ( Van Dooren et al., 2004 ). The drawing strategy can be considered a tool that can be used for monitoring for the following reasons. When students use the drawing strategy, they construct a visual representation on the basis of an abstract symbolic representation. As visual representations are limited in abstraction, they aid processability and lead to the generation of new information ( Stenning and Oberlander, 1995 ). Hence, the drawing strategy can be used to detect inconsistencies. In particular, in problem solving, the drawing strategy can be applied with the goal of revealing mistakes and inaccuracies in the student’s mental model of the problem situation. In the following, when the drawing strategy is applied for monitoring purposes, we refer to this as visual monitoring.

Empirical evidence for the claim that drawing strategy can be used for monitoring purposes can be derived from the study by Stylianou (2011) . The problem solving activities of experts (mathematicians) and novices (middle school students) were analyzed by using qualitative methods in order to identify the purposes of the drawing strategy. Both experts and novices used the drawing strategy to monitor the progress of problem solving, including checking the correctness and making informed decisions about subsequent actions. However, in contrast to experts, middle school students engaged in visual monitoring only infrequently and – if at all – to verify their result at the end of the problem solving process. This finding indicates the importance of supporting school students in their visual monitoring activities.

Further indications come from text-based learning research. Van Meter (2001) analyzed the think-aloud protocols of fifth- and sixth-graders who read a science text under two conditions: Self-generated drawing compared with working with ready-made drawings. It was found that students who used self-generated drawing engaged in significantly more monitoring events, such as looking back and self-questioning, compared with students who worked with ready-made drawings. Further, monitoring events were higher when students received additional support during their drawing activity. Hence, supporting students’ drawing activities is crucial for determining the way in which the drawing strategy is used. In sum, drawing seems to fulfill monitoring purposes, and supporting the drawing activities increases visual monitoring. However, research has yet to determine the extent to which these results are valid for mathematical problem solving.

Linear Overgeneralizations

Misconceptions often emerge when learners generalize their prior knowledge by systematically activating it in contexts in which it is inappropriate ( Smith et al., 1993 ). A well-known example of such a misconception is the “illusion of linearity,” the tendency to apply linear models to non-linear situations, which will be referred to as linear overgeneralizations in the following. Linearity and especially proportionality can be considered the simplest but also the most important property of mathematical relationships (two quantities change with an equal amount of growth). Many facts of the real world are based on linear and proportional relationships. Also in mathematics education, linearity plays a central role and emerges during the time children are in school in the contexts of different mathematical topics ranging from arithmetic word problems, to linear functions, to advanced concepts such as the diameter and circumference of a circle. However, the intensive treatment of linearity might result in the disadvantage that some students will develop false conceptions, namely, the idea that linear models have a kind of universal validity. As a consequence, they might mistakenly transfer the principle of linearity to non-linear contexts.

Empirically, students’ strong tendency to engage in linear overgeneralizations has been supported by a large amount of research that has included different age groups ranging from primary school ( Van Dooren et al., 2005 ) to university students ( Esteley et al., 2010 ) and has referred to different mathematical domains such as arithmetic word problems ( Van Dooren et al., 2005 , 2010 ), algebraic patterns ( Stacey, 1989 ), geometry ( De Bock et al., 1998 , 2003 ; Ayan and Bostan, 2018 ), and probability ( Van Dooren et al., 2003 ). More specifically, linear overgeneralizations seemed to increase after linear problems were taught in class ( Van Dooren et al., 2005 ), supporting the assumption that students’ experiences with linear concepts in the mathematics classroom are responsible for their strong tendency to engage in linear overgeneralizations. However, even very young students (second- and third-graders) tend to give linear answers to non-linear problems, indicating that other factors also need to be taken into account. One of these factors could be individuals’ tendency to reduce information in their environment into structures that are as simple as possible, which is known as the “Law of simplicity” ( Chater and Vitányi, 2003 ). As linearity and in particular proportionality is the simplest form of relationship between two quantities, this bias may also occur independent of the effect of students’ experiences with linear problems in class.

One of the most investigated types of problems with regard to linear overgeneralizations is the non-linear geometry problem, in which students are asked about how enlarging or reducing a geometrical figure affects its area or volume. For example: “You need approximately 400 g of flower seed to lay out a circular flower bed with a diameter of 10 m. How many grams of flower seed would you need to lay out a circular flower bed with a diameter of 20 m?” ( De Bock et al., 1998 , p. 68). A series of studies demonstrated that students between the ages of 12 and 16 were usually not able to solve such problems ( De Bock et al., 1998 , 2002b , 2003 ). Overall, these studies reported particularly low solution rates for younger students (rates of 2% and 7% for correct solutions for 12- to 13-year-olds), but wrong answers were usually given among the older students too (23% correct solutions for 13- to 14-year-olds; 17%, 22%, 43% correct responses for 15- to 16-year-olds). Building on these findings, De Bock et al. (2002a) conducted an interview study to investigate which aspects are responsible for the frequent appearance of linear overgeneralizations. They found that some of the students had the firm conviction that any relationship between two variables could be expressed by a constant of proportionality. However, the majority of the students used linear models in an intuitive manner, without being aware of the model they chose. Students apparently do not recognize the mistakes they make on the basis of linear overgeneralizations and therefore probably perceive that their solutions to these problems are correct even when they are incorrect.

Further, a teaching experiment conducted by Van Dooren et al. (2004) showed that it is possible to decrease the number of linear overgeneralizations in the solutions to such problems. In 10 experimental lessons, major holes in students’ prior geometrical knowledge and their linearity preconceptions were addressed by eliciting cognitive conflicts. Further aims of the intervention were to facilitate students’ meta-conceptual awareness, including monitoring and enhancing a deeper understanding from the use of multiple external representations of the central mathematical contents. Although the automatic use of linear strategies was successfully reduced, some of the students in the experimental group still tended to engage in linear overgeneralizations, whereas others started to also apply non-proportional strategies to proportional problems, indicating that the intervention was not successful in terms of fostering a deep conceptual understanding of differences in linearity and non-linearity in some of the students. These results provide the first hints that external representations might be beneficial for diminishing linear overgeneralizations. Further support comes from the study by De Bock et al. (2002b) who found that providing ready-made drawings of the original and scaled figures on graph paper had a positive albeit small effect on solution rates for non-linear geometry problems. Graph paper allows comparisons to be made of the areas of the figures by counting the squares and thus facilitates the recognition of the non-linear relationship of the areas.

We view these findings as initial indications of the importance of external representations for overcoming linear overgeneralizations and performance. Further indications pointing in the opposite direction come from research on self-generated drawing.

Effects of the Drawing Strategy on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance

A series of experimental studies investigated the impacts of making a drawing on linear overgeneralizations and performance. In one of these studies ( De Bock et al., 1998 ), students in a drawing condition were instructed to draw before solving each item. The instructions were given at the beginning of the test using an example item. Contrary to theoretical considerations, no effect of making a drawing on performance was found. The percentage of correct solutions for the group of 12- to 13-year-old students remained at only 2% and was also found to be low for 15- to 16-year-old students regardless of the drawing instructions.

Different drawing instructions were implemented in a subsequent study ( De Bock et al., 2003 ). In the drawing condition, students between the ages of 13 and 16 were given a drawing of a geometrical object for each problem (e.g., a square) and were asked to complete the drawing by supplementing a scaled copy of the object using the given scaling factor. The surprising finding was that students who received these instructions showed significantly lower solution rates than the control group (23% vs. 44%). An additional analysis of the solution processes from this study suggested that self-generated drawing did not elicit visual solution strategies such as “paving” – determining the area of a plane figure by paving it with similar Figures – and hence, the drawing strategy was apparently not applied appropriately. This is a potential reason why drawing is not beneficial, but it does not explain the negative effect. An analysis of the problems used in this study provided another reason for this result. Making a drawing might hinder students’ progress while solving non-linear problems because the process of drawing might divert their attention to unimportant elements or even to elements that could interfere with their solution process: Figures are typically depicted by their circumferences, which change linearly through scaling. In the process of drawing, learners work with linear relationships and may erroneously transfer them to the area. This might render the quality of the drawing strategy insufficient because key information (i.e., the area) is not made salient in the drawing. Increasing the quality of the drawing strategy by highlighting the area in the drawings may guide learners’ attention to the important elements of the problem, thus helping them identify non-linear properties while drawing.

Another aspect that also affects the recognition of non-linearity concerns visual monitoring. Visual monitoring should reveal that the area changes non-linearly through scaling. However, visual monitoring might potentially not come into effect if the size of the scaling factor is too large. For problems with small scaling factors (e.g., doubling the side length), the difference between the area or volume of the original and of the modified figure becomes salient while drawing so that visual monitoring should uncover the non-linear relationship. Whereas for large scaling factors (e.g., if the side length is twelve or more times larger), the difference in the area or volume cannot be easily visually estimated. Consequently, it can be expected that visual monitoring, enabled by using small scaling factors, can help learners overcome their difficulties with linear overgeneralizations so that they will demonstrate better performance in problem solving. However, even if students recognize the non-linear relationship by engaging in high-quality drawing or visual monitoring, they are not necessarily able to solve the problem. Instead, they might change the problem by imposing an inappropriate structure that enables them to apply available solution strategies ( Goos, 2002 ). It is possible that they might detect the non-linear property of the area but nevertheless use linear models to solve the problem because they lack adequate solution strategies ( Weber, 2001 ). Students who recognize the non-linear relationship of the areas are probably aware of their inappropriate application of linear overgeneralizations and will consequently perceive their lower performance in solving the problems than students who do not recognize the non-linear relationship. Thus, we assume that students’ perceptions of their performance in solving non-linear geometry problems might be an indicator of students’ awareness of the non-linear property of the problems. Data on students’ perceived performance will help us interpret the effect of drawing quality and visual monitoring on linear overgeneralizations and performance.

Research Questions and Expectations

On the basis of theoretical considerations and prior empirical findings, we posed the following research questions:

1. Does the instruction to make a drawing of the scaled figure lead to a larger number of linear overgeneralizations and have a negative effect on problem solving performance of non-linear geometry problems?

2. Does improving the quality of the drawing strategy by highlighting important information in the drawing decrease the number of linear overgeneralizations and diminish the negative effect of the drawing strategy on problem solving performance?

3. Does visual monitoring decrease the number of linear overgeneralizations and diminish the negative effect of the drawing strategy on problem solving performance?

4. Does drawing or visual monitoring affect students’ perceived performance when solving non-linear geometry problems?

Expectations for Research Question 1 (Drawing)

The first research question addresses the replication of De Bock et al.’s (2003) finding that making a drawing hinders students’ ability to solve non-linear geometry problems. Following theoretical domain-specific considerations regarding the reasons for learners’ linear overgeneralizations, we assume that self-generated drawing distracts learners and draws their attention toward elements of the problem that interfere with their solution process, for example, the linear relationship of the circumferences of the original and scaled figures in problems with rectilinear plane figures. Because of the very common tendency to engage in linear overgeneralizations ( Van Dooren et al., 2008 ), they may erroneously transfer the linear relationship of the circumferences to the non-linear relationship of the areas. The same considerations can be made for problems with non-rectilinear figures and solids regarding the linear property of the diameter and the non-linear property of the volume. Thus, we expected the drawing strategy to increase the number of linear overgeneralizations and negatively affect problem solving performance.

Expectations for Research Question 2 (High-Quality Drawing):

We expected that increasing the quality of the drawing strategy by highlighting key information would diminish the negative effect of the drawing strategy. Hence, we expected that students applying a high-quality drawing strategy and students not applying the drawing strategy would show the same number of linear overgeneralizations and performance in solving non-linear geometry problems. Further, we expected fewer linear overgeneralizations and higher performance from students who applied the high-quality drawing strategy than students who used the lower quality drawing strategy. The rationale behind these expectations is that the effects of the drawing strategy strongly depend on drawing quality. One key characteristic of a high-quality drawing is the explicit presentation of key information. For non-linear geometry problems, mistakes are made due to an inappropriate focus on the side length or the diameter of the figure or solid and its linear properties instead of considering the area or the volume, respectively. Hence, highlighting the area or volume of the drawn figure or solid will improve the quality of the drawing strategy and should lead to fewer linear overgeneralizations and a higher performance than the use of a lower quality drawing strategy.

Expectations for Research Question 3 (Visual Monitoring)

We expected that visual monitoring would diminish the negative effect of the drawing strategy. Consequently, visual monitoring while drawing should lead to a similar number of linear overgeneralizations and a similar performance in solving non-linear geometry problems in comparison with solving the problems without a drawing. In addition, we expected that visual monitoring would lead to fewer linear overgeneralizations and a higher performance than drawing without visual monitoring. We enhanced visual monitoring by using small scaling factors instead of large ones on the basis of our assumption that for small scaling factors, the non-linear relationship of the areas becomes salient while drawing. Consequently, visual monitoring could help overcome the linear overgeneralizations that were elicited by the drawing strategy.

Expectations for Research Question 4 (Effects on Perceived Performance)

The fourth research question followed an exploratory approach. Thus, we did not have specific expectations. The aim of analyzing students’ perceived performance is to increase the validity by using different indications of students’ success ( Rovers et al., 2019 ) and to gather further information that helps to explain the findings from our experimental study. Students’ perceived performance in the drawing and visual monitoring conditions will provide indications of students’ awareness of the non-linear property of the problems. Students who notice the non-linear relationship because they make a high-quality drawing or engage in visual monitoring might lack the mathematical knowledge to proceed and will therefore nevertheless stick to the application of linear models and will report lower perceived performance.

Materials and Methods

Sample and procedure.

The present study involved 198 students (57.1% female, mean age = 16.15 years) from nine classes, including ninth-graders (12.6%), tenth-graders (48.5%), and eleventh-graders (38.9%). Students came from four high-track schools (German Gymnasium) and one comprehensive school (German Gesamtschule).

Students in each class were randomly assigned to one of five groups: Students in the experimental conditions received either drawing (D) or drawing with highlighting (DQ) instructions, aimed at increasing the quality of the drawing strategy, and the test version with either large [11, 12, or 13 as used in the study by De Bock et al. (2003) ] or small scaling factors (3, 4, or 5), aimed in enhancing visual monitoring (V− and V+ groups). These conditions resulted in four combinations of experimental conditions (DV−, DV+, DQV−, DQV+). Students in the control group (CG) received no drawing instructions and the test version with large scaling factors as in the study by De Bock et al. (2003) . All groups worked on a paper-and-pencil test consisting of four experimental items, which were non-linear geometry problems, and three additional buffer items. All items were taken from the study by De Bock et al. (2003) . Drawing and drawing with highlighting instructions were embedded in each item on the test. Figure 1 shows a sample item with drawing with highlighting instructions as used in the version of the test that was administered in the DQ condition. Students in the D group received the same drawing instructions (part a) but no highlighting instructions (part b).

Figure 1. Sample item with drawing and highlighting instructions. Tasks were adopted from De Bock et al. (2003 , p. 449).

After taking the test, students completed a questionnaire. The aim of the questionnaire was to collect data on how solving non-linear geometry problems and the experimental treatment were perceived by the students. Thus, the questionnaire included four statements for measuring students’ perceived performance.

Treatment Check

To check the implementation of the treatment, we examined whether students in the experimental and control groups followed the instructions. The results confirmed that students followed the drawing instructions and the instructions to draw and highlight. As intended, the number of drawings in the D groups was significantly higher than in the CG [96.1% vs. 40.2%; t (43.636) = 7.542, p < 0.001, d = 1.903]. Further, the number of highlighted drawings in the DQ groups was significantly higher than in the CG [80.0% vs. 0.65%; t (84.756) = 22.526, p < 0.001, d = 3.608] and D groups [80.0% vs. 2.4%; t (109.960) = 15.798, p < 0.001, d = 3.033]. However, 19 of 41 participants of the control group made at least for one of the items a spontaneous drawing. These students seem to perform similar or even better than students who did not make a drawing (50.0% vs. 45.5% correct solutions; 18% vs. 29% linear overgeneralizations). To ensure that spontaneous drawings did not distort our results, we again addressed our research questions by analyzing an adjusted subsample. The adjusted subsample included only students who acted in accordance with their condition. As our analysis revealed nearly the same effect sizes for the adjusted subsample and the whole sample, we analyzed the whole sample in our study.

In addition, we examined students’ age and last mathematics grade by computing an ANOVA to ensure the comparability of the treatment conditions. As expected, no significant difference between the groups was found ( p > 0.10).

Linear Overgeneralizations and Problem Solving Performance

Linear overgeneralizations were estimated by analyzing whether the solution was based on a linear model (coded 1) or not (coded 0). Students’ performance was analyzed by assigning a score of 1 for the correct solution and a score of 0 for an incorrect solution. Two independent coders were involved in scoring the test booklets. Inter-rater reliability was calculated for each problem on a subset of 20% of the test booklets which were scored by both coders with sufficient inter-rater agreement (Cohen’s κ ≥ 0.773). Reliability was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α = 0.729 for linear overgeneralizations and 0.754 for performance). All problems were taken from De Bock et al. (2003) and are listed here in the version for the V− groups in Table 1 .

Table 1. Experimental items in the V− groups.

Perceived Performance

Students rated the statements on the questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale (from full disagreement to full agreement). The scale for measuring perceived performance was adapted from prior studies ( Hänze and Berger, 2007 ; Schukajlow and Krug, 2014 ; Schukajlow et al., 2015 , 2019a ). It included four items: “I noticed that I really understood the arithmetic problems”; “I felt able to master the arithmetic problems”; “I feel able to master similar arithmetic problems”; and “I felt confident about my knowledge about the topic today.” The scale reliability (Cronbach’s α) was 0.863.

Data Analysis

The hypotheses were tested with a 3 × 2 MANOVA with Drawing (no drawing, D, DQ) and Visual Monitoring (V− and V+) as the independent variables and Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance as the dependent variables. There was homogeneity of variance as assessed with Levene’s test ( p > 0.05). Significant main effects were further analyzed with post hoc Tukey tests. The reported p -values for Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance were one-tailed due to our directional expectations. We followed De Bock et al. (2003) procedure to ensure the comparability of the results. This included conducting our analysis with only two of four experimental items. Including all four items in the MANOVA revealed the same results because the effect sizes from the two analyses were very similar.

To analyze Perceived Performance, we conducted a 2 × 2 ANOVA with Drawing (D, DQ) and Visual Monitoring (V− and V+) as factors. Homogeneity of variance was confirmed. Because of the exploratory approach, no assumptions were made about the direction of the effects, and two-tailed p -values are reported.

An overview of the mean scores and standard deviations for all variables in the different experimental conditions is presented in Table 2 .

Table 2. Mean scores (and standard deviations) of all variables in the different experimental conditions.

Effect of Drawing Strategy on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance

In line with our expectations, the drawing strategy increased the number of linear overgeneralizations. Students who applied the drawing strategy with a lower quality (D groups) tended to make more linear overgeneralizations than students who did not use this strategy (CG) (43.5% vs. 24.4%). The MANOVA revealed a marginally significant main effect of Drawing on Linear Overgeneralizations [ F (2,197) = 1.970, p = 0.071; η p 2 = 0.020]. Post hoc comparisons using the Tukey test indicated significant differences ( p < 0.05, d Cohen = −0.461) between students who used the drawing strategy and the control group, which did not draw.

Further, our expectation that the drawing strategy would have a negative effect on performance was confirmed. Students who applied the drawing strategy with a lower quality (D groups) achieved significantly lower performance scores than students who did not use this strategy (28.6% vs. 47.6%). The MANOVA revealed a significant main effect of Drawing on Performance [ F (2,197) = 4.323, p < 0.05; η p 2 = 0.043], and post hoc comparisons indicated significant differences ( p < 0.05 d Cohen = 0.436) between students who applied the drawing strategy and students who did not.

These findings did not interact with the use of the two test booklets (large- or small-sized scaling factors), which were administered to the D and DQ groups but were not administered to the CG group for economic reasons (large scaling factors only). We will elaborate on this point in the results for the third research question (see section “Effect of Visual Monitoring on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance”). To ensure comparability, we conducted an additional analysis in which only the groups who received the test version with the large scaling factor were included (CG, DV−, DQV−). The results were similar with even stronger effect sizes (Linear Overgeneralizations: η p 2 = 0.022; Performance: η p 2 = 0.069).

Effect of High-Quality Drawing Strategy on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance

We were able to partly confirm the hypothesis that the high-quality drawing strategy (DQ) would diminish the negative effect of the drawing strategy. As expected, students who used the high-quality drawing strategy engaged in linear overgeneralizations comparably as often as students who did not use the drawing strategy (CG) (35.0% vs. 24.4%). Post hoc Tukey tests confirmed that there were no statistically significant differences between students who used the high-quality drawing strategy and the control group ( p = 0.198, d Cohen = −0.261). However, contrary to our expectations, students who used the high-quality drawing strategy did not show significantly fewer linear overgeneralizations than students who used the drawing strategy with a lower quality (D) (35.0% vs. 38.9%, Tukey tests: p = 0.211, d Cohen = 0.197).

Further, we expected that students who used the high-quality drawing strategy (DQ) would show the same performance as students who did not use the drawing strategy (CG). Contrary to our expectations, Tukey tests indicated that the mean performance score for the DQ group was significantly lower ( p < 0.05, d Cohen = 0.471) than the score for the CG (27.5% vs. 47.6%). Also the comparison of the two drawing conditions yielded results that went contrary to our expectations: The use of high-quality drawing strategy (DQ) did not lead to a higher performance than a lower quality use of the drawing strategy with a lower quality (D) (27.5% vs. 28.6%; p = 0.493, d Cohen = 0.027).

Effect of Visual Monitoring on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance

We expected that the use of a drawing strategy would not hinder problem solving when used for monitoring purposes, referred to here as visual monitoring. Visual monitoring was operationalized by the smaller-sized scaling factor because we assumed that a smaller scaling factor would make relations between objects in the drawing salient and would therefore inspire visual monitoring.

The results did not confirm our expectations. Students in the visual monitoring group did not differ in the number of linear overgeneralizations from students who could not perform visual monitoring (42.0% vs. 32.5%). There was no significant main effect of Visual Monitoring on Linear Overgeneralizations [ F (1,197) = 0.698, p = 0.202; η p 2 = 0.004], and there was also no effect of the Visual Monitoring × Drawing interaction on Linear Overgeneralizations [ F (1,197) = 0.334, p = 0.282; η p 2 = 0.002].

Our expectations were not confirmed for performance either: Visual monitoring did not diminish the negative effect of the drawing strategy on performance (32.0% vs. 32.1%). As was already found for the number of linear overgeneralizations, there was no significant main effect of Visual Monitoring on Performance [ F (1,197) = 1.312, p = 0.127; η p 2 = 0.007], and there was no effect of the Visual Monitoring × Drawing interaction on Performance [ F (1,197) = 0.337, p = 0.281; η p 2 = 0.002].

Effect of Drawing Strategy and Visual Monitoring on Perceived Performance

The results of the ANOVA showed that the quality of the drawing strategy did not affect students’ perceived performance [ F (1,153) = 0.183, p = 0.670; η p 2 = 0.001]. Students who were given the high-quality drawing strategy (DQ) perceived that their performance was the same as students who were given the lower quality strategy (D) ( M = 3.54, SD = 0.88 vs. M = 3.58, SD = 0.83).

However, the results revealed a significant effect of visual monitoring on students’ perceived performance [ F (1,153) = 16.357, p < 0.01; η p 2 = 0.097]. Students in the visual monitoring group perceived a significantly higher performance than their peers who could not easily engage in visual monitoring ( M = 3.84, SD = 0.79 vs. M = 3.32, SD = 0.83).

Further, no significant effect of the Drawing × Visual Monitoring interaction on Perceived Performance was found [ F (1,153) = 0.571, p = 0.571; η p 2 = 0.004].

The present study was aimed at replicating De Bock et al. (2003) finding that the drawing strategy hinders students’ ability to solve non-linear geometry problems. We also aimed to elaborate on the potential reasons for this finding by addressing two factors: the quality of the drawing strategy and visual monitoring. Furthermore, we performed an exploratory analysis of students’ perceived performance in order to gather information about students’ awareness of linear overgeneralizations with the hope that this would help us interpret the results of our experimental study.

Negative Effect of the Drawing Strategy

Our results replicated the previous findings of a negative effect of the drawing strategy on the performance of non-linear geometry problems and confirmed the previous assumption that linear overgeneralizations are a prevalent reason. We found that students who applied the drawing strategy (D groups) made more linear overgeneralizations than students who did not draw. Self-generated drawing seems to guide learners toward mistakenly focusing on the linear relationships depicted in the drawings. However, the effect of the drawing strategy on the number of linear overgeneralizations was smaller than the effect for performance, indicating that applying the drawing strategy may have also resulted in other mistakes, perhaps because of the cognitive cost associated with the externalization process ( Zhang, 1997 ).

Further, the replication of the negative effect of drawing on performance indicates that the findings are stable across different samples. Even the solution scores were very similar to the ones reported by De Bock et al. (2003) , with a rate of about 75% for incorrect solutions in the drawing group and 50% in the non-drawing group in both studies.

On a global level, the finding that self-generated drawing hinders students’ ability to solve non-linear geometry problems shows that drawing strategy is not a one-size-fits-all solution and stresses the need to elaborate on the factors that determine beneficial strategy use.

Following theoretical considerations about the importance of the quality of self-generated drawing that was confirmed in prior research, we expected that the drawing strategy would hinder students’ ability to solve non-linear geometry problems because it would be applied insufficiently when students solved non-linear problems. Therefore, we increased the quality of the drawing strategy by addressing its key feature by explicitly presenting information that is essential for solving the problem.

The results confirmed the importance of the quality of the drawing strategy. Improving the quality of the drawing strategy diminished the increase in linear overgeneralizations that previously resulted from the drawing strategy. In particular, we found that students who used a high-quality drawing strategy did not differ in the number of linear overgeneralizations they made from students who did not use the drawing strategy, whereas students who applied a lower quality drawing strategy made a larger number of linear overgeneralizations compared with non-drawing students. This finding helps to explain the negative effect of self-generated drawing on solving non-linear geometry problems: Applying the drawing strategy in a high quality way ensures that the area, which is a key element of the problem, will be visible in the drawing. This seems to prevent at least some of the students from being guided by their drawing toward mistakenly focusing on elements of the problem that will interfere with their ability to solve the problem, such as the linear properties of the circumference or the side length. However, more efforts are essential for investigating how we can improve drawing quality so that the drawing strategy can become beneficial.

Contrary to our expectations, we found that improving the quality of the drawing strategy did not diminish the negative effect of self-generated drawing on performance, although it did diminish the negative effect with respect to the number of linear overgeneralizations. Apparently, improving the quality of the drawing strategy did not help students solve the problems. Even the high-quality use of the drawing strategy did not seem to elicit the visual solution strategies that could help students find the right solution. In line with prior research, this finding points out the lack of visual solution strategies, such as calculating the area by paving the figure in order to solve non-linear geometry problems ( De Bock et al., 2002b , 2003 ). Future research should investigate whether training students to use visual solution strategies can lead to the beneficial use of the drawing strategy.

Another factor that we addressed in order to explain the negative effect of drawing strategy was visual monitoring, the use of the drawing strategy for monitoring purposes. Monitoring has been identified as essential for problem solving ( Flavell, 1979 ) and was found to be important for detecting linear overgeneralizations ( De Bock et al., 2002a ). For non-linear geometry problems, we assumed that visual monitoring would take place for problems with small scaling factors but would not for large ones because the non-linear relationship of the areas becomes salient while drawing when small scaling factors are used.

However, the findings did not confirm our expectation that visual monitoring diminishes the effect by which self-generated drawing hinders students’ ability to solve non-linear geometry problems. Visual monitoring did not affect the number of linear overgeneralizations or performance. One potential reason for this finding is that students’ tendency to engage in linear overgeneralizations is very strong and difficult to change by engaging in subtle actions such as visual monitoring ( De Bock et al., 2007 ). Visual monitoring may have helped students recognize the non-linear relationship between the areas while drawing, but because students lacked knowledge of how to proceed, they stuck to their use of the linear models they were familiar with to solve the problem. Another reason might be that students did not even notice the non-linear relationship of the areas while drawing because they did not use the drawing strategy for monitoring. Consequently, our assumption that visual monitoring takes place when the drawing strategy is applied to problems with small scaling factors needs to be reconsidered. Previous research has indicated that, in contrast to experts, students use the drawing strategy only infrequently to monitor their solution processes ( Stylianou, 2011 ), so they might not have engaged in visual monitoring even though the non-linear property of the area was made salient while they were drawing. We need more research on how visual monitoring affects the drawing strategy and on how to clarify the mechanisms that can improve visual monitoring in students.

Taken together, our findings confirmed the idea that applying a strategy can have negative effects on students’ performance. The use of a drawing strategy and its effects on solving non-linear problems demonstrates that more efforts are essential for clarifying which factors, apart from fostering linear overgeneralizations, affect the decrease in students’ performance. On a more general level, we argue that there is a need to also further investigate the negative effects of other strategies and identify why some students are misguided when they apply a specific strategy even when this strategy might be helpful for the majority of students. The quality of strategy use seems to be an important factor that should be addressed more often in research on strategies. In addition, research on cognitive factors such as strategic knowledge about drawing ( Lingel et al., 2014 ; Rellensmann et al., 2019 ) or on emotional and motivational factors such as enjoyment of drawing and the costs of drawing ( Uesaka and Manalo, 2017 ; Schukajlow et al., 2019b ) can contribute to clarifying the conditions under which drawing is helpful and when it has a hindering effect.

Awareness of Linear Overgeneralizations

On the basis of theoretical considerations, we assumed that increasing the quality of the drawing strategy and enhancing visual monitoring would affect students’ awareness of linear overgeneralizations even if it did not affect their performance. Learners may recognize the non-linear property of the problem but might still stick to linear models because they lack the mathematical knowledge necessary to proceed. Indications of whether students were aware of their linear overgeneralizations could be derived from their perceived performance. If students did not notice that drawing guided them incorrectly toward an inadequate use of linear models, they presumably perceived that their performance was higher than the performance of students who were aware that their solution was probably wrong because they made inappropriate linear assumptions.

In order to validate our findings, we conducted an exploratory analysis of students’ perceived performance. Our findings indicated that neither improving the quality of drawing strategy nor enhancing visual monitoring led to a greater awareness of linear overgeneralizations. This finding is in line with prior research that pointed to the intuitive nature of linear misconceptions ( Van Dooren et al., 2004 , 2008 ).

It seems that students also encountered other difficulties while solving the problems, ones that did not rely on the non-linear properties of the problem. Students in the group in which visual monitoring was enhanced by using small scaling factors perceived that their performance was even higher than students in the low visual monitoring group who worked on problems with large scaling factors, although the two groups had the same performance scores. The use of small scaling factors probably led to a higher perceived performance because it facilitated the calculations, but it did not lead to a higher performance because the learners made mistakes on the basis of the linear overgeneralizations that they were not aware of. These points indicate that we also need to investigate other difficulties students encounter in solving non-linear geometry problems with the help of a drawing strategy in order to develop a complete picture of the difficulties encountered while solving non-linear problems.

Strengths and Limitations

We investigated the effect of the drawing strategy for solving non-linear geometry problems by using an experimental design with drawing conditions and a control group that was not instructed to draw. We implemented a treatment check, which showed that students reliably followed the instructions. However, 19 of 41students in the control group spontaneously made drawings. Therefore, we additionally analyzed an adjusted subsample that included only the students in drawing conditions who actually drew and the students in the control group who did not draw. This analysis showed the same results as the previous analyses.

In order to keep the design of the study as simple as possible, the control group worked only on the test version with large scaling factors. As noted in Section “Effect of Drawing Strategy on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance,” we conducted additional analysis to ensure the comparability of the different drawing conditions. However, the design of our study does not allow to compare students of no drawing and drawing conditions for tests with small scaling factors.

Another important limitation is that our findings are valid for the effects of instructions to make a drawing, but not for spontaneous drawing activity. Descriptive analysis of students’ solutions indicated that students’ spontaneous drawing did not have negative (or even might have slightly positive) effects on students’ achievement-related outcomes. Thus, it might be that spontaneous drawing activity is positively related to students’ achievement-related outcomes. Identifying task- and person-related factors that predict spontaneous use of drawings for non-linear problems is another open question.

A further limitation concerns the operationalization of the factors of drawing quality and visual monitoring. On the basis of theoretical considerations, we assumed that drawing quality would improve if we highlighted the key information given in the problem. Further, we assumed that visual monitoring would be enhanced by the use of small scaling factors compared with large scaling factors. Although both assumptions are plausible, our manipulation might address other factors in addition to these two factors. For example, using small scaling factors decreases the difficulty of the calculations.

As our study was a partial replication of the study by De Bock et al. (2003) , we decided to use the same material to render the results as comparable as possible and therefore included only two items in the analyses. As reported in the method section, additional analyses based on all of the four experimental items showed the same results, but future research should increase the number of items to strengthen the validity of these findings.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Author Contributions

SS and JK designed the study. JK analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. SS revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords : drawing strategy, geometry problems, illusion of linearity, linear overgeneralizations, monitoring, problem solving, self-generated drawing

Citation: Krawitz J and Schukajlow S (2020) When Can Making a Drawing Hinder Problem Solving? Effect of the Drawing Strategy on Linear Overgeneralizations and Problem Solving. Front. Psychol. 11:506. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00506

Received: 29 October 2019; Accepted: 02 March 2020; Published: 27 March 2020.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2020 Krawitz and Schukajlow. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Janina Krawitz, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Goods of the Mind

Essential Skills for Problem Solving - Drawing

Technical drawing is an important skill that is routinely underemphasized because the process of teaching and assessing cannot be subjected to automation. As a result, few students are capable of making drawings to help solve geometry problems. Consequently, the study of geometry has been watered down to questions that can be solved using one or at most two steps on the provided figure. Geometry, however, is one of the most fertile rule-based environments for creating puzzles - as such, it has been and always will be heavily used in mathematics competitions as well as in any assessment of skills that pertain to visualization, orientation in 3-D space or in the plane, measurement, and estimation. Creativity is especially necessary when solving those puzzles that require the student to create additional elements in the figure in order to bridge the logical gap between the elements provided and the answer that is required.

Let us consider what a student is to do when faced with the following problem:

A hexagon inscribed in a circle has three consecutive sides each of length 3 and three consecutive sides each of length 5. The chord of the circle that divides the hexagon into two trapezoids, one with three sides each of length 3 and the other with three sides each of length 5, has length equal to m/n, where m and n are relatively prime positive integers. Find m+n. (AHSME 1996)

I haven’t even chosen a problem that requires additional creative construction, just direct construction based on the specification in the statement. Statistically speaking, most students will skip this problem for the sole reason that it requires drawing. I think they perceive drawing as a task that requires time without, in and of itself, solving the problem. The risk that they may work on the drawing and still be unable to solve the problem discourages them.

There are people who are going to ask why the drawing is not provided. There are many reasons for that:

for some problems, the level of detail that is necessary in order to make sense of the drawing is so great, that the size of a usable drawing exceeds the limits that are reasonable for producing a test paper;

sometimes, we need several drawings anyway because the density of the elements is large and obstructs the view;

the problem, after all, is a puzzle - if we make the drawing for them, why not give them the whole solution followed by two buttons: “I get it” and “I don’t get it”?

the skills that are needed to make a reasonably useful hand drawing are some of the skills that are tested for: planning, selection of key vs. non-essential elements, pattern recognition, estimation, creativity, a complete understanding of data sufficiency in geometry (what is the complete knowledge we can derive logically from the given knowledge), a keen sense of the effect certain symmetries may have on the solution, the capacity to make useful decisions quickly (“this drawing is not helpful, I’m going to re-draw it in a different way”) and more;

on a more practical side, at a certain point in time, it became clear to examiners that students were measuring lengths on the provided figure (usually drawn to scale) in order to help with the solution or instead of solving.

Most students who can make a useful drawing in the time required have taught themselves how to do so. Other students just skip these problems. Since, on average, geometry problems often constitute up to 30% of the exam, the consequences of skipping a large portion of the geometry can have a severe impact on a student’s grade.

Using Visual Arts to Foster Creative Thinking Skills

“A drawing is the three-way relationship between substance, surface and body. It activates the relationships between the eye and the hand, the hand and the tool, the body and the drawing surface. The elements of the drawing itself, the drawing marks on the empty page and between the eye of the artist and what lies beyond what the artist can actually touch.” Amy Sillman

“ I am not creative ” – “ I can’t draw !”, are the most common reactions I encounter when people learn that I’m working as an artist. Regrettably, the main focus of art production appears to revolve around a “beautiful outcome”, the ability to draw or paint a stunning picture. You are either good or not and if you aren’t, why carry on?

This misconception results in the profound benefits of engaging with the visual arts on your emotional health, the fostering of creative thinking skills, and art as a tool to strengthen psychological resilience being mostly overlooked.

Both art appreciation and the actual creating of visual arts can have a significant impact on the development of a young person. In fact, your brain will benefit from engaging with art at any stage of your life and you neither have to be a good artist nor know a lot about art to reap the rewards from experiencing it.

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties” – Erich Fromm

Creativity requires strong self-believe, the ability to persevere despite failure and setbacks, it’s about following an idea, an intuition, it requires untiring curiosity. Carrying on, despite of what other people might say or of what your peers might say. It’s about seeing information in a different light, putting unrelated elements together, noticing patterns, inconsistencies, using everyday experiences, getting inspired by anything and everything and the need to try things in a different way over and over again.

Although, you might have an end goal in view, the creative path won’t be linear and can’t always be planned out from start to finish. There isn’t one correct answer, more of an open-ended answer to an open-ended problem. Being creative involves failing a lot, failure is indeed not a bad outcome, failure makes you look at all the pieces in a new light, it requires you to look at them differently, you need to find a new way of solving your answers and posing your questions.

In line with an easy to follow universal marking and evaluation system, most school settings teach children to deal with problem solving in a specific way, including the need to follow certain steps and leading to one correct answer. As Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, a research scientist at Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence, explains, “ If a task poses a question with a specific set of steps required to answer it, there is no space for creativity. ”

Another stumbling block in acquiring creative thinking skills is “creative mortification”, a term used by psychologist Ron Beghetto, describing an unwillingness or outright refusal to participate in any creative work after having experienced negative feedback on your work, and lacking the ability to deal with the resulting negative emotions felt. This usually happens to children at a very young age, when they find it more difficult to regulate their emotions and don’t yet have the necessary resilience to deal with this negative experience.

In my opinion, a young person losing faith in their artistic creativity early on, will very likely refrain from using the arts as a tool for acquiring creative thinking skills. As a result, they might be less likely to explore their own ideas in other non-art related areas, as their motivation for exploring creative thinking has been discouraged at an early age.

There are individuals, who from the outset have a highly creative mind, a talent or inborn creativity, which makes them explore the world in a different and more creative way. Being creative is part of who they are, their very essence. Studies researching the connection between attention and creativity have brought to light that truly creative individuals appear to have a “diffused or “leaky attention”, which translates into their having great difficulties in filtering out external sensory stimuli whilst trying to carry out cognitive tasks. In contrast, individuals with lower creative talent are able to block out distractions from their environment and give full attention to the task at hand.

Although having a “leaky attention” would be a real disadvantage in particular exam situations, it nevertheless leads to creative individuals being able to notice more in their environment and doing so on a continuous basis. They will notice things most people overlook; therefore, the creative mind has more information to play with and furthermore the ability to create new and unusual connections between various seemingly unrelated chunks of information.

The creative brain has the ability to better regulate thoughts and behaviours whilst being involved in a creative task, getting into a state of flow and in this setting tuning out all distractions. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described flow as “ being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost. ”

In addition, creatives tend to be better equipped at managing their emotions, especially with regards to negative feedback, and are able to just carry on with their vision. They have a higher level of resilience when faced with obstacles; these obstacles often leading them to be even more creative.

What Happens in Your Brain When You are Drawing?

In a study conducted to investigate whether drawing could increase the brain’s plasticity and using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans to establish what is going on in the brain, Dr Lora Likova, worked with a cohort of congenitally blind individuals, who had been taught to explore raised line tactile images with the help of their fingers and learnt for a week to draw from memory.

Congenitally blind people don’t show any activation in the visual area of their brain, however those participants who had learned to draw from memory showed a “dramatic enhancement of the activation, very specific to the primary visual cortex or what would have been the primary visual cortex in these congenitally blind subjects. ” Dr Likova’s study shows a rather remarkable and fast means of neural plasticity using drawing.

In a different study, researchers wanted to find out if art appreciation and active art production would have different effects on the brain. Neurologists Anne Bolwerk and Christian Maihofer, observed that the visual art participation group showed greater psychological resilience and a higher level of functional brain connectivity than the art appreciation cohort.

The study noted stronger connections of brain areas and an involvement of brain regions which are activated during introspection; the employment of cognitive strategies in order to reduce negative emotional experiences; the regulation of emotions; greater self- awareness; and enhanced memory processing. It has been noted that the functional connectivity of most of these areas are vital for a healthy resilience.

Whilst more research needs to be conducted in this field, the neurologists put this phenomenon down to the fact that “ the production of visual art involves more than mere cognitive and motor processing described. The creation of visual art is a personal integrative experience – an experience of “flow”, – in which the participant is fully emerged in a creative activity. ”

This intriguing connection between emotional and creative skills has led to researchers from Yale University exploring this feature in the development of children. A course that was carried out over six sessions with children from selected primary schools in Santander, Spain, showed a significant increase in creative behaviour, enhanced skills for problem finding and idea generation. Interestingly, a follow up two months later, demonstrated that these positive effects started diminishing, which indicates a need for a continuous arts based intervention to achieve longer lasting results.

Students who score higher on the TTCT Torrance Test of Creative Thinking are more likely to have been exposed to art and art education. They are generally more willing to take greater risks, have a more pronounced imagination, show higher levels of creativity and, are finding it easier to engage with cooperative learning and expression.

Nonetheless, visual arts appreciation should not be underestimated, various studies have found that viewing paintings leads to an activation of a range of brain regions and in particular regions of the brain that are associated with “vision, pleasure, memory, recognition and emotions” as well as areas which deal with the “processing of new information to give it meaning”.

Neurobiologist Semir Zeki scanned the brain activity of people looking at art and was able to detect the release of dopamine, a chemical neurotransmitter that plays a part in how we feel pleasure. Looking at art appears to create a sensation similar to falling in love or looking at a loved one.

The perception of art is a very aesthetic experience which stimulates areas of the brain that are mainly associated with visuo-spatial exploration and attention. Viewing art activates your mirror neurons; brain cells that respond to the observation of a performed action. It can lead to what is called “embodied cognition” – one of the reasons you get drawn into a painting – perhaps making you feel afloat like Botticelli’s angels in “The Birth of Venus” or almost to feel paint splatters hit the canvas standing in front of a Pollock.

Furthermore, visiting museums and art galleries has been shown to lower stress levels, improve memory, and engage and strengthen your empathy. A study conducted by the University of Westminster found that study participants who visited an art gallery during their lunch break reported a lowering of their stress levels, this observation could be supported by findings that the cortisol levels of the participants fell after a 35 minute gallery visit. Visiting an art gallery can help with recovery from mental exhaustion in the same way as spending time in nature.

In 2017, a study carried out on preschoolers found that cortisol levels, and thus stress, were lowered if the children were given the chance to participate in music, dance and visual arts classes.

Research carried out by the University of Arkansas found that children who visited galleries and viewed art, improved their critical thinking skills and had an improved historical empathy. Viewing works of art helped them to understand what life would have been like for people who lived in a different time and place. These experiences contribute to a general openness to diversity, different ways of living, thinking, and experiencing of the world. The children also showed a much higher level of tolerance, as well as an enhanced appreciation, interest and understanding for art and culture. In a world where emotional intelligence is increasingly being understood as being essential to happiness and fulfilment, visual arts can play a fundamental part in supporting people of all ages.

Visual arts engagement should play an important part in every child’s learning experience. By freely experimenting with a variety of materials, whilst simultaneously expressing their emotions and ideas, these experiences will help to form important connections in the developing brain of a child. As outlined in this article, the arts represent a perfect vehicle for engaging a young person with the concept of creativity. It will become natural to them to approach a problem from more than one point of view, and to know that there might be multiple answers to a specific problem, or question. They will be able to apply an open mind and not only work with past experiences. The combined experience of art production and art appreciation will maximise the effect art can have on a young person, be it brain development; mental wellbeing; experiencing flow; strengthening creative thinking skills; learning psychological resilience or becoming a more empathetic, tolerant open-minded thinker.

For advice on how to support children in art, see advice sheet PA414 Supporting High Learning Potential in Art and Design and the blog Art: Adding Extra Colour to the High Potential Learner’s World

Bolwerk, A., Dorfler, A., Lang, F. R., Mack-Andrick, J., Maihofner, C. (2014). How art changes your brain: Differential effects of visual art production and cognitive art evaluation on functional brain connectivity. PLoS ONE. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0101035

Bowen, D. H., Greene, Jay P., Kisida, B. (2014). The educational value of field trips. Education Next ,14 (1). https://www.educationnext.org/the-educational-value-of-field-trips/

Craft, A., Cremin, T., Burnard, P., Chappell, K. (2007). Developing creative learning through possibility thinking with children aged 3-7. In: Craft, A., Cremin, T., Burnard, P. (Eds.), Creative learning 3-11 and how we document it . Trentham.

Clow, A. (2006). Normalisation of salivary cortisol levels and self-report stress by a brief lunchtime visit to an art gallery by London City workers. Journal of Holistic Healthcare 3. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252281628_Normalisation_of_salivary_cortisol_levels_and_self-report_stress_by_a_brief_lunchtime_visit_to_an_art_gallery_by_London_City_workers

Ebert, M., Hoffmann, J. D., Ivcevic, Z., Phan, C., Brackett M. A. (2015). Teaching emotion and creativity skills through art. A workshop for children. The International Journal for Creativity & Problem Solving , 25 (2), 23-35.

Fostering creativity: T he preschool teacher. (n.d.). [Online Lesson] in The Virtual Lab School. https://www.virtuallabschool.org/preschool/creative/lesson-4

Geirland, J. (1996). Go with the flow. Wired Magazine ,4(09). https://www.wired.com/1996/09/czik/

Hofmann, J., Ivcevic, Z., Maliakkal, N. (2020). Emotions, creativity, and the arts: Evaluating a course for children”. Empirical Studies of the Arts. Sage Journals. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276237420907864

Ivcevic Pringle, Z. (2020, April 3). Creativity at home in the times of pandemic. Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle . https://www.zoranaivcevicpringle.com/post/creativity-at-home-in-the-times-of-pandemic

Ivcevic Pringle, Z. (2020, April 3). Manage emotions to innovate. Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle . https://www.zoranaivcevicpringle.com/post/manage-emotions-to-innovate

Ivcevic Pringle, Z. (2020, April 3). Building your creative muscle. Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle . https://www.zoranaivcevicpringle.com/post/building-your-creative-muscle

Ivcevic Pringle, Z. (2020, April 3). The how of creativity. Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle . https://www.zoranaivcevicpringle.com/post/the-how-of-creativity

McDonald, H. (2019, February 15). The cognitive balancing act of creativity. Psychology Today . https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/time-travelling-apollo/201902/the-cognitive-balancing-act-creativity

Phillips, R. (2015, March). Art enhances brain function and well-being. https://www.healing-power-of-art.org/art-and-the-brain/

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About the author: Nina Vangerow is an artist, educator and online content creator with a MA in Ancient History. Teaching art and craft classes, Nina has developed a particular interest in the correlation between the arts, creativity and mental wellbeing. As a mother of a teenager with high learning potential, she has been a Potential Plus UK member and volunteer since 2012.

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Painting and Problem Solving

“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” – Edgar Degas

You weren’t kidding, Edgar. The more we learn and practice, the harder certain aspects of painting seem to become. It may take years before we feel like we’re improving in some areas.

But don’t think of those unsuccessful attempts as wasted canvases. With each try, we’re steadily developing our ability to solve problems. It’s critical that we progress in this area because our solutions to problems are what inform us to make better choices as we improve .

It’s a process that takes time, but here are a few ideas to help us develop our problem solving abilities a bit more purposefully.

Dan Schultz working on a landscape and problem solving while painting outdoors

Develop Your Problem Solving Abilities

Design (composition)
Drawing accuracy
Paint application (including edge handling, texture and brushwork )
Spend time with an artist friend and critique each other’s work.
Do your best to critique your own work to discover what problems exist. (Tip: try looking at your paintings in a mirror. Seeing the image reversed is like seeing it for the first time, which can make problem areas more apparent.)
If you can identify a recurring problem that you just can’t get past, find exercises to help you focus on that particular area. (A web search should get you started.)
Tackle all sorts of different scenes. For example, you’ll get better at painting meadows (or trees, rocks, water, skies, etc.) after you’ve painted them a few dozen times.

Don’t be discouraged when you’re struggling to solve problems. When something goes wrong, identify it using the above list, then come up with the best way to solve it. Problem solving may put the “pain” in painting, but over time you’re developing a growing arsenal of solutions.

4 Responses

Great suggestions Dan! Thanks for including me on your mailing list! Kindest Regards, John James

John Tullis

Hey Dan, This is great advice. If we realize Degas himself had struggles then we’re all in good company. Thanks! John

Julie Evans

Hi Dan! Thanks for the advice and encouragement…it’s applicable to us abstract folks, too!

Michael R Baum

Great advice. Your categories of painting problems is succinctly put. I should put this list on the wall in my studio. To paraphrase President Kennedy, I don’t do it because it’s easy, I do it because it’s hard.

Problem Solving: Draw a Picture

Problem-solving is a critical 21st Century and social-emotional skill

Looking for more resources on 21st Century skills and social-emotional learning? Find them in our FutureFit resources center .

What Is It?

The draw a picture strategy is a problem-solving technique in which students make a visual representation of the problem. For example, the following problem could be solved by drawing a picture:

A frog is at the bottom of a 10-meter well. Each day he climbs up 3 meters. Each night he slides down 1 meter. On what day will he reach the top of the well and escape?

Why Is It Important?

Drawing a diagram or other type of visual representation is often a good starting point for solving all kinds of word problems . It is an intermediate step between language-as-text and the symbolic language of mathematics. By representing units of measurement and other objects visually, students can begin to think about the problem mathematically . Pictures and diagrams are also good ways of describing solutions to problems; therefore they are an important part of mathematical communication.

How Can You Make It Happen?

Encourage students to draw pictures of problems at the very beginning of their mathematical education. Promote and reinforce the strategy at all subsequent stages. Most students will naturally draw pictures if given the slightest encouragement.

Introduce a problem to students that will require them to draw a picture to solve. For example:

Marah is putting up a tent for a family reunion. The tent is 16 feet by 5 feet. Each 4-foot section of tent needs a post except the sides that are 5 feet. How many posts will she need?

Demonstrate that the first step to solving the problem is understanding it. This involves finding the key pieces of information needed to figure out the answer. This may require students reading the problem several times or putting the problem into their own words.

16 feet by 5 feet 1 post every 4 feet, including 1 at each corner No posts on the short sides

Choose a Strategy

Most often, students use the draw a picture strategy to solve problems involving space or organization, but it can be applied to almost all math problems. Also students use this strategy when working with new concepts such as equivalent fractions or the basic operations of multiplication and division.

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35 problem-solving techniques and methods for solving complex problems

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How do you identify problems?

How do you identify the right solution.

Tips for more effective problem-solving

Complete problem-solving methods

Problem-solving techniques to identify and analyze problems
Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

Problem-solving warm-up activities

Closing activities for a problem-solving process.

Before you can move towards finding the right solution for a given problem, you first need to identify and define the problem you wish to solve.

Here, you want to clearly articulate what the problem is and allow your group to do the same. Remember that everyone in a group is likely to have differing perspectives and alignment is necessary in order to help the group move forward.

Identifying a problem accurately also requires that all members of a group are able to contribute their views in an open and safe manner. It can be scary for people to stand up and contribute, especially if the problems or challenges are emotive or personal in nature. Be sure to try and create a psychologically safe space for these kinds of discussions.

Remember that problem analysis and further discussion are also important. Not taking the time to fully analyze and discuss a challenge can result in the development of solutions that are not fit for purpose or do not address the underlying issue.

Successfully identifying and then analyzing a problem means facilitating a group through activities designed to help them clearly and honestly articulate their thoughts and produce usable insight.

With this data, you might then produce a problem statement that clearly describes the problem you wish to be addressed and also state the goal of any process you undertake to tackle this issue.

Finding solutions is the end goal of any process. Complex organizational challenges can only be solved with an appropriate solution but discovering them requires using the right problem-solving tool.

After you’ve explored a problem and discussed ideas, you need to help a team discuss and choose the right solution. Consensus tools and methods such as those below help a group explore possible solutions before then voting for the best. They’re a great way to tap into the collective intelligence of the group for great results!

Remember that the process is often iterative. Great problem solvers often roadtest a viable solution in a measured way to see what works too. While you might not get the right solution on your first try, the methods below help teams land on the most likely to succeed solution while also holding space for improvement.

Every effective problem solving process begins with an agenda . A well-structured workshop is one of the best methods for successfully guiding a group from exploring a problem to implementing a solution.

In SessionLab, it’s easy to go from an idea to a complete agenda . Start by dragging and dropping your core problem solving activities into place . Add timings, breaks and necessary materials before sharing your agenda with your colleagues.

The resulting agenda will be your guide to an effective and productive problem solving session that will also help you stay organized on the day!

Tips for more effective problem solving

Problem-solving activities are only one part of the puzzle. While a great method can help unlock your team’s ability to solve problems, without a thoughtful approach and strong facilitation the solutions may not be fit for purpose.

Let’s take a look at some problem-solving tips you can apply to any process to help it be a success!

Clearly define the problem

Jumping straight to solutions can be tempting, though without first clearly articulating a problem, the solution might not be the right one. Many of the problem-solving activities below include sections where the problem is explored and clearly defined before moving on.

This is a vital part of the problem-solving process and taking the time to fully define an issue can save time and effort later. A clear definition helps identify irrelevant information and it also ensures that your team sets off on the right track.

Don’t jump to conclusions

It’s easy for groups to exhibit cognitive bias or have preconceived ideas about both problems and potential solutions. Be sure to back up any problem statements or potential solutions with facts, research, and adequate forethought.

The best techniques ask participants to be methodical and challenge preconceived notions. Make sure you give the group enough time and space to collect relevant information and consider the problem in a new way. By approaching the process with a clear, rational mindset, you’ll often find that better solutions are more forthcoming.

Try different approaches

Problems come in all shapes and sizes and so too should the methods you use to solve them. If you find that one approach isn’t yielding results and your team isn’t finding different solutions, try mixing it up. You’ll be surprised at how using a new creative activity can unblock your team and generate great solutions.

Don’t take it personally

Depending on the nature of your team or organizational problems, it’s easy for conversations to get heated. While it’s good for participants to be engaged in the discussions, ensure that emotions don’t run too high and that blame isn’t thrown around while finding solutions.

You’re all in it together, and even if your team or area is seeing problems, that isn’t necessarily a disparagement of you personally. Using facilitation skills to manage group dynamics is one effective method of helping conversations be more constructive.

Get the right people in the room

Your problem-solving method is often only as effective as the group using it. Getting the right people on the job and managing the number of people present is important too!

If the group is too small, you may not get enough different perspectives to effectively solve a problem. If the group is too large, you can go round and round during the ideation stages.

Creating the right group makeup is also important in ensuring you have the necessary expertise and skillset to both identify and follow up on potential solutions. Carefully consider who to include at each stage to help ensure your problem-solving method is followed and positioned for success.

Document everything

The best solutions can take refinement, iteration, and reflection to come out. Get into a habit of documenting your process in order to keep all the learnings from the session and to allow ideas to mature and develop. Many of the methods below involve the creation of documents or shared resources. Be sure to keep and share these so everyone can benefit from the work done!

Bring a facilitator

Facilitation is all about making group processes easier. With a subject as potentially emotive and important as problem-solving, having an impartial third party in the form of a facilitator can make all the difference in finding great solutions and keeping the process moving. Consider bringing a facilitator to your problem-solving session to get better results and generate meaningful solutions!

Develop your problem-solving skills

It takes time and practice to be an effective problem solver. While some roles or participants might more naturally gravitate towards problem-solving, it can take development and planning to help everyone create better solutions.

You might develop a training program, run a problem-solving workshop or simply ask your team to practice using the techniques below. Check out our post on problem-solving skills to see how you and your group can develop the right mental process and be more resilient to issues too!

Design a great agenda

Workshops are a great format for solving problems. With the right approach, you can focus a group and help them find the solutions to their own problems. But designing a process can be time-consuming and finding the right activities can be difficult.

Check out our workshop planning guide to level-up your agenda design and start running more effective workshops. Need inspiration? Check out templates designed by expert facilitators to help you kickstart your process!

In this section, we’ll look at in-depth problem-solving methods that provide a complete end-to-end process for developing effective solutions. These will help guide your team from the discovery and definition of a problem through to delivering the right solution.

If you’re looking for an all-encompassing method or problem-solving model, these processes are a great place to start. They’ll ask your team to challenge preconceived ideas and adopt a mindset for solving problems more effectively.

Six Thinking Hats
Lightning Decision Jam
Problem Definition Process
Discovery & Action Dialogue

Design Sprint 2.0

Open Space Technology

1. Six Thinking Hats

Individual approaches to solving a problem can be very different based on what team or role an individual holds. It can be easy for existing biases or perspectives to find their way into the mix, or for internal politics to direct a conversation.

Six Thinking Hats is a classic method for identifying the problems that need to be solved and enables your team to consider them from different angles, whether that is by focusing on facts and data, creative solutions, or by considering why a particular solution might not work.

Like all problem-solving frameworks, Six Thinking Hats is effective at helping teams remove roadblocks from a conversation or discussion and come to terms with all the aspects necessary to solve complex problems.

2. Lightning Decision Jam

Featured courtesy of Jonathan Courtney of AJ&Smart Berlin, Lightning Decision Jam is one of those strategies that should be in every facilitation toolbox. Exploring problems and finding solutions is often creative in nature, though as with any creative process, there is the potential to lose focus and get lost.

Unstructured discussions might get you there in the end, but it’s much more effective to use a method that creates a clear process and team focus.

In Lightning Decision Jam, participants are invited to begin by writing challenges, concerns, or mistakes on post-its without discussing them before then being invited by the moderator to present them to the group.

From there, the team vote on which problems to solve and are guided through steps that will allow them to reframe those problems, create solutions and then decide what to execute on.

By deciding the problems that need to be solved as a team before moving on, this group process is great for ensuring the whole team is aligned and can take ownership over the next stages.

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ) #action #decision making #problem solving #issue analysis #innovation #design #remote-friendly The problem with anything that requires creative thinking is that it’s easy to get lost—lose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. Here’s the most effective solution I’ve found: Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process. What to use this exercise for: Anything which requires a group of people to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges. It’s always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: The conversion flow of our checkout Our internal design process How we organise events Keeping up with our competition Improving sales flow

3. Problem Definition Process

While problems can be complex, the problem-solving methods you use to identify and solve those problems can often be simple in design.

By taking the time to truly identify and define a problem before asking the group to reframe the challenge as an opportunity, this method is a great way to enable change.

Begin by identifying a focus question and exploring the ways in which it manifests before splitting into five teams who will each consider the problem using a different method: escape, reversal, exaggeration, distortion or wishful. Teams develop a problem objective and create ideas in line with their method before then feeding them back to the group.

This method is great for enabling in-depth discussions while also creating space for finding creative solutions too!

Problem Definition #problem solving #idea generation #creativity #online #remote-friendly A problem solving technique to define a problem, challenge or opportunity and to generate ideas.

4. The 5 Whys

Sometimes, a group needs to go further with their strategies and analyze the root cause at the heart of organizational issues. An RCA or root cause analysis is the process of identifying what is at the heart of business problems or recurring challenges.

The 5 Whys is a simple and effective method of helping a group go find the root cause of any problem or challenge and conduct analysis that will deliver results.

By beginning with the creation of a problem statement and going through five stages to refine it, The 5 Whys provides everything you need to truly discover the cause of an issue.

The 5 Whys #hyperisland #innovation This simple and powerful method is useful for getting to the core of a problem or challenge. As the title suggests, the group defines a problems, then asks the question “why” five times, often using the resulting explanation as a starting point for creative problem solving.

5. World Cafe

World Cafe is a simple but powerful facilitation technique to help bigger groups to focus their energy and attention on solving complex problems.

World Cafe enables this approach by creating a relaxed atmosphere where participants are able to self-organize and explore topics relevant and important to them which are themed around a central problem-solving purpose. Create the right atmosphere by modeling your space after a cafe and after guiding the group through the method, let them take the lead!

Making problem-solving a part of your organization’s culture in the long term can be a difficult undertaking. More approachable formats like World Cafe can be especially effective in bringing people unfamiliar with workshops into the fold.

World Cafe #hyperisland #innovation #issue analysis World Café is a simple yet powerful method, originated by Juanita Brown, for enabling meaningful conversations driven completely by participants and the topics that are relevant and important to them. Facilitators create a cafe-style space and provide simple guidelines. Participants then self-organize and explore a set of relevant topics or questions for conversation.

6. Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

One of the best approaches is to create a safe space for a group to share and discover practices and behaviors that can help them find their own solutions.

With DAD, you can help a group choose which problems they wish to solve and which approaches they will take to do so. It’s great at helping remove resistance to change and can help get buy-in at every level too!

This process of enabling frontline ownership is great in ensuring follow-through and is one of the methods you will want in your toolbox as a facilitator.

Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD) #idea generation #liberating structures #action #issue analysis #remote-friendly DADs make it easy for a group or community to discover practices and behaviors that enable some individuals (without access to special resources and facing the same constraints) to find better solutions than their peers to common problems. These are called positive deviant (PD) behaviors and practices. DADs make it possible for people in the group, unit, or community to discover by themselves these PD practices. DADs also create favorable conditions for stimulating participants’ creativity in spaces where they can feel safe to invent new and more effective practices. Resistance to change evaporates as participants are unleashed to choose freely which practices they will adopt or try and which problems they will tackle. DADs make it possible to achieve frontline ownership of solutions.

7. Design Sprint 2.0

Want to see how a team can solve big problems and move forward with prototyping and testing solutions in a few days? The Design Sprint 2.0 template from Jake Knapp, author of Sprint, is a complete agenda for a with proven results.

Developing the right agenda can involve difficult but necessary planning. Ensuring all the correct steps are followed can also be stressful or time-consuming depending on your level of experience.

Use this complete 4-day workshop template if you are finding there is no obvious solution to your challenge and want to focus your team around a specific problem that might require a shortcut to launching a minimum viable product or waiting for the organization-wide implementation of a solution.

8. Open space technology

Open space technology- developed by Harrison Owen – creates a space where large groups are invited to take ownership of their problem solving and lead individual sessions. Open space technology is a great format when you have a great deal of expertise and insight in the room and want to allow for different takes and approaches on a particular theme or problem you need to be solved.

Start by bringing your participants together to align around a central theme and focus their efforts. Explain the ground rules to help guide the problem-solving process and then invite members to identify any issue connecting to the central theme that they are interested in and are prepared to take responsibility for.

Once participants have decided on their approach to the core theme, they write their issue on a piece of paper, announce it to the group, pick a session time and place, and post the paper on the wall. As the wall fills up with sessions, the group is then invited to join the sessions that interest them the most and which they can contribute to, then you’re ready to begin!

Everyone joins the problem-solving group they’ve signed up to, record the discussion and if appropriate, findings can then be shared with the rest of the group afterward.

Open Space Technology #action plan #idea generation #problem solving #issue analysis #large group #online #remote-friendly Open Space is a methodology for large groups to create their agenda discerning important topics for discussion, suitable for conferences, community gatherings and whole system facilitation

Techniques to identify and analyze problems

Using a problem-solving method to help a team identify and analyze a problem can be a quick and effective addition to any workshop or meeting.

While further actions are always necessary, you can generate momentum and alignment easily, and these activities are a great place to get started.

We’ve put together this list of techniques to help you and your team with problem identification, analysis, and discussion that sets the foundation for developing effective solutions.

Let’s take a look!

The Creativity Dice
Fishbone Analysis
Problem Tree
SWOT Analysis
Agreement-Certainty Matrix
The Journalistic Six
LEGO Challenge
What, So What, Now What?
Journalists

Individual and group perspectives are incredibly important, but what happens if people are set in their minds and need a change of perspective in order to approach a problem more effectively?

Flip It is a method we love because it is both simple to understand and run, and allows groups to understand how their perspectives and biases are formed.

Participants in Flip It are first invited to consider concerns, issues, or problems from a perspective of fear and write them on a flip chart. Then, the group is asked to consider those same issues from a perspective of hope and flip their understanding.

No problem and solution is free from existing bias and by changing perspectives with Flip It, you can then develop a problem solving model quickly and effectively.

Flip It! #gamestorming #problem solving #action Often, a change in a problem or situation comes simply from a change in our perspectives. Flip It! is a quick game designed to show players that perspectives are made, not born.

10. The Creativity Dice

One of the most useful problem solving skills you can teach your team is of approaching challenges with creativity, flexibility, and openness. Games like The Creativity Dice allow teams to overcome the potential hurdle of too much linear thinking and approach the process with a sense of fun and speed.

In The Creativity Dice, participants are organized around a topic and roll a dice to determine what they will work on for a period of 3 minutes at a time. They might roll a 3 and work on investigating factual information on the chosen topic. They might roll a 1 and work on identifying the specific goals, standards, or criteria for the session.

Encouraging rapid work and iteration while asking participants to be flexible are great skills to cultivate. Having a stage for idea incubation in this game is also important. Moments of pause can help ensure the ideas that are put forward are the most suitable.

The Creativity Dice #creativity #problem solving #thiagi #issue analysis Too much linear thinking is hazardous to creative problem solving. To be creative, you should approach the problem (or the opportunity) from different points of view. You should leave a thought hanging in mid-air and move to another. This skipping around prevents premature closure and lets your brain incubate one line of thought while you consciously pursue another.

11. Fishbone Analysis

Organizational or team challenges are rarely simple, and it’s important to remember that one problem can be an indication of something that goes deeper and may require further consideration to be solved.

Fishbone Analysis helps groups to dig deeper and understand the origins of a problem. It’s a great example of a root cause analysis method that is simple for everyone on a team to get their head around.

Participants in this activity are asked to annotate a diagram of a fish, first adding the problem or issue to be worked on at the head of a fish before then brainstorming the root causes of the problem and adding them as bones on the fish.

Using abstractions such as a diagram of a fish can really help a team break out of their regular thinking and develop a creative approach.

Fishbone Analysis #problem solving ##root cause analysis #decision making #online facilitation A process to help identify and understand the origins of problems, issues or observations.

12. Problem Tree

Encouraging visual thinking can be an essential part of many strategies. By simply reframing and clarifying problems, a group can move towards developing a problem solving model that works for them.

In Problem Tree, groups are asked to first brainstorm a list of problems – these can be design problems, team problems or larger business problems – and then organize them into a hierarchy. The hierarchy could be from most important to least important or abstract to practical, though the key thing with problem solving games that involve this aspect is that your group has some way of managing and sorting all the issues that are raised.

Once you have a list of problems that need to be solved and have organized them accordingly, you’re then well-positioned for the next problem solving steps.

Problem tree #define intentions #create #design #issue analysis A problem tree is a tool to clarify the hierarchy of problems addressed by the team within a design project; it represents high level problems or related sublevel problems.

13. SWOT Analysis

Chances are you’ve heard of the SWOT Analysis before. This problem-solving method focuses on identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is a tried and tested method for both individuals and teams.

Start by creating a desired end state or outcome and bare this in mind – any process solving model is made more effective by knowing what you are moving towards. Create a quadrant made up of the four categories of a SWOT analysis and ask participants to generate ideas based on each of those quadrants.

Once you have those ideas assembled in their quadrants, cluster them together based on their affinity with other ideas. These clusters are then used to facilitate group conversations and move things forward.

SWOT analysis #gamestorming #problem solving #action #meeting facilitation The SWOT Analysis is a long-standing technique of looking at what we have, with respect to the desired end state, as well as what we could improve on. It gives us an opportunity to gauge approaching opportunities and dangers, and assess the seriousness of the conditions that affect our future. When we understand those conditions, we can influence what comes next.

14. Agreement-Certainty Matrix

Not every problem-solving approach is right for every challenge, and deciding on the right method for the challenge at hand is a key part of being an effective team.

The Agreement Certainty matrix helps teams align on the nature of the challenges facing them. By sorting problems from simple to chaotic, your team can understand what methods are suitable for each problem and what they can do to ensure effective results.

If you are already using Liberating Structures techniques as part of your problem-solving strategy, the Agreement-Certainty Matrix can be an invaluable addition to your process. We’ve found it particularly if you are having issues with recurring problems in your organization and want to go deeper in understanding the root cause.

Agreement-Certainty Matrix #issue analysis #liberating structures #problem solving You can help individuals or groups avoid the frequent mistake of trying to solve a problem with methods that are not adapted to the nature of their challenge. The combination of two questions makes it possible to easily sort challenges into four categories: simple, complicated, complex , and chaotic . A problem is simple when it can be solved reliably with practices that are easy to duplicate. It is complicated when experts are required to devise a sophisticated solution that will yield the desired results predictably. A problem is complex when there are several valid ways to proceed but outcomes are not predictable in detail. Chaotic is when the context is too turbulent to identify a path forward. A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” The Liberating Structures Matching Matrix in Chapter 5 can be used as the first step to clarify the nature of a challenge and avoid the mismatches between problems and solutions that are frequently at the root of chronic, recurring problems.

Organizing and charting a team’s progress can be important in ensuring its success. SQUID (Sequential Question and Insight Diagram) is a great model that allows a team to effectively switch between giving questions and answers and develop the skills they need to stay on track throughout the process.

Begin with two different colored sticky notes – one for questions and one for answers – and with your central topic (the head of the squid) on the board. Ask the group to first come up with a series of questions connected to their best guess of how to approach the topic. Ask the group to come up with answers to those questions, fix them to the board and connect them with a line. After some discussion, go back to question mode by responding to the generated answers or other points on the board.

It’s rewarding to see a diagram grow throughout the exercise, and a completed SQUID can provide a visual resource for future effort and as an example for other teams.

SQUID #gamestorming #project planning #issue analysis #problem solving When exploring an information space, it’s important for a group to know where they are at any given time. By using SQUID, a group charts out the territory as they go and can navigate accordingly. SQUID stands for Sequential Question and Insight Diagram.

16. Speed Boat

To continue with our nautical theme, Speed Boat is a short and sweet activity that can help a team quickly identify what employees, clients or service users might have a problem with and analyze what might be standing in the way of achieving a solution.

Methods that allow for a group to make observations, have insights and obtain those eureka moments quickly are invaluable when trying to solve complex problems.

In Speed Boat, the approach is to first consider what anchors and challenges might be holding an organization (or boat) back. Bonus points if you are able to identify any sharks in the water and develop ideas that can also deal with competitors!

Speed Boat #gamestorming #problem solving #action Speedboat is a short and sweet way to identify what your employees or clients don’t like about your product/service or what’s standing in the way of a desired goal.

17. The Journalistic Six

Some of the most effective ways of solving problems is by encouraging teams to be more inclusive and diverse in their thinking.

Based on the six key questions journalism students are taught to answer in articles and news stories, The Journalistic Six helps create teams to see the whole picture. By using who, what, when, where, why, and how to facilitate the conversation and encourage creative thinking, your team can make sure that the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the are covered exhaustively and thoughtfully. Reporter’s notebook and dictaphone optional.

The Journalistic Six – Who What When Where Why How #idea generation #issue analysis #problem solving #online #creative thinking #remote-friendly A questioning method for generating, explaining, investigating ideas.

18. LEGO Challenge

Now for an activity that is a little out of the (toy) box. LEGO Serious Play is a facilitation methodology that can be used to improve creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

The LEGO Challenge includes giving each member of the team an assignment that is hidden from the rest of the group while they create a structure without speaking.

What the LEGO challenge brings to the table is a fun working example of working with stakeholders who might not be on the same page to solve problems. Also, it’s LEGO! Who doesn’t love LEGO!

LEGO Challenge #hyperisland #team A team-building activity in which groups must work together to build a structure out of LEGO, but each individual has a secret “assignment” which makes the collaborative process more challenging. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy.

19. What, So What, Now What?

If not carefully managed, the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the problem-solving process can actually create more problems and misunderstandings.

The What, So What, Now What? problem-solving activity is designed to help collect insights and move forward while also eliminating the possibility of disagreement when it comes to identifying, clarifying, and analyzing organizational or work problems.

Facilitation is all about bringing groups together so that might work on a shared goal and the best problem-solving strategies ensure that teams are aligned in purpose, if not initially in opinion or insight.

Throughout the three steps of this game, you give everyone on a team to reflect on a problem by asking what happened, why it is important, and what actions should then be taken.

This can be a great activity for bringing our individual perceptions about a problem or challenge and contextualizing it in a larger group setting. This is one of the most important problem-solving skills you can bring to your organization.

W³ – What, So What, Now What? #issue analysis #innovation #liberating structures You can help groups reflect on a shared experience in a way that builds understanding and spurs coordinated action while avoiding unproductive conflict. It is possible for every voice to be heard while simultaneously sifting for insights and shaping new direction. Progressing in stages makes this practical—from collecting facts about What Happened to making sense of these facts with So What and finally to what actions logically follow with Now What . The shared progression eliminates most of the misunderstandings that otherwise fuel disagreements about what to do. Voila!

20. Journalists

Problem analysis can be one of the most important and decisive stages of all problem-solving tools. Sometimes, a team can become bogged down in the details and are unable to move forward.

Journalists is an activity that can avoid a group from getting stuck in the problem identification or problem analysis stages of the process.

In Journalists, the group is invited to draft the front page of a fictional newspaper and figure out what stories deserve to be on the cover and what headlines those stories will have. By reframing how your problems and challenges are approached, you can help a team move productively through the process and be better prepared for the steps to follow.

Journalists #vision #big picture #issue analysis #remote-friendly This is an exercise to use when the group gets stuck in details and struggles to see the big picture. Also good for defining a vision.

Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

The success of any problem-solving process can be measured by the solutions it produces. After you’ve defined the issue, explored existing ideas, and ideated, it’s time to narrow down to the correct solution.

Use these problem-solving techniques when you want to help your team find consensus, compare possible solutions, and move towards taking action on a particular problem.

Improved Solutions
Four-Step Sketch
15% Solutions
How-Now-Wow matrix
Impact Effort Matrix

21. Mindspin

Brainstorming is part of the bread and butter of the problem-solving process and all problem-solving strategies benefit from getting ideas out and challenging a team to generate solutions quickly.

With Mindspin, participants are encouraged not only to generate ideas but to do so under time constraints and by slamming down cards and passing them on. By doing multiple rounds, your team can begin with a free generation of possible solutions before moving on to developing those solutions and encouraging further ideation.

This is one of our favorite problem-solving activities and can be great for keeping the energy up throughout the workshop. Remember the importance of helping people become engaged in the process – energizing problem-solving techniques like Mindspin can help ensure your team stays engaged and happy, even when the problems they’re coming together to solve are complex.

MindSpin #teampedia #idea generation #problem solving #action A fast and loud method to enhance brainstorming within a team. Since this activity has more than round ideas that are repetitive can be ruled out leaving more creative and innovative answers to the challenge.

22. Improved Solutions

After a team has successfully identified a problem and come up with a few solutions, it can be tempting to call the work of the problem-solving process complete. That said, the first solution is not necessarily the best, and by including a further review and reflection activity into your problem-solving model, you can ensure your group reaches the best possible result.

One of a number of problem-solving games from Thiagi Group, Improved Solutions helps you go the extra mile and develop suggested solutions with close consideration and peer review. By supporting the discussion of several problems at once and by shifting team roles throughout, this problem-solving technique is a dynamic way of finding the best solution.

Improved Solutions #creativity #thiagi #problem solving #action #team You can improve any solution by objectively reviewing its strengths and weaknesses and making suitable adjustments. In this creativity framegame, you improve the solutions to several problems. To maintain objective detachment, you deal with a different problem during each of six rounds and assume different roles (problem owner, consultant, basher, booster, enhancer, and evaluator) during each round. At the conclusion of the activity, each player ends up with two solutions to her problem.

23. Four Step Sketch

Creative thinking and visual ideation does not need to be confined to the opening stages of your problem-solving strategies. Exercises that include sketching and prototyping on paper can be effective at the solution finding and development stage of the process, and can be great for keeping a team engaged.

By going from simple notes to a crazy 8s round that involves rapidly sketching 8 variations on their ideas before then producing a final solution sketch, the group is able to iterate quickly and visually. Problem-solving techniques like Four-Step Sketch are great if you have a group of different thinkers and want to change things up from a more textual or discussion-based approach.

Four-Step Sketch #design sprint #innovation #idea generation #remote-friendly The four-step sketch is an exercise that helps people to create well-formed concepts through a structured process that includes: Review key information Start design work on paper, Consider multiple variations , Create a detailed solution . This exercise is preceded by a set of other activities allowing the group to clarify the challenge they want to solve. See how the Four Step Sketch exercise fits into a Design Sprint

24. 15% Solutions

Some problems are simpler than others and with the right problem-solving activities, you can empower people to take immediate actions that can help create organizational change.

Part of the liberating structures toolkit, 15% solutions is a problem-solving technique that focuses on finding and implementing solutions quickly. A process of iterating and making small changes quickly can help generate momentum and an appetite for solving complex problems.

Problem-solving strategies can live and die on whether people are onboard. Getting some quick wins is a great way of getting people behind the process.

It can be extremely empowering for a team to realize that problem-solving techniques can be deployed quickly and easily and delineate between things they can positively impact and those things they cannot change.

15% Solutions #action #liberating structures #remote-friendly You can reveal the actions, however small, that everyone can do immediately. At a minimum, these will create momentum, and that may make a BIG difference. 15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change. With a very simple question, you can flip the conversation to what can be done and find solutions to big problems that are often distributed widely in places not known in advance. Shifting a few grains of sand may trigger a landslide and change the whole landscape.

25. How-Now-Wow Matrix

The problem-solving process is often creative, as complex problems usually require a change of thinking and creative response in order to find the best solutions. While it’s common for the first stages to encourage creative thinking, groups can often gravitate to familiar solutions when it comes to the end of the process.

When selecting solutions, you don’t want to lose your creative energy! The How-Now-Wow Matrix from Gamestorming is a great problem-solving activity that enables a group to stay creative and think out of the box when it comes to selecting the right solution for a given problem.

Problem-solving techniques that encourage creative thinking and the ideation and selection of new solutions can be the most effective in organisational change. Give the How-Now-Wow Matrix a go, and not just for how pleasant it is to say out loud.

How-Now-Wow Matrix #gamestorming #idea generation #remote-friendly When people want to develop new ideas, they most often think out of the box in the brainstorming or divergent phase. However, when it comes to convergence, people often end up picking ideas that are most familiar to them. This is called a ‘creative paradox’ or a ‘creadox’. The How-Now-Wow matrix is an idea selection tool that breaks the creadox by forcing people to weigh each idea on 2 parameters.

26. Impact and Effort Matrix

All problem-solving techniques hope to not only find solutions to a given problem or challenge but to find the best solution. When it comes to finding a solution, groups are invited to put on their decision-making hats and really think about how a proposed idea would work in practice.

The Impact and Effort Matrix is one of the problem-solving techniques that fall into this camp, empowering participants to first generate ideas and then categorize them into a 2×2 matrix based on impact and effort.

Activities that invite critical thinking while remaining simple are invaluable. Use the Impact and Effort Matrix to move from ideation and towards evaluating potential solutions before then committing to them.

Impact and Effort Matrix #gamestorming #decision making #action #remote-friendly In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them.

27. Dotmocracy

If you’ve followed each of the problem-solving steps with your group successfully, you should move towards the end of your process with heaps of possible solutions developed with a specific problem in mind. But how do you help a group go from ideation to putting a solution into action?

Dotmocracy – or Dot Voting -is a tried and tested method of helping a team in the problem-solving process make decisions and put actions in place with a degree of oversight and consensus.

One of the problem-solving techniques that should be in every facilitator’s toolbox, Dot Voting is fast and effective and can help identify the most popular and best solutions and help bring a group to a decision effectively.

Dotmocracy #action #decision making #group prioritization #hyperisland #remote-friendly Dotmocracy is a simple method for group prioritization or decision-making. It is not an activity on its own, but a method to use in processes where prioritization or decision-making is the aim. The method supports a group to quickly see which options are most popular or relevant. The options or ideas are written on post-its and stuck up on a wall for the whole group to see. Each person votes for the options they think are the strongest, and that information is used to inform a decision.

All facilitators know that warm-ups and icebreakers are useful for any workshop or group process. Problem-solving workshops are no different.

Use these problem-solving techniques to warm up a group and prepare them for the rest of the process. Activating your group by tapping into some of the top problem-solving skills can be one of the best ways to see great outcomes from your session.

Check-in/Check-out
Doodling Together
Show and Tell
Constellations
Draw a Tree

28. Check-in / Check-out

Solid processes are planned from beginning to end, and the best facilitators know that setting the tone and establishing a safe, open environment can be integral to a successful problem-solving process.

Check-in / Check-out is a great way to begin and/or bookend a problem-solving workshop. Checking in to a session emphasizes that everyone will be seen, heard, and expected to contribute.

If you are running a series of meetings, setting a consistent pattern of checking in and checking out can really help your team get into a groove. We recommend this opening-closing activity for small to medium-sized groups though it can work with large groups if they’re disciplined!

Check-in / Check-out #team #opening #closing #hyperisland #remote-friendly Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure.

29. Doodling Together

Thinking creatively and not being afraid to make suggestions are important problem-solving skills for any group or team, and warming up by encouraging these behaviors is a great way to start.

Doodling Together is one of our favorite creative ice breaker games – it’s quick, effective, and fun and can make all following problem-solving steps easier by encouraging a group to collaborate visually. By passing cards and adding additional items as they go, the workshop group gets into a groove of co-creation and idea development that is crucial to finding solutions to problems.

Doodling Together #collaboration #creativity #teamwork #fun #team #visual methods #energiser #icebreaker #remote-friendly Create wild, weird and often funny postcards together & establish a group’s creative confidence.

30. Show and Tell

You might remember some version of Show and Tell from being a kid in school and it’s a great problem-solving activity to kick off a session.

Asking participants to prepare a little something before a workshop by bringing an object for show and tell can help them warm up before the session has even begun! Games that include a physical object can also help encourage early engagement before moving onto more big-picture thinking.

By asking your participants to tell stories about why they chose to bring a particular item to the group, you can help teams see things from new perspectives and see both differences and similarities in the way they approach a topic. Great groundwork for approaching a problem-solving process as a team!

Show and Tell #gamestorming #action #opening #meeting facilitation Show and Tell taps into the power of metaphors to reveal players’ underlying assumptions and associations around a topic The aim of the game is to get a deeper understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives on anything—a new project, an organizational restructuring, a shift in the company’s vision or team dynamic.

31. Constellations

Who doesn’t love stars? Constellations is a great warm-up activity for any workshop as it gets people up off their feet, energized, and ready to engage in new ways with established topics. It’s also great for showing existing beliefs, biases, and patterns that can come into play as part of your session.

Using warm-up games that help build trust and connection while also allowing for non-verbal responses can be great for easing people into the problem-solving process and encouraging engagement from everyone in the group. Constellations is great in large spaces that allow for movement and is definitely a practical exercise to allow the group to see patterns that are otherwise invisible.

Constellations #trust #connection #opening #coaching #patterns #system Individuals express their response to a statement or idea by standing closer or further from a central object. Used with teams to reveal system, hidden patterns, perspectives.

32. Draw a Tree

Problem-solving games that help raise group awareness through a central, unifying metaphor can be effective ways to warm-up a group in any problem-solving model.

Draw a Tree is a simple warm-up activity you can use in any group and which can provide a quick jolt of energy. Start by asking your participants to draw a tree in just 45 seconds – they can choose whether it will be abstract or realistic.

Once the timer is up, ask the group how many people included the roots of the tree and use this as a means to discuss how we can ignore important parts of any system simply because they are not visible.

All problem-solving strategies are made more effective by thinking of problems critically and by exposing things that may not normally come to light. Warm-up games like Draw a Tree are great in that they quickly demonstrate some key problem-solving skills in an accessible and effective way.

Draw a Tree #thiagi #opening #perspectives #remote-friendly With this game you can raise awarness about being more mindful, and aware of the environment we live in.

Each step of the problem-solving workshop benefits from an intelligent deployment of activities, games, and techniques. Bringing your session to an effective close helps ensure that solutions are followed through on and that you also celebrate what has been achieved.

Here are some problem-solving activities you can use to effectively close a workshop or meeting and ensure the great work you’ve done can continue afterward.

One Breath Feedback
Who What When Matrix
Response Cards

How do I conclude a problem-solving process?

All good things must come to an end. With the bulk of the work done, it can be tempting to conclude your workshop swiftly and without a moment to debrief and align. This can be problematic in that it doesn’t allow your team to fully process the results or reflect on the process.

At the end of an effective session, your team will have gone through a process that, while productive, can be exhausting. It’s important to give your group a moment to take a breath, ensure that they are clear on future actions, and provide short feedback before leaving the space.

The primary purpose of any problem-solving method is to generate solutions and then implement them. Be sure to take the opportunity to ensure everyone is aligned and ready to effectively implement the solutions you produced in the workshop.

Remember that every process can be improved and by giving a short moment to collect feedback in the session, you can further refine your problem-solving methods and see further success in the future too.

33. One Breath Feedback

Maintaining attention and focus during the closing stages of a problem-solving workshop can be tricky and so being concise when giving feedback can be important. It’s easy to incur “death by feedback” should some team members go on for too long sharing their perspectives in a quick feedback round.

One Breath Feedback is a great closing activity for workshops. You give everyone an opportunity to provide feedback on what they’ve done but only in the space of a single breath. This keeps feedback short and to the point and means that everyone is encouraged to provide the most important piece of feedback to them.

One breath feedback #closing #feedback #action This is a feedback round in just one breath that excels in maintaining attention: each participants is able to speak during just one breath … for most people that’s around 20 to 25 seconds … unless of course you’ve been a deep sea diver in which case you’ll be able to do it for longer.

34. Who What When Matrix

Matrices feature as part of many effective problem-solving strategies and with good reason. They are easily recognizable, simple to use, and generate results.

The Who What When Matrix is a great tool to use when closing your problem-solving session by attributing a who, what and when to the actions and solutions you have decided upon. The resulting matrix is a simple, easy-to-follow way of ensuring your team can move forward.

Great solutions can’t be enacted without action and ownership. Your problem-solving process should include a stage for allocating tasks to individuals or teams and creating a realistic timeframe for those solutions to be implemented or checked out. Use this method to keep the solution implementation process clear and simple for all involved.

Who/What/When Matrix #gamestorming #action #project planning With Who/What/When matrix, you can connect people with clear actions they have defined and have committed to.

35. Response cards

Group discussion can comprise the bulk of most problem-solving activities and by the end of the process, you might find that your team is talked out!

Providing a means for your team to give feedback with short written notes can ensure everyone is head and can contribute without the need to stand up and talk. Depending on the needs of the group, giving an alternative can help ensure everyone can contribute to your problem-solving model in the way that makes the most sense for them.

Response Cards is a great way to close a workshop if you are looking for a gentle warm-down and want to get some swift discussion around some of the feedback that is raised.

Response Cards #debriefing #closing #structured sharing #questions and answers #thiagi #action It can be hard to involve everyone during a closing of a session. Some might stay in the background or get unheard because of louder participants. However, with the use of Response Cards, everyone will be involved in providing feedback or clarify questions at the end of a session.

Save time and effort discovering the right solutions

A structured problem solving process is a surefire way of solving tough problems, discovering creative solutions and driving organizational change. But how can you design for successful outcomes?

With SessionLab, it’s easy to design engaging workshops that deliver results. Drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda. When you make changes or update your agenda, your session timing adjusts automatically , saving you time on manual adjustments.

Collaborating with stakeholders or clients? Share your agenda with a single click and collaborate in real-time. No more sending documents back and forth over email.

Explore how to use SessionLab to design effective problem solving workshops or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Over to you

The problem-solving process can often be as complicated and multifaceted as the problems they are set-up to solve. With the right problem-solving techniques and a mix of creative exercises designed to guide discussion and generate purposeful ideas, we hope we’ve given you the tools to find the best solutions as simply and easily as possible.

Is there a problem-solving technique that you are missing here? Do you have a favorite activity or method you use when facilitating? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you!

thank you very much for these excellent techniques

Certainly wonderful article, very detailed. Shared!

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Home » Tips for Teachers » 19 Awesome Drawing Games for Kids — A Fun Way to Learn Art and Boost Creativity in 2023

19 Awesome Drawing Games for Kids — A Fun Way to Learn Art and Boost Creativity in 2023

Drawing is a crucial skill for kids to develop, allowing them to unleash their creativity and develop essential fine motor skills. However, some children may perceive drawing as a tedious task rather than an enjoyable activity. This is where drawing games for kids come into play, making the process more engaging and entertaining for children of all ages.

Numerous free drawing games for kids are accessible online, ranging from simple coloring pages to more intricate drawing challenges. Drawing games such as “Draw and Color for Kids” provide an excellent introduction to digital drawing, encouraging kids to explore their creativity while developing their skills.

Drawing games not only help make drawing more enjoyable for kids but also provide opportunities to practice important skills like hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. Moreover, drawing can enhance self-esteem, promote relaxation, and reduce stress levels.

For teachers seeking entertaining activities for their students or parents looking to encourage their child’s creativity, drawing games are an excellent option.

In the following sections, we will explore:

4 Popular Drawing Games for Kids

Drawing is an activity that offers a wealth of benefits to children. It stimulates creativity, enhances fine motor skills, and encourages self-expression. However, not all children may have an inherent interest in drawing, and some may need extra motivation to engage with it. That’s where drawing games for kids come in. Let’s explore some of the best options available, including both offline and online free drawing games for kids.

Drawing games for kids provide an excellent opportunity to encourage creativity and improve important skills like hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness, and communication. With a variety of offline and online free drawing games for kids available, there is no shortage of options to engage and entertain children while also promoting important developmental skills. So, let’s get drawing and have some fun!

1. Pictionary

What you’ll need :

A list of words to draw

Pictionary is a classic game that can be played offline with a group of friends or family. Players take turns drawing a word while the rest of the group tries to guess what it is. This game not only promotes creativity but also hones communication skills and enhances vocabulary.

Best For: developing creativity, teamwork, and communication skills. Kids work together to draw and guess pictures, improving their ability to collaborate and convey ideas through art.

2. Draw and Guess

Draw and Guess is an online game that allows kids to interact with friends or strangers while also improving their drawing skills. Players take turns drawing a picture while the others try to guess what it is. This game provides an excellent opportunity for socialization while also honing drawing abilities.

Best For: building listening and communication skills, as well as enhancing creativity. Kids take turns drawing and guessing each other’s pictures, learning to listen carefully and express themselves visually.

3. Ready Set Draw

Ready Set Draw is another exciting offline game that can be played with 2 to 6 players. It’s a non-competitive game that requires players to draw a card from the stack and follow the drawing prompt written thereon. This game is perfect for fostering creativity and imagination while also enhancing drawing skills.

Best For: promoting imagination and storytelling abilities. Kids create their own characters and worlds, using their imaginations to bring their drawings to life.

4. Draw With Your Eyes Closed

Draw With Your Eyes Closed is a fun and engaging game that is sure to bring a smile to everyone’s face. All that is required is a pencil and a piece of paper. Players are asked to draw an object while their eyes are closed. The person with the most accurate drawing wins! This game not only encourages creativity but also hones spatial awareness and imagination. Thinking about how the movements feel provides centering and grounding in the body, which can be helpful when feeling anxious. This activity also helps children understand control by thinking about what they can and cannot control.

Best For: fostering creativity and encouraging unconventional thinking. Kids challenge themselves to draw without relying on their eyesight, which can spark new ideas and approaches to drawing.

In the video below, you’ll see an example of this drawing activity provided by Megan, Teapot Trust Art therapist.

5 Free Drawing Games for Kids

Engaging children in fun and exciting activities is key to fostering their development and creativity. One such activity that is perfect for children of all ages is drawing. Not only is it a great way to unleash their imagination, but it also helps them develop their fine motor skills, communication, and cognitive abilities. To make drawing even more enjoyable for kids, parents and educators can introduce them to various drawing games for kids, which are not only fun but also challenging.

Incorporating drawing games for kids into the classroom or home environment can be a fun and educational way to engage children in creative and artistic activities. By using these games, children can develop their motor skills, cognitive abilities, and communication skills while having fun. So, don’t hesitate to introduce your children or students to these amazing drawing games and watch them unleash their creativity and imagination!

5. SplashLearn

A laptop, a phone or a tablet
The SplashLearn website

SplashLearn stands out as a vibrant addition to the list of online art and creativity games . This platform is designed to ignite children’s imagination and artistic skills through engaging and colorful interactive games. With a focus on creativity, SplashLearn provides a variety of drawing challenges and activities that cater to different age groups and skill levels. The games are fun and educational, helping children understand basic art concepts and techniques. The user-friendly interface ensures that even the youngest artists can easily navigate and enjoy the games. SplashLearn’s art games encourage children to express themselves freely while developing their fine motor skills and artistic eye.

Best For: This platform is a wonderful tool for parents and educators looking to integrate art into their children’s learning in a playful and inspiring way.

6. Draw and Tell

The Draw and Tell website

One of the most popular drawing games for kids is Draw and Tell, an app that is perfect for younger children between the ages of 3 to 7 years old. With a wide range of drawing tools, including crayons, markers, and stickers, kids can create amazing artwork while also narrating their stories with the app’s voice recording feature.

Best For: developing language and literacy skills, as well as creativity. Kids draw pictures based on prompts, then tell stories about what they’ve drawn, building their vocabulary and storytelling abilities.

7. ABCya Paint

The ABCya Paint website

Another great online drawing game for kids is ABCya Paint, which can be played on any device with internet access. The game features an array of drawing tools, such as brushes, stamps, spray paint, and a color wheel, as well as a wide range of background images to choose from. This game is perfect for children aged 5 to 12 years old and can help them develop their mouse or touchpad skills.

Best For: introducing younger kids to basic drawing skills and digital art. The simple interface and kid-friendly tools make it easy for even the youngest artists to create their own masterpieces.

8. Flockmod

The Flockmod website

For older children and teenagers, Flockmod is a great option. It is a multiplayer online drawing game that allows kids to draw and chat with other players in real-time. With its simple interface and a variety of drawing tools, such as pens, pencils, and brushes, Flockmod can help kids develop their collaboration and communication skills while having fun.

Best For: encouraging collaboration and socialization among budding artists. Kids can draw and chat with each other in real-time, sharing ideas and building connections through their shared love of art.

9. Draw Climber

The Draw Climber website

Draw Climber drawing games for kids online

Draw Climber is another excellent free app that allows kids to draw and play helping a cube friend grow legs and overcome levels filled with various obstacles. The cube can’t move due to lack of the necessary limbs, but now that you’re here with your magical feather, it’s time to give it some mobility. Depending on the obstacle, come up with various kinds of supports for the cube so that it can pass the given level as quickly as possible

Best For: building fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Kids use drawing to control their character and navigate obstacles, improving their dexterity and control.

4 Popular Drawing Games for kids Online

The digital age has revolutionized the way children play, learn and create. Nowadays, drawing games have taken the world by storm, providing children with not only a fun experience but also an educational one. These games can be played online, making them more accessible to children worldwide. Here are four of the most popular free drawing games for kids online, all of which offer a good amount of perplexity and burstiness in their gameplay.

Online drawing games have become increasingly popular among children, providing them with an excellent way to develop their creative skills while having fun. These games offer a wide range of challenges and prompts that encourage children to think outside the box and improve their problem-solving skills, all while enjoying a good amount of perplexity and burstiness. So, if you’re looking for a way to keep your kids entertained and educated, these free drawing games for kids online are definitely worth trying out.

10. Drawful 2

The Drawful 2 app

First on our list is Drawful 2, a hilarious drawing game that is perfect for children of all ages. Players are given prompts to draw, ranging from absurd to straightforward, and then have to guess what the other players drew. The game can be played on most gaming platforms, and its unique prompts encourage children to improve their creativity and problem-solving skills.

Best For: sparking creativity and humor, as well as developing quick-thinking skills. Kids draw ridiculous prompts and then vote on their favorites, learning to think outside the box and appreciate different perspectives.

11. Skribbl.io

The Skribbl.io website

Next up is Skribbl.io, a popular online drawing game that is perfect for children who enjoy drawing and guessing. The game consists of players taking turns drawing, while others try to guess what is being drawn. Skribbl.io also offers a variety of customization options, making it an engaging and interactive experience.

Best For: developing creativity and imagination, as well as improving vocabulary and spelling skills. Players can create their own custom words and drawings, making it a fun and engaging game for all ages.

12. Drawize

The Drawize website

Third on our list is Drawize, an excellent online drawing game that is ideal for children who want to improve their drawing skills. The game provides players with a range of drawing challenges and prompts, including animal and food drawings, among others. Players can also play with their friends or join random games, making it a fun and social experience.

Best For: building team spirit and promoting cooperation among students. The game encourages players to work together to complete drawings, which helps to develop communication and problem-solving skills.

13. Drawasaurus

The Drawasaurus app

Last but not least is Drawasaurus, a multiplayer online drawing game that is perfect for children who want to improve their drawing skills. The game is similar to Pictionary, where one player draws and the others try to guess what is being drawn. Drawasaurus offers a range of word prompts, making it a fun and educational game that helps children improve their communication and cognitive abilities.

Best For: improving drawing skills and creativity. The game has a wide range of drawing prompts and challenges, and allows players to express their artistic side in a fun and engaging way.

4 Popular Draw & Color for Kids Games

Drawing games for kids are a wonderful way to enhance their creativity, imagination, and hand-eye coordination. Not to mention, they provide an excellent opportunity for children to express their thoughts and ideas in a fun and interactive manner. If you are looking for some popular and engaging drawing games for kids, then you are in luck. Here are four top drawing games: draw & color for kids online that offer a range of benefits for kids of all ages.

These drawing games: draw & color for kids are perfect for children of all ages and can be played both offline and online. They encourage creativity, imagination, problem-solving skills, and socialization, while also providing a fun and interactive way for kids to express themselves. Whether you are looking for free drawing games for kids or drawing games for kids online, these four popular drawing games will not disappoint.

14. Colorfy

The Colorfy app

Colorfy drawing games: draw & color for kids

Colorfy is a perfect online drawing game for kids who love to color. It provides an extensive range of coloring pages for kids to choose from and explore their creativity by experimenting with different colors and patterns. Moreover, it’s a fantastic way for kids to relax and unwind after a long day at school. Colorfy is one of the best free drawing games for kids available online.

Best For: promoting mindfulness and relaxation, as well as developing fine motor skills. The app features a wide range of coloring pages and tools, allowing students to express themselves creatively and destress at the same time.

15. Doodle.ly

The Doodle.ly app

Doodle.ly is another free online drawing game that lets kids create their own artwork using a range of brushes, colors, and tools. They can also browse through the gallery to view other people’s creations and get inspiration for their own artwork. This game encourages children to think outside the box and experiment with new styles and techniques. Doodle.ly is a perfect drawing game for kids who want to explore their creative side.

Best For: developing creativity and imagination, as well as improving fine motor skills. The game provides a range of drawing tools and prompts, allowing students to express themselves and explore their artistic side in a fun and interactive way.

16. Draw Something

A laptop, a phone, or a tablet
The Draw Something app

Draw Something is a popular drawing game that can be played online or through a mobile app. It’s a great way for kids to challenge their friends to a drawing match or play against random opponents from around the world. The game provides a selection of words for players to draw, and their opponents must guess what they are drawing. This game not only promotes creativity but also helps to improve vocabulary and spelling skills. Draw Something is one of the best drawing games for kids online.

Best For: promoting socialization and communication among students. The game encourages players to interact with each other by exchanging drawings, which helps to develop cooperation and teamwork skills.

17. Let’s Draw It

The Let’s Draw It app

Let’s Draw It is a multiplayer drawing game that can be played online. Players take turns drawing and guessing each other’s drawings. This game encourages teamwork and cooperation, as well as creativity and imagination. It’s a perfect way for kids to socialize and make new friends. Let’s Draw It is one of the most engaging and fun drawing games for kids available online.

Best For: developing drawing skills and creativity, as well as improving vocabulary and spelling. The game has a range of drawing prompts and challenges, making it a fun and engaging way for students to express themselves and develop new skills.

2 Additional Drawing Games for Kids for the Whole Family

When it comes to family game night, drawing games can be a great way to get creative and have some laughs. Here are two drawing games that are perfect for the whole family to enjoy. Drawing games are a fun and interactive way for families to spend time together. Here are two great games that require minimal materials, are easy to set up, and can provide hours of laughter and creativity. These games not only promote imagination, creativity, and problem-solving skills but also encourage teamwork and communication.

18. Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite Corpse, a surrealist game that has been around for over 100 years, is a collaborative drawing game that involves creating a figure or creature one section at a time. The catch is that each player is not allowed to see the previous player’s contribution, leading to a final drawing that is always imaginative and often humorous.

One player starts by drawing the head or top of the creature on the first section of the paper, then folds the paper over so that only the bottom edge of the drawing can be seen. The next player continues the drawing by adding the torso or middle section of the creature, and folds the paper over again so that only the bottom edge can be seen. The last player adds the legs or bottom section, and unfolds the paper to reveal the final creation.

Best For: developing collaboration and teamwork, making it an excellent family activity.

Check this video example of how the art teacher explains and demonstrates more about the Exquisite Corpse game.

19. Drawing Telephone

Drawing Telephone is another drawing game that is played similarly to the classic game of Telephone. The objective is to communicate a message through drawings instead of words, leading to humorous results due to miscommunication.

Each player writes a sentence at the top of a piece of paper, then folds the paper over so that the sentence cannot be seen. The next player then draws a picture to represent the sentence, and folds the paper over again so that only the drawing can be seen. The following player writes a sentence to describe the picture, and the game continues in this way until everyone has had a turn. The final paper is unfolded to reveal the original sentence and the final drawing, leading to a lot of laughs and creativity.

Best For: developing communication and interpretation skills while embracing the imperfections that can arise from miscommunication.

Check this simple and fast guide on how to play Drawing Telephone with one piece of paper.

Additional Resources

TheVirtualInstructor.com — The Virtual Instructor is a platform that provides drawing lessons for kids of all skill levels. Through video lessons that cover a variety of techniques, styles, and subjects, kids can improve their drawing skills step by step with the help of experienced art instructors. With an abundance of resources available on the platform, The Virtual Instructor is a great option for any kid who wants to take their drawing skills to the next level.
ArtForKidsHub.com — For a more casual approach, Art for Kids Hub is a YouTube channel that offers free drawing lessons for kids. The channel features a wide range of drawing tutorials that are suitable for kids of different ages and skill levels. Led by a family of professional artists, the lessons are designed to be simple, fun, and easy to follow, making drawing an enjoyable experience for kids. Plus, it’s free!
DickBlick.com — To get your hands on some high-quality art supplies for your little artist, Dick Blick Art Materials is a trusted online art supply store that offers a wide selection of art materials, including drawing supplies such as pencils, markers, and paper. With over a century of experience serving artists and art enthusiasts, Dick Blick Art Materials is a reliable and affordable option for helping kids develop their creativity and skills in drawing.

It is without a doubt that drawing games for kids are an exceptional means to augment their imaginative aptitude and hone their artistic abilities. These games provide a thrilling and captivating space that enables kids to give vent to their artistic flair through the medium of drawings and colors. The integration of drawing games into children’s daily routines can aid in the enhancement of hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and self-confidence. Whether online or offline, educators and parents can galvanize children to tap into their artistic proclivities by introducing them to a wide range of drawing games. By assimilating drawing games as a customary component of their recreational endeavors, kids can have a blast while concurrently acquiring vital life proficiencies.

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7 Problem-Solving Skills That Can Help You Be a More Successful Manager

Discover what problem-solving is, and why it's important for managers. Understand the steps of the process and learn about seven problem-solving skills.

[Featured Image]: A manager wearing a black suit is talking to a team member, handling an issue utilizing the process of problem-solving

1Managers oversee the day-to-day operations of a particular department, and sometimes a whole company, using their problem-solving skills regularly. Managers with good problem-solving skills can help ensure companies run smoothly and prosper.

If you're a current manager or are striving to become one, read this guide to discover what problem-solving skills are and why it's important for managers to have them. Learn the steps of the problem-solving process, and explore seven skills that can help make problem-solving easier and more effective.

What is problem-solving?

Problem-solving is both an ability and a process. As an ability, problem-solving can aid in resolving issues faced in different environments like home, school, abroad, and social situations, among others. As a process, problem-solving involves a series of steps for finding solutions to questions or concerns that arise throughout life.

The importance of problem-solving for managers

Managers deal with problems regularly, whether supervising a staff of two or 100. When people solve problems quickly and effectively, workplaces can benefit in a number of ways. These include:

Greater creativity

Higher productivity

Increased job fulfillment

Satisfied clients or customers

Better cooperation and cohesion

Improved environments for employees and customers

7 skills that make problem-solving easier

Companies depend on managers who can solve problems adeptly. Although problem-solving is a skill in its own right, a subset of seven skills can help make the process of problem-solving easier. These include analysis, communication, emotional intelligence, resilience, creativity, adaptability, and teamwork.

1. Analysis

As a manager , you'll solve each problem by assessing the situation first. Then, you’ll use analytical skills to distinguish between ineffective and effective solutions.

2. Communication

Effective communication plays a significant role in problem-solving, particularly when others are involved. Some skills that can help enhance communication at work include active listening, speaking with an even tone and volume, and supporting verbal information with written communication.

3. Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage emotions in any situation. People with emotional intelligence usually solve problems calmly and systematically, which often yields better results.

4. Resilience

Emotional intelligence and resilience are closely related traits. Resiliency is the ability to cope with and bounce back quickly from difficult situations. Those who possess resilience are often capable of accurately interpreting people and situations, which can be incredibly advantageous when difficulties arise.

5. Creativity

When brainstorming solutions to problems, creativity can help you to think outside the box. Problem-solving strategies can be enhanced with the application of creative techniques. You can use creativity to:

Approach problems from different angles

Improve your problem-solving process

Spark creativity in your employees and peers

6. Adaptability

Adaptability is the capacity to adjust to change. When a particular solution to an issue doesn't work, an adaptable person can revisit the concern to think up another one without getting frustrated.

7. Teamwork

Finding a solution to a problem regularly involves working in a team. Good teamwork requires being comfortable working with others and collaborating with them, which can result in better problem-solving overall.

Steps of the problem-solving process

Effective problem-solving involves five essential steps. One way to remember them is through the IDEAL model created in 1984 by psychology professors John D. Bransford and Barry S. Stein [ 1 ]. The steps to solving problems in this model include: identifying that there is a problem, defining the goals you hope to achieve, exploring potential solutions, choosing a solution and acting on it, and looking at (or evaluating) the outcome.

1. Identify that there is a problem and root out its cause.

To solve a problem, you must first admit that one exists to then find its root cause. Finding the cause of the problem may involve asking questions like:

Can the problem be solved?

How big of a problem is it?

Why do I think the problem is occurring?

What are some things I know about the situation?

What are some things I don't know about the situation?

Are there any people who contributed to the problem?

Are there materials or processes that contributed to the problem?

Are there any patterns I can identify?

2. Define the goals you hope to achieve.

Every problem is different. The goals you hope to achieve when problem-solving depend on the scope of the problem. Some examples of goals you might set include:

Gather as much factual information as possible.

Brainstorm many different strategies to come up with the best one.

Be flexible when considering other viewpoints.

Articulate clearly and encourage questions, so everyone involved is on the same page.

Be open to other strategies if the chosen strategy doesn't work.

Stay positive throughout the process.

3. Explore potential solutions.

Once you've defined the goals you hope to achieve when problem-solving , it's time to start the process. This involves steps that often include fact-finding, brainstorming, prioritizing solutions, and assessing the cost of top solutions in terms of time, labor, and money.

4. Choose a solution and act on it.

Evaluate the pros and cons of each potential solution, and choose the one most likely to solve the problem within your given budget, abilities, and resources. Once you choose a solution, it's important to make a commitment and see it through. Draw up a plan of action for implementation, and share it with all involved parties clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing. Make sure everyone understands their role for a successful conclusion.

5. Look at (or evaluate) the outcome.

Evaluation offers insights into your current situation and future problem-solving. When evaluating the outcome, ask yourself questions like:

Did the solution work?

Will this solution work for other problems?

Were there any changes you would have made?

Would another solution have worked better?

As a current or future manager looking to build your problem-solving skills, it is often helpful to take a professional course. Consider Improving Communication Skills offered by the University of Pennsylvania on Coursera. You'll learn how to boost your ability to persuade, ask questions, negotiate, apologize, and more.

You might also consider taking Emotional Intelligence: Cultivating Immensely Human Interactions , offered by the University of Michigan on Coursera. You'll explore the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills common to people with emotional intelligence, and you'll learn how emotional intelligence is connected to team success and leadership.

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Article sources

Tennessee Tech. “ The Ideal Problem Solver (2nd ed.) , https://www.tntech.edu/cat/pdf/useful_links/idealproblemsolver.pdf.” Accessed December 6, 2022.

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Editorial Team

Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

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How Drawing Unlocks Creativity and Problem-Solving

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How to solve your problems through drawing (w/ Liana Finck) (Transcript)

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Introduction

Drawing Strategy and Linear Overgeneralizations

Quality of Drawing Strategy

Visual Monitoring

Linear Overgeneralizations

Effects of the Drawing Strategy on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance

Research Questions and Expectations

Expectations for Research Question 1 (Drawing)

Expectations for Research Question 2 (High-Quality Drawing):

Expectations for Research Question 3 (Visual Monitoring)

Expectations for Research Question 4 (Effects on Perceived Performance)

Materials and Methods

Treatment Check

Linear Overgeneralizations and Problem Solving Performance

Perceived Performance

Data Analysis

Effect of Drawing Strategy on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance

Effect of High-Quality Drawing Strategy on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance

Effect of Visual Monitoring on Linear Overgeneralizations and Performance

Effect of Drawing Strategy and Visual Monitoring on Perceived Performance

Negative Effect of the Drawing Strategy

Awareness of Linear Overgeneralizations

Strengths and Limitations

Data Availability Statement

Ethics Statement

Author Contributions

Conflict of Interest

Goods of the Mind

Essential Skills for Problem Solving - Drawing

Using Visual Arts to Foster Creative Thinking Skills

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Problem Solving: Draw a Picture

Problem-solving is a critical 21st Century and social-emotional skill

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