The ability to interpret information from any source, and increasingly visual sources, is a vital skill for all graduates in contemporary culture. The development of the skills to read visual texts and communicate that understanding requires a certain level of critical thinking and reflection, skills which can only be developed over time, through…

In this article, the authors designed a study to explore what children's own drawings reveal about their viewing skills and to examine the interplay between visual and verbal literacies. Specifically, the authors wanted to determine how two communication systems--visual and verbal literacies--contribute to children's abilities to extract meaning…

This student workbook provides information about mass media and invites students to consider and respond to that information. Students are encouraged to use reading, writing, researching, critical thinking, interpreting, and debating skills in their responses. The book is organized into 8 chapters: (1) "The World of Media"; (2) "Television: Is…

This study examines children's interpretations of a visual convention used in television interviews and incorporates as a framework Flavell's theory of the development sequence of understanding television (1990). Thirty-four children were individually shown a videotape of two people talking in an interview on a television news program. Children…

To raise the consciousness of adults regarding their mental and social processing of popular media, specifically movies, a course was implemented through a Colorado Episcopal parish's adult education program. The course was designed to show students how to better understand the ways in which their presuppositions create meaning in what they view…

In this age of proliferating visual communications, there is a permissiveness in subject matter, content, and meaning that is exhilarating, yet overwhelming to interpret in a meaningful or consensual way. By recognizing visual statements, whether a piece of sculpture, an advertisement, a video, or a building, as communication, one can approach…

Familiarity with specific images or sets of images plays a role in a culture's visual heritage. Two questions can be asked about this type of visual literacy: Is this a type of knowledge that is worth building into the formal educational curriculum of our schools? What are the educational implications of visual literacy? There is a three-part…

Art reflects the ideas, experiences, spirit, and hopes of those who create it. It is through art works that students can see a visual record of how men and women lived and thought throughout history and across cultures. This instructional resource includes 52 transparencies, accompanying teaching strategies, and student worksheets which are…

Four different principles of visual manipulation constitute a minimal list of what a visually "literate" viewer should know about, but certain problems exist which are inherent in measuring viewers' awareness of each of them. The four principles are: (1) paraproxemics, or camera work which derives its effectiveness from an analogy to the…

This paper examines how visual information strategies may be used to facilitate the development of mental models. Topics covered include: definition of mental models; mental models and visual information; mental modeling concepts; power of modeling, including examples related to physical science, mathematics, writing, and depth of processing;…

Newspaper layout and design studies ignore politics, and most studies of newspaper politics ignore visual design. News layout is generally thought to be a set of neutral, efficient practices. This study suggests that the political position of Peruvian newspapers parallels their visual presentation of terrorism. The liberal "La Republica"…

Giving children opportunities to image and draw the words in the text and what they represent tends to unblock and extend children's potential abilities to assimilate and synthesize language. Evaluation of representational drawing need not be a barrier which discourages teachers from allowing children to draw. In effect, it might be judicious to…

Turner's (1980) visual literacy test for high school students and adults was adapted for use with eighth grade students. The new version was limited to questions dealing with motion media, and a half-hour "M.A.S.H." narrative television program was chosen for the focus on television production techniques and the narrative elements of the…

The world's appetite for the development of more television programs is constantly on the rise. Yet the manner in which television programs are produced for international viewers is still casual and often careless. Neither the message nor the way in which the medium shapes the message take into account the basic cultural barriers that cause…

Likert-type rating scales were designed and used to help college students perceive, understand, and value the beauty and content of a piece of art. The subjects for the project were 100 college students enrolled in two art appreciation courses at Texas College. Their classification ranged from freshman to senior, with majors mainly in business,…