Visual Literacy

The idea of visual literacy was completely foreign to me before I started researching for this blog. I am a future science teacher, so if it isn’t a nifty picture of a cell, I probably would not know what to do with a visual representation of something. I also love reading. I have always had a positive connection to text and associated it warmly with knowledge and imaginative adventure. The thought that not all learners would feel the same way about the written word has never discouraged me. I always just assumed that it would be part of my job to help them embrace the written word more thoroughly. After learning more about visual literacy, I now have some new goals.

Visual literacy is defined as the ability “to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media.” ( Ashley, 2017) This seems like a skill that everyone would naturally develop in a world inundated with visual images. However, we need to consider that most of the real skill involved in visual literacy lies in seeing beneath the surface. For example, my children like to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings while I try to recover from my week. There are always ridiculous amounts of commercials in between the cartoons. When they were around 4-5 years old, I started asking them what they thought the commercials were trying to tell them. They first answered that they were being told about a toy or game. Then I asked them why the TV was telling them about the toys and games. They answered, “So we can buy them.” I followed that statement with, “Do you think that everything you see about that toy on the commercial is completely true?” Through a series of simple questions, I tried to teach them that everything they see has an obvious purpose and maybe a less obvious but equally important purpose. Now, my kids will openly question the motive of any commercial or show. They point out the flaws in any plot and the brainwashing in any commercial. Without knowing it, I taught them to evaluate and interpret visual data.

Incorporating visual literacy skills into science curriculum is equally important. The internet has changed the way scientific knowledge is disseminated and judged. Pop science news, in which big glossy pictures with half page articles boil poorly planned and executed experiments down to a new scientific breakthrough, provides the masses with fun cocktail party banter that often marginalizes or completely misrepresents factual scientific processes. Teaching students how to interpret visual media representations and evaluate their worth is imperative. The Think-Aloud approach demonstrated in the article Common Core in Action: Visual Literacy Strategies seems like a simple method for introducing visual literacy skills and practicing them regularly in class (Finley, 2014). A weekly artifact could be used to discuss presentation of scientific findings in different forms and how some of the charts and info-graphics can be misleading if not carefully studied. Here is a great example of a poor use of pie charts (see attached picture).

Obviously, anyone trying to understand what is going on in this chart would be stymied (Frey, 2013). This would be an opportunity to discuss how the right or wrong visual representation can change the outlook of an entire study or project. Incorporating visual literacy into curriculum is actually pretty simple and definitely worth the additional effort.

References

Finley, T.

Finley, T. (2014). Common Core in Action: 10 Visual Literacy Strategies. Edutopia. Retrieved 14 October 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/ccia-10-visual-literacy-strategies-todd-finley

Frey, L.

Frey, L. (2013). Pie charts: the bad, the worst and the ugly.. Visuanalyze. Retrieved 14 October 2017, from https://visuanalyze.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/

LiteracyandSchoolLibraries - Impact of Visual Literacy Education on Learners

LiteracyandSchoolLibraries - Impact of Visual Literacy Education on Learners. (2017). Literacyandschoollibraries.wikispaces.com. Retrieved 14 October 2017, from http://literacyandschoollibraries.wikispa

Megan Ashley, Kate Gukeisen, and Jennifer Hemmings-Jones.