Authors: Professor Howard Riley (Swansea Metropolitan University) and Qona Rankin (Royal College of Art). Presented at the Research - Teaching in Wales 2011 Conference, 13th - 14th September, Gregynog Hall, Newtown (Powys)

1. Research into Practice: Strategies for the Teaching of Drawing Howard Riley, Faculty of Art & Design, Swansea Met. Univ. Qona Rankin, Royal College of Art Mary Davies, Study Support Tutor, SMU

2. Helen’s ladder

3. Simon’s matrix (Aberystwyth, Feb 2011)

4. Art schools have a high proportion of dyslexic students. We wondered whether indicators of dyslexia could be identified in students’ drawings.

5. Students did too, so we asked them to participate in a collaborative research project. Cohorts from Swansea and the RCA which included both dyslexics and non-dyslexics made a series of drawings which were ‘blind’ assessed by Riley and Rankin.

7. We identified the dyslexic students at a success rate of 70%

8. Taxonomy of Indicators of Dyslexia in Drawings Left – Right confusion Forgetting instructions ‘Hedge-your-bets’ line quality Visual perceptual skills: drawing what is ‘known’ rather than what is seen Rigid, static drawing style

13. Nist & Mealy’s 8-Step Learning Process designed to help dyslexics 1 Focus the student’s attention 2 Explain a general overview of the required task 3 Introduce new technical terms 4 Go through procedure step by step 5 Model the process – think aloud – encourage students to discuss the process 6 Guide the practice – students repeat the tutor’s strategy 7 Encourage independent practice 8 Re-demonstrate the practice, to reinforce

14. Nist & Mealy adapted to the drawing studio 1 Focus attention upon a) the model and their surroundings (figure/field relationship), and b) the relationship between scale of drawing and size and format of paper:

17. 2 Explain a general overview of the task: in terms of drawing from observation, this is the equivalent of mapping the spatial relationships between salient points on the subject-matter under observation. (Wholist mixed with Analyst cognitive styles) (The ‘N-grid’ – Nose, Nipples, Navel, kNees, kNuckles… not too great for your spelling, but really useful when you’re drawing…)

20. 3 Introduce new terms, such as ‘contrast boundary’ and ‘negative space’:

22. 4 Repeat first three steps at the beginning of every session. 5 Discuss with tutor the process underway on the drawing board. 6 Repeat the tutor’s strategy with support from the tutor. 7 Draw independently at unsupervised sessions. 8 Re-demonstrate strategies at each session as reinforcement.

23. It seems the 8-Step method is adaptable and useful: Students, both dyslexic and non-dyslexic, report improvements in their observational drawing. Research is ongoing…ongoing…

24. howard.riley@smu.ac.uk