Analyzing students’ free response drawings: Perceptions of assessment

Abstract

This dataset illustrates how free response drawings can be used to make sense of participants’ conceptualizations, beliefs, and emotions on a certain topic. It focuses on how free response drawings can be content analysed to extract meanings adopting an emic approach. The data are provided by Professor Gavin T. L. Brown from the Faculty of Education and Social Work at The University of Auckland and Doctor Zhenlin Wang from the Department of Psychology at The Education University of Hong Kong. Drawings are drawn from a joint research project examining tertiary students’ conceptualization of assessment in Hong Kong done in 2010–2011. The free response technique can be useful in initiating discussion of a complex problem or engaging participants in a nonthreatening exchange of ideas. This may be especially useful when working with students with limited language abilities or in studies where language barriers are present. The dataset files are accompanied by a Teaching Guide and a Student Guide.