This document discusses the importance and effectiveness of visual teaching and learning. It argues that visual learning is a primal skill and that images can reach every student in a way that purely textual information cannot. Specific techniques are presented for how to conduct visual thinking strategies (VTS) in the classroom to engage students in analyzing and discussing images collaboratively. Examples are given of how technology like ThingLink can be used to bridge student discussion of images with providing relevant historical context. The document advocates using art and visuals regularly in teaching to actively involve students in constructing meaning from different perspectives.

1. Visual Teaching and Learning by STEVEN A. Hill

2. Seeing comes before words.
The child looks and recognizes
long before she can read.
-

3. Reading images is a
near-primal skill
No matter what textual
reading level your students
may possess, they are likely
ALL advanced visual
learners; why not reach
EVERY student , EVERY
TIME, by way of using art and
visuals?
Baby “reads” a face

4. • Health warnings play an
important role in
informing consumers of
the risks they are
undertaking by using
tobacco products. …..but
to be effective, written
warnings must be in
large, clear text that
stands out from the rest
of the pack
design……..HOWEVER

5. • Pictorial
warnings are
even more
effective.

6. 44% of smokers said the new warnings increased their motivation to quit smoking
58% of smokers think more about the health effects of smoking
21% of smokers who were tempted to have a cigarette decided not to because of the new
warnings
• The new warnings have motivated 27% of smokers to smoke less inside their home
Among both smokers and non-smokers, the two warnings identified as most effective at
discouraging smoking were (1) the warning depicting a diseased mouth and (2) the warning
depicting a lung tumour.
In many aspects, the warnings have had greater impact on those with
lower levels of education.

7. 1. Canada (2001)
2. Brazil (2002; 2004; 2009)
3. Singapore (2004; 2006)
4. Thailand (2005, 2007)
5. Venezuela (2005)
6. Jordan (2005)
7. Australia (2006
8. Uruguay (2006; 2008, 2009)
9. Panama (2006)
10. Belgium (2006)
11. Chile (2006, 2007, 2008)
12. Hong Kong (2007)
13. New Zealand (2008)
14. Romania (2008)
15. United Kingdom (2008)
16. Egypt (2008)
17. India (2008)
18. Brunei (2008)
19. Taiwan (2009)
20. Malaysia (2009)
21. Peru (2009)
22. Djibouti (2009)
23. Switzerland

8. HOW do you
READ Visuals?

9. •How do you
use ART and
visuals in your
classroom?

11. • TEACHERS can tell the students about the art
…..and students become passive receivers of
information.
• Disinterest may result:

12. • Students can collaboratively “read” the art / image
and tell what they see.
• The teacher selects the image and facilitates
discussion.
• Results: LESS BORING and….engaged
students share differing points of view.

13. • 1. Give a minute to look
• 2. Ask: What’s going on here?
• 3. point, repeat, confirm, clarify
• 4. Ask: “What makes you say that?”
• 5. ASK: What more can we find?

14. • Asking
students to
back up their
visual
THOUGHTS
with VISUAL
EVIDENCE
…reinforces
the writing

15. CLICK HERE
For VTS in Action:
1. grade school Students
2. High School standard level
class
3. High School -- honors level
class

16. "The most effective experiences
for stimulating aesthetic
development give the learner
repeated opportunity to
construct meaning from
different points of view, take
place in an environment that
supports looking in new and
meaningful ways, and are
inspired by rich, varied, and
carefully chosen works of art.”
-Abigail Housen, from Art
Viewing and Aesthetic
Development

17. "The most effective experiences
for stimulating aesthetic
development give the learner
repeated opportunity to
construct meaning from
different points of view, take
place in an environment that
supports looking in new and
meaningful ways, and are
inspired by rich, varied, and
carefully chosen works of art.”
-Abigail Housen, from Art
Viewing and Aesthetic
Development

18. • So when does the
teacher share his or
her knowledge about
the history
surrounding the image
?
• THINGLINK is a
visual platform
• It is one way of
bridging the gap
between conducting a
guided discussion to
“teaching” historical
relevance.

22. Click
here

24. An 11th Grade High
School student
conducts a VTS
discussion in a US
History Class.

25. Using
THINGLINK

28. • 3 Waves of
Technological Change
in the History of
humankind that
changed everything !
• What were they?

29. Toffler’s Third Wave
• 1st Wave
– 4000 B.C.
– What REVOLUTION ?
AGRICULTURAL
…
• Where??
• Four locations…..
• FLUVIAL..
• Nile River….Egypt
• Tigris and Euphrates
• Indus River – INDIA
• Yellow River – China • Getting food: video

30. 2nd Wave
What REVOLUTION ??
• 1800 A.D.
• INDUSTRIAL
– Machines….start to replace
MAN and ANIMAL muscle
powered endeavors …

32. Third Wave
What Revolution?
• ….about 1945 A.D.
•
• COMPUTER
TECHNOLOGY

33. • The art of memory is credited to the ancient
Greek poet Simonides, who was able to
perfectly recall the scene in a banquet hall
moments before the roof collapsed, simply by
reviewing it in his mind’s eye. The
“method of loci” assigns
distinctive images to anything
one wants to remember,
placing the images in
familiar rooms or buildings.
Recalling, then, becomes a matter of traveling
through those locations, or “memory palaces,”
and noting the images assembled there. This
seeming sleight of hand — memorize X in order
to remember Y — takes
advantage of a simple fact
of human cognition: we
naturally remember visual
images.Take a moment to imagine your
own living room; a detailed description of
everything in sight is effortless.

35. • 1. Visual Literacy vs.
Textual
• Primal roots: babies
• Cigarette packages
• 2. Pedagogy and
Technology
• VTS
• Thinglink
• Daily Amelioration
• Screencast
• 4. Further Reading:
• Third Wave
• Always On
• Lighter, Faster, Cheaper
• Moonwalking with Einstein