Several contributions in "Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education" have highlighted the role of visualization tools and the importance of developing students' visual literacy in biochemistry education. In this forum, the authors suggest that more focus is needed on the assessment of student learning, and they advance…

This article begins with a synopsis of the film "Edward Burtynsky: Manufactured Landscapes", directed by Jennifer Baichwal. While the author can relate to the statements made in this synopsis, her experience and understanding of this 90-minute journey is much more intense and complex. In this essay, she attempts to dissect and examine…

In this article, the author describes the life and works of Lida Cochran, the matriarch of visual literacy. Lida was practicing "visual literacy" long before there was an association devoted to it. Lida has worked with the AECT, ECT Foundation (the Cochran Internship is named for her husband, Lee Cochran), and the International Visual Literacy…

Many researchers from different disciplines have explained their views and interpretations and written about visual literacy from their various perspectives. Visual literacy may be applied in almost all areas such as advertising, anatomy, art, biology, business presentations, communication, education, engineering, etc. (Pettersson, 2002a). Despite…

An important topic of current brain research is "cognitive overload." It is about the capacity of a person's working memory and the strategies employed when that capacity is taxed. The most common strategy for coping with cognitive overload is shutting down, like that point in a conversation with a non-English speaker when everything one…

Visual culture is a hot topic in art education right now as some teachers are dedicated to teaching it and others are adamant that it has no place in a traditional art class. Visual culture, the author asserts, can include just about anything that is visually represented. Although people often think of visual culture as contemporary visuals such…

Less attention has been paid to teachers' relationship to contemporary visual culture, and specifically about their own visual culture. In this paper, the author would like to focus on how they relate to these global visual discourses, in order to discuss their participation in the production of visual imaginaries. She will confront the argument…

A walk down Main Street can be very much like a stroll through a museum gallery--visually rich, inviting unexpected choices, aesthetically rewarding. This article explores the concept of shop windows as visually ordered compositions, much like paintings and other art objects, and suggests some approaches to applying this concept in teaching a…

In this article, the author has advanced the view that the world is currently on the threshold of a new status quo--the hegemony of the image. Yet, this seems a mixed blessing, for people, and especially young people, are not equipped with the necessary critical viewing and thinking skills to survive it. Nevertheless, this unfortunate situation…

The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) curriculum and teaching method uses art to help students think critically, listen attentively, communicate, and collaborate. VTS has been proven to enhance reading, writing, comprehension, and creative and analytical skills among students of all ages. The origins and procedures of the VTS curriculum are…

Presents a rhetoric of visuals in relationship to their accompanying text. Discusses prior research in graphics, outlines a syntax of graphics and their level of abstraction, describes tagmemic analysis of visuals, and discusses rhetorical integration of text and visuals. (SR)

Anne Burke and Shelley Stagg Peterson argue that "picture books offer a medium for teaching visual and critical literacy across the curriculum." To support this idea, they describe a multidisciplinary unit on World War II that pushes high school students to utilize visual and print literacies to analyze, comprehend, and relate to public events and…

Reviews historical thinking about visual literacy; addresses the issue of setting visual literacy's parameters; provides a rationale linking individuals in an otherwise multidisciplinary movement; proposes a redefinition of visual literacy; and postulates proposals designed to foster further development and understanding of the theoretical…

Suggests that verbal and visual literacy are interdependent and that English departments should take on the task of heightening visual literacy. (AEA)

Discusses the effect television has on youth in making them visually literate and how educators should use this information to make education more effective. (CHC)