Visual Learning and Learning and Acquisition of Skills - Research Paper Example

How does the topic of visual learning relate to learning and acquisition of skills? How does learning occur? With an understanding of visual learning, how do children learn and develop? Visual language is a distinct form of language that is more expressive and comprehendible in nature than auditory language. Auditory language can be biased. The speaker might try to stress upon a certain point by the ups and downs of volume, but visual language leaves it upon the viewer to decide what the meaning should be. Besides, it enhances the viewer’s comprehension because the viewer makes use of his/her mind to interpret the scene into words. Images displayed in the scene are coded with meanings. This is how the images convey their meaning and the level of perception depends upon the viewer’s prior knowledge in the theme projected by the image. One picture shown to different people will be perceived differently, depending upon the optimism or pessimism in the intrinsic psychology of the viewer. Having said that, children tend to develop questions in their brains about the portions of scene they did not have formal interaction with or understanding about. The visual language expresses itself overtly, and the child receives the data in his brain which was an empty pot now being filled with knowledge. Once the information is received, the child analyzes it from different aspects making use of the cognitive skills every human being is naturally born with. He weighs the information against various questions he previously had about the grey areas in the subject matter and finally tends to use that information to color the grey areas rightly. The process continues as the child views more images and the process of learning is enhanced. How is visual learning related to teaching? What instructional strategies does it promote that support student learning and how are instructional decisions made based on visual learners? Teaching is all about strong expression of knowledge so that it is easily conceivable to the learners. One might be quite knowledgeable about a matter and yet not be good as a teacher if one is not able to convey the knowledge to the learners. A good teacher tries to deliver the lecture by attaining the attention of the learners. This is achieved by manipulating the tone of speech and often wise selection of words to make the speech. The intention is to make the speech more expressive and understandable. Often, a teacher would make use of inclined language that is biased and delivers the meaning as required by him. This is not easy and it is usual for a teacher to face difficulty in conveying the right point rightly. This is where visual teaching works. As they say, “One picture is worth a thousand words.” (Bernard cited in Moncur, n.d.). This is exactly the magic of visual arts and tells how visual learning is related to teaching. It clearly adds value of to the images and explains what needs to be more focused on. The difference of colors and then shades makes the children differentiate between the meanings of different constituents of the image. With the use of visual teaching, constraints of the verbal or written methods are waived. Also, “because the produced image may be subsequently viewed again and again, the information, visual stimuli, empathetic triggers and associations of meaning are all recoverable on demand.” (Robbins, 1993). How is a visual learner’s intellectual, social, and personal development supported? A child viewing a documentary on a television not only gains what he expected from it, but also passively receives a lot more than what he intended. The documentary opens up the child’s mind towards the unexplored areas of his prior knowledge of the subject. The images can be manipulated to convey the meaning as desired by the teachers while maintaining the originality and strength of the message. This trait of visual teaching is often made use of by the psychiatrists who want to change the way their patient perceives a matter. People tend to develop their fears for a certain thing by expecting it to happen in an unfavorable manner. They feel difficulty realizing it the other way round. However, when they are practically shown a moving image by the psychiatrist which goes against their pessimistic expectation, they tend to come out of their fears. Besides, when a learner views any form of visual art, he realizes that it is something beyond what he normally interacts with remaining within his own psychological shell. The learner is pushed to move out of his boundaries and explore the world around him. As a result of this, the learner tends to widen his social circle and develop his interactive and social skills. The act of socialization adds to the existing knowledge of the individual and he learns more with every passing day. From the skill to socialize to the new and emerging trends in the society, the person learns enough to enhance his personal development as a responsible citizen. How would lessons be presented to visual learners and how would one know if learning is occurring? Visual learning in classroom is conventionally achieved by making use of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). With the advent of computers, visual teaching has been facilitated manifolds. The multisensory teaching method facilitates a child’s learning as he utilizes more than one sense to grasp the concept. (Bradford, 2008). Particularly for the children, documentaries can be played to enhance their knowledge on the subject. Today, documentaries are available on all subjects ranging from science to fiction. Although, the use of drawings and sketches can often be employed in teaching to facilitate the learning, yet there are limitations on their utility since the image can not be maneuvered to address the queries beyond the scope of the sketch. However, such limitations can be waived by incorporating computers into the educational system. The graphics displayed in the computer image give the teachers room to generate the exact meaning by copying, pasting, creating and manipulating, deleting and reproducing the various images with an added ease and simplicity that most drawings and paintings do not allow. (Freedman, 2003, p. 22). These days, the concept of distant education is widespread and there are many universities that offer their courses in distant education. Such programs fundamentally rely on videos of lectures. Students have the freedom to study as per their convenience. (Wolverson, 2010). In order to assess the students’ knowledge, assignments are allotted on computer. “Learning, for visual-spatial learners, takes place all at once, with large chunks of information grasped in intuitive leaps.” (Study Guides And Strategies, n.d.). The students are assessed through a proper marking system and the number of scholars educated through distant educational programs is increasing. References: Bradford, J. (2008). Using multisensory teaching methods. Retrieved from http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag30.html. Freedman, K. (2003). Teaching visual culture: curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art. NY: Teachers College Press. Print. Moncur, L. (n.d.). Quotation Details. Retrieved from http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1563.html. Robbins, J. H. (1993). Visual Learning, Visual Language and Photography. Retrieved from http://www.jhrobbins.com/Visual%20Learning%20&%20Visual%20Language.PDF. Study Guides And Strategies. (n.d.). Visual/spatial learning. Retrieved from http://www.studygs.net/visual.htm. Wolverson, N. M. (2010). Why is distance learning so popular? Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/1686224-why-is-distance-learning-good. Read More