Voices in Dialogue

Ways of Knowing
Visual and Written Text, in Concert

by Jeanette Romkema ~ GLP Partner

Painting should call out to the viewer… and the surprised viewer
should go to it, as if entering a conversation.
- Roger de Piles, Course de peinture par principes, 1676.

Victor Burgin in Seeing Sense suggests that there are two distinct forms of communication in the world of text, words and images. I like to call these the written text and the visual text.

When presented with both written and visual text they should be seen as equally valid, recognizing their independence and their collaborative qualities, depending on the work in question (Mitchell, 1989). Although an image carries its own text, it is rare to see it communicate on its own; it is most often accompanied by written text. Even in art galleries and museums where we present visual works as a vehicle for inspiration and reflection, curators insist on including captions, titles, descriptions of the artist, and even auditory explanations. They seem to want to ensure the viewer is receiving the “right” message. Moreover, when written and visual texts are found together the written word usually dominates. Although the viewer may be aware of the illustrations and how they support the words, illustrations are not often seen as offering their own text. If we want to understand messages being communicated to us, “the image must speak in silence” (Barthes, 1981, p55).

A third mode of communication and meaning-making may be found in the interplay between written and visual text. Illustrations often carry their own story, separate from the written one. For this reason the text need not only be heard separately but also together. “[Images] and the text are co-equal, mutually independent, and fully collaborative” (Agee and Walker, pxiv). In other words, we need to understand the written text, the visual text and the text created when the two come together. Through a better understanding of visual language we are able to communicate and can be more aware of what is being learned and understood.

Visual and Written Text for Teachers and Curriculum Designers
Understanding the use of visual and written text is critical for teaching whether the learners are five, fifteen, or fifty years old. Graphic organizers, images, formatting, font size and style, colour, room organization, handouts, and other types of visuals, all communicate. There is an ever expanding pool of companies offering resources and tools to be “more colourful and visual” in the classroom. There is a growing list of internet sites to study when doing a web search on your computer. But, are the visuals we use helping, hindering, or hazardous?

Minimize Chaos, Maximize Learning
Sadly, I often see poor or incorrect uses of visuals in teaching. In the worst cases, learners misunderstood the content to be learned and left the learning event with incorrect skills, knowledge and attitudes from an otherwise well-intended teacher. In the less destructive cases, learners were unnecessarily distracted or confused by the visuals used. If teachers plan to use visuals, they should learn the language and be conscious of how it communicates. Below are three uses of visuals that should be avoided:
Too much or too many visuals will be experienced by visual learners as “noise” – visual noise. As with all loud and constant irritants, learners - especially those sensitive to this - may not be able to focus, think or learn. A teacher’s overuse of visuals to assist visual learners will only aid in hindering them when visuals and overused. Visual literacy can help to minimize chaos and maximize learning.

Visuals are not decoration
A common misunderstanding about visuals is that it should be used to decorate. Teachers often work at “beautifying” their material without a concern about how the visual text is supporting or enhancing the content being taught. The use (or overuse) of colour, different fonts, beautiful images and the like, are used in an attempt to make the content look “fun” or “interesting”. One need only examine children’s school textbooks from 10-20 years ago to see that traditionally visual artists were hired to decorate, not communicate.

Misunderstanding and underestimating the power and potential of visual language is still prevalent today. This is changing with the writing and research in the area of media literacy and visual culture. Some skills are taught by art teachers, though visual literacy is critical for ALL people to learn, not only those who are artistically inclined.

Visuals can confuse and overwhelm
As teachers become more aware of the importance and potential of visual text in teaching, they often begin filling their lessons with visuals. They often add colour, posters, handouts, and other visual information to all their learning events and spaces. Walls start to fill up with pictures, flip charts, and post-it notes. Hand-outs are saturated with clip-art, fancy fonts and creative formatting. Learning spaces start to look like a carnival with items gushing with colour, texture and invitation. The teacher and curriculum designer go too far. What is intended to enhance and support the learning ends up being confusing and overwhelming.

Too much or too many visuals will be experienced by visual learners as “noise” – visual noise. As with all loud and constant irritants, learners - especially those sensitive to this - may not be able to focus, think or learn. A teacher’s overuse of visuals to assist visual learners will only aid in hindering them when visuals are overused. Visual literacy can help to minimize chaos and maximize learning.

Visuals can miscommunicate
When learners leave a classroom or conference having understood something different than what was intended and planned, teachers are left wondering “what happened?” In some cases, poorly chosen visuals or the misuse of them, is the cause of this. Although this is often the last place we might look for the answer to such a puzzling question, unless language is used correctly it can miscommunicate and be misunderstood. This is as true for visual language as it is for Spanish or English.

An example of visual miscommunicating is as follows:
An enthusiastic teacher showed a colour picture of ten plush four-legged chairs in a circle with a group of village health-care trainers in West Africa to demonstrate how to set up a room when practicing Dialogue Education. When the teacher came back to the clinic after a few months to find they were not sitting in a circle because they "had no chairs to sit on", he realized his picture his picture had miscommunicated. Of course there are also cultural issues here, but there was also an assumption that the visual was communicating the same message as the words. It wasn't!

Check Your Communication
There are three basic questions teachers can ask to check whether the visuals they are planning to use in a learning event are important. These questions can be asked of the learning space (how the chairs are organized, what is on the walls, etc), the handouts (images, bullets used in a list of items, etc), and the technology used (PowerPoint, video, etc).

Does it enhance the learning? Is it purposeful?

For example, in a workshop on breast feeding a visual is used that clearly portrays the correct
latching on of a baby being nursed by her mother.
Does it provide information that is not found in the written text and helps to enrich the learning?

For example, using an iceberg as a graphic organizer to illustrate the magnitude of the elements
below the surface in a discussion on internal and external culture.
Does it echo the written text or content, therefore offering the content in an easier language
for visual learners?

For example, using a set of steps to illustrate the 7-steps of design of Dialogue Education (Vella, 1994).

This short beginner’s checklist can serve as a helpful tool assuring the visual and written text work in concert to maximize learning, transfer and impact. Through blending of these two languages, maximum meaning-making is possible.

Visual and Written Text, in Concert
Many teachers not only understand the importance of communicating through words and images, but also use it well. There are those who spend as much time planning and designing the visual text for their learners as they do the written text. Some examples of this awareness and attention are as follows, and offer tips for those looking for concrete ideas:

Use clear powerful photographs or drawings as metaphors to explain complex concepts.
Create a graphic-organizer to simplify the relationship between otherwise seemingly
disparate ideas or facts.
Only hang flip chart pages on a wall that are needed for reference or further learning.
Take down those that might lead to unnecessary distraction.
Limit the use of Post-it Notes and diversify the ways to sharing learning from a group.
Clear a room of extra furniture, posters, and clutter to create empty space to see and
process learning.
Use a handout for the learning design, complete with the learning tasks and content to
be learned.
Limit the types of font size, font type, colour and other creative formatting. Too much
“playfulness” can interfere with learning.
Use light colours on dark background and dark colours on light backgrounds
(PowerPoint, handouts, slides, flip charts).

Often teachers who are sensitive to how visual language communicates in a learning event are artistic (and have become quite literate in this otherwise foreign language) or are master teachers (expertly attuned to the needs of learners). We can all grow in this area through ongoing Praxis with one another: action with reflection, in concert!

In Closing
I will finish this article as I started, with the words of 17C writer Roger de Piles: “Painting should call out to the viewer… and the surprised viewer should go to it, as if entering a conversation.” For Dialogue Educators, the knowledge that visuals communicate in a language that (by nature) invites dialogue, is exciting indeed! Use visual and written text in concert, composing “music” to stimulate creative thinking, meaningful response and transformation.

Sources

Agee, James and Walker, Evens. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1980.

Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida-Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang, 1981.

Burgin, Victor. “Seeing Sense”, in The End of Art Theory. NJ: Humanities Press International. Inc., 1986.

Mitchell, W.J.T. “The Ethics of Form in the Photographic Essay” in Afterimage, January 1989.

Vella, J. Learning to Listen Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1994.

Images

Drawing Hands by M.C. Escher