Graphicacy is the fundamental human capability of communicating through still images. Graphicacy has been described as the fourth ace within education, alongside literacy, numeracy and articulacy. However, it has been neglected, both within education and the research field. This thesis investigates graphicacy and students learning, structured around 3 objectives: establishing what graphicacy is and how it is used in the school curriculum; demonstrating the wider significance of design and technology teaching and learning by collecting evidence of the importance of graphicacy across the curriculum; and establishing how the abilities to understand and create images affect students learning. A literature review was conducted focused on three areas. Firstly, identifying the meaning of graphicacy, elements contained within it and relevant prior studies including its use in different subject areas and image use within teaching. This formed the foundations for a new taxonomy of graphicacy. Secondly, the levels of drawing and developmental stages children go through were investigated and the need for further research on children s abilities aged 11 to 14 was identified. The well balanced arguments concerning the nature versus nurture debates are described. Thirdly, the methodology used to measure graphicacy, and map the results to reflect levels of different competencies were reviewed. A naturalistic and often opportunistic approach was followed in this research. The research methodology was based on the analysis of textbooks and later, on research within practice. The research included the development, validation and use of the taxonomy of graphicacy; case studies in Cyprus, the USA and England on identifying graphicacy use across the curriculum; and the creation of continuity and progression descriptors through the analysis of students work. This work covered: rendering, perspective drawing, logo designing, portrait drawing and star profile charts. Research methodologies developed and implemented for conducting co-research and the Delphi studies are also described. Through interviews with experts, the taxonomy was validated as an appropriate research tool to enable the identification of graphicacy use across the curriculum. These research studies identified links between design and technology and all other subject-areas studied. Similar patterns of graphicacy use were identified across 3 schools, one in Cyprus, USA and the UK. Photographs were the most commonly used graphicacy element across all subject areas studied. Design and technology within England was found to use the widest variety of graphicacy elements, providing evidence towards research objective 3; establishing how the ability to understand and create images affects students learning. Continuity and progression (CaP) descriptors were created for each area covered by this research. The success of the CaP descriptors relied on the technical complexity involved in the creation of each image. Some evidence was found concerning the limits of natural development and how nurture can further develop graphicacy skills. In addition, co-research as a methodology, its limitations and potentials are identified.

A linguagem científica é multimodal, isto é, faz uso de diversos modos de comunicação para desenvolvimento do conhecimento científico. Entre eles, e de particular interesse para esta pesquisa, se encontram as inscrições, as quais se encaixam nos modos visuais de comunicação e são as representações visuais materiais elaboradas inerentemente durante o fazer científico, tais como gráficos, fotografias, tabelas, equações, mapas, esquemas etc. Dada a importância das inscrições tanto para a comunicação científica, quanto para o ensino de ciências, e a sua forte presença em livros didáticos e na sala de aula, o fato de diversos estudantes apresentarem dificuldades no seu uso e interpretação chamou a atenção de alguns educadores, os quais têm voltado seus estudos para entender os fatores que interferem na produção de leituras adequadas de inscrições e elaboração de propostas que desenvolvam o letramento gráfico dos alunos. Este seria o conhecimento relativo para lidar com os modos visuais de comunicação, em especial as inscrições. Nessa perspectiva, o presente trabalho investiga a extensão do letramento gráfico de estudantes de Bacharelado em Química em uma disciplina de comunicação científica durante a realização de exposições orais produzidas a partir de artigos originais de pesquisa. As obras de Woff-Michael Roth e colaboradores foram adotadas como referencial teórico durante a análise, a qual se consistiu em: classificar as funções das inscrições na exposição oral em decorativa, ilustrativa ou complementar; descrever a produção de sentidos a partir das leituras de inscrições, utilizando um Modelo Semiótico de Leitura de Inscrições; e classificar os tipos de leituras de inscrições em leitura competente, transparente ou problemática. Observa-se que a produção de sentidos se relaciona com a função da inscrição, onde inscrições decorativas e ilustrativas requerem uma participação mais ativa da audiência. Já as complementares, dependem mais dos recursos semióticos disponibilizados pelo aluno expositor. A partir disso, a interpretação das inscrições pode ser descrita em termos de elementos e processos do Modelo, o que revela se o que foi disponibilizado era adequado ou não para a produção de sentidos. Em relação à extensão do letramento gráfico dos grupos investigados, um deles se encontra na dimensão analítica, na qual os alunos veem e utilizam as inscrições prioritariamente como dados científicos. É notável também o amplo contato com diversos tipos inscrições e o desenvolvimento de diversas habilidades relacionadas ao letramento gráfico. Os dois demais grupos, se encontram na dimensão elementar, na qual os alunos utilizam e veem as inscrições prioritariamente como ilustradores do conhecimento científico, com um o contato restrito com os diversos tipos de inscrição, assim como, desenvolvimento inadequado de habilidades relacionadas ao letramento gráfico e uma produção de sentidos que não revela o papel das inscrições para a ciência. A leitura competente foi predominante em todas as apresentações, o que era esperado e adequado, devido ao contexto e situação comunicativa da exposição oral. Foi possível ainda identificar um novo tipo de leitura de inscrições, denominada leitura competente inversa. Ademais, o trabalho contribui com o delineamento de ações que promovem o letramento gráfico e com aportes teóricos para a inclusão da discussão dessa temática nos cursos de formação docente. / Scientific language is multimodal, that is, it makes use of several modes of communication to develop scientific knowledge. Among them, and of particular interest for this research, are inscriptions, which fit into the visual modes of communication and are the material visual representations created inherently in scientific tasks, such as graphs, photographs, tables, equations, maps, schemes, etc. Given the importance of the inscriptions both for scientific communication and science teaching, as well as their strong presence in textbooks and the classroom, the fact that students find it difficult to use and interpret them has drawn the attention of educators, who have focused their studies on understanding the factors that interfere in producing adequate readings of inscriptions and drawing up proposals that develop students\' graphicacy. This would be the relative knowledge to deal with visual modes of communication, especially inscriptions. In this perspective, this study investigates the extent of Chemistry undergraduates\' graphicacy in a scientific communication course, while giving oral presentations produced from original research articles. Researches carried out by Wolff-Michael Roth et al was adopted as a theoretical reference during the analysis, which consisted of: classifying the functions of the inscriptions in oral presentations into decorative, illustrative or complementary; describing the production of meanings from the inscription readings using a Semiotic Model to the Reading of Inscriptions; and classifying types of inscription readings into competent, transparent, or problematic reading. It can be observed that the production of meanings is related to the function of the inscription, which decorative and illustrative inscriptions require a more active participation from the audience. The complementary ones depend more on the semiotic resources offered by the student giving the presentation. Based on this, interpreting the inscriptions can be described in terms of the elements and processes of the Model, which reveals whether or not what was made available was adequate for the production of meanings. Concerning the extent of the graphicacy of the groups investigated, one of them can be found in the analytical dimension, in which the students see and use the inscriptions as scientific data. It is worth mentioning the wide range of contact with several types of inscriptions and the development of various skills related to graphicacy. The other two groups are in the elementary dimension, in which the students use and see the inscriptions primarily as illustrators of scientific knowledge, having restricted contact with the various types of inscription. In this case, the development of few skills related to graphicacy and a production of meanings can be observed that does not reveal the role of inscriptions for science. Competent reading was predominant in all presentations, which was expected and appropriate due to the context and communicative nature of the oral presentation. A new type of reading for inscriptions was identified called reverse competent reading. In addition, this study contributes to designing actions that promote graphicacy, as well as theoretical contributions to include the discussion of this theme in teacher training courses.

No description available.

Three-dimensional graphicacy is the part of map work that appears to be the most problematIcal. Bartz (1970) says that thinking and visualising in three-dimensional space is difficult enough, but trying to derive notions in three-dimensions, when you have only seen them as they are represented in distorted two-dimensional fashion, is even more difficult. Yet pupils of geography are required to learn such three-dimensional concepts from the two-dimensional distorted map presentations. The geography teacher has an important educational role to play in promoting graphicacy and Balchin (1965), who coined the term, felt that it should be an essential underpinning of an integrated education. The problem is that children perform badly, teachers are not successfully imparting three-dimensional graphicacy skills and as Board and Taylor (1977) indicate, for some time now it has been fashionable to dismiss maps as being irrelevant or useless in geographical research. This thesis attempts to analyse this reported malady, the problems are exposed and solutions offered. Investigation of the literature, with the aim of clarifying the problems involved, follows four leads. These are the part played by the map as a mode of communication, the physical processes involved in mapwork revealed by work in the realm of neurophysiology, the process of visualisation in the field of perception and psychology, and finally the stage of conceptual development of the mapworker. The state of affairs in South Africa is disclosed by an analysis of teacher-directed literature, of examination syllabuses, of text-book treatment of three-dimensional mapwork in South Africa and overseas, of past examination questions, and finally of teachers' views. Experimental exercises have been executed in an attempt to link the key findings of published research to the local scene. Conclusions are then drawn, and recommendations made for improving three-dimensional graphicacy in South African secondary schools.

The research concerns presented in this dissertation addresses aspects of students’ interaction with commonly occurring graphical artefacts in teaching and learning environments. In particular, focus is on how the students make sense of these artefacts in relation to subject specific tools and forms of expression. The dissertation comprises of four studies guided by a semiotics cultural- historical perspective to cognition. The first study which is largely quantitative, analyses the percentage scores from students’ responses to selected items from OECD PISA surveys for items containing graphical elements. The second and the third studies in keeping with a more sociocultural perspective to learning as point of departure, examine the students’ collaborative interaction around tasks containing graphical elements. The fourth study explores the nature of students’ solutions from the Swedish national test in mathematics based on a tools and forms of expression sensitive empirically derived construct of Identification contra Critical-analytical approach to graphicacy. The main outcomes of these studies can be summarised as follows: first there is justification for re-examining the predominant characterisation of students’ interaction with graphical artefacts. Secondly, while it is not uncommon for students to take a more visual-perceptive and intuitive approach to graphicacy, results from task items interactions indicate that a Critical-analytical approach seems to be more reliable and capable of yielding desirable outcomes. The outcomes of these studies call for vigilance on the type of tasks used in relation to graphicacy and how these can be used to foster students’ Critical-analytical disposition.

A carefully constructed set of 16 graphical tasks related to key biochemistry concepts was designed and administered to a group of 82 students in their final year of B.Sc. study. The test mean score of 48,3% ( 12,1) was low and characterised by gender and ethnic differences. There was a moderate linear relationship between biochemistry grades obtained by the students over two years of study and their graphical literacy (r = 0,433). The majority of the students exhibited slope/height confusion and only seven students (8,5%) were able to answer the two items corresponding to Kimura‘s Level F, the most complex and difficult level of graphical literacy. Eye tracking data gave valuable insights into different strategies used by students while interpreting graphs and is a valuable tool for assessing graphical literacy. These findings confirmed other studies where researchers have found a widespread lack of graph comprehension among biological science students. / Institute of Science and Technology Education / M. Sc. (Science Education)

A carefully constructed set of 16 graphical tasks related to key biochemistry concepts was designed and administered to a group of 82 students in their final year of B.Sc. study. The test mean score of 48,3% ( 12,1) was low and characterised by gender and ethnic differences. There was a moderate linear relationship between biochemistry grades obtained by the students over two years of study and their graphical literacy (r = 0,433). The majority of the students exhibited slope/height confusion and only seven students (8,5%) were able to answer the two items corresponding to Kimura‘s Level F, the most complex and difficult level of graphical literacy. Eye tracking data gave valuable insights into different strategies used by students while interpreting graphs and is a valuable tool for assessing graphical literacy. These findings confirmed other studies where researchers have found a widespread lack of graph comprehension among biological science students. / Institute of Science and Technology Education / M. Sc. (Science Education)