Visualization of Thinking Process through "Iro to Katachi(Colors and shapes)" which combine Language and Image

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K18477
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 9:Education and related fields
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: Uchikoshi Masaki 茨城大学, 教育学研究科, 教授 (10764970)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 宮本 浩紀 茨城大学, 全学教職センター, 助教 (00737918)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: イメージ / 思考 / 可視化 / 教科 / 領域 / 子ども / 思考ツール / “色と形”

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we aimed to visualize children's thinking. Until now, teachers have confirmed the content of children's thoughts through activities such as "writing" and "speaking." However, children who are not good at writing find it difficult to express their thoughts, and those who are not good at speaking in front of others find it hard to convey what they are thinking. To address these issues, we developed a method to easily visualize children's thought processes and content. This method involves a learning activity where children draw pictures. "Iro to Katachi(Colors and shapes)" produce the following three effects: ① expressing one's feelings with colors, ② conveying one's thoughts to classmates, and ③ understanding what classmates are thinking. Through "Iro to Katachi(Colors and shapes)" we attempted to realize "proactive, interactive, and deep learning."

Free Research Field

教育学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまで教師は子どもの思考内容を「書く」「話す」といった活動を通して確認してきた。認知科学の成果からみても、人が頭で考えていることを「書くこと」「話すこと」を通して可視化することで、思考内容の整理がなされることには意義がある。その点で学校教育の取り組みは認知科学の研究の蓄積と重なりが見出される。だが、実際の学校現場では、「書くこと」「話すこと」が苦手な子が少なくなく、頭には何か浮かんでいても、それをクラスメイトと共有するのが難しかったり、教師が的確なアドバイスを与えられないという課題があった。思考内容を簡単に可視化できる“色と形”を通じて、その課題の一端を解消することができることが見出された。