Eye-Hand Coordination: Don't Just Look, Draw

I've never seen this issue taken up in the literature, but I nonetheless firmly believe that students learn graphs best by drawing them AFTER seeing them drawn accurately by the instructor. That idea may seem obvious, but I wonder how many PowerPoint-enhanced classes skip the step where the instructor draws the graph first.

The problem is that PowerPoint slides, often prepared by publishers as part of a textbook package, present beautifully drawn graphs ALLatONCE. The instructor clicks the mouse, the graph appears, and the students frantically scribble the graph into their notes. The whole graph is often more information than the brain can absorb, though. The result is that the graph is drawn incorrectly in the students' notes.

Doesn't it make sense that if the students can sit back and observe the instructor's hand in motion and hear the instructor's thoughts as the graph is drawn, the students are going to generate a more accurate rendering in their notes.

Here's my challenge to you, the instructor: While the classroom is filling up before the start of class, ask the students if you can see their notebooks. Observe the graphs drawn by the students in their notes when you present the graphs by PowerPoint slide. I'll bet you'll find a significant number of errors. As an experiment, draw the graphs yourself before showing them on a slide. Then followup with an examination of student's notebooks.

Let me know the results of the experiment.