This paper introduces five concepts that guide teachers' and students' critical inquiry in the understanding of media and visual representation. In a step-by-step process, the paper illustrates how these five concepts can become a tool with which to critique and examine film images of indigenous people. The Sani are indigenous people of the…

Several schools of thought regarding media criticism, derived from diverse disciplines and literary sources, have emerged during the last decade. To examine their application to the visual communication media arts such as film and television, this paper: (1) reviews the literature of media criticism; (2) discusses various approaches to visual…

There are two categories of representations: figurative and non-figurative. Within the category of figurative representations, there are two groups: visuals and graphic symbols. Graphic symbols include pictorial symbols, abstract symbols, and arbitrary symbols. Symbols can be used for identification, overview, supplying instructions, position,…

This collection includes 16 conference papers and presentations and brief descriptions of 35 workshops and demonstrations. The document contains the following papers: (1) "Visual Literacy in the Elementary Grades" (David J. Bieman); (2) "Inservice Training for Sheridan's Audio Visual Staff" (Dave MacDougall); (3)…

Describes a three-day unit for eighth-grade geography classes that uses a videotape of an ABC News Special to combine a lesson on the Bosnian Civil War with a media-analysis activity. (SR)

The aesthetic preferences of 224 Jamaican children and 558 previously-studied American children are reported in this paper. Both samples of subjects included male and female children from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds. The age groups studied were 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds and a combined group of children 7-years-old and older. Each…

The inclusion of visual images in current educational literacy discussions tends to contextualise them within more semiotic, socio-critical and textually focussed theoretical traditions. These particular traditions privilege and emphasise the structures and "language-like" aspects of visual images, and include the broader social and…

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…

Focused on early childhood development, this "UNICEF Intercom" asserts that developmental programs should aim to give children a fair chance at growth beyond survival. First presented are moral, scientific, social equity, economic, population, and programatic arguments for looking beyond the fundamental objective of saving young lives.…

Part of a series of investigations undertaken at the University of Leiden by Dr. G. A. Kohnstamm to investigate how children process information from audiovisual media, particularly television, this literature review maps out the educational possibilities of television for children up to the age of 12. Research findings reviewed are concerned…

Discussion of students' understanding of illustrations in textbooks focuses on a British study designed to determine whether secondary school pupils could identify cut surfaces of objects in biological illustrations. Implications for theories of perceptual development and the role of illustrations in teaching are discussed, and further research…

How does one help children develop literacy where they have limited access to books and libraries? How can one overcome the many obstacles to literacy faced by schoolchildren in Nigeria? These are the issues addressed in this paper. Obstacles such as sociocultural factors, English as a Second Language and as the medium of literacy and instruction,…

This report contains a selection of contributed papers and presentations from a conference attended by 270 educators and media workers committed to formulate a vision for media education in South Africa. Pointing out that media education has been variously described in South Africa as visual literacy, mass media studies, teleliteracy, and film…

Five different ways that viewers conceptualize and take stances toward a photograph are identified from a study that involved 384 written responses to a photograph. Subjects included 63 faculty members from Queensland (Australia) Institute of Technology, 80 school teachers, 67 photographers, and 174 12-year-olds. In focus group discussions, 25…

Art studies is a sequence of experiences intended to enhance Alberta, Canada students' knowledge in the discipline of art, emphasizing the student as critic, consumer, and historian. Art 11 surveys the role of the artifact in every day life. Art 21 surveys the history of art in western culture. Art 31 examines the impact of international influence…