The purpose of the study is to examine the role of spatial ability and attention shifting in reading of illustrated science texts. Thirty-five fourth/fifth elementary students read two science texts. Prior knowledge and retention/transfer learning outcomes were measured using researcher-developed measures. While reading, students' eye movements…

Though argumentative writing is a vital skill across diverse content areas and domains, most U.S. students perform below grade level in writing, and teachers are often unprepared to address this shortfall because their training approaches writing as a subspecialty of reading rather than its own unique discipline. Writing instruction and assessment…

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…

Developing digital literacy skills is essential for 21st century learning, working and living. Emerging mobile technologies provide affordances that can be leveraged to advance these skills in a school educational setting. Digital literacy in the context of this paper encompasses media literacy, visual literacy, technology tools literacy and…

This article explores visual formation of science content in multimodal compositions (text and image) made by students through their second school year, and aims to contribute to the body of metalanguage for explicit description and interpretation of this kind of meaning-making. The social semiotic analysis examined both visual and multimodal…

Scientists must interpret and produce visuals in their work. Scientists also use visual information to communicate their findings to the general public. Visual representations are used in science because of the abstract nature of scientific information as many concepts are unable to be seen with the naked eye. The current educational climate…

Teachers and students require a range of tools to engage with visual texts. Using "The Great American Dust Bowl" by Don Brown (2013) as an exemplar text, we outline four conceptions of visual literacy: rhetorical, instructional, industrial and visuo-spatial and discuss their use in our literacy education practice. In addition, we provide…

The research aims to determine which alternative literacy types should be included in the Social Studies curriculum used in Turkey since 2018 The data sources of the research, in which the document analysis method from the qualitative research methods was used, are the 2018 Turkish Social Studies Curriculum (for primary school and middle school…

Are children competent producing anatomy cross-sections? To answer this question, we carried out a case study research aimed at testing graphic production skills in anatomy of nutrition. The graphics produced by 118 children in the final year of primary education were analysed. The children had to draw a diagram of a human cross section,…

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Visual Literacy (VL) activities on primary school students in English teaching. In the quantitative part of the study, where the mixed method and exploratory sequential pattern were used, the quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control group; in the qualitative part, case…

Although visual complexity is increasing and graphics are essential to support readers' comprehension of disciplinary texts, visual literacy receives scant attention. Research suggests that effectively instructing students to interpret discipline-specific graphics would yield better comprehension. However, before this line of inquiry can be…

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of geometry instruction activities conducted in nature based on modeling, game-based, and cooperative learning methods on achievement, mathematical motivation, and visual mathematical literacy perceptions of third-grade elementary school students. The present study is a quantitative study…

Participation in a classroom-based study provided Grade 4 students with multiple opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal ensembles. Intentionally-designed instruction during the multifaceted research included a variety of…

In a world increasingly saturated with images, the visual aesthetic dimension should play a more important role in the educational processes. Furthermore, classroom walls could be considered valuable resources to introduce visual literacy among children and teachers. However, Chilean educational policies tend not to pay much attention to visual…

The research was conducted to investigate the role of Pictures as the teaching media in improving the Second Graders' English vocabulary at SD Pangudi Luhur, Jakarta in Academic Year 2016/2017. To achieve the objective, the data were collected through the tests, questionnaires and observer's sheet. The respondents consisted of 25 students. The…