doodles
Have you ever been in the process of presenting one of the best lectures of your teaching career only to discover one of your brighter students has not been taking notes but instead has worked the past 40 minutes on a piece of "artwork" that has flowed beyond the pages of her notebook and onto the desk?
You're not alone. Doodling has probably been around since man first picked up a stick and scratched the ground. It has grown from harmless marks to what some consider damaging vandalism.
As an educator, what should you do about the doodles and with the doodlers?
A fascinating study recently published by Wiley InterScience might create some ripples among learning theorists. "What Does Doodling do," a summary of research done by Jackie Andrade at the School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, UK, indicates that doodling may increase attention and memory! Ms. Andrade used 40 people in her study. All were asked to listen to a (boring) phone message and make a list of people's names they heard. Twenty of the listeners were given a sheet of ruled paper on which to list the names. The other twenty were given a piece of paper on which were printed various shapes. These latter twenty were told to color the shapes any way they wanted. They were not to be concerned with being neat or completely coloring all of the shapes. Oh, and by the way, they were asked to make note of the names they heard somewhere in the margin of their paper.
In other words, they were given a "doodling environment" where they could play while listening to the boring phone message.
All were told to put their "notes" away and take a quiz. (Sound familiar?)
When told to list all the names they could recall from the phone message those with the doodling environment scored a whopping 29% better than the careful list-makers.
The message to educators? Perhaps colored pencils and unlined paper might be useful in math, science, literature and social studies.
But what about doodlers who go over the line? Experience shows that some students go too far. Doodling becomes graffiti which in turns becomes vandalism. There is no doubt this should be dealt with immediately (recall the "broken window" studies showing that when buildings are not cleaned or repaired immediately after being vandalized, they become vandalized even more). Can we channel those doodling tendencies?
A recent presentation at a community college near Chicago by Nino Rodriquez (as reported by the Northwest Herald) addresses the problem:
- "I'm here to show some of my art and educate people about graffiti and Aztec art," he said. Rodriguez, also known by the street artist handle "Tsel," grew up in a tough neighborhood on Chicago's North Side. When he was 11, his older brother introduced him to tagging. He soon developed his own unique style and took spray paint to buses, trains, walls and other public places."
Perhaps, recognizing the potential positives indicated by doodling studies, one should make an effort to better understand the doodler.
Anna Koren is a "graphologist" (handwriting analysis) who has a website where various doodles are analyzed. Is the doodler an extrovert or introvert? Aggressive or sensitive? Restless? Nervous? Threatened? She provides a number of sample doodles and her thoughts on what they might indicate about the creator.
In March, 2009, NPR devoted a program to a discussion of doodling, opening with some doodles left on a chair at Davos, the famous world economic forum. These doodles were attributed to Tony Blair (then Prime Minister) and a number of analysts (including a graphologist) concluded the prime minister was "struggling to maintain control in a confusing world." Worse, it appeared he was "not a natural leader, but more of a spiritual person, like a vicar." In fact, the doodles were made by Bill Gates, not Tony Blair.
Gates doodles. So did Ralph Waldo Emerson. In fact, most people doodle. Why? According to Andrade, "the function of doodling is to provide just enough cognitive stimulation during an otherwise boring task to prevent the mind from taking the more radical step of totally opting out of the situation and running off into a fantasy world." So, instead of working to prevent it, educators might welcome it, channel it and use it. Who knows, that doodler in the third row may one day occupy the same office as the author of the doodle at the top of this page - Harry Truman.
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