Drawing and the Brain

On the value of drawing as a teaching tool — and what brain research tells us about why we should draw more in schools. Most teachers recognise it: students — and student teachers — who insist they cannot draw. Research calls it drawing shame and the drawing crisis. The paradox, however, is that these are precisely the people who would benefit most from drawing more — not as art, but as a tool for thinking, remembering and understanding.

In this essay, Ingeborg Stana examines what modern brain research actually tells us about drawing: what happens in the brain when we draw rather than type, why drawing leads to better retention than written notes, and what the interplay between hand, eye and thought does for learning.

We remember information better when we draw it — because drawing simultaneously engages spatial, visual and motor skills, where other learning strategies activate only one.
— Fernandes et al., University of Waterloo, 2018
Stana also examines the conditions for drawing in the Norwegian curriculum reform the Norwegian curriculum reform (LK20), and argues that drawing must be lifted out of its "aesthetic cage" — and brought into teacher education as a concrete, cross-disciplinary learning tool available across all subjects.

Written for teachers, student teachers, and anyone curious about what drawing actually does for learning — and how simple drawing techniques can change classroom practice.

Read the essay (Norwegian) or download the PDF. 

Illustration by Stana