Recent reports on the media saturation experienced by the twenty-first century student have brought about an increased interest in focusing attention on the issue of visual literacy in today's schools. Concepts such as instructional personalization, where approaches to curriculum design and instruction are created to concentrate on the individual strengths of the learner, have been promoted by some as a path to improving overall student performance. Many believe that the content of the Social Studies classroom easily lends itself to a visually stimulating approach and as such is an ideal laboratory to test hypotheses on such an approach. This study examines the use of one such visual tool in the Social Studies content arena, the political cartoon. Political cartoons are believed to be ideally suited to appeal to the visually oriented characteristics of the millennial student in the form of a potentially content rich primary source document. Described within the pages of this paper are the unique experiences with using political cartoons from the perspective of both middle school American History students and their teacher. The qualitative data uncovered through the collection of these experiences clearly illustrates a noticeable disparity between teacher and student experiences with cartoons from the present and their counterparts from the past. While present day cartoons covering various recent events in the news elicited an impressive level of informational recall and personal connections to the topics covered, the results were considerably less spectacular when political cartoons from the distant past were utilized. Those older images were more difficult for the students to grasp the artist's intent and failed as an opportunity for the students to demonstrate their mastery of content knowledge. It was concluded through an examination of interviews from both teacher and student that the differences observed between the older and newer images may be a function of several factors. Chief among these possible explanations from the point of view of the student was the lifelong collection of experiences that each child brought with them to the process of analyzing a political cartoon. The unique cultural capital possessed by each student as a result of their daily, almost nonstop exposure to all forms of media created a personal connection to the modern material that could not be matched by the content from the past. It was also revealed to be possible that a portion of the blame for the difficulties experienced with the materials from the past could be the result of the day to day decisions made by this one particular classroom teacher. The time and dedication to the mastery of the content knowledge and procedural skills necessary to decipher political cartoons from the past may have been insufficient to the task at hand. Conclusions drawn from the information collected in these interviews focus on decreasing the discrepancy between the two forms of visual material by taking steps that include considerable work on the part of the teacher and student to improve upon the background content knowledge and processing skills necessary to consistently decipher the information contained within the political cartoons. Such steps may prove to be impractical given the nature of the already jam-packed curriculums and time-strapped teachers that populate today's Social Studies classrooms. Additional studies would be necessary to determine if the experiences viewed here are common to those encountered in other parts of the nation or if they are indeed uniquely characteristic of this one situation. Accordingly, the results of those additional studies would possibly initiate a reevaluation of the conclusions drawn here.

This thesis examines Charles Willson Peale’s utilization of visual metaphors within his founding institution, The Philadelphia Museum. After establishing himself as a portrait painter, it became second nature for Peale to employ an aesthetic approach when developing museum exhibits and programs. Throughout his practices he continuously used imagery and objects to represent broader fields of research, along with his views as a naturalist and American patriot. By using these allegorical forms to arouse the public’s curiosity, he was able to attract more visitors to his museum and subsequently draw them into the learning process. / text

Individuals view an overwhelming number of mediated messages every day, even if most of these messages are merely glanced at or given minimal amounts of attention. It is not possible or advantageous for individuals to critically evaluate all messages they encounter. In that first glance or initial impression, however, our brains process the visual arguments designed by photo manipulation presented in messages. This happens instinctually, almost instantaneously, and most often underneath our radar of consciousness. Following, individuals decide to attend to the information (or not) though conscious processing. Regardless of decisions for elaborative processing, however, the initial visual processing of photo manipulated arguments influences how individuals think, feel, and behave – whether they are aware of it or not. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the role of implied visual arguments for persuasive message processing in three ways. First, Experiment 1 identified and provided empirical evidence for effects of photo manipulation as a visual persuasion technique. This experiment was a necessary first step in exploring the cause-and-effect relationship of photo manipulation and attitudes to better understand influences on message perception. Second, Experiment 2 tested currently used dual processing approaches for persuasive messages to overcome the gaps that currently exist. Theoretical frameworks widely used in advertising and communication research – ELM and HSM – largely overlook the influence of visual communication and visual processing. These models do not account for the current understand of the brain mechanisms and processes for message processing. Findings from Experiment 2 provide evidence for the need to refine these models to account for influential visual processing variables that are largely absent from the literature. Third, findings from both experiments contributed to the conceptual refinement of visual literacy with evidenced-based support for the boundaries of when this concept is (or is not) influential for assigning meaning to visual messages. / text

This study intends to foreground visual literacy within the wider context of visualisation and visual thinking in mathematics teaching and learning. Visualisation in general has been receiving attention in mathematics education research. I distinguish visual literacy from visualisation by referring to visual literacy as the combination of visualisation and logical thought. Visual literacy emphasises construction of meaning through the process of decomposition, comprehension and analysis of visual representations. The section on functional relationships is located in the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for mathematics in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase for Grades 10-12 (Department of Education, 2003). Graphical functional relationships, which form an integral part of functions and algebra in the FET phase for Grades 10-12, demand visual literacy, which includes graphical interpretation and comprehension skills. Therefore, the conceptual understanding associated with graphs is dependent on the way graphs are presented. This study examines learners‟ and educators‟ procedural and conceptual understanding of the graphs they sketch and interpret in the FET curriculum. The data analysis contributes towards the fast growing body of knowledge on visualisation in mathematics with the significant impact visual literacy has on the conceptual understanding of mathematical graphs. The analysis reveals that the overarching theoretical framework of constructivism embracing the Process-Object, Visualizer-Analyzer and Semiotic models are useful in illustrating and justifying the link between visual literacy and the conceptual understanding of learners. In examining the visual understanding of graphical representations of ten Grade 11 learners and the two mathematics educators that teach them, the data reveals that learners display a somewhat skewed understanding of the nature of the Cartesian plane, the characteristics of graphs, functional notation and graphical terminology. In fact their educators, in some instances, displayed similar understandings. Learners display procedural understanding of graphical representations to a large extent. The educators‟ visual understanding does suggest that learners‟ interpretation of graphs is in some way influenced by the way they teach. The overriding contribution of the research study is that visual literacy plays a significant role in the conceptual understanding of functional graphical relationships. The relationship between graphical representations and logical thought is central to visual literacy. Key concepts: visual literacy, conceptual understanding, graphical representations, visualisation, analytical thinking, constructivism, process-object, Visualizer / Analyzer, semiotics and vehicles of reasoning. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

In this study I examine the effects of visualization in the teaching of problem solving in grades 6 and 7 in a school south of Durban in KwaZulu Natal. One of the goals of mathematics instruction according to the Department of Education is to prepare learners to become proficient in solving problems (DoE, 2003). Whilst many studies have been conducted in the field of problem solving, using visualization as a strategy to solve problems has been a neglected area in mathematics teaching in some schools. A literature survey shows that the link between solving problems and visualization strategies is making finding solutions easier for learners. The literature suggests that visualization assists learners to develop their problem solving skills as it allows them an opportunity to show their interpretation of the problem and the understanding of mathematical concepts. Through the use of problem centred mathematics, problem centred learning, growth of mathematical understanding and realistic mathematics education, learners see the connection and employ appropriate strategies to solve problems. This study examines the strategies employed by educators in the teaching and learning of problem solving and the strategies used by learners when solving problems. Data was collected from educators using a questionnaire, observation of grade 6 and 7 learners in the classroom and semi structured interviews. The conclusions from the data analysis have shown that problem solving is been neglected and that visualization does assist learners in solving problems. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 241-260.

Thesis (M.C.A.)--University of Wollongong, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 73-74.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2009. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, page: .

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2007. / In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (English Language Teaching)

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A half-thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (English Language Teaching)