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This study explores the role of higher education professional development in the integration of visual literacy instruction at the university level. Visual literacy is a crucial skill that empowers students to comprehend and generate visual content across diverse domains. However, many instructors lack necessary training and support to effectively incorporate visual literacy into their teaching practices. The research survey investigates the significance of teacher professional development in visual literacy implementation, encompassing the status of training, effective professional development programs for teachers, suitable teaching methods, education technologies, attitudes of higher education instructors towards visual literacy, and the influence of student engagement with visual materials on visual literacy advancement in Kuwait. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of higher education teachers. That data was analyzed employing descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, with SPSS v.26 software. Regression analysis and other multivariate analyses were conducted to test the research hypothesis and model. The outcomes should provide insights into the effectiveness of collaborative, experiential, and technology-enhanced teacher professional development programs in fostering visual literacy development within higher education, the significance of student engagement with visual materials, and the necessity for further research on effective teaching methods and educational technologies for promoting visual literacy. The findings can inform policy and practice by highlighting the importance of equipping higher education instructors with necessary skills and resources to effectively incorporate visual literacy into their teaching approaches, enhancing the quality of higher education by fostering competencies among students and facilitating their engagement with visual materials across various disciplines.

This interdisciplinary, conceptual analysis addresses the nature and benefits of artistic processes in learning and work. While recognizing various forms of artistry, the emphasis is on visual-spatial thinking. The benefits of this kind of thinking in academic and professional activities include the simplification of massively complex writing, improvement of psychological functioning, and the magnification of creative work in various professions, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Visual-spatial thinking also is a strength that often helps twice-exceptional individuals overcome their learning difficulties. Several thinking and learning strategies are explored, including visual data animation, concept cartooning, visual metaphor, and musical translation of written material. Some ways that visual-spatial thinking can help overcome the problems generated by dogmatic school reform also are scrutinized.

Early STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education plays a pivotal role in shaping children's science and visual literacy skills. However, in South Africa, there are notable challenges such as delayed initiation of science education and inadequate emphasis on visual literacy. This study aims to investigate the influence of early STEM education on science and visual literacy in South African educational contexts. Drawing upon the post-positivist paradigm and Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning, this research employed a mixed-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, integrating autoethnography to engage with lived experiences during my master's and doctoral studies. The findings suggest that children exposed to STEM education demonstrate higher levels of science and visual literacy. These findings have implications for curriculum design and educational practice, urging stakeholders to integrate STEM principles early in children's educational journey and to prioritize visual literacy to enhance communication and comprehension of scientific concepts. Recommendations are provided for educational institutions and policymakers to facilitate the implementation of effective strategies addressing these challenges and fostering a generation of learners equipped with essential skills for success in the modern world.

Through a bibliometric analysis, this study aimed to uncover the connections between technology, digital and visual literacy, and education. By examining the Web of Science database, we were able to gain insight into the scope of the topic and interdisciplinary trends in the literature. Our analysis revealed that journals such as the "Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy," "Computers & Education," and "Education and Information Technologies" are important and frequently cited resources in this area. Notable researchers such as Buckingham, D., McGrew, S., and Coiro, J. were identified through our author analysis. Our trend analysis demonstrated the growing importance of digital literacy, technology, and education. Through cluster analysis, we were able to identify relationships and topics between keywords. Our findings suggest that digital literacy education should be prioritized, technology should be more widely utilized, and teachers should be trained to collaborate and share. This study provides helpful guidance for educators and researchers and can inform future studies. Our goal is to encourage the development of effective strategies for technology and digital literacy in education. Further research should focus on improving students' digital skills, increasing the impact of technology in education, and enhancing learning experiences.

The study investigates students' ability to analyze visual literacy and digital literacy through open-ended inquiry activities with astronomical observations and Heaven View application. The investigation consists of assignments for students to carry out six different variations of observational activities. Supervision is given in introductory astronomy lectures before and after using open-ended inquiry as direct observation and indirect observation activities. We discuss the implicits for open-ended inquiry learning that encourage students to participate in observational activities. Students are expected to develop several 21st century skills through an open-ended inquiry process, including visual-digital literacy. A pretest-posttest control group design with an open-ended inquiry model was applied to the experimental group and a direct instruction model to the control group. This study uses inferential statistical parametric methods, using ANCOVA. Students' visual-digital literacy data were obtained using the pretest and posttest. The results showed that a statistically significant difference between open-ended inquiry through astronomical laboratory observations assisted by Heaven View application compared to direct model recognition. Students' visual-digital literacy has increased due to the application of this learning model. The implications of this research can encourage students' visual-digital science literacy. Other educators can adopt open-ended learning experiences through the Heaven View app-assisted astronomical observation labs to promote visual-digital literacy in science.

We present an audience reception study of participant reactions to gender-based violence in Issa López' 2008 film, "Casi Divas," chosen for its nuanced depiction of women grappling with several violences. Over three focus groups with 15 adult participants, we used Galtung's conflict theory to explore what participants identified as violence, and how victims should respond to violence in various forms. We find that participants have a narrow definition of violence, seeing it as an individualized act and therefore neglecting to consider its cultural or structural foundations. The participants' responses to violence largely reflected neoliberal values of personal empowerment and choice, resilience, and "leaning in." We recommend critical visual literacy as a tool in the educational context to identify and address violence, to fight inequity, and to establish emancipatory discourses.

Textbooks offer instructors an opportunity to promote data visualization and statistical literacy throughout the sociology curriculum. In this study, we examined 463 data visualizations from 27 textbooks for Introduction to Sociology, Social Problems, and intermediate elective courses to illuminate the range of data visualizations and their use of statistical data and numerical variables. We find that textbooks rely on a narrow range of data visualizations (e.g., bar/column charts and tables), statistical data (e.g., percentages), and numerical variables (e.g., age). Introduction to Sociology textbooks used more data visualizations, and Social Problems textbooks incorporated more types of statistics. In contrast, intermediate-level textbooks presented more measures of central tendency. Overall, our results suggest textbooks could better integrate a broader range of figures, statistical data, and numerical variables. We conclude with resources for integrating data visualization in instruction.

This article challenges an over-reliance on language as the primary means to communicate knowledge by adopting a language"less"ness approach to maker pedagogies and maker literacies. Having conducted makerspace and design-based research for some time, we separately and together noticed a productive relationship between wordless relational makerspace and making moments focused on craft, tools, technologies, and materials, and ways that an absence of verbal and written communication opens possibilities within learning environments. After meetings and discussions, we co-wrote the article to examine ways that language-light, even language-free pedagogical spaces allow for a different quality of design work that motivates and fosters innovation. There are three international research projects that serve as research vignettes to investigate the efficacy of languagelessness. The theory foregrounded to anchor and interpret the three vignettes draws from maker literacies research and sociomaterial orientations to knowledge development.

Temporal seeing is a mode of visual perception that interrupts the spatial bias we bring to visual literacy practices. Although an image only captures one moment in time, there are multiple spatioanalytical tools we can use to consider any image. Spatial literacy, which is the practice of analyzing objects through their properties in space, tends to be the default analytical mode for making sense of imagery. For people to bring a commensurate temporal richness to their articulated visual readings, we first highlight the perspectival richness of time and temporality. We next present five precepts that can guide enriched temporal seeing: contextual histories; relational chronologies; internal rhymicity; desequenced and resequenced narrative; and critique and meaning-making. Finally, we suggest that temporal seeing holds a series of educative possibilities for expanding the interpretive frames and perceptual apparatuses of literacy researchers and practitioners.

Visual literacy, which is the ability to effectively identify, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media, is an important aspect of science literacy. As molecular processes are not directly observable, researchers and educators rely on visual representations (e.g., drawings) to communicate ideas in biology. How learners interpret and organize those numerous diagrams is related to their underlying knowledge about biology and their skills in visual literacy. Furthermore, it is not always obvious how and why learners interpret diagrams in the way they do (especially if their interpretations are unexpected), as it is not possible to "see" inside the minds of learners and directly observe the inner workings of their brains. Hence, tools that allow for the investigation of visual literacy are needed. Here, we present a novel card-sorting task based on visual literacy skills to investigate how learners interpret and think about DNA-based concepts. We quantified differences in performance between groups of varying expertise and in pre- and postcourse settings using percentages of expected card pairings and edit distance to a perfect sort. Overall, we found that biology experts organized the visual representations based on deep conceptual features, while biology learners (novices) more often organized based on surface features, such as color and style. We also found that students performed better on the task after a course in which molecular biology concepts were taught, suggesting the activity is a useful and valid tool for measuring knowledge. We have provided the cards to the community for use as a classroom activity, as an assessment instrument, and/or as a useful research tool to probe student ideas about molecular biology.

In an era in which "all media are mixed media" (Mitchell, 2002), visual information is central in interpersonal and mass communication. Despite this daily consumption of visual information, "digital natives" (Prensky, 2001) are not prepared to critically engage with images (Brumberger, 2016). Scholars in the field of visual literacy identified a curricular bias towards written texts (Elkins, 2007), and the need for more training of visual literacy in higher education (Metros & Woolsey, 2006). However, the discussion of visual literacy in higher education is dominated by studies that measure teaching strategies (Bowen, 2017; Johnston et al. 2017) but rarely discuss the meaning of visual literacy from a student perspective. Visual reflection is a learning experience that involves reading, writing, thinking, and feeling with and through images. This study investigates undergraduate students' experience with visual reflection in a visual studies class through a phenomenographic approach to 29 visual journals and a thematic analysis of 9 semi-structured interviews with students. The objective is discussing the potential contribution of visual reflection to students' multimodal literacies. This study contends that the promotion of visual reflection needs to be systematically implemented in all fields engaged in knowledge production as visual reflection enhances academic learning, fosters multimodal literacies, and promotes the visualization of knowledge.

This study aims to investigate the process of designing infographics through participants' knowledge construction in the assessment and evaluation process of IB Educator Certificate (IBEC) educational technologies education. The study, in which the case study method was used, was conducted with 12 participants who attended the educational technologies and material design course in IBEC education. 7 infographic assignments were given in 14 weeks and 42 hours of online training and analyzed according to the relevant analytical rubric. To measure the development in the training process, pre-test and post-test were measured with the Web 2.0 tools usage competencies scale. At the end of the training, the participants' views on the effect of infographics on their learning processes and its use in education were analyzed by descriptive analysis. Accordingly, it was observed that the participants produced designs with effective content in their infographic assignments during the process. At the end of the training, there was a significant increase in their use of web 2.0 tools, which is the scope of the course, in support of this. According to the participants' views, results such as facilitating learning, permanent learning and having fun while learning were also obtained.

This article provides a theoretical exploration of the connections between critical literacy and symbolic competence with some pedagogical examples from an empirical study. More specifically, we argue that critical literacy can be utilised as an approach to develop symbolic competence, and, by extension, encourage intercultural learning. Our interest is in teasing this out through a synthesis of ways of approaching intercultural learning through critical literacy. Drawing on four major critical literacy models, the article attempts to show how critical literacy can provide a basis for addressing symbolic competence as an essential part of intercultural learning in increasingly complex and super-diverse societies. The article concludes with some specific pedagogical implications for using critical literacy in the language classroom to foster the type of intercultural learning which takes into account the diversity between and within cultures, and the role of meaning-making in the creation and re-creation of cultures.

This study aimed to determine the relationship between the visual literacy levels of children attending preschool education institutions and their rapid automatized naming skills. A total of 160 children, 77 girls, and 83 boys, aged 5-6 years, attending independent kindergartens, took part in the research. The "Personal Information Form," the "Visual Literacy Assessment Tool for Children Aged 5-6 Parent's Form," and the Rapid Automated Naming Test (HOTIT) were used to collect the data. The predictive correlational research design was used in the study; Pearson's correlation coefficient and "multiple regression" analysis were used to determine the predictors of visual literacy skills. It was found that there was a high negative correlation between the skills of the Rapid Automatized Naming Test and the picture sub-dimension and a similarly high negative correlation between the Rapid Automatized Naming Test color skills.

Writing is one of the most crucial skills for EFL students and also one of the most difficult to acquire. Many students face difficulties when it comes to writing in English. To address this challenge, this study examined whether or not combining inquiry-based learning with visual literacy could enhance EFL students' writing proficiency in four areas: content, organization, grammatical structures, and vocabulary. An intact group of 20 secondary school students from a private school in northeastern Thailand participated in this mixed-methods study, and data were collected using writing tests, student portfolios, and focus group interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Results of the Wilcoxon signed rank test revealed a significant improvement in students' writing scores (Z = -3.946*, p < 0.05) with a medium effect size after implementing the inquiry-based learning with visual literacy model. Qualitative analysis revealed that students actively engaged in the learning process, which helped enhance their writing ability. The study findings suggest that an inquiry-based learning with visual literacy model had a positive impact on EFL students' writing ability, as evidenced by the improved quality of their written texts. This study contributes to the existing literature on the use of inquiry-based learning to enhance EFL writing ability and emphasizes the importance of visual literacy in promoting student engagement and learning outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the science activities supported by the Web 2.0 tools at the 7th-grade secondary school level had an impact on the students' academic achievement, visual literacy level and spatial visualization skills. The study was designed in accordance with the nonequivalent control group design. The study universe was composed of 180 students from a state school during the 2021-2022 academic year in Turkey. An academic achievement test, Visual literacy scale and Spatial Visualization Test were administered to both groups as pre-tests and post-tests. In the experimental group, science instruction based Web 2.0 tools were used, while science instruction without Web 2.0 tools were used in the control group. This result indicated that the science education based Web 2.0 tools improved the achievement of the students in the topic of cells and divisions. Furthermore, it was furher revealed that the education in which the Web 2.0 tools were used positively affected their visual literacy and spatial visualization. In this respect, the results of this study and the science instructions with Web 2 tools can provide practical help to educators teaching the topic of cells and cell division.

This article describes how to help students connect what they learn in the language classroom to the outside world as they learn to understand, produce, and analyze spoken, written, visual, and cultural information in their second language (L2). As learners make connections between course material and the physical and virtual spaces where the L2 is used, they are introduced to the concept of "linguistic landscape" (LL), which refers to language on signs, advertisements, in graffiti, and other public venues. The examples come from a Hebrew class, where students gain deeper understanding of diverse intercultural realites in Israel and are prepared to function in authentic communicative situations. Colleagues in other languages could also use LL as a basis to explore intercultural realities of any multilingual space--from Berlin to Québec or in students' own environments.

Various blended learning models have been developed, but none of them have focused on support systems to improve the digital literacy of preservice teachers. This study aims to produce a prototype of a blended learning support system that can improve the digital literacy of preservice teachers. This type of research is research and development using a 4D model. This research was conducted at Universitas Negeri Padang and started with a needs analysis of 168 students to develop a blended learning prototype. The prototype was tested on six experts, six lecturers, and six students in the limited test and 50 students at the dissemination stage. The data collection instrument used observation and questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis. The results show that the validity of the blended learning support system to improve the digital literacy of preservice teachers was in the very valid category. All indicators from the experts were higher than indicators from the lecturers. Although each support system was assessed differently by the experts and the lecturers, overall the digital literacy components in each support system were declared valid. The results of this study contribute to the development of digital literacy for preservice teachers by integrating digital literacy skills into a blended learning support system that includes lesson plans, content, and activities on the LMS as well as digital literacy-based assessments.

In today's world, visual competence plays an increasingly important role. Proficiency in visual literacy is an essential competency in various fields, including marketing, design, education, and journalism. The competency to convey messages effectively, attract audiences, and promote engagement is crucial for success in these industries. At the university level, visual literacy is an essential competency for university students studying visual communication. A lack of sufficient visual literacy leads to several key challenges. Research indicates that most university students in China do not have sufficient visual literacy competencies. However, there has been a dearth of scholarly inquiry looking specifically into the visual literacy competency standards of students studying visual communication design in China despite its close association with visual literacy. The study aimed to evaluate the visual literacy competency of students majoring in visual communication design in Shanghai, China, through interviews. The interview questions utilised in this study were developed based on four visual literacy standards created by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). This study includes the competencies to determine visual materials needed, efficient image retrieval, interpret visual materials' meanings, and evaluate image credibility when performing visual artworks. The study's results indicate that students face difficulties in analysing and evaluating images due to their limited exploration of images related information, background, technology, and design elements. Consequently, they encounter challenges such as an inability to distinguish authenticity and judge reliability. These findings are valuable for the curriculum development of students majoring in visual communication design.

This article embarks on an exploration of the transformative influence of infographics within the educational landscape, tracing their impact from the Gen-Alpha era onwards. Infographics emerge as dynamic visual tools, transcending generational boundaries and establishing a universal language of comprehension. From catering to the digital fluency of Gen-Alpha to resonating with earlier and subsequent generations, infographics serve as enduring conduits, adapting to diverse learning styles and cultivating a culture of visual literacy. This article delves into a unique dimension, proposing infographics as suitable aids for teaching and learning through the innovative concept of 'pop-up edutainment exhibitions'. These exhibitions represent dynamic, interactive showcases that bring educational content to life, creating an engaging and immersive experience for learners. From static visuals to dynamic formats like animated and interactive infographics, this evolution revolutionizes the pedagogical experience, making education a visually stimulating journey. Within the collaborative realm, infographics evolve into platforms fostering multigenerational wisdom, where minds converge, co-create, and contribute to a collective reservoir of knowledge. Through a critical lens, this article scrutinizes how infographics, presented as pop-up edutainment exhibitions, amplify critical thinking, digital literacy, and creative expression across generational spectra, exemplifying their instrumental role in crafting an inclusive and engaging learning environment.

This experiment employed viewing time methods to investigate the effects of individual differences in visuospatial working memory (VWM) on the processing of older adults' bridging inferences in the understanding of visual narratives. The results showed that older adults could make bridging inferences in visual narrative processing, and that VWM had no significant effect on the generation of older adults' bridging inferences in visual narrative comprehension. The findings of this study have the potential to enrich and advance the theories and models related to discourse comprehension and its inference processing, and they would have important implications for using visual media to facilitate training in inference processing.

Smartphones and the literacy to harness the educational affordances of photographs currently rest on the bedrock of second language (L2) education. Building on social semiotic theory, this study developed and validated a visual literacy scale for smartphone photography (VLS4SP). Despite the importance of visuals and smartphones, no valid scale is available in the domain of English language teaching (ELT) to measure L2 teachers' VL. In developing and validating the new VLS4SP, initially, some items were generated and tested for validity. Second, the scale was tested through rigorous psychometric analyses. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) suggested the existence of 28 items that represent the established conceptualization of VL in the literature and the three areas of meaning metafunctions in the social semiotic theory: representational, interactive, and compositional. Overall, the study tapped upon two crucial technological and literacy factors in ELT which paves the way for further research and the applications of the scale in ELT.

This article offers an update on key developments in research related visual literacy, children's reading and children's literature. Beginning with an overview of the field, we chart several distinctive 'turns' or research trajectories: the aesthetic, the intercultural or empathic, and the ethical. We then consider how questions of power, authenticity and representation are visible in three important areas of the field: research with marginalised groups; research that focuses on mediation within the visual reading process; advances in the types of visual texts being used in research. Key emergent ideas include the challenges of adult mediators' expectations on children's visual reading, the potential of texts' material affordances, and new directions in open, more inclusive opportunities to respond to, and with, visual texts. We conclude with a hopeful look forward at emerging directions in policy and research.

This article explores the hidden gendered curriculum concealed in the texts, exhibitions and other structural devices of museums and what they teach visitors to see and think. Grounded in conceptualisations of culture, representation, and language, past feminist studies of museums and applying feminist visual discourse analysis (FVDA) we found hiding in plain sight in public museums in Canada and England a diversity of 'languages' that subversively aggrandised masculine power and privilege and (re)inscribed negative or limited understandings to women which we argue as feminist adult educators have epistemic, identity and agency consequences. We also argue that whilst museums are trying to address often centuries old exclusionary gendered practices progress is slow because these practices are so embedded and unconscious and reflect pervasive social notions of 'common sense'. Our study makes an important contribution to feminist museum studies by rendering visible a web of complex structural and textual gendered biases and to adult education. By adding museums to our curricula we can provide our students with a visual and immersive way to hone the critical visual literacy skills needed to understand more fully how both seen and unseen languages operate not just in the museum, but across society.

Using a verbal protocol, this study investigated how 38 second-grade students identify, describe, and interpret five types of commonly used visual graphics in science texts (i.e., cut-away diagrams, maps, captioned photographs, flow diagrams, and hybrids). Additionally, we explored the challenges students encountered when interpreting these visuals. Our findings demonstrated that, overall, a majority of second graders struggled to correctly name and identify the purposes of the selected visuals, with the exception of maps. Furthermore, there was significant variation in students' interpretations of the visuals in science texts. When interpreting the visuals, students' perceptions of the task's difficulty level were influenced by factors such as the amount of information, overall organization, concreteness of visuals, use of visual conventions, lack of prior knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge. We recommend that classroom teachers integrate more explicit visual literacy instruction into science education, incorporating a variety of visuals.

In higher education, the popularity of using infographics as teaching and learning tools is increasing. However, their design is a demanding task and the majority of students are inexperienced in creating this form of visual. To help educators integrate tasks of creating infographics more successfully and thus enhance the development of visual literacy in higher education, this study seeks to identify challenges faced by university students while creating infographics for the first time. The study participants were students of Informatics attending the course of Academic and Technical Communication in English. Data sources were their initial drafts of infographics created in small groups during a multi-step project. The results of the content analysis revealed that the most commonly observed challenges were difficulties while applying titles and subtitles, too substantial amount of textual information, inability to put information in a story-like format, inappropriate layout of information, inaccurate spelling, lack of references or absence of their correct attribution and use of unjustified text. Importantly, the study includes lists of attributes and recommendations necessary to design infographics, the appliance of which together with the use of professionally designed templates could result in effective infographics.

This study examined the individual and collaborative infographic development processes of middle school students in a qualitative research context. In the first phase, individual and collaborative infographics were developed, a simultaneous think-aloud protocol and interviews were conducted. In the second phase, focus group interviews were conducted with 22 teachers. The findings of the study revealed that students who developed infographics individually and collaboratively completed their tasks at different stages. Protocol analysis data showed that individual and collaborative efforts were reflected in cognitive processes and that collaborative groups spent less time in testing and individual students spent less time in questioning. The findings showed that collaborative learning activities can support the learning process with components such as questioning, peer scaffolding, and sharing.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how infographics are used in the dynamics of designing or creating in the teaching and learning process. Utilising a bibliometric approach and content analysis, we examined a sample of 760 documents from the Web of Science and Scopus databases with no lower time limit until November 2023. The analyses aimed to identify trends, including main topics, authors, sources, most cited articles, institutional affiliations, and countries in the literature. This bibliometric approach allows for the observation of trends in the educational application of promoting visual literacy through students' design or creation of infographics in formal and informal learning settings. Initial publications emerged in 2007, gaining momentum from 2014 to the present. The most prolific fields were medical science, chemistry, and computer science. This investigation shows that educational institutions could employ infographics beyond present boundaries to prepare students--particularly Generation Alpha, digital natives--for a data-driven society. Institutions should expand their use of infographics to improve visual literacy and address the changing educational requirements of students in a dynamic learning environment. Overall, this paper provides insights into the readiness of educators and institutions to engage Generation Alpha, the digital natives, through visual literacy and infographics.

This study explores the integration of key Transformative Learning Theory (TLT) principles into design education to foster Visual Literacy (VL) and promote awareness of environmental issues among undergraduate students. Through thematic analysis of 22 illustrated infographics, ideation sketches and supporting textual data created by art and design students, the study examines patterns and insights related to perspective transformation, critical reflection, and visual writing skills. Findings reveal pedagogical efficacy when prompting students to explore counter-narratives to the prevailing negative zeitgeist, resulting in perspective transformation and critical reflection of the design process. In turn, this perspective shift and critical reflection fostered the development of students' abilities to convey complex ideas visually, thus broadening their visual vocabulary to advocate for positive change. Three main categories were considered: Critical Reflection, Perspective Transformation, and Visual Writing Skills, and six sub-categories were identified: Implicit Reflection, Paradigm Shift, Alternative Narratives, Rhetorical Concepts, Intentional Visual-Verbal Communication, and Emotional Visual Language. Implications for scholars include insights into curriculum development and the promotion of ethical and sustainable design practices, while pragmatic applications for faculty offer actionable recommendations for enhancing teaching practices. The study underscores the importance of ethical considerations, diverse perspectives, and real-world applications in nurturing students' growth as innovative, ethical and sustainable designers.

This article discusses how the authors utilized Disney animations, including "Moana" (Musker, 2016), "Zootopia" (Howard et al., 2016), "Coco" (Unkrich & Molina, 2017), "Encanto" (Howard et al., 2021), and "Raya and the Last Dragon" (Hall et al., 2021), to discuss LGBTQIA2S+ representations and the educational applications of LGBTQIA2S+2-inclusive curriculum with preservice art teachers in educator licensure programs. Fostering the readiness of preservice teachers to teach LGBTQIA2S+ subject matter both theoretically and pedagogically is a significant undertaking for educator licensure programs. One of the greatest challenges is assisting preservice teachers in acquiring strong visual literacy and critical-thinking skills through the practices of decoding and creating LGBTQIA2S+ representations in everyday visual displays, and demonstrating how to integrate queerness with art production. Therefore, the goal was to encourage preservice teachers to proactively identify and address issues related to the neglect of LGBTQIA2S+ topics and explore explicit and implicit representations of LGBTQIA2S+ characters in the selected animations. Additionally, the authors aimed to initiate inclusive conversations in art classes through the creation of visual illustrations. Through this analysis and creation process, preservice art teachers will be better equipped to utilize LGBTQIA2S+ themes in their teaching and establish a welcoming environment for their future students, particularly LGBTQIA2S+ students, to express themselves and celebrate diversity.

This paper examines the invisible barrier that can challenge teachers when teaching online, called the fourth wall. Using a presence framework derived from the literature, we explored how experienced teachers manage the absence of visual cues and identify the pedagogical practices they adopted as a response. Data from semi-structured interviews with 22 teachers experienced in online teaching was analysed for individual presence, place presence, and co-presence. Results indicate seven different types of individual presence, four different types of place presence, and three different types of co-presence. Overall, findings show that teachers discussed developing students' individual connections to the online lesson more often compared with developing co-presence (student-to-student engagement) with place presence being representative of the online learning space. Specific strategies that teachers used to support each presence are presented and implications are provided for how this affects the move to an increased use of blended and online learning in the schooling context.

The art of looking is a museum and art gallery teaching tool at the core of the Visual Thinking Strategies, a Harvard School of Education pedagogy initiated as an educational experiment for schools across the United States almost two decades ago. Today, a large number of schools implement this teaching method to increase student engagement in a non-hierarchical setting that promotes inclusive learning experiences. Students analyze works of art basic elements (colors, shapes, and textures) and complexities (meanings and intentions and ties to cultures and emotions) with an inquiry-based approach. Facilitators are central to the process, but not the authoritative source. At a moment in which racial inequality and injustice flood the media, anti-racist intentional teaching is necessary to produce social change. The discomfort generated by magnifying racism through the lens of art moves the participants to explore how racism can deeply shape social, political, and cultural institutions, acknowledging the root causes of racism and identifying the spaces that perpetuate segregation and discrimination on the basis of race beyond stereotypes. Rather than shying away from difficult issues, this pedagogy encourages the audience to address complex topics and combat social issues head-on. This article contains five essays that highlight the beauty of truthful young voices from a multidisciplinary, higher-education setting that call for racism awareness and action through the art of looking.

Students' engagement in multimodal remediation of learning material in the form of slideshow presentations dominates universities. Yet, diversification of learning artifacts through the creation of more diverse types of multimodal content is scarce. The current article therefore proposes an innovative project during which students summarize research articles (RAs) by remediating their content into two increasingly popular communication formats: infographics and graphical abstracts (GAs). Following step-by-step activities that enhance student agency, learners self-regulate, work in groups, and learn to design these types of visuals. We discuss both modes and practices and present them visually in the format of instructional infographics, providing insights compiled in our own reflective journals as course facilitators. Courses: Professional Communication, Academic Communication, Science Communication, Technical Writing, Social Science Research Methods, English for Research Purposes, English for Specific Purposes, English for Academic Purposes, Visual Literacy, and Multimodality courses. The activities of multimodal remediation of academic texts into infographics and GAs may be adapted for all levels of students, including those who plan to continue with research activities in the future. Objectives: The proposed activities will help students to: (1) extract essential information from the RAs; (2) become acquainted with expert expectations regarding infographics and GAs (i.e. author guidelines in scientific journals); (3) critically evaluate the construction criteria of visuals for scholarly publication; (4) communicate research content (scientific data) visually by learning to design two popular formats for communicating research; (5) reflect on how effective multimodal construction is compared to the ones created by peers or the examples provided; (6) familiarize themselves with the target academic discourse; (7) foster learner agency, self-regulation, and autonomy; and (8) develop effective team working and collaboration subskills (e.g. responsibility sharing, taking into account the perspectives of others, etc.).

The notion of scientific visual literacy has been advocated in recent science curriculum reform documents and related learning outcomes are expected from students. However, few studies have been conducted to determine how it is tested in high-stakes examinations. This study utilized the Visualization Blooming Tool to examine the level of visual cognition involved in visual-based physics questions in the Senior High School Entrance Examination (SHSEE) in China. Content analysis was adopted as the research method and 12 sets of the SHSEE physics from four Chinese metropolises (Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou) in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were targeted. The results indicate that although all four metropolises examined the higher-order visual cognitive skills, they placed more emphasis on the levels of apply and analyze but less on evaluate and create. Moreover, the examination items required students to interpret visual representations more often than to construct them, which may be detrimental to developing students' scientific visual literacy. It is suggested that the examination of higher-order visual cognitive skills and encoded visual representation should be strengthened in future high-stakes physics examinations.

During a study in a Kindergarten classroom, wordless and almost wordless picturebooks were presented as aesthetic objects that are read for pleasure, reward slow looking, and require engagement in significant semiotic work. Instruction about and adult mediation of picturebooks throughout the research communicated to the children that elements of visual art, design, and layout in picturebook artwork are fundamental to meaning-making with this format of literature. One component of the research procedures involved the students participating in small group interactive discussion sessions of six almost wordless picturebooks. Content analysis of transcript excerpts from the discussions of one picturebook revealed the Kindergarten children generated inferences about characters' goals, actions, states, activities, emotions, and utterances, as well as made place, object, causal antecedents, and causal consequences inferences. Furthermore, analyses of the transcripts revealed how inference generation was central to the children's meaning-making during their transactions with an almost wordless picturebook. The findings contribute to the limited scholarship on Kindergarten students' inferences and interpretations about elements of artwork, design, and layout in wordless and almost wordless picturebooks, and overall, add to the literature on young children's inferential thinking.

This article aims to enhance the pedagogy of drawing by integrating relevant aspects of art history and aesthetics with perception and communication theories. "Visualcy" is defined as an articulacy with visual languages, from which the more familiar "3Rs" ("R"eading, w"R"iting, and a"R"ithmetic), alluding to literacy and numeracy, evolved. It embraces not only the more familiar definition of "visual literacy" in the sense of how people perceive, interpret, and learn from existing visual imagery, but also the "semogenic" facility for producing the means to understanding through the articulation of visual elements (line, shape, tone, texture, colour) in the construction of new images. After reviewing the role of drawing in cultural evolution, the article discusses drawing in relation to aesthetics, before outlining a pedagogy of drawing designed to nurture visualcy, of central importance to human culture.

A visual arts education promoted through a lens of visual culture fosters the idea that students can influence social change through their artmaking practices (K. Freedman, 2003a). Instructing through this lens is by far harder than teaching simple artmaking techniques. But Alison Aziz, similar to Kerry Freedman, became an art educator because they believe in the power art holds. The author wanted to take a look at the research on visual culture since K. Freedman's (2003a) article. They have broken this article up across two parts: (1) a discussion of what visual culture has meant in recent years and (2) the importance of teaching art through a visual culture lens. Art education is a rich discipline that simply cannot be overlooked for the importance that it serves to the curriculum. Ultimately, there are different reasons for becoming an art educator; however, the author's hope is that, in this article, an argument will have been made for instructing art through the lens of visual culture.

This paper aims to analyse to what extent the engineering curricula contribute to the development of visual literacy among engineering students. Communicating and thinking visually is a basic skill for all engineers, being a fundamental part of their educational stage. For this purpose, Engineering Graphics subjects from 30 engineering schools from Spain have been selected to review their content. The sample consists of 80 subjects of Engineering Graphics, mechanical design and computer-aided design. The curricula were analyzed using a quantitative and qualitative method. A database has been developed where keywords that identify the objectives of the analysis have been tabulated. Learning technical visual language and visualization skills as a means of developing visual literacy in engineering has been taken as the basis of the analysis. The results show that the curricula of the subjects contemplate the development of graphic skills around communication and technical representation and, to a lesser extent, visualization. On the other hand, the teaching activities contemplated do not dive into the cognitive aspects of graphics. We can also observe the pre-eminence of computer graphics as the main basis for teaching activities and marginal use of freehand drawing, which is basic for the development of Visual Literacy.

This study determined the test-retest reliability of 10 sensorimotor skills assessed by the Senaptec Sensory Station in a population of 100 (80 female, age = 21.6 ± 2.8 years) college-aged individuals (18-30 years). Separate intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) with a two-way mixed-effects model, absolute agreement, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Additionally, the standard error of measurement and minimal detectable change values were determined to examine clinical applicability. Go/no-go, multiple-object tracking, eye-hand coordination, depth perception, and reaction time demonstrated good reliability (ICCs = 0.81-0.88). Target capture and perception span demonstrated moderate reliability (ICCs = 0.51-0.63). Visual clarity, contrast sensitivity, and near-far quickness demonstrated poor reliability (ICCs = 0.28-0.43). Assessments involving decision-making, anticipation, and spatial awareness demonstrated good reliability, while most assessments of visual skills demonstrated poor reliability. Overall, go/no-go, multiple-object tracking, eye-hand coordination, depth perception, and reaction time from the Senaptec Sensory Station are reliable and can be administered clinically in a healthy, college-aged population.

This study employed a qualitative approach to examining the rhetorical value of multimodal composing practices among first-year college students with diverse academic, sociocultural, and linguistic backgrounds. With a shift to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study sought instructional methods that would support the development of composition and language skills through a variety of modalities. A total of 21 participants took part in the study to address whether the inclusion of visual and technological literacy practices in an online setting enhanced verbal and non-verbal communication, multiparty interaction, writing engagement, and audience awareness. The researcher examined the qualitative data for major themes and summarized findings in categories illustrated by participants' quotes. The results of the study show that teaching multimodal practices aligned well with conventional written instruction. Two important trends were revealed: (1) students at all levels of English development demonstrated advances in conventional composing practices, such as thesis statement, organization, and content; and (2) multimodal practices contributed to higher levels of confidence, competence, and creativity, specifically in the students' ability to communicate coherent arguments, cite sources, and interact effectively during the peer editing process. Implications for curriculum, assessment, and practice with a commitment to equitable instruction are discussed.

Drawn from a larger study on implementing visual-based literacy strategies across the curriculum, this article focuses on the ways multilingual students leveraged multimodal resources to express their perceptions and reflections on their innovative classroom learning experiences. Informed by a critical multiliteracies perspective, we analyzed a data set of 22 drawings, created as exit tickets, to find out how students illustrate their response to the curriculum. Our 4th to 6th grade students, identified as English Language Learners through district evaluations, leveraged multimodal techniques to reflect on their content learning and insert themselves into the classroom learning process as successful and accomplished community members, sometimes challenging the deficit labels assigned to them with their status as English Learners.

The overarching goal of this review article is to discuss and provide evidence of ways that visual displays can be used to improve classroom thinking skills. Specifically, we attempt to first, provide a synthesis of the relationship among visual displays, visual literacy, and visual thinking. Second, we review the relatively scant educational interventions used to improve the use of visual displays. Third, we discuss five ways that visual displays improve the efficiency and depth of cognitive processes, thereby enhancing the use of thinking skills. Fourth, we review research which illustrates how visual displays improve classroom thinking and deeper learning. Fifth, using the most current research, we provide a template for integrated instruction intervention for using visual displays in the classroom. This template includes the use of complementary domain-general and domain or task-specific strategies and a 12-step computer-based tutorial sequence suitable for middle school and high school students.

High quality media education promotes media literacy and ensures citizens' smooth participation and engagement in the digital society. Digital media include powerful communication and interaction platforms that require new literacy skills. This study examines what new literacies can be found in the opinion writings of student teachers in relation to media literacy. The research material consists of 37 Finnish student teachers' opinion writings produced during the Media Education 2020 course. The aim of the study is to explore how student teachers identify new literacies as part of media education and how these new literacies are reflected in their opinion writings. As a result of the research, new literacies emerged from the data as a cultural phenomenon of our time. This was reflected in their views on the technological orientation of school and teaching and the importance of media education as a teaching task in schools. An important finding is that the textual subculture of social media is valued as a new form of literacy. The results show that while the narrative value of images, virtual game worlds and easy access to social media via smartphones were identified, the broad understanding of new literacies among student teachers is narrow.?Perceptions of media education and new literacies are interlinked and the debate on their relevance as a social phenomenon should continue.

By incorporating visual mapping into students' thinking and writing processes, a narrative assignment in geo-literacy creates a reflective and agency-based learning experience for student writers in a first-year honors seminar.

In this paper, we describe subskills of visual communication based on the skill structure outlined in the Common European Framework of Visual Literacy. We have developed this Framework further through assessing the development of subskills related to visual communication in the "produce" and "respond" domains of CEFR-VC in primary school grades. We developed and validated online digital assessment tools to facilitate the introduction of authentic assessment as a standard practice in curriculum development. The results of this study include the definition of its components, development of innovative tools for their assessment, and description of the development of its subskills in the "produce" and "respond" domains. Our tests for the "respond" domain of the visual literacy framework were administered in the eDia interactive diagnostic testing environment in Grades 4-6 (ages 10-12 years) of the Hungarian primary school system. The tools for the second experiment about the "create" domain of visual communication were developed in the GeoGebra free educational software environment and tested major components of the "produce" domain of visual communication in primary Grades 5-8 (ages 11-14 years). Results show increasing attainment in subskills through the age groups in the "produce" domain and less significant or no development in the "respond" domain, which is underrepresented in Hungarian art education curricula. Development is unrelated to school achievement in non-art disciplines, showing the distinctiveness of the visual domain, and is weakly related to gender and digital literacy. Using our subskill descriptions and the assessment tools, teachers may select those subskills that they find most important to develop during the limited teaching time for visual arts. The paper ends with suggestions to enhance visual communication as a cross-curricular competency that develops visual-spatial intelligence.

This study was conducted to determine the visual literacy levels of high school students and to reveal whether visual literacy levels are affected by some variables. In this context, the visual literacy levels of the participants were examined according to gender, class and achievement level on the basis of comparative relational screening method. The study group consisted of 299 high school students studying in Sivas, Konya and Mersin city centers. Personal Information Form and Visual Literacy Scale were used to collect the data of the study. As a result of the study, it was discovered that the visual literacy levels of high school students were moderate in some dimensions but generally high. In the study, a partially significant difference was found according to the gender variable. In the study, it was observed that the level of visual literacy increased in parallel with the grade level. Finally, as the success level of the students increases, their visual literacy increases significantly.

This article explains the importance of including critical media literacy practices in skills-based classrooms in film education. Students continue to use methods of filmmaking that are inherently biased because they continue to be taught an age-old set of skills that do not engage in critical analysis. With the convergence of contemporary film theory in the classroom, educators can help students learn new methods of filmmaking that are representative for all communities and people. Through textual analysis of three films, this article shows why educators in higher education film programs must include critical media literacy in the skills course curriculum and how to do so. With this change in film education, we can learn to help make more equitable filmmakers.

Narratives drawn from a Fulbright study of immigrant women in Chile communicating with their families at-a-distance through information and communication technologies show that they utilized digital visual literacy practices. Digital visual literacy is a combination of digital literacy and visual literacy and even goes beyond these conceptualizations. By manipulating their levels of visibility through platforms on smartphone devices, immigrant women strove to create a sense of co-presence with their families abroad. This paper demonstrates the complexity and relevance of combining visuality with multi-literacies, voice, and gendered narratives of digital communication for immigrants inside and outside of adult literacy classrooms.