The inclusion of critical thinking and viewing skills across the curriculum is one way to approach the development of problem solving, which could help develop the kind of students prepared to accept the challenges they face. Using popular media in teaching such skills links critical thinking to life in a way that keeps critical thinking from…

This curriculum outline is designed for trainers of practitioners who use technology with students with disabilities. It offers an alternative approach to technology-specific training, with the student as the focus, the technology as one potential solution for providing better access to instruction, and the matching of functional tasks required in…

This paper describes the Integrated Studies Project, a middle school curriculum project developed at Keele University in England, and designed to integrate the social sciences and the expressive arts. The described materials are available from Oxford University Press. These consist of large fold-out sheets with information, photographs, drawings,…

Can educationally disadvantaged pupils' attitudes, interests and knowledge concerning the world of work be improved through visual literacy techniques (VLT) and the Great World of Work Curriculum Guide (GWWCG)? Subjects were 158 educationally disadvantaged boys from the Harrisburg Middle School. The "Vocational Development…

For the past 100 years we have been acting as if education in school was of words, by words, and for words, but in fact verbal literacy was preceded by visual literacy when humans communicated with body language before they had speech. American educators have been concentrating efforts on the left hemisphere of the brain in which the verbal…

This yearbook describes the program undertaken by the Montebello, California Unified School District to assist children's development in the area of language arts by giving them the opportunity to use cameras to record their visual experience and by then using the resulting pictures, slides and films as the basis of language arts experiences. It…

This report contains excerpts and summaries from interviews and papers presented at the visual literacy conference. The interviews are with speakers and in general ask them to expand on an idea presented in their formal talk. For other speeches, the catalog description and/or an abstract is given. Although most of the abstracts are short, lengthy…

Appendices to the final report of the Aesthetic Eye Project are arranged chronologically according to the project's phases. Appendix A contains the letter to prospective participants, project proposal, application form, planning session form for phase 1, and agenda for summer seminar. Appendix B involves phase 2, the inservice teacher seminar, and…

Modern Western European ways of thinking are based on a print culture that uses verbal metaphors, and indigenous ways of thinking are based on an oral culture that uses visual metaphors. Visual metaphors provide a dominant mode of information processing and are used among indigenous groups to share cultural knowledge, yet Western culture is…

Describes a Victoria University (Australia) program that combines art history, computer graphics, and studio practice. Discusses the social applications of technology, the creation and manipulation of computer imagery, and the ways that these impact traditional concepts of art. The program has proven particularly successful with female students.…

Postulates that students' untutored and unrehearsed verbatim responses to viewing artworks parallel specific schools of thought in aesthetic theory. Middle school students tape recorded their responses to a previous museum visit. Their responses reflected some of the key concepts in expressivism, institutionalism, and formalism. (MJP)

Describes a year-long elective film course in modern U.S. history for twelfth grade students. Explains course methodology and objectives. Analyzes selected films to illustrate how the course elucidates the consensus-conflict theme in U.S. history since the 1930s and enhances student understanding of Hollywood's perspective on gender, race, and…

Outlines difficulties of introducing art critiques in the elementary classroom. Recounts how problems were overcome by providing focus and allowing students to decide which classmates should critique their work. Provides a structure for critiquing art that builds verbal and analytical skills as students proceed from kindergarten to grade six. (KM)

Explores young children's mark-making in a domestic play setting. Suggests mark-making indicates aspects of the relationship between semiotic and conceptual development. Focuses on contexts in which mark-making occurs and on the authenticity of the learning events in which children participate. (DLH)

Contemporary society is an "information society" where much of the information has a visual nature. This text uses semiotic and psychological concepts to help students gain understanding of how meaning is found in visual phenomena and how minds process images. Focus is upon mass media and popular culture. Theoretical discussions are…