Images are central to our understanding of and learning about our world. We argue that visual training needs to be improved in the higher education system to enhance the potential of visual thinking to mediate productively our relationship with the context we inhabit. Initiatives from the social sciences and humanities since the end of the twenty…

The overarching goal of this review article is to discuss and provide evidence of ways that visual displays can be used to improve classroom thinking skills. Specifically, we attempt to first, provide a synthesis of the relationship among visual displays, visual literacy, and visual thinking. Second, we review the relatively scant educational…

We constructed a new taxonomy for inferential thinking, a construct called Integrative Inferential Reasoning (IIR). IIR extends Pearson and Johnson's (1978) framework of "text-implicit" and "script-implicit" question-answer relations, and integrates several other prominent literacy theories to form a unified inferential…

Visual literacy is defined as competencies that enable an individual to understand, interpret, use, generate, and evaluate visual images or messages. The role of visual literacy in teaching mathematics is to enhance learners' understanding of complex concepts, accommodate their needs, promote their logical and critical thinking, and develop their…

People learn and remember more efficiently and effectively through the use of text and visuals than through text alone. Infographics are one way of presenting complex and dense informational content in a way that supports cognitive processing, learning, and future recognition and recollection. But the power of infographics is that they are a way…

A personal thinking language consists of verbal and visual means to transform ideas to action in social and work settings. This verbal and visual interaction of images and language is influenced by one's personal history, cultural expectations and professional practices. The article first compares a personal thinking language to other languages…

Cognitive research has shown that the human brain processes images quicker than it processes words, and images are more likely than text to remain in long-term memory. With the expansion of technology that allows people from all walks of life to create and share photographs with a few clicks, the world seems to value visual media more than ever…

Fifty-six third-year kindergarten student teachers (KTS) were presented with an experimental setting for investigating shadow phenomena. Prior to performing any specific experiment, KTS were asked to externalize their ideas about shadow phenomena corresponding to different configurations of the experimental setting through the use of drawings…

This paper argues that pedagogic efficacy of multimedia packages (interactive multimedia presentations) cannot be achieved by experimental research in the absence of a detailed pedagogical screenwriting framework. Following a summary of relevant literature, such a framework is offered, consisting of micro-level design guidelines. The guidelines…

Visual intelligence is a key element in the thought processes of the most capable and creative among individuals, and this intelligence is closely related to analogical thinking, a learner's ability to make connections between prior knowledge and newly presented information. This article describes an approach to teaching scientific inquiry at…

Discusses the value of making students visually literate. Stresses the technique of visual rehearsal and offers suggestions for incorporating visual rehearsal activities into the classroom. (FL)

For the thirty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division and the Division of Instructional Design of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. This year's Proceedings…

High School teachers from Idaho and Utah describe several experience-oriented teaching strategies that exemplify what teachers can produce when given support to undertake sustained curriculum development. (Author/JH)

It is necessary to provide a comprehensive program of visual literacy skill development to provide a firm foundation for reading comprehension. A taxonomy of visual literacy can suggest an outline for such a program. Once the student has been made aware of the desired thought processes in familiar contexts, it is then appropriate to guide the…

Knowing how to read is a very important aid in accelerating mental activity and curiosity in children and thus opening up new regions of thought and experience--one of the broad goals of education. However, reading should not be defined solely in relation to print media. Other languages, such as film, can enrich the study of all humanities…