Draw a Computing Student: Facilitating Semi-Structured Interviews Through Drawing

Abstract

Qualitative research methodologies that collect data through interviews, focus groups and ethnographic studies, are valuable approaches to understand the educational experience. Participant drawings can be used as prompts to access implicit understandings and have been shown to contribute to effective data collection in related fields, but are not widely used in computing education research. We report on a case study in which sixteen New Zealand primary and secondary school digital technologies teachers were interviewed and asked to draw their ideal computing student. This case study illustrates how drawings can be used to enhance semi-structured interviews in the context of computing education. The contributions made here come in the form of a case study demonstrating the draw-a-person method in a computing education context, along with recommendations for researchers considering applying this method in their work.