Use students' drawings to understand their thinking: How to develop your recognition and interpretation skills to better evaluate learners’ chemical representations

Chemistry is full of representations, including in students’ drawings. These drawings represent chemical entities, reactions or processes and offer valuable insight into students’ conceptual understanding. The concept of noticing – how teachers recognise and interpret important aspects of student work – is underexplored in chemistry education research, particularly in relation to student-generated drawings. Read this article and the teaching tips summarising a 2024 study which explored how experienced chemistry teachers notice student-generated drawings about electrochemical reactions.