CHILDRENS DRAWING ABILITY IN THE UK AND CHINA

Drawings were collected from a total of 1192 children: 463 Chinese and 489 UK children in ordinary classes, and 240 Chinese week-end art sch ool children, from age 5;2 to 13;7 years. Each child drew two topics f rom imagination and two from observing models. There were no significa nt differences in the evaluation and scoring of the Chinese ordinary s chool children and the UK children; however, the drawings of the Chine se children who attended week-end art school were deemed to be superio r. This pattern of results was found for drawings from imagination and those from models. The pattern of development was similar in the two cultures, although it was accelerated for the art school children. The re were some marked differences in style among the three groups.