In a world of massively mediated information and communication, students must learn to handle rapidly growing information volumes inside and outside school. Pedagogy attuned to processing this growing production and communication of information is needed. However, ordinary educational models often fail to support students, trialing neither…

This paper presents the thesis that a perceptual rationale for visual literacy may be found in operational form within what is measured by established tests of cognitive style. Ten primary dimensions of cognitive style are briefly reviewed, including field independence-field dependence, impulsivity-reflectivity, visual-haptic, leveling-sharpening,…

This study reviews historical thinking about visual literacy, addresses the issue of setting visual literacy's parameters, and provides a philosophy to link individual theories in this multidisciplinary movement. The report examines the roots of the visual literacy movement and the seminal literature in the field. It includes a categorizing of…

Presents a rationale for studying the visual language of film. Reports on three studies that suggest some tentative answers concerning the manipulation of film and some promising approaches to the study of the medium. (RL)

A research project investigated the extent to which children's visual awareness and visual literacy were developed through photography. Thirty-four elementary school students were provided with Polaroid "Big Swinger" cameras; they were given one roll of film per day for eight weeks and allowed to photograph whatever they liked. After…

Children at the preoperational and concrete operational levels are influenced by a variety of perceptual cues other than subject matter when classifying paintings. While younger children had little difficulty in classifying paintings done in three stylistic categories, older children were able to perform this task with significantly greater…

It is proposed that visual literacy be defined as the ability to understand (read) and use (write) images and to think and learn in terms of images. This definition includes three basic principles: (1) visuals are a language and thus analogous to verbal language; (2) a visually literate person should be able to understand (read) images and use…

Experimental phenomenology requires that educators acknowledge the experiences of the learner. Today, many of those experiences are images that come from television. In a behaviorist or humanist tradition, learning takes place through experience, and learners comprehend, make decisions, and analyze their behavior through reflection. Meaning is…

The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to examine the effect of visuals possessing different amounts of realistic detail and the effects of integrating covert and overt rehearsal strategies into visually complemented prose instruction. A total of 128 university students participated in the study, which involved a prose text on the…

A series of articles examines visual literacy from the perspectives of definition, research, curriculum, and resources. Articles examining the definition of visual literacy approach it in terms of semantics, techniques, and exploratory definition areas. There are surveys of present and potential research, and a discussion of the problem of…

Following an introductory paper on Pittsburgh and the arts, 57 conference papers are presented under the following four major categories: (1) "Imagery, Science and the Arts," including discovery in art and science, technology and art, visual design of newspapers, multimedia science education, science learning and interactive videodisc technology,…

Discusses a five-year study of an integrated curriculum model in which a science/reading strategy replaced traditional reading/writing instruction. How instructors exploited the links between print and visual literacy with video, television programming, and other media is detailed. A related project that helps K-12 teachers develop graphics and…

This volume contains 47 papers presented under the following four major categories: (1) "Visual Literacy and Education," including curriculum development, teaching visual literacy, thinking skills and visual literacy, teaching video production techniques, teacher education, cable television in public schools, using filmstrips in the classroom to…