Visuals for Learning Constructing Visual Aids to Support Student Learning

Knowledge Construction The ultimate goal of education is to help students construct their own knowledge of a given topic (not to impose your knowledge of the topic upon them). It is the teacher’s role to design experiences that enable students to make meaning out of information presented to them (this is referred to as “Knowledge Construction”). One way to help students construct knowledge is to provide visual aids that support the concepts being taught.

How do Visuals Help? Visuals help students learn in a variety of ways ◦ Visuals help students make connections to prior knowledge ◦ Visuals help students select and organize important information and integrate it with existing knowledge ◦ Visuals help students scaffold new information ◦ Visuals help students buttress troublesome parts of a text and help clarify points the author is trying to make ◦ Visuals help students transfer knowledge for use in novel situations.

Formation of a Mental Model The learner first selects pertinent information from text, lecture or other materials The learner then organizes the information into a mental representation and connects the chunks of information together using appropriate links The information can be linked in a variety of ways, such as cause/effect. compare/ contrast, grouping like items, and so on…. The learner then makes sense of the information by connecting it with existing knowledge (such as relating how a water pump works to how the heart works) The mental model is now completely formed. It is encoded and stored in long- term memory, and is ready for use when the learner encounters a similar situation Visuals help students internalize new information by forming a mental model of the concept being taught.

Designing a Visual Aid Think of a topic within your unit where students could benefit from using a visual aid to learn the concept. Use the SOI (select, organize, integrate) model to help design an effective visual aid. ◦ Select important and relevant information about the topic ◦ Organize it into a meaningful pattern (chart, graph, diagram, map, etc) ◦ Integrate the new concept with existing knowledge

Example Consider the following text passage from a 7 th grade world history textbook… Though built for government use, new roads and waterways promoted trade and the spread of ideas throughout China. At about the same time, Chinese farming became more productive. Around the year 1000, travelers introduced a fast-ripening rice to south China from the area that is now Cambodia. Farmers could now plant two or sometimes even three crops of rice each year instead of just one. To further improve agriculture, the leaders of Tang and the Song dynasties assigned plots of land to free peasants. Government officials taught farmers to build irrigation ditches and dams with pumps driven by human, water, or wind power. Farmers then turned dry land into paddies, or wet fields, to grow more rice. A population shift resulted from this boom in agriculture. Before the year 1000, the majority of the population of China lived in the north. But, southern China was better suited for growing rice than northern China. As more and more land was turned into rice paddies, more and more people could live on what the land produced. Furthermore, the new roads and waterways helped the farmers bring their surplus crops to market making more food available to the people of southern China. Therefore, the population of southern China grew steadily. Also, Mongol invasions in the north forced many to flee to the south. Many northerners became tenants on large southern rice farms. Because of these reasons, the majority of the population in China shifted from the north to the south. How might a visual help students make sense of this information? ◦ First, select the relevant information ◦ Next, organize it into a meaningful pattern ◦ Then, integrate it with existing knowledge Now look at the SOI model and the graph on the following slides. How does the graph meet the SOI requirements?

Select, Organize and Integrate Select Important Elements Organize into a meaningful pattern Integrate with existing knowledge Best type of visual? Before A.D. 1000, the majority of the population lived in China Agricultural improvements are introduced in the South Mongols attack in the north Population increases in the south and decreases in the north The majority of the population shifts from the north to the south There is a clear cause- effect pattern in the text There are two critical events that lead to a change in the construct (agricultural improvements and Mongol invasions) These critical events produce a significant change (the majority of the population shifts from the north to the south) By middle school, most students have been exposed to cause-effect patterns in text. They know from prior experience that warfare causes death, and better agriculture (more food) causes population growth. Therefore, students make cause-effect connections between the Mongol attacks and a decline in the population of the north. They also make connections between improved agricultural techniques and an increase in population in the south. A line graph would be the best visual aid. A line graph demonstrates change over time and appropriately links the chunks of information

Visual Aid - Graph

Visual Options There are many, many options for creating visual aids to support student learning. ◦ graphs ◦ charts ◦ diagrams ◦ maps ◦ annotated illustrations ◦ video demonstrations ◦ timelines ◦ and more….

Web Resources for Creating Visuals There are many web-based tools to help you construct a visual. ◦ Web resources for creating charts and graphs: ◦ Web resources for creating timelines: timeline timeline ◦ Create a timeline in Excel: ◦ Create a timeline in Word: ◦ Create a diagram in Powerpoint: us/powerpoint/HA aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en- us/powerpoint/HA aspx ◦ Create a chart or graph in Excel: us/excel/HA aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en- us/excel/HA aspx Demos/Tutorials for the Microsoft Office Suite: ◦ Word: ◦ Powerpoint: ◦ Publisher: ◦ Excel:

Your Task Design a visual aid for your unit that will help students form a mental model of a topic or issue that is important and can be supported by a visual. Use the SOI model to help design an effective visual. Complete the SOI table in “Designing a Visual Aid,” design your visual and embed or paste your visual aid in the document. Post your visual on the class Wiki.