Nov
30
Visual Representation for Learning
November 30, 2009 | Tagged Alexander Bell, anchor charts, visual learning | Leave a Comment
I can make inferences of why the telephone that Alexander Graham Bell began with a sketch. This visual image before it became reality held the knowledge and a great level of inquiry as his invention became reality. This visual image represents knowledge that produced a new technology that changed how we communicate. It serves to connect past learning with future learning. Sure for Mr. Bell it helped organized his thinking for him to go the next step.
“As far as I can remember these are the first drawings made of my telephone–or ‘instrument for the transmission of vocal utterances by telegraph.’” Alexander Graham Bell
How does visual representations hold so much thinking? How does it hold knowledge in place? How does visual representations produce future learning?
We cannot deny that visual representations are so important in the learning process. In so many classrooms it is such a misused teaching tool- especially in the day and age of Interactive Whiteboard and the World Wide Web. Robert Marzono discusses the importance of using visuals in his book What Works in Classroom Instruction. It is the not visual alone but the process that makes the visual meaningful. Mr. Bell’s sketch has a different meaning for me.
In many classrooms today, we find little to hold the thinking and learning that occurred in that room. Many times we find the lack of evidence that learning ever existed.
Mr. Bell’s sketch obviously anchored his thinking for his research. Today it holds his evidence of his thinking.
What evidence of learning do we see when we walk into classrooms? Seriously what do we see when we walk into the mainstream classroom- Cutesy bulletin board, posters-(may be related to present learning but not really), occasional student work, student narrative hanging on the walls, etc.
If our classrooms are learning environments, should they not show case the learning that is happening. Should not students have created artifacts that demonstrate their understanding of standards?
