Contends that the increasingly central role of imagery in contemporary society calls for the development of a pedagogy emphasizing critical media literacy. Using examples from print advertisements for cigarettes, argues the need for cognitive competencies to withstand the onslaught of media messages, empowering individuals to become autonomous,…

Examines the use of a visual approach as an organizing framework for planning and writing various discourse styles. Finds that low literacy achievement students showed increased competence in different writing styles when they planned, photographed, and "story-boarded" photo essays, compared to traditional writing assignments. (RS)

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect that coding (black and white, and color) and testing mode (visual/verbal) has on the achievement of students categorized as field independent (FID)/field dependent (FD) learners. One hundred eighty-three students enrolled in basic college level educational psychology courses were classified as…

Over 350 surveys were distributed to public and private elementary and secondary school teachers to assess the current state of media education and to determine if changes have occurred given the increase in educator awareness of media education benefits, media literacy advocacy groups, media education resources, and changes in technology.…

This paper examines children's responses to black and white illustrations in particular silhouettes. The study had two components; the first examined fifth graders' reactions to picture books using silhouette illustrations. The second part of the research analyzed students' responses when a dramatic context was used to view and respond to selected…

A study explored how children respond to visuals and how a program of visual literacy enhances oral and written response to pictures. The first and fifth grades of two schools, one urban and one suburban, with different socioecomic groups of students, were chosen to participate in a 1-year program consisting of one visual literacy lesson per week.…

The purpose of this study was to assess the commitment of art instructors to the formal dissemination of information about black art and aesthetics as reflected in the performance of 54 instructors in 11 Southeastern colleges and universities. Instructors were evaluated in terms of their ability to identify 32 illustrations of salient and most…

"Academically disabled" adolescents (N=70) participated in a visual literacy approach to reading and writing development. The subgroup of learning disabled students significantly improved in reading comprehension and narrative and descriptive writing, while "borderline" students (intelligence quotient 70-89) improved in reading comprehension.…

Details a case study of a young adult who, although virtually illiterate, learned to compensate for his reading disability and earn several college degrees. (FL)

This study of 26 children (ages 8-12) with hearing impairment found that the degree of hearing loss and spoken language competence independently affected the ability to understand the information presented on commercial and educational television programs. Language skills were a stronger predictor of comprehension than the degree of hearing loss.…

This paper compares the oral and visual representations which 12 to 13-year-old students produced in studying computer games as part of an English and Media course. It presents the arguments for studying multimodal texts as part of a literacy curriculum and then provides an overview of the games course devised by teachers and researchers. The…

This report establishes a foundation of information about how children in classroom settings develop visual literacy. Data was gathered during five 45-minute sessions with a second and a fourth grade classroom during which children looked at pictures in four versions of the Noah's Ark tale. The intent was to elicit whatever children chose to say…

This paper reports on a study which was conducted to determine the impact of color on learning. The entire seventh-grade class from a Midwest junior high school was used in the study. Each student was randomly assigned into one of four treatment groups: (1) color-cued presentation, color-cued assessment; (2) color-cued presentation, black/white…

This collection covers a variety of workshops and presentations related to the research, theory, technology, or implementation of some aspect of visual literacy. More than 40 authors are represented, with 12 of the papers dealing directly with television. The document begins with an overview and a keynote address by Neil Postman. Individual papers…

Two pilot studies probed effectiveness of linguistically controlled, highly visual computer-assisted instruction (CAI) for English grammar instruction with hearing-impaired high school students (N=29 in the first study and N=71 in the second). Results from the first study suggested that state-of-the-art CAI designed specifically for use with this…