This paper examines the introduction of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in Denmark and its potential as a pedagogical tool used throughout Danish education culture and particularly in Danish primary schools. The first active Danish users of and trainers in VTS in the country provide purposive qualitative interview data through structured e-mail…

Writing about art is a complex task that differs considerably from other forms of writing because it requires detailed understanding and application of certain theoretical frameworks for visual analysis. This has proven to be a major challenge amongst university and college students in Nigeria who grapple with interpreting visuals into text. The…

This contribution is intended as a plea for the reappraisal of drawing as a means of active visual inquiry in Visual Literacy. Active visual inquiry is a most adequate concept to describe the first two phases of the sub-domain of 'producing' in the revised Common European Framework of Reference for Visual Competency (CEFR-VC): 'the competency to…

This paper addresses some of the theoretical and practical implications of the Common European Framework of Reference for Visual Competency (CEFR-VC), developed through the European Network for Visual Literacy (Envil), in the context of international trends in curriculum design. Empirical application of the Framework is examined through the…

In my university classroom teaching, I draw on my interdisciplinary background as both a humanistic scholar and a documentary filmmaker, presenting an approach to learning that integrates scholarship with a digital storytelling practicum. Questions that scrutinize the relationship between written and visual discourses, the possibilities and limits…

This contribution evaluates opportunities and challenges concerning the conception and utilization of visuals in current German geography textbooks from multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives. The designer's point of view, with insights from visual communications, information design, user experience design, and instructional design, will be…

Until today, the most accepted notion about the coinage of visual literacy as a concept has been credited to John Debes in the late 1960s. In this paper, the authors describe the use of available digital tools to unearth a history of the concept of visual literacy in education that precedes in roughly 30 years these events. These overlooked years…

This paper is concerned with multimodal literacy involving the different kinds of knowledge required to fully access texts with multiple semiotic resources used in reading comprehension test tasks. Such literacy requirements have not drawn researchers' attention to date, mainly because the foreign language teaching and testing project has…

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…

In an environment that encourages co-construction and participatory practices, and especially in an educational environment saturated with media and images in which children are considered to be valid and competent contributors to knowledge construction, children's visual literacy becomes increasingly important to the development of educational…

Competency in visual literacy (VL) is crucial for effective visual communication, and thus for living and working in a visually saturated environment. However, VL across disciplines is still marginalized in higher education curricula. This tendency is partly caused by the lack of knowledge and agreement on what it means to be visually literate.…

A personal thinking language consists of verbal and visual means to transform ideas to action in social and work settings. This verbal and visual interaction of images and language is influenced by one's personal history, cultural expectations and professional practices. The article first compares a personal thinking language to other languages…

The paper reflects upon the tools, approaches and applications of visual literacy in the Visual Arts Department of Cross River University of Technology, Calabar, Nigeria. The objective of the discourse is to examine how the visual arts training and practice equip students with skills in visual literacy through methods of production, materials and…

An emergent data analysis technique was employed to test the veracity of a conceptual framework constructed around visual data use and instruction in science classrooms. The framework incorporated all five key components Vosniadou (2007a, 2007b) described as existing in a learner's schema: framework theory, presuppositions, conceptual domains,…

This paper argues that pedagogic efficacy of multimedia packages (interactive multimedia presentations) cannot be achieved by experimental research in the absence of a detailed pedagogical screenwriting framework. Following a summary of relevant literature, such a framework is offered, consisting of micro-level design guidelines. The guidelines…