The use of images as a didactical tool

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDG RESEARCH (CONTRACT SOE2 CT97 2020)

Science Teacher Training in an Information Society(STTIS)

Report on Work package 5. SPAIN

Workshop 2

The use o f images as a d idactical too l

Roser Pintó, Rufina Gutierrez and Jaume Ametller

Contact authors at:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaScience Education DepartmentEdifici G5, Campus de la UAB08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, SPAINTel: +34 93 581 3206Fax: +34 93 581 1169mailto: [email protected]

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CONTENTS

1. OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................... 3

1.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................3

1.2. Aims ...........................................................................................................................3

1.3. What you will find...................................................................................................3

2. INTRODUCTORY DOCUMENT ABOUT VISUAL LANGUAGE IN SCIENCETEACHING .......................................................................................................... 5

3. ACTIVITIES ................................................................................................... 10

3.1. Activity 1: The value of images in Science Education. Introduction. ....11

3.1.1. Teacher Trainer’s Guide. ............................................................................12

3.1.2. Teachers’ questionn aire .............................................................................14

3.1.3. Teacher trainer’s resources .......................................................................16

3.2 Activity 2. Images as a way to encode messages ........................................20

3.2.1. Teacher Trainer’s guide ..............................................................................21

3.2.2. Teachers’ questionn aires ...........................................................................24

3.2.3. Teachers Trainer’s resources. ..................................................................31

3.3. Activity 3: Students’ diff iculties when reading images .............................40

3.3.1. Teachers Trainer’s guide ............................................................................41

3.3.2. Teachers’ questionn aires ...........................................................................43

3.3.3. Teachers Trainer’s resources. ..................................................................49

3.4. Activity 4: Designing an image.........................................................................59

3.4.1. Teacher Trainer’s Guide .............................................................................60

3.4.2. Teachers’ worksheet....................................................................................62

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3.4.3. Teacher Trainer’s Resources: Notes on the Teachers’transformations of the images. ............................................................................63

4 GENERAL RESOURCES ............................................................................... 66

4.1. Some useful references......................................................................................67

4.2. Bibliography ..........................................................................................................69

Overview

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1. OVERVIEW

1.1. IntroductionImages are an important element in the building up of science and a very important tool inScience Education. A quick revision of different kinds of scientific texts (from specialisedresearch journals to science popularisation magazines) shows a great number and variety ofvisual representations (Lemke, J.L. 1999a). Nowadays it is easy to find textbooks weremore space is devoted to graphical representations than to text (Kress, G. and Ogborn, J1998). Regardless so science teaching remains mostly verbally based and one of the reasonsfor this situation comes from the fact that teacher training programs rarely address thistopic.

This workshop is largely based on a part of the STTIS research project1, dealing with theissue of the use of images to teach energy related concepts.

1.2. AimsThis workshop aims at introducing the issue of the use of images to science teachers fromthree main points:

• Showing to the teachers the importance of the visual representation in science andscience teaching, paying attention to their features and uses as didactical tools.

• Making teachers aware of the fact that images have a code, a visual language, which isnot trivially understandable and of the diff iculties students may encounter wheninterpreting images.

• Improving the capacity of teachers to criti cally design images to be used in class.

1.3. What you will findThe workshop deals with the use of images in science education. It is structured on foursections:

• Section1: Overview.

• Section 2: Introductory document about visual language in Science teaching. Thissection introduces the main aspects of the use of images in science education.

• Section 3: Activities. This section contains four activities to work with the teachersdifferent issues related to the visual language and its use in teaching science.

To carry out each of the four activities, the following documents have been designed:

1 STTIS: Science Teachers Training in an Information Society is a research project founded by the EU D.G. XII within theframe of the program TSER. STTIS project leaders are: L. Viennot; Université Denis Diderot (Paris VII) , France/ E.Sassi; Università di Napoli "Federico II", Italy/ J. Ogborn; University of Sussex, United Kingdom/ A. Quale; Universityof Oslo, Norway/ R. Pintó (STTIS co-ordinator); Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Overview

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- A brief introduction to each activity.

- A teacher trainer guide with the aims of the activity, a proposal of procedure andthe list of the material needed to carry out each activity.

- Teacher questionnaires.

- Specific Resources for teacher trainers (Activities 2, 3 and 4)

• Section four: General Resources. This section gathers selected supporting material forthe teacher trainer including references to the state of the art in science educationresearch on images.

Introductory document about visual language in science teaching

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2. INTRODUCTORY DOCUMENT ABOUT VISUAL LANGUAGE INSCIENCE TEACHING

THE VISUAL LANGUAGE

Images are found mostly everywhere. Traff ic signals, images in the newspapers, in the TV,on the Internet, family photographs, advertisements, pictures of an exhibition, are just a fewexamples of what are called images, or visual representations. But, what is really an image?

To answer this question we could very roughly say that images are compositions of visualelements such as shapes and colours representing real or invented objects. But this justaccounts for the ‘surface’ , for the materiali ty of images. It would be like defining a text bysaying that it is an arrangement of letters. This is true, but most people would feel that avery important point is missing in that definition, something that goes beyond gatheringvowels and consonants, something that is the very essence of a text.

What is it below the surface of what we call images? There is a message, something that theimage is telli ng to its viewers trough the visual elements they perceive.

Thinking about this it can be said that images around us gives us all sort of information.Traff ic signals tell us the speed limit of a road, for example. Newspaper weather maps tellus where is it going to rain. Graphs on a book can tell us the variation of the density of aliquid at different temperatures. A beverage advertisement tells the name of the drink. Afamily picture tells us how did our grandmother looked like when she was twenty.Picasso’s ‘El Guernica’ tells us an episode of the Spanish Civil war.

The former paragraph gives and account of the explicit messages of some images. Imagesthough, may convey more information than that. The beverage ad is telli ng us more thanthe name of it, is also trying to appeal us to drink it. The message of ‘El Guernica’ is notjust: this is the Spanish Civil War, it expresses the painter’s view of it, transmitting a deepsense of horror. In other cases those ‘ implicit’ messages are less obvious (li ke the geo-politi cal’ view expressed by a weather map) but all images convey the intentions of the‘producer’ of them, as it will be explained later.

Assuming that images are a way to express a message, the following question could be:how do the images convey those messages? For instance, by what means a beverage addoes appeal to us to drink it? Or to say it differently, how do we make sense of images?

The act of making interpreting an image is a quite complex process. Many factors takeplace in it, as physical perception, or psychological aspects. There are many factorsnecessary to explain this process, but the fact that things can be communicated troughimages, that the viewer can interpret the message conveyed by an image relays on theexistence of shared conventions between the designer and the viewer to graphicallyrepresent knowledge. Those conventions, compositional structures, have been culturallyconstructed over the years. The complexity of those structures and their capacity to enabledifferent communicative functions justifies talking of a visual language. As Kress and van


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Leeuwen stated it: “We take the view that language and visual communication both realisethe same more fundamental and far-reaching systems of meaning that constitute ourcultures, but that each does so by means of its own specific forms, and independently.(…)Both language and visual communication express meanings belonging to and structured bycultures in the one society and this results in a considerable degree of congruence betweenthe two.” (Kress and van Leuwen, 1996, p. 17)

The visual communication is commonly considered far less structured than the verbalcommunication. This idea results on a wrong idea on the visual language. This language isin fact a powerful and structured mode of communication. Its structures are parallel to thoseof verbal language, such as a semantic system and a grammar. ’Just as grammar oflanguage describe how words combine in clauses, sentences and texts, so our -Kress andvan Leeuwen- visual ‘grammar’ will describe the way in which depicted people, places andthings combine in visual ‘statements’ of greater or lesser complexity and extension.’ (Kressand van Leuwen, 1996, p 1)

As any other language, the visual language is a tool of communication. Since our maininterest is on the use of images in science teaching, which is a communication activity, wewould like to give an schematic account of the view we have adopted about thecommunication process itself.

Communications are not simply 'received' but are re-made, re-constituted, transformed bythe receiver. Communication has to be seen as action; as minds acting on other minds,which then act in response. These acts of response are necessarily transforming, makingnew meanings relate to previous ones” (STTIS 1998).

The communicational process has three fundamental stages. In the first stage, informationis encoded into images and transmitted for instance, trough publication on a book. In thesecond stage a viewer acts as a receiver of the image. This receiver acts, in the first place,as a receiver of an information that should be decoded and interpreted. Once the viewer hasextracted the information that the designers have encoded in the image, he/she mightencode it again to transmit it to other viewers, this being the third stage. Hence, it isnecessary that the receiver know enough about the rules of the visual language to be able tode-codify the message and re-codify it later on, if this is the case. (The former examplemakes use of a receiver that re-codifies the message once again because this happens to bethe case in a classroom where the teacher is the first receiver and the pupils the secondone).

The Information Society: the visual society.

The presence of images in human environments can be traced throughout all humankindhistory, but the enormous increase of the amount and diversity of images we are faced withcan be considered a trend of the Information Society we are living in.

The Information Society, as suggested by its name, implies a radical change in the accessand management of information by the general population. It is well known that thesechanges are linked to a greater facili ty in the access to information technologies: a greatprofusion of telecommunications, of computer tools, etc. These innovations entail theaccess not only to a large quantity of information, but also to the means to manage this


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information: receiving, storing and designing it. The new relationship with informationimplies changes on different social activities and, in particular, on education.

One of the most outstanding changes is the increase of the uses and kinds of images orgraphical representations. The large amount of information made available to thepopulation by new technologies is impelling the use of images because of their efficiency totransmit information in a fast and compact way. On the other hand, the use of newtechnologies has not only increased the number of images used in communications, but alsotheir typology and the possibilities of creating new images and of manipulating them.Therefore, the Information Society is creating a culture in which images acquire a morerelevant role as a way of communication. A consequence of this, according to our view,implies that literacy in reading images should be expected of all citizens.

IMAGES IN SCIENCE TEACHING

According to different authors, science must be regarded as an activity that necessarilymakes use of, or involves several semiotic modes: verbal language, mathematical languageand image representations. Science texts are considered multimodal, that is, they create newmeanings by integration of different semiotic modes (Eco 1976, Halliday 1978, Kress andvan Leeuwen 1996, Kress and Ogborn 1998, Lemke 1998). The new meaning created bythat integration is more that the added meanings of the different elements, i.e.mathematical, verbal, visual elements. The efficiency of those multimodal documentsstrongly relay on how the different semiotic modes are integrated.

There is a long tradition of the use of images in science courses. At present, sciencetextbooks use a large amount of images and the tendency is to increase their number andvariety. The usefulness of the visual language to teach concepts seems widely accepted byall transmitters of knowledge and editors of media diffusion. However so, science teachingstill remains verbally based and it would perhaps be more efficient if students were able toread and correctly interpret textbook images.

Not all the matters are illustrated with the same profusion, neither do they use in the sameproportion the different kinds of representations: graphs, pictures, figurative symbolicimages, abstract symbolic images.

There are two main factors affecting the choice of images in a textbook: the role of theimage and the age of the students.

Even though most images are thought to be mere illustrations of the text, because of theverbally based education, images can play different roles in a textbook. For instance:

• To explain a concept

• To structure knowledge, as in a scheme.

• To pose exercises.

• To exemplify a concept.

• To display information such as a graph.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44517059_Tratado_de_semiotica_general_Umberto_Eco?el=1_x_8&enrichId=rgreq-ebe3c8462133ef31b6bcc516e0a1d64a-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzIyODQ4Njg4MjtBUzoxMDM5MTUxNjkyNTU0MjdAMTQwMTc4NjcxNTE5NA==


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To study the role images play in science courses it is helpful to engage information comingfrom different fields of knowledge: communication and semiotic theories and the scientificdiscipline being taught.

On determining the role of an image it is fundamental to look at how the image interactswith the rest of the document. Thus, an image representing a concept placed at thebeginning of a section or at the end has a completely different role. An image accompaniedby a text that continually makes reference to the image will play a more fundamental rolethan an image placed in document with a text that does not make any reference to it. Wecould summarise that the role of an image depends on the content of the image itself and onthe relation of the image with the rest of the document: the most the document calls forworking with the image the greater the importance of the image will be.

A part from their role, the age of the students to whom the images are addressed is animportant aspect affecting the kind of images present in a textbook. For instance, graphs arecommonly used for upper secondary school students, while in lower grades other symbolicimages are more common, especially figurative ones.

It could roughly be said that as students grow older the images tend to be more abstract,resembling the technological scientific images, while images for younger students tend tobe more figurative, making a greater use of colours, resembling ill ustrations of childrenstory-books. These choices of graphical characteristics are often referred as the modality ofthe images. The modali ty can be defined as the choices of graphical features of a visualrepresentation that account for the reliability of that representation in a given culturalcontext. Those standards of reliabili ty are a social construction and changes from one groupto another. To give an example, an image designed in black and white, with straight lines,without depth... would fulfil the standards of reliabili ty of the group of engineers but not ofpublicity designers. This image would look like a technical drawing but not as anadvertisement for a magazine.

The role of the image and the age of the students to whom the image is addressed affects, asit has just been explained, the design of the image inside a document, producing differentkinds of images. The treatment received by the different kinds of the images usually foundin science textbooks, is very uneven. Graphs are commonly taught and used to explainscientific ideas, both because of the extension of its use and because of the prestige grantedto them by the educators. Figurative images are usually considered as being less importantbecause they are seen as trivially understandable. Therefore, their role has been mainlysecondary, and remains secondary in most secondary school science books. In some cases,the role of the images is just a mere ill ustration of the concepts explained verbally.

The changes on science education tending to extend the teaching of science to youngerstudents may change some of those ideas on the ‘usefulness’ of different kinds of images.Figurative images for instance, might have a more important role on teaching science tostudents with less mathematical background.

This can be the case in primary and compulsory secondary school teaching of energyrelated concepts. These ideas, seldom explained through images, might be representedthrough innovative symbolic images as long as they contain features of the visual language


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that aid to transmit these ideas avoiding the functional graphs that demand a mathematicalbackground that younger students lack.

It is reasonable to think that the consideration of images as a minor didactical tool carrieswith it that it has been paid less attention to the problems associated to their use. This lackof attention to the students' problems on reading images has a previous cause, li kely to bemore relevant, on the teachers' side: the idea, quite spread among teachers, that most of theimages are trivially understandable. It has already been explained that this is not so. Imagesare designed according to a visual language. As with any other language its lack ofknowledge may result on incorrect designs and/or incorrect readings of images.

Therefore it is necessary to teach the codes that will allow the interpretation of visualrepresentations. For images such as functional graphs, the necessity to teach the visuallanguage is commonly accepted, but not for the images used with younger students, eventhough it is equally necessary in both cases (Arnheim, 1974; Kress and van Leeuwen,1996). On the other hand if images are going to be used to teach science, it is important forteachers to know the diff iculties students may have with messages expressed using a visuallanguage.

References:

Arnheim, R. (1984). El poder del centro. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. (Original workpublished 1982).

Eco, U. (1985). Tratado de semiótica general. Barcelona: Editorial Lumen. (Originalwork published 1976).

Halli day, M.A.K. (1978). Language as social semiotic The social interpretation oflanguage and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading Images: the Grammar of Visual design.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Kress, G., & Ogborn, J. (1998). Modes of representation and local epistemologies: thepresentation of science in education. SCISC Working papers. SISC Paper Nº2. London:Institute of Education, University of London.

Lemke, J.L. (1998). Multiplying meaning: visual and verbal semiotics in scientific text.In J.R. Martin, & R. Veel (Eds.). Reading Science. London: Routledge.

STTIS Project (1998). Internal Report RW0: Outline and Justifi cation of ResearchMethodology: Work Packages WP1, WP2 and WP3.

Activities

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3. ACTIVITIES

The workshop is structured around four activities. It could be convenient to present them intwo sessions:

First Session:

Activity 1: The value of images in science education

Activity 2: Images as a way to encode messages

Second Session:

Activity 3: Students’ diff iculties on reading images

Activity 4: Designing an image

ActivitiesActivity 1: The value of images in Science Education

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3.1. Activity 1: The value of images in Science Education. Introduction.

Images are acknowledged to be a fundamental part of science. They are used both inscientific research and on transmitting scientific knowledge. On the other hand, nowadaysimages are becoming a fundamental component of the transmission of information in oursociety. As a result we can see an increasing number of images being used in sciencetextbooks to the point that some researches have shown how images have become thepredominant mode of communication in the textbooks of different countries.

Teachers are faced, then, with material making use of many images, with different designsand playing different roles. Regardless so, some teachers do not consider mastering thisform of communication as an important skill for their work. Those teachers are usually lessable of criti cally discussing images than text and mathematical equations.

This activity introduces into the issue of the variety of images being used in scienceteaching, on the roles images can play, and of the features of their design. These featuresare associated to aspects such as the role of the image and the age of the students to whomthe images are presented.

This Activity suggests to introduce tools for the analysis of visual representation used ineducation, and to establish a discussion around the features of typical textbook imagesusing these tools, to foster a criti cal analysis of images.

About this activity three documents follow:

3.1.1. Teacher trainer’s guide

3.1.2. Teachers’ questionnaire

3.1.3. Teachers’ trainer’s resources


Teacher Trainer’s Guide

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3.1.1. Teacher Trainer’s Guide.

Aims of the Activity

This activity is intended to work on two main aspects: the importance of images in scienceeducation, and the main factors related to their election in an specific situation. Mostteachers do have some knowledge of those two aspects but, being the subjects related toimages often neglected in their training, many teachers have not reflected in-depth on thisissue.

The first activity aims at promoting discussion among the group of teachers on theseaspects to elicitate them.

How to proceed

To promote the discussion about the importance of images in Science Education and ontheir features and roles, a questionnaire on this matter is proposed. (3.1.2. Teachers’questionnaire).

It would be convenient to ask teachers to think about the role of images according to theirown experience with documents containing images, especially with textbooks. It can beuseful that teachers realise that they are able to distinguish among different kinds ofimages, that they are able to elicitate some features of the images, i.e., teachers wouldbenefit from realising they have some insight on the visual language. To do so, theteachers’ trainer could hand a copy of the questionnaire and some science textbooks ofdifferent levels, to each of the teachers and they could write the answers working in smallgroups. An estimate time to perform this part of the activity could be around 30 minutes.

Afterwards it could be convenient to start a general discussion with the whole class on theteachers’ answers.

To conduct the discussion by placing the teachers’ comments in relation to few issues, theteacher trainer could use an overhead transparency (OHT). IN the discussion the followingaspects could be a matter of reflection:

• The modali ty of the images depending on the students’ level (abstract images, realisticimages, the use of colours, the use of scientific conventions...)

• The way images are integrated on the document2 and how this might affect theireff iciency.

• The general features of the images used to play different roles (to teach concepts, tostructure concepts, to ill ustrate the text, to ‘f ill an empty space’ ...)

An approximate time for the discussion could be around 30 minutes.

2 The word ‘document’ is used in this workshop to refer to the combination of text and images on a page to create a unityof meaning.


Teacher Trainer’s Guide

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It is possible that this might have been the first time teachers face this kind of analysis. Atthe end of the discussion the teacher trainer would have to make sure that teachers havesuff iciently understood the terminology, that they have realised fundamental roles imagescan play as didactical tools, as well as general features of the images associated to aspectssuch as the students’ level and the role of the image.

What is necessary to carry out this Activity

To carry out the activity as it is proposed the teacher trainer will need:

A photocopy of the teachers’ questionnaire (3.1.2. Teachers’ questionnaire) for eachteacher and some science textbooks of different levels for each group of discussion

Overhead transparencies and OHT markers to conduct the discussion

Teacher trainers would benefit from reading the material contained in the Section 2(Introductory document about visual language in Science teaching) and the TeacherTrainer’s resources of this Activity. (3.1.3. Teacher Trainer’s resources).


Teachers’ questionnaires

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3.1.2. Teachers’ questionnaire

The value of images in Science Education

Teaching science is a communicative action. There are several communicative resources, or communicativemodes, that can be considered useful to teach science as verbal language, mathematical language and visuallanguage.

The importance of the images is easily realised when looking at textbooks, science popularisation papers, andresearch papers from specialised journals.

Different kinds of images can be found in the common textbooks on science for primary and secondaryschool. It is easy to see that there are different kinds of images: photographs, figurative images, abstractimages, graphs, etc. If we pay attention to them we can also detect different aspects that tell us their role, andthe students’ level to which they are addressed.

Taking into account the previous considerations think about the following issues and write down someanswers to the following questions.

• A quick look to the images of textbooks for students of different levels reveals they have a differentappearance. Which are the most relevant differences in the images depending on the students’ levels?

• Publishers and authors use images in the textbooks more and more often. Which are the roles images canplay in the textbooks?

• If we think about any science textbook we can recognise images playing different roles. Are theredifferences among the images on relation to their design depending on their role in the whole text?

• Which are the features to be taken into account in the design of the textbooks for images to play those rolesefficiently?

Ready to print version



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Teacher Trainer’s resources

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3.1.3. Teacher trainer’s resources

As an example of the images that could be used in this Activity and how could they beanalysed, the following two documents are proposed:



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Document 13

Document 24

3 Image found in ‘Sputnik. Company de viatge’ . Col·lecció La Clau de Rosa Sensat. Editorial Onda. Barcelona1995 (p. 78) for 10 year old students.



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The two selected images can be found in textbooks for primary (Document 1) andcompulsory secondary education (Document 2).

• A quick look to the images of textbooks for students of different levels reveals they havea different appearance. Which are the most relevant differences in the images depending onthe students’ levels?

The two selected documents show clearly different graphical features. Some of thesefeatures give us indications on the students’ level they are addressed to: the shape of theimages and the use of the colours, for instance, tell us that Document 1 is intended foryounger students than Document 2. Other relevant features are the arrangement of theimages in the document. In Document 1 there is a more fluid integration of images and textwhile Document 2 has a more structured arrangement, corresponding to a view of thescience that is supposed to be taught to students of different levels.

• Publishers and authors use images in the textbooks more and more often. Which are theroles images can play in the textbooks?

The most relevant roles images can play in textbooks are: to explain a concept, to ill ustratean explanation, to teach how to read other images and to help students’ to organise andstructure ideas.

The two selected documents play different roles:

The first document is intended to present the idea of how does a light bulb works.

The second document is intended to teach how to interpret the codes used to schematicallyrepresent electrical circuits, as well as to foster the students’ work on different electricalconcepts (by asking students to work on the images).

• If we think about any science textbook we can recognise images playing different roles.Are there differences among the images on relation to their design depending on their rolein the whole text?

The roles played by images depend on their graphical features.

Document 1 uses figurative images (full coloured, comic-strip li ke images, background,etc.). Younger students are used to deal with this kind of images in their every-day li fe as instory books and TV programs. The arrangement of the document facilit ates a story li keinterpretation (characters are introduced at the top part of the page and their relation isdepicted below).

Document 2 uses abstract images of a technological modali ty (black and white colours,straight lines, no background, etc.). This degree of abstraction is too demanding foryounger students but it is a goal on itself for older students learning science. The

4 Image found in Natura 4. Ciències de la Naturalesa. Editorial Vicens Vives. Barcelona1997 (p. 122). For 14years old students



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arrangement of the page is similar to that of the Document 1 but the features of the imagesdo not foster a story li ke reading, but a more analytical interpretation.

ActivitiesActivity 2: Images as a way to encode messages

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3.2 Activity 2. Images as a way to encode messages

Images are usually considered transparent and trivially understandable. Researches on thisfield though consistently shown that this is not the case (see General Resources). Imagesare composed in a code, the visual language. Failure to know this language and/or imagesdesigned inaccurately may bring the reader of the image to incorrect interpretations.

Teachers should gain some knowledge on these aspects to improve their abili ty ondesigning images that can be used efficiently to teach science. It could be convenient forthe teachers to have in mind the main ideas contained in Section 2 (Introductory documentabout visual language in Science teaching).

This Activity proposes to engage teachers in a discussion on the use of the Visual Languageto design images intended to transmit scientific concepts, by using four documentscontaining images and the information related to their design and proposed use.

To carry out this activity the following documents have been prepared:

3.2.1. Teacher Trainer’s guide

3.2.2. Teachers’ questionnaires (including four images)

3.2.3. Teacher trainer’s resources containing materials from the STTIS research project onthe images included in the Teachers’ questionnaires.


Teacher trainer’s guide

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3.2.1. Teacher Trainer’s guide

Aims

Images are a mean to transmit information and they have a code, a visual language that hasto be known to correctly interpret them. The efficiency on the representation of the messageheavily relays on the election of the graphical elements and their arrangement, just as theelection and arrangement of the verbal elements determines whether a message is correctlywritten or not in verbal language. To interpret images is to be able to understandsuff iciently the visual language so that they can be read correctly.

The following task is aimed at making teachers aware of, at least, two aspects:

• images are compounded with a visual language, therefore with the election andarrangement of graphical elements

• images portray a message through the intentioned election of their design

How to proceed

To prevent the activity from being too general and abstract, the teacher trainer can makeuse of four specific examples of explanations on the design of images and their didacticalintentions, coming from STTIS research results (see 3.2.3. Teacher Trainer’s Resources).These examples correspond to these four images.

Each of the four teachers’ questionnaires (3.2.2. Teachers’ questionnaires) prepared for thisactivity includes one of those images as well as two questions. The questions focus on twoaspects of the images, the designers’ choices concerning both the concepts beingtransmitted by the images and the election of an specific design to represent these concepts.The questions are:

“ Images are a way to encode messages. Which is, in your opinion, the message that hedesigner of the image wanted to transmit with it?”

“T he elements of an image have to be carefully selected and displayed to correctly transmitthe intended message. Which are, in you opinion, the reasons of the designers of the imageto have selected and used its visual elements? “

A possible dynamic for the session:

It could be convenient to have teachers grouped in, at least, four groups working with aphotocopy of each questionnaire. Teachers could be invited to discuss among them thequestions included in the questionnaires, and write down the agreed answers on OHTsafterwards in order to use it in a further discussion with the whole group. (You will findready to print versions in the section (3.2.2. Teachers’ questionnaires). An estimate time toanswer the question in the groups could be around 30 minutes.



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Once all the groups have answered the teachers’ questionnaires, one member of each teamcould present their answers to the whole group, to be discussed using an overheadprojector. It can be convenient to have all the teachers answer the four questionnaires, evenwhen each group will only present one, to enable fruitful discussion on each questionnaire.Since the images are arranged forming a sequence it would be convenient to present themin the same order they are presented in the workshop. Before starting the discussion of theanswers of the groups the teacher trainer might collect the transparencies to preventinterference in the discussion.

Time for discussion with the whole group could be around 1 hour. It would be convenientto talk about the message being conveyed by the image. For instance, the idea of energytransfer (instead of the most usually addressed idea of energy transformation). It is alsoworth pointing out the advantages and/or problems of the visual representations of energyon relation to the idea represented, for instance: energy as something material, energy assomething that can be counted and how these features favour the understanding of energyconservation. It could also be fruitful to ask teachers to propose improvements of theimages.

The teacher trainer could hold the discussion taking into account the general frameworkpresented in the section 2 (see Introductory document about visual language in Scienceteaching), and the main results of the STTIS researches concerning this activity that can befound in the section 3.2.3. Teacher Trainer’s Resources. This last document contains thedesigners’ comments on the concepts being depicted and on the election and use of thevisual elements of the images.

It would be convenient that the teacher trainer uses these comments to transmit to theteachers the specific intentions of the designers and also to furnish them with a few specificexamples of graphical elements used in the images such as vectors, round boxes, narrativestructures.

At the end of this activity the teachers should be familiar with the idea of an image being away to transmit knowledge intentionally designed according to the rules of the visuallanguage. It would also be convenient that teachers would have gain, trough the examplescoming from the STTIS research teachers, some knowledge on the use of a few graphicalelements and their relation with the transmitted message.

What is necessary to do this activity


- A photocopy of each of the teachers’ questionnaires for each group. 3.2.2. Teachers’questionnaires

- A printing of the ready-to-print image for each group in an OHT. (Because of the sizeof some of the images some groups might need extra blank overhead transparencies).

- Overhead transparencies and non-permanent OHT markers



23

Teacher trainers would benefit from reading the material contained in Section 4 GeneralResources referred in the teacher trainer’s guide and, especially, the 3.2.3. TeacherTrainer’s Resources.



24

3.2.2. Teachers’ questionnaires

Each of the following documents contains an image and a question to be discussed by theteachers. The answers will be discussed and the agreements will be written down in thetransparencies.

Questionnaire 2.1: Energy Transfer

Questionnaire 2.2: The Catapult

Questionnaire 2.3: The Sportsman

Questionnaire 2.4: The Steam Engine



25

Questionnaire 2.1: Energy transfer

Images as away to encode messages. Energy Transfer.

Images are a way to encode messages. Which is, in your opinion, the message that he designer of thisdocument wanted to transmit with it?

The elements of an image have to be carefully selected and displayed to correctly transmit the intendedmessage. Which are, in you opinion, the reasons of this designers of the image to have selected and used itsvisual elements?

Discuss among the group the above questions and write down the agreed answers in full sentences in anoverhead transparency to present them to the whole group afterwards.

Try to focus on the diff iculties related to the image instead of focusing on the disciplinary aspects of theconcepts being represented.

Ready to print questionnaire

.



26


Images as a way to encode messages. The Catapult





Ready to print questionnaire



27


Images as a way to encode messages. The Sportsman





Ready to print worksheet



28

Questionnaire 2.4: The Steam Engine5

Images as a way to encode messages. The Steam Engine

Images are a way to encode messages. Which is, in your opinion, the message that he designer of this document wanted totransmit with it?

The elements of an image have to be carefully selected and displayed to correctly transmit the intended message. Whichare, in you opinion, the reasons of this designers of the image to have selected and used its visual elements?

The XIX century was the century of industralisation in Catalonia. This meant looking for means of using energy to move mahines ofdifferent kinds. In addition to perfect the facili ties that worked with water falls, but to use the steam produced by boiling water whenburning combustible. In Catalonia the “burres” (“donkeys” ), which was the name given to the steam machines in the big industries, wereused to move all kinds of machinery, especially in the textil industry. It was also with the steam machines that moved the first train inSpain: the line Barcelona-Mataró inagurada in 1848

The transmission of the movement from the steam machine to the textile machinery was made trough line-shafts, belts, pulleys, etc.

Look at the picture: the steam moves the piston that sets the flywheel into movement. By means of ropes the line-shafts, placed indifferent floors of the factory, are moved. Each of the textile looms are set into motion trough pulleys.

Diagram of the processes that take place in the working of a textile-loom

Analise now the following scheme, intended to represent the energy chain, focusing on which parts of the facili ty play the role of energysource and which of them play the role of energy receptors (and as a source of energy of the following step of the process).

Energetic chain of the process of the process of the previous figure

Boiler Piston Flywheel Line-shaft Belt Machine

Environment ( air, ground,...)

Look now to the energy transfer scheme. In the former scheme you have seen depicted the items that transmit the energy. Pay attention tothe next scheme. We want to represent now the energy that is being transferred in the process. This kind of schemes are called energyflux diagrams. The percentatges of performance of each process is also indicated in this scheme.

Heating upwater burning

coal. Perf.:80%

Moving thepisto withthe steam:Perf.: 75%

Movingthe

flywheelPerf.: 72%

Moving theline-shaftPerf.: 90%

Moving thebelts

Perf.: 50%

Movement ofthe textile-

loomPerf.: 66%

“ Non-useful”energy

heating up the airand the boiler


heating up the airand the piston


heating up the airand the flywheel


heating up the airand the pieces


heating up the airand the belts


heating up thepieces of thetextile loom

" Useful" energy63 4 51 2

Flux diagram of the energetic transfers

In each energy transfer, part of the energy goes on to be not available for other works.

Discuss among the group the above questions and write down the agreed answers in full sentences in an overheadtransparency to present them to the whole group afterwards.

Try to focus on the diff iculties related to the image instead of focusing on the disciplinary aspects of the concepts beingrepresented.

5 The first images used in this document has been taken from the book The Salters’ approach (1992). Oxford,UK: Heinemann educational.



29


3.2.3. Teachers Trainer’s resources.

The following documents contain the didactical intentions and the details on the design ofthe images presented in the teachers’ questionnaires. (This information comes from theSTTIS Project research on images about energy).

Description and didactical intentions of the Document 1: Energy transfer

Description and didactical intentions of the Document 2: The Catapult

Description and didactical intentions of the Document 3: The Sportsman

Description of the didactical intentions of the Document 4: The Steam Engine


Teachers Trainer’s resources

30

Description and didactical intentions of the Document 1: Energy transfer.

The document 1 is intended to introduce the idea of energy transfer. In order to do so, theimage is made up of very simple lines, so that can they can be easily repeated, and withoutornaments that could distract students from the central idea. The idea of a system, to whicha certain property, energy, is associated, is given through the use of a rectangle withrounded edges fill ed with lines. Energy is symbolised by lines inside the systems. Thisrepresentation of energy relates it to the system suggesting that energy is a variable of thesystem. The idea of the change in the quantity of energy is represented by an increase, or adecrease, in the lines within the rounded rectangles (by increasing/decreasing its numberand thickness). When the state of the system changes, the density of lines changes too. Thedensity of the lines changes before and after the existence of an energy transfer betweentwo systems. An arrow is used to express the shift from the initial to the final state.

Some of the features taken into account in its design:

The line code allows us to give generali ty to the concept of energy which may favour thevision of unity beyond the usual one, where it is common to quali fy and differentiateenergy with denominations as kinetic, potential, electric, etc.

There are two kind of verbal elements in this document: verbal elements inside the imageand a caption below the image.

In the compositional structure of the image, the role of the arrow, being placed between twowords (Beginning and End) and above the two stages of the process, is to indicate theexistence of a process in time that relates the changes undergone by the system.

ActivitiesActivity2: Images as a way to encode messages


31

Description and didactical intentions of the Document 2: The catapult

This document depicts a catapult propelli ng a piece of chalk when a stretched elastic bandis released.

The main aim of Document 2 is to give the idea of energy transfer and, at the same time, itsquantification through the “energy icons” . The conservation of its number should reflect theconservation of energy.

The Document 2 contains two different kinds of images, a figurative one and a symbolicone, representing the same process. These two images have different modaliti es6: The firstrepresentation of each image is a figurative representation that makes use of some elementsof cartoon language and give a general view of the process that is taking place. The secondrepresentation has a modali ty that clearly states a scientific-technical drawing and centreson the energy transfer and energy conservation.

The process is represented in both its initial and its final stage. The figurative and theabstract representations are related by their top-down distribution (Arnheim 1982).

In the symbolic images, systems are represented following the code used in Document 1.The thermodynamic universe is represented by a rectangle, containing the boxes

6 Kress and van Leeuwen understand by modality the choice of the elements that determine, within a specificculture, the character of the image whether it is a technical drawing, an abstract picture, a children’s bookill ustration, etc. (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996)



32

representing the systems, the environment being represented by the part of the boxrepresenting the universe outside the boxes representing the systems. In Document 2 energyis represented in a more quantitative manner by introducing small triangles, quite similar toarrows, to be the symbols of energy: the “energy icons” . This allows to “visualise” whereenergy “goes” , in which system we can associate energy. Finally, since the energy iconscan be numbered, it is a way of representing the conservation of energy. Special attentionhas been taken to represent energy being transferred to the environment, and energyremaining in the first system after having transferred most of it to the other system.

The document contains verbal elements. Some of them in the caption and some of theminside the abstract images. The verbal elements inside the abstract images are intended tobe used as tags of the graphical elements to relate the graphical elements of the abstractimages with those of the figurative images.



33

Description and didactical intentions of the Document 3: The sportsman

The aim of Document 3 is to extend the idea of energy transfer, introduced by Documents 1and 2, and to establish a new basis for the energy conservation concept. The images areintended to give a primitive representation of an energy transfer chain. From player Aenergy is transferred to the ball , and subsequently to player B. Every system, (player A,ball , player B, environment), has been represented in the abstract image in each of the states(initial state, intermediate state and final state), but not in the realistic image.

The graphical codes used to symbolise the system, environment, and energy are the sameones used in the previous document, and the verbal elements included in this document alsoplay the same roles of those of the previous document.

The idea of quantification of energy and its conservation are presented, as in Document 2,by a certain number or energy icons and therefore to represent energy transfers all throughthe energy chain the number of energy icons assigned to each system changes. The



34

compositional structure of Document 3 allows tracking of the energy icons and thusknowing something about students’ ideas on energy conservation.

Compared with Document 2, the relevant differences are the introduction of a third systemand the visualisation of an intermediate situation between the initial and final states,creating an energy chain. Furthermore, a different compositional structure is used tointerrelate the figurative and the abstract images

As the document contains two kinds of images of different modaliti es representing thesame process, figurative and abstract ones, students are required to integrate them as in theprevious document.



35

Description and didactical intentions of the Document 4: The steam engine

The XIX century was the century of industralisation in Catalonia. This meant looking for means of usingenergy to move mahines of different kinds. In addition to perfect the faciliti es that worked with water falls,but to use the steam produced by boili ng water when burning combustible. In Catalonia the “burres”(“donkeys”), which was the name given to the steam machines in the big industries, were used to move allkinds of machinery, especiall y in the textil i ndustry. It was also with the steam machines that moved the firsttrain in Spain: the line Barcelona-Mataró inagurada in 1848


Look at the picture: the steam moves the piston that sets the flywheel into movement. By means of ropes theline-shafts, placed in different floors of the factory, are moved. Each of the textile looms are set into motiontrough pulleys.


Analise now the following scheme, intended to represent the energy chain, focusing on which parts of thefacili ty play the role of energy source and which of them play the role of energy receptors (and as a source ofenergy of the following step of the process).




Look now to the energy transfer scheme. In the former scheme you have seen depicted the items that transmitthe energy. Pay attention to the next scheme. We want to represent now the energy that is being transferred inthe process. This kind of schemes are called energy flux diagrams. The percentatges of performance of each

process is also indicated in this scheme.


coal. Perf.:80%


Movingthe

flywheelPerf.: 72%


Moving thebelts

Perf.: 50%


loomPerf.: 66%














Flux diagram of the energetic transfers In each energy transfer, part of the energy goes on to be not available for other works.



36

This document contains some of the teacher innovations included in the teaching proposal."L' energia". Concepts such as energy transfer, system and environment, degradation anddispersion of energy, that are often omitted, or superficially treated in most textbooks, arestressed in this teachers’ proposal and represented in Document 4.

Document 4 includes three representations of the same process, using unusual codes inphysics textbooks for secondary schools. These images represent the process of a textileloom powered by a steam engine. The process has been depicted with a figurative drawingand two abstract images, an energy transfer chain and an energy flux diagram. The threeimages have been constructed trying to facilit ate the establishing of parallelisms amongthem, and therefore trying to foster the integrated reading of the whole document. Thevisual codes used in each image were chosen according to the scientific concepts expressedin them

The figurative representation (Image 1 / Document 4) is designed to allow a direct readingof the energy transfer process in an orderly way. Its aim is to provide an interpretativecontext for the two next images. These images include some verbal elements that can beused to identify the graphical items to which they are related.

The energy chain (Image 2/Document 4) is composed of representations of systems andenergy transfers. Systems are represented by round rectangles as in the previous documents.The environment is also represented by a long rounded rectangle, but not as it was depictedin Document 2. The environment is depicted apart from the rest of the systems, as if it wasanother system. Energy transfers are symbolised by vectors going from one system to thefollowing one, and from each system to the environment. Systems are connected througharrows, as a way to stress the idea of action over the idea of substance (Halli day 1978). Ateach step, some energy is transferred to the environment because of its dispersal anddegradation. Representing the environment as a separate box may help to visualise whereenergy is transferred. The verbal images included in the image 2 are the same ones that canbe found in the image 1. This feature can be used to establish parallels between those twoimages, and therefore, help integrating it into the students’ readings.

The energy flux diagram (Image 3 / Document 4) has a different code. An initial arearepresenting the initial amount of energy is being transferred to several places, part to theenvironment and part to some of the mechanisms upon which work is carried out. Thepercentage of energy that has been used to make useful work in each of the transfers hasbeen written. It is a way to introduce the idea of the efficiency of the process. A fluxdiagram was chosen as a useful code in the third image since its grammar structure provesto be appropriate to talk about a diminishing quantity: the useful energy available at everystep and therefore to address the concepts of energy degradation and energy dispersal.

It could be said that the three images cover several different aspects of the energy relatedconcepts giving them a sense of unity and coherence.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/243764407_Language_as_Social_Semiotic_The_Social_Interpretation_of_Language_and_Meaning?el=1_x_8&enrichId=rgreq-ebe3c8462133ef31b6bcc516e0a1d64a-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzIyODQ4Njg4MjtBUzoxMDM5MTUxNjkyNTU0MjdAMTQwMTc4NjcxNTE5NA==

ActivitiesActivity 3: Students’ diff iculties when reading the images

37


38

3.3. Activity 3: Students’ diff iculties when reading images

Once Activities 1 and 2 have been carried out, teachers will probably know how somefeatures allow conveying a message. The advantages ad disadvantages of the use of certaingraphical elements to express certain ideas or concepts (as energy transfer and energyconservation) would have been explored. Thus teachers will probably have achieved acertain knowledge of the visual language and have gained some insight on how failure toknow this language and/or inaccurate designed images may bring the reader of the image toincorrect interpretations. Incorrect interpretations of images are one of the problemsstudents’ f ace in the science courses. The STTIS research on images has dealt with thosestudents’ diff iculties and their results show that this is a widely extended problem throughdifferent kinds of visual representations.

Teachers should gain some knowledge on these aspects to better understand students’diff iculties on reading images in the classroom. Their previous experience on the fourimages presented in Activity 2 might be used now to foresee which are the diff icultiesstudents might have to read these images, and compare their predictions with the researchresults on this issue. Thus, this Activity suggests the use of specific documents on Energyrelated concepts with the aim of discussing the influence of the graphical features of imageson the students’ understanding of visual representations.

To carry out this activity the following documents have been prepared:

A Teacher Trainer’s guide of the Activity (3.3.1. Teacher Trainer’s guide).

Four teachers’ questionnaires, including four documents. (3.3.2. Teachers’ questionnaires).

The teacher trainer’s resources: STTIS research results on the students’ diff iculties whenreading images on energy. (3.3.3. Teacher Trainer’s resources).


Teachers Trainer’s guide

39

3.3.1. Teachers Trainer’s guide

Aims

Different researches on this matter (see General Resources) have shown that readingimages is not an easy task. The following task is intended to raise the teachers’ awarenesson the fact that students have specific problems to read images. Being aware of students’diff iculties, teachers will pay special attention to designing images on the blackboard orwill spend some time on the graphical representation contained in the textbooks.

How to proceed

The activity is intended to relay on specific results. A document containing some specificstudents’ diff iculties, as reported in the STTIS Project research results is provided. Theactivity proposes to work on four images (the same images used in the previous Activity 2).Teachers make predictions about possible students’ difficulties and compare theirpredictions with STTIS findings. To do this, four different teachers’ questionnaires, eachcontaining one of the documents and a question focusing on the issue of the possibleproblems that students might encounter when trying to make sense of them have beenprepared. The proposed question is:

“ Which are the diffi culties students might have when reading/interpreting this image? “

Teachers could work in small groups with a photocopy of each of the four questionnaires.After discussing the question included in the questionnaires among them, each group couldwrite down the agreed answers on an OHTs. (You will find ready to print versions in thesection 3.3.2. Teachers’ questionnaires). An estimated time to answer the question in thegroups could be around 30 minutes.

Once all the groups have answered the teachers’ questionnaires, one member of each teamcould present their answers on one of the documents to the whole group, to be discussedusing an overhead projector. Since the images are arranged forming a sequence it would beconvenient to present them in the same order they are presented in the workshop.

Time or discussion with the whole group could be around 1 hour.

The aim of presenting the answers is to foster the discussion among teachers on thediff iculties reading images can imply and to compare their predictions with empiricalfindings (3.3.3. Teacher Trainer Resources). As said, the use of specific documents isintended to avoid global, abstract discussion.

It could be convenient to discuss the results for each image right after the teachers’ groupexposition focusing on the specific research results referring to that image and commentingthe common general results at the end of the task.

An estimate time for the discussion of each image could be around 15 minutes.



40

At the end of the activity the teachers should be aware of the diff iculties that students findwhen reading images and on the fact that they might be related to the graphical features ofthe images.

What is necessary to do this activity


• A photocopy of the teachers’ questionnaires for each group (see 3.3.2. Teachers’questionnaires).

• A printing of the ready-to-print image for each group in an OHT. (Because of the sizeof some of the images some groups might need extra blank overhead transparencies).

• Overhead transparencies and non-permanent OHT markers

Teacher trainers would benefit from reading the material contained in the GeneralResources section referred in the teacher trainer’s guide and, especially, the resources of theactivity (3.3.3. Teacher Trainer Resources).



41

3.3.2. Teachers’ questionnaires

Each of the following documents contains an image and a question to be discussed by theteachers. The answers will be discussed and the agreements will be written down in thetransparencies.







42


Students’ diff iculties when reading images: Energy Transfer

Which are the difficulties students might have when reading/interpreting this image?

Discuss among the group the above question until an agreement is reached and write down the agreed answersin full sentences. Write the answers in an overhead transparency in order to facilit ate presenting them to thewhole group afterwards.





43


Students’ diff iculties when reading images. The Catapult







44


Students’ diff iculties when reading images. The Sportsman







45


Students’ diff iculties when reading images. The Steam Engine


The XIX century was the century of industralisation in Catalonia. This meant looking for means of using energy to move mahines ofdifferent kinds. In addition to perfect the facili ties that worked with water falls, but to use the steam produced by boiling water whenburning combustible. In Catalonia the “burres” (“donkeys” ), which was the name given to the steam machines in the big industries, wereused to move all kinds of machinery, especially in the textil industry. It was also with the steam machines that moved the first train inSpain: the line Barcelona-Mataró inagurada in 1848


Look at the picture: the steam moves the piston that sets the flywheel into movement. By means of ropes the line-shafts, placed indifferent floors of the factory, are moved. Each of the textile looms are set into motion trough pulleys.


Analise now the following scheme, intended to represent the energy chain, focusing on which parts of the facili ty play the role of energysource and which of them play the role of energy receptors (and as a source of energy of the following step of the process).




Look now to the energy transfer scheme. In the former scheme you have seen depicted the items that transmit the energy. Pay attention tothe next scheme. We want to represent now the energy that is being transferred in the process. This kind of schemes are called energyflux diagrams. The percentatges of performance of each process is also indicated in this scheme.


coal. Perf.:80%


Movingthe

flywheelPerf.: 72%


Moving thebelts

Perf.: 50%


loomPerf.: 66%
















Discuss among the group the above question until an agreement is reached and write down the agreed answers in fullsentences. Write the answers in an overhead transparency in order to facilit ate presenting them to the whole groupafterwards.

Try to focus on the diff iculties related to the image instead of focusing on the disciplinary aspects of the concepts beingrepresented.


ActivitiesActivity 3: Students’ diff iculties when reading images


46

3.3.3. Teachers Trainer’s resources.

The following documents contain the research results on the students’ diff iculties found onstudents’ reading the images proposed in the teachers’ questionnaires of this activity. Theseresults come from the STTIS Project research on images.

Notes on the students’ readings of the images. Document 1: Energy Transfer

Notes on the students’ readings of the images. Document 2: The Catapult

Notes on the students’ readings of the images. Document 3: The Sportsman

Notes on the students’ readings of the images. Document 4: The Steam Engine



47

Notes on the students’ readings of the images. Document 1: Energy Transfer

• Most of the students detect that there is a change between the initial and the finalsituation. The explanations of the students convey the idea of change mainly talkingabout the changes in the shape of the lines inside the systems. 'In the system A the redlines have become smaller while in the system B there are more (lines)'. We can say,therefore, that the image is successful at transmitting the idea of change in theproperties of the system, and in giving the appropriate meaning to the arrow connectingthe words beginning and end. 'R: And the arrow, what does it mean? S: It has mutated,right?. In both cases students failed to integrate the information of the verbal elementsinside the image, the verbal elements of the caption and the compositional structure ofthe image.

• Students familiar with the material that includes the images associate the change withenergy or with energy transfer. On the other hand students that have never seen thiskind of images tend to restrict their explanations of the change to the change in the linecode: 'It goes from diagonal to horizontal (the lines), it is the same, following the samerate''. Some others do not talk about energy at all .

• In some cases the change in the picture between the initial and the final stage of itssystem is evaluated as if there was no interaction between A and B systems: 'In the Asystem the red lines have become smaller, while in the B system there are more lines'.Some of the students do not explain the graphical changes in terms of the conceptualreason, of an energy transfer between systems A and B. The information about thereason of these changes, the energy transfer, is included in the caption, but not in theimage. Therefore we can consider that those students did not read the caption or failedat relating its information with the changes in the systems A and B shown in the image.

• Most of the students did not read the captions of the images until they were asked to doso. Many of the students changed their interpretation of the image after they had readthe caption A. The first interpretation of the document before reading the caption was: 'I



48

see two different things...and I guess their structure is different too because their lineshave different directions...I guess that after a while one of them have lost some... li ke ifit had worn out a bit.' The same student after having read the caption. 'Well , there is anenergy transfer here, as it says, this is the A system, that has more energy than the Bsystem and when transferr ing energy has less energy left and then the B system hasmore energy'.

• Some students did not use the word system in their explanations, neither explicitly northrough any other synonym reflecting the incorporation of this concept to the reading ofthe image. ' R: What does the image say? S: The A is bigger than the B and it isdiagonal'.

This fact suggests that students may perform a selective reading of the verbal elementsincluded in the image. The neglected elements seem to be those words that studentscannot recognise at this moment. This seems to support the idea that the previousknowledge of the field plays the role of a powerful theoretical lens.



49

Notes on the students’ readings of the images. Document 2: The catapult

• Most of the students include some sort of interaction in their explanations by relatingthe changes undergone before and after the energy transfer. This kind of explanationcould be seen as a partial success on representing energy transfers. 'The elastic bandtransfers energy to the chalk, at the beginning the thing (band) has more energy and theother (chalk) has less, but when you throw the thing (chalk) it makes more energy andthe other remains with less (energy)'.

• Most of the students did not talk about energy conservation. When they were asked ifenergy was conserved in document 2, we obtained answers like 'it is not conserved(energy), a littl e bit is lost in the environment'. Students’ answers show that in somecases, even when they counted the number of icons, they did not necessarily understandthe concept of energy conservation. Their conceptual background drives their reading ofthe image.

• About half of the students talk about the icons as something material that is beingexchanged between systems. 'All the small triangles are in the stretched elastic band,this means that all the energy is in the elastic band (...) Later on, when the elastic bandis not stretched and comes back to its normal state, all the small triangles go to thechalk which means that the chalk has all the energy...', This suggests that the energyicons, when recognised as symbols of energy, could reinforce the widely known idea ofenergy materialisation.



50

• More than half of the students do not read the caption. This behaviour inferred from thestudents’ answers seems to be related to the students' interpretations that do not identifythe small triangles as being the symbol of energy.

• In some of the students’ answers, the idea of force appears mixed with the idea ofenergy.

• Most of the students benefit from the presence of the two images, the realistic and theabstract one, to understand the document. 'In the stretched elastic band there are thesmall triangles what means that all the energy is in the stretched elastic band (...) lateron, when the elastic band is not stretched anymore going back to its normal state, thesmall triangles go to the chalk, that means that the chalk has all the energy'. Readingthe figurative representation -which according to the students’ answers is easier forthem to read and to interpret- works as a reading guide for the abstract representationestablishing the context in which students read the abstract images.



51

Notes on the students’ readings of the images. Document 3: The spor tsman

Students do not show special diff iculties in dealing with the figurative images where, asstated before, not all the ' represented participants' are shown at each step. Starting with thefigurative image, students seem to have built the figurative representation of the process ofthrowing and receiving the ball . In a parallel way, the students seem to be able to develop adiscourse to explain how the symbolic images represent different stages of the process.

In the case where students are explicitly asked about energy conservation, their answerssuggest that problems with this concept stems from the students’ theoretical background, orfrom the use of verbal language, but not from diff iculties of the image. 'R: Do you think, bylooking at the image, that energy is conserved?, S: Well , I would say that a littl e bit is lostin the environment' . The students’ answers do not include any reference to open or closedsystems, and, therefore, it is diff icult to be conclusive about the reason for these answers. Inany case students’ answers suggest that they are able to recognise and count energy-iconsinside the open system and in the environment. 'There are the same arrows but placed indifferent places'. This seems to support the idea that the image does not seem to be, at least,a diff iculty for the students’ comprehension of the energy conservation concept.

Another aspect that goes in the line of highlighting the importance of the students’ previousknowledge, their theoretical lenses, is the use of the idea of energy transformation in thestudents’ answers. This concept appears even when the design of the image uses the same



52

icon in all cases: 'Well , it has internal energy in the arm, and he passes it to the ball ,turning into kinetic energy, and part into internal energy of the ball '. Again, we realise, asit happens with the concept of force, that some of the students include in their explanationsideas that are not present in the document. The image evokes the concept of energy transferbut, as stated before, the students’ theoretical lenses guide the students’ interpretations ofthese documents.



53

Notes on the students’ readings of the images. Document 4: The steam engine

The XIX century was the century of industralisation in Catalonia. This meant looking for means of using energy to move mahines ofdifferent kinds. In addition to perfect the faciliti es that worked with water falls, but to use the steam producedby boil ing water when burning combustible. In Catalonia the “burres” (“donkeys”), which was the namegiven to the steam machines in the big industries, were used to move all kinds of machinery, especially in thetextil industry. It was also with the steam machines that moved the first train in Spain: the line Barcelona-Mataró inagurada in 1848


Look at the picture: the steam moves the piston that sets the flywheel into movement. By means of ropes theline-shafts, placed in different floors of the factory, are moved. Each of the textile looms are set into motiontrough pulleys.


Analise now the following scheme, intended to represent the energy chain, focusing on which parts of thefacili ty play the role of energy source and which of them play the role of energy receptors (and as a source ofenergy of the following step of the process).




Look now to the energy transfer scheme. In the former scheme you have seen depicted the items that transmitthe energy. Pay attention to the next scheme. We want to represent now the energy that is being transferred inthe process. This kind of schemes are called energy flux diagrams. The percentatges of performance of each

process is also indicated in this scheme.


coal. Perf.:80%


Movingthe

flywheelPerf.: 72%


Moving thebelts

Perf.: 50%


loomPerf.: 66%


















54

Some students’ responses about the first image showed a certain tendency to add ideas totheir readings. They invent stories based on their prior ideas, sometimes hardly related toother images of the document: ‘ These valves give energy to the steam and it goes to thepiston where it accumulates.’

The idea of degradation is somehow present in most of the students’ explanations. ' Thethird (image) gives you more information (...) it gives you (the information) of the non-useful energy, the degraded energy, (...) and, at the end, the useful energy that comes out(...) from the total amount of energy the useful one is a very small part' . The transmission ofthe idea of degradation could be seen as a partial success of the graphic document but, asSolomon already pointed out in 1983 ' the idea of running down toward sameness” seems togo with common sense. Students are easily close to the idea of degradation (Pintó 1991).

The images seem to suggest to many students the idea of energy dispersal. It has beenevidenced that students talking about energy dispersal usually talk also about energydegradation. ' It starts in the boiler, ...and, well the energy goes to the piston, to theflywheel, but in each part the surplus energy is left over' .

Many students show a good capabili ty of dealing with one sign meaning different things. Infact this ends up producing some problems, because some of them assign differentmeanings to the same single arrow, or give interpretations that do not agree with thescientific idea being represented:

' Student 2: From the boiler it goes to the piston and from the piston to the flywheel.

R. What goes from the boiler to the piston?

Student 2: Maybe when they spin in one sense, it makes them spin, it is a chain thatmakes the engine turn'

R. And the arrows pointing towards the environment?

Student 2: It is the energy released. It is the left-over energy' .

Some students give interpretations to the same arrow both as energy and as matter. 'At thebeginning we have a lot of energy and a lot of substances, at the end we only have theuseful energy' . Arrows are thus understood as energy released and as actions betweensystems.

Interpretations of the arrows as flux of matter (gases, solid waste, etc...) are very commonwhen referring arrows connecting systems and environment. ' I guess there are substancesor things that are useless' . In contrast, there are not so many cases of interpreting the arrowconnecting two systems as a flux of matter.

Students are quite successful in reading the three images of the document and to give anintegrated explanation of them. They are successful at integrating both images with thesame modali ty and images with different modaliti es.



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Most students have used the verbal elements playing the role of tags not just to identify themeaning associated to the related graphical elements, but to establish a parallelism amongthe different representations facilit ating their interaction in the building of an interpretationby the student.

The mathematical elements appearing in the flux diagram are highlighted by the majority ofstudents as being an important element, The presence of these mathematical elementsseems to grant a certain prestige to the image. This ‘prestige’ leads some students toidentify this representation as being 'the more precise, the more exact of the three images(contained in the Document 5)' .

The idea of energy transfer has appeared in most of the students' answers when referring toenergy transfers expressed by the arrows between systems, but scarcely when referring toenergy transfers to the environment. The representation of the environment has beenunderstood correctly by the students but the transfer of energy to the environment has beeninterpreted by many of the students as related to the idea of pollution or waste materials:

When asked about the arrows pointing to the environment, one student says: 'it is what isreleased, isn't? That is what is released to the environment if the process pollutes'. Anotherstudent says 'I don't know, maybe substances, or useless things'. The answer suggests thatto the students the environment evokes the idea of a place where nothing should be sent,because whatever is sent there is to be considered waste material that pollutes it. Thismatches the already observed tendency to consider energy as something material, in thiscase, as something material that pollutes.

The idea of energy materialisation is present in some of the readings of the document. Infact, some students even mix up energy and steam in some of their explanations.

' Student 3: From the boiler it goes to the piston and then to the connecting rod.

R: What goes from the boiler to the piston?

Student 3: Steam? That is, energy, I don't know what it is.

R: And the arrows that go from the boiler and the piston to the environment, what doyou think they mean?

Student 3: The state they are in: when it is boili ng it is a gas (...) and when it goesthrough here it is a gas, isn’ t it

ActivitiesActivity 4: Designing an image

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3.4. Activity 4: Designing an image.

During the everyday practice of teaching science, teachers design images to teach concepts,to pose and work out exercises, to schematise the contents of a section, etc.

Activities 2 have shown the importance of the design of those images in the actual messagebeing represented by the image.

Activity 3 has shown the diff iculties that the image might cause to students when trying toread it.

This Activity is proposed to discuss globally the influence of the ideas dealt with in theprevious Activities in the design of an image. Teachers are asked to design an image torepresent specific scientific concepts, and to discuss the designed images and the problemsof their use to teach the represented concepts.

This Activity 4 can be seen as an attempt to introduce the ideas dealt with in the Activities2 and 3 in the everyday teachers’ practice of designing images. To do so the activitypresents the following material

A teacher trainer’s guide of the activity (3.4.1. Teacher Trainer’s Guide).

One teachers’ worksheet (3.4.2. Teachers’ worksheet).

A teacher trainer’s resources (3.4.3. Teacher Trainer’s resources)



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3.4.1. Teacher Trainer’s Guide

Aims

This Activity is designed to give teachers the opportunity to apply the informationfacilit ated in the Activity 2 and the Activity 3 about the use of the visual language to designan image and the students’ diff iculties when reading them respectively. The aims of thisActivity can be stated as:

• to foster the teachers’ reflection on their own practice as designers of images

• to provide tools to criti cally design images,

• to improve the eff iciency of the use of graphical elements as didactical tools to teachscience.

• to realise that there are no perfect images, but a careful design will probably result on abetter way to represent the message.

How to proceed

In this Activity, teachers are asked to design an image to explain a few energy conceptsinvolved in an specific situation (in this case a thermal power station) that is depicted in thedocument with a figurative image. In order to facilit ate the discussion on the designedimages the teacher trainer may ask the teachers to use some of the graphic elements thathave appeared in the documents proposed in the previous activities.

Each group could be asked to discuss which would be the characteristics of the ‘best’design of the image to fulfil the purpose stated in the exercise and to draw the agreed imageit in an OHT. A suitable time to do so could be around 30 minutes.

Then a member of each group could present to the whole group class the image drawn inthe OHT explaining why did his/her group choose the different visual elements and how dothey think the design will represent the concepts avoiding, as much as possible, thestudents’ diff iculties seen in the Activity 2. It could be convenient that the teacher trainerhelp the teachers to focus the comments on the features of the image being discussed andmaking references to the possible reading diff iculties that they might rise to the studentsand the scientific concepts that it tries to convey.

An estimate time for the discussion of the images could be around 2 hours.

At the end of the activity the teachers should have realised that designing an image impliesmaking choices that will affect the effectiveness of the image as a didactical tool. On theother hand by comparing different choices teachers should also realise that there are noperfect images and that any teacher can use and design images. To carefully consider theimplications of the features of the designed images is more relevant than a ‘beautiful’drawing.



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What is necessary to do this Activity


• A photocopy of one of the teachers’ worksheet (3.4.2. teachers’ worksheet) for eachgroup

• A printing of the image for each group in appropriate OHT

• A printing of the teacher trainer resources of this Activity (3.4.3. Teacher Trainer’sResources) on the teachers’ transformations of the images on energy in appropriateOHT

• Overhead transparencies and OHT markers

The teacher trainer could also use an OHT with the results of the Activities 2 and 3, tointroduce this activity


Teachers’ Worksheet

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3.4.2. Teachers’ worksheet.

Designing an image. Thermal power station

Students’ may have difficulties at interpreting an image. Some of these difficulties might be attributed to thedesign of the image.

The drawing below is a figurative representation of a thermal power station. You are asked to draw anotherpicture to represent the energy-related concepts of the process: energy transfers, energy degradation, energydispersion, etc.

To design your image you might use all the elements that appeared in the images of the Activity 2 (arrows,rounded rectangles, flow diagrams, etc.)

Discuss among the group which would be the characteristics of the ‘best’ design and draw the agreed imagein an overhead transparency to be discussed later.

Ready to print version

ActivitiesActivity 4:Designing an imageTeachers Trainer’s Resources

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3.4.3. Teacher Trainer’s Resources: Notes on the Teachers’ transformations of theimages.

The following document contains a summary of the research results on the teachers’ use ofsome proposed images on Energy. (These results come from the STTIS Project research onimages).

Teachers’ transformations when using proposed images on Energy.

The analysis of the teachers use of innovative images with the transformations operated bythem on three types of images (representation of the environment, energy transfer chain,energy flux diagram) specially relevant to the scientific contents addressed have providedinteresting results. Teachers were asked to use innovative images on energy. These imageswere part of a didactical sequence on Energy. Teachers were provided with a booklet andthe didactical guidelines of the sequence.The use of different and complementary sources of data (class observations, videotapedimages of the classrooms’ blackboards and oral explanations recorded in classes andinterviews) have allow to identify many teachers’ conceptions. Different conceptions anddifferent transformations from the different teachers referring the same conceptsrepresented have been conjectured. Some of the transformations have seen in differentmoments from different teachers but not all of them are coincident. The research had as aimto explore the teachers use of certain images and to detect symptoms. The prevalence ofthem could be analysed in posteriori researches.The below table gives account of the degree of occurrence of the image transformationsobserved in a sample of n=6 teachers.

What has been observed? How many teachersof the sample (N=6)

Eliding the environment 4Drawing inclusive environments 1Transferring outside the environment 1Adding boxes to include the systems, and differentenvironments

1

Changing energy chain into a line of energytransformations

2

Adding arrows 1Dividing arrows 2Reducing the flux diagram into a decreasing stream 2Including a line of energy transformations into thedecreasing stream. Introducing the energytransformation concept inside the energy chains

3

Including mathematical elements 4Table 1: Observed teachers’ transformations


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The set of transformations in the use of the grammar of three types of images identified canbe summarised in the following manner:

1 Transformations in the representation of the environment

• Disappearance of the environment representation steaming from the idea that it is notnecessary in order to represent the chain of energy transfers. The disappearance of theenvironment seriously affect the scientific explanation of energy conservation. If thereis no reference to any closed system, energy is not conserved.

• Drawing inclusive environments. Change of the conceptual meaning of the environmentin the scientific context assigning to it the consideration of a topographic representation.The quali ty of the symbol has turned into a real physical space. The image of theenvironment is replaced by the image of the universe, sometimes with surpassablelimits. In all the cases, the environment looses the consideration of a system but that ofthe universe where other systems are included. Whatever it express, what could bemarked is the lack of use of graphical signs corresponding to new ideas or, better said,corresponding to new ways to look.

• The transformation undergone in the representation of the environment could also beinterpreted as a result of the lack of visual language knowledge. It also would point outin the necessary teachers training on these issues. In any case what has been evidencedagain is that changes in the use of grammatical elements of the images have broughtchanges in their semantic. That is, not understanding the adequate use of the lexico-grammatical elements can carry out changes in the meaning transmitted by the image.

2 Transformations in the representation of the energy chains

• Arrows are divided. Dividing the arrows carries out the idea that something theycontain can be distributed to different places. The meaning associated to the arrows,usually conceived as transmitters of the ideas of action or process is surcharged with themeaning of what is acting or processing. That is, energy and energy transfers arerepresented no making differences between them.

• Arrows are deviated to anywhere. In spite of many teachers have already learnt to speakabout energy transferred to the environment or energy dispersed among many particles,the images to express such ideas remain unaltered. At least, the arrows going anywherewithout any image of the receiver system seem to testify it.

• Changing energy chain into a line of energy transformations by changing the verbalelements of the image. The persistent idea of energy transformation is introducedmeanwhile the round boxes representing the systems disappear. Even, in theblackboards teachers write the words representing the systems, at time in their verbalexplanations they talk of the energy being changed from a form into another form. Thechain of energy transfers is transformed into a line of energy transformations. The “oldparadigm” keeps guiding the explanations. It seems there is a double discourse: onesuperimposed by the images and exercises provided for the used text (the printedmaterial written as sequence Energy) and another deeply rooted provided for teachers’minds after a poor training. Changes, sometimes small ones, in the blackboard imagesmay put on the alert of problematic conceptions of the represented concepts. The oralexplanations accompanying the drawings tell the relevance and the scope.


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• Eliminating the rounded boxes representing the systems, as well as eliminating thesymbol of the environment as previously described, and therefore changing the meaningof the images makes realise the importance of teaching the visual language. Notunderstanding the reasons of drawing boxes to represent a system can lead to noncapture its meaning. Differently said, the didactical intentions underlying the way inwhich images have been designed should be explicited. The common belief that imagesare transparent and that readers can extract their message without effort arecontradictory with these results. Teachers need to be aware of the way images aredrawn. If teachers are not trained about visual language, they can easily change themeaning of the graphical signs.

• Eliminating the arrows representing energy transfers from the systems to theenvironment. It seems logical to think that the concept of the transfer of energy to theenvironment has been affected by the misused of the concept of environment. In a moregeneral view we could conjecture that concepts related to the ones that have beeneliminated in the graphical representation will be affected as well , and eventuallyeliminated. Therefore designers have to pay attention not just to the concepts directlyassignable to the innovation, but also to the relations among these concepts as well .

• Arrows added at the starting point of an energy chain or at the end of an energy chaingive the idea of confusion between the thermodynamic universe, the environment andthe surroundings of the systems. It is also plausible to think if the idea of a closeduniverse (where energy is conserved) is diff icult to grasp.

3 Transformations in the representation of the flux diagrams

• Reducing a flux diagram into a decreasing stream is a transformation where a part ofthe image is highly stressed to detriment of other. The conversion of “broad arrows”into line arrows destroys their double significance: the “thing” to transfer and the actionof transferring. In this case, it seems that teachers use the symbol of energy transfer andof the energy indiscriminately. The substitution of broad arrows for line arrows impliesleaving the visual explanation of energy conservation aside. Again it is revealed theimportance of being trained about visual language jointly with the concepts it conveys.

• The idea of energy conservation has disappeared in the graphical representation but itappears the idea underlying an arrow going from the stream to Q. Using the old but stillused language, teachers say: “energy has been transformed into heat” . That is they areusing two misconceptions at time. By one side, “energy is transformed into” appeareven no reference is contained in the booklet containing the proposed images and eventhe didactical guidelines given to the teachers to use the images explain the importanceof talking about energy transfers. By the other side, and perhaps more serious, teachersare wording of converting energy into heat. Again, “heat” is no more seen as a way oftransferring energy but as energy (or as an energy form as usually said).

• Transforming flux diagrams into stairway “decreasing streams”, as above explained,looses the idea of energy dispersion since energy from the main stream is nottransferred to some way.

• Only the idea of energy degradation subsists in these transformed images: in each stepof the process (the stair) there is a reduction of the useful energy/the main stream. Eventhis idea of energy degradation reduce its value when in some cases (some classrooms’


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blackboards) the decreasing stream looks like a simple scenery where to represent someenergy transformation that have been described and have been made explicit.

After the research results, two main ideas become very well clarified:First of all , it seems plausible to say that to include or to omit any line in the blackboard,respect a referenced image, has consequences in the message transmitted. Adding,eliminating some lines or forms, changing the place where the lines or forms are situatedbrings with them a different message. At the reverse, one of the expectable transformationswhen using images is that of eliminating the graphical characteristics that convey an ideathat is misused or not used at all by the teacher. This has consequences because a goodnumber of didactical innovations are related with the introduction of seldom used ormisused concepts. If a new or reformulated concept is not assumed, there is a highprobabili ty that any image designed to represent it will convey the old, or the previous,message. (A clear example of it is the introduction of the concept of transformation ofenergy inside the energy transfer chains). Different kind of transformations: lack of use of arepresented concept, use of different representations of the same concept (environment),use of the same representation for different concepts (arrows) or transformations of thegraphical representations to include new concepts could be reported as results of theintroduction of innovative images referring the complex scenario of the energy concept.

Therefore, designers have to be very careful with the representation of concepts seldomused by teachers.

Secondly, generally speaking, we could say that ideas reflected in the drawings match andcoincide with the ideas worded through the verbal explanations of the teachers. Thenadding, eliminating some lines or forms, changing the place where the lines or forms aresituated, etc. have their corresponding transformation at the level of the worded concepts.But, when teachers have been taught that some wording should be avoided because itconveys erroneous concepts, then some of them don’ t use anymore such words but theimages drawn in the blackboard reflect the old paradigm. Images seem to reflect, in manycases, what, in fact, teachers are thinking.

General Resources

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4 GENERAL RESOURCES

This section gathers two documents:4.1. Some useful references. This section summarises some relevant researches on theuse of images in the field of Science Education.4.2. The Bibliography gathering a selection of papers and books to know more aboutdifferent aspects related to the use of images in Science Teaching.

General ResourcesState of the art about the topic

65

4.1. Some useful referencesThe topic of the use of images in science education has motivated a good number ofresearches in recent years. This section gathers an overview of some of them includingstudies done on images for different scientific disciplines (Physics, chemistry and naturalsciences).

Bar lex, D., & Car ré, C. (Eds.). (1985). Visual Communication in Science. Learningtrough sharing images. Cambr idge, UK: Cambr idge University Press.

The book is devoted to the practical use of images in the classroom. It gives a differentview on the relationship between concepts on science and on teaching and the use of visualrepresentations. It provides useful information and tips on how to use the resources ofimages to teach including examples of different scientific disciplines but specially focus ongiving teachers the tools to became active designers of visual representations, eff icient attransmitting scientific knowledge to students.

Bissuel, G. (1994). The nature and the par t taken by the pupils' symbolic activity inlearning energy. In European Research in science Education: Second Ph. D.Summerschool. Thessaloniki. Greece.

The research is a study on the analogies spontaneously used by students as a solvingproblems tool. The research is framed in the Brousseaus’s theory of situations and thesymbol and the symbolic thought are treated according to the P. Ricoeur work on thesymbolic thought in Physics.Some icons are proposed to the students in order to facilit ate the explanation of theirexplanatory system of the material situation. The use of symbolic representations is seen asa way to elicit the pupils’ mental model on the represented concept (energy in this case).

Issing, L . J. (1990). Learning from pictor ial analogies. European Journal of Psycologyof Education, 4, 489-199.

It is mainly a theoretical paper on the classification of the visual representations used inscience education. It focuses on the pictorial analogies as a valuable aid for learning,specially to understand structural and functional relations contained in verbal information.It points out the necessity of guiding the learner in order to fully use pictorial analogies tolearn.

Lemeignan, G., & Weil -Barais, A. (1993). Construire des concepts en physique. Par is:Hachette L ivre.

A very interesting book that includes several proposals and researches on visualrepresentations on the fields of energy and forces. The proposals include several practicalexamples of representations and their results in class practice focusing on the relationshipsbetween the concepts being taught and the way they are visually represented, for instance,which are the graphical features a representation of the idea of force should have. Some ofthe chapters deal with the advantages of providing graphical tools to the students to fosterthe learning of scientific concepts.

General ResourcesState of the art about the topic

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Lynch, M. (1990) The external retina: Selection and mathematization in the visualdocumentation of objects in the li fe sciences. In M. Lynch, & S. Woolgar (Eds.).Representation in Scientific Practice. Cambr idge, MA: MIT Press.

The author argues that visual representations are essential to ‘ reveal’ the scientific objects.This is done by two methods: selection and mathematization. Images are used in all thescientific process, mainly to represent the natural objects attaching mathematical order tothem. The paper also deals with aspects such as the relation between laboratoryexperiments and graphs, and the photographs and the drawings based on photographs.These two cases provide the ground to apply the author’s ideas on how images are a way toexpress the scientific view of the world.

Schnotz, W., Picard E., & Hron, A. (1993). How do successful and unsuccessfullearners use texts and graphics? Learning and Instruction, 3, 81-199.

This papers deals with the influence of using images in textbooks on improving theacquisition of knowledge. The results of this research show that unsuccessful learnersbenefit from the presence of graphs. Successful learners use graphs more intensively. Theydo not use more textual information, but focus on the relevant information for the mentalmodel-building. Teachers have to provide students with instructions to use images in amore intensive way, to perform a more comprehensive mapping between graphics and therespective mental models’ . The author gives detailed information on how students shouldbe guided.This paper also presents an overview of theoretical studies on which kind of images areuseful for different situations.

Sumfleth, E., & Telgenbüscher, L . (1999). Visualisation in Chemistry-LearningChemistry with Pictures. 15 BCCE. Waterloo, Canada.

This work is framed in cognitive psychology. According to this frame the authors proposethe use of explanatory pictures (two or more frames showing different stages of a process).A part from the pictures themselves, factors influencing effective learning with ill ustrationsinclude the pictorial lit eracy and the intensity of picture processing. This paper showsresearch results on improving the picture processing and its effect on learning the conceptof chemical reactions.

Vezin, J.-Fr . (1986). Schématisation et acquisition des connaissances. Revue Françaisede Pédagogie, 77, 71-78

This paper deals with the schemes (as visual representations) as a non-verbal modality ofexpression. The schemes have a very precise goal (for instance, selection of informationand interrelation of a great number of data). The paper concludes that students have to betaught how to read schemes

General ResourcesSome useful references

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4.2. Bibliography

Ametller, J., & Pintó, R. (in press). Students' reading of innovative images on energy insecondary school level. International Journal of Science Education.

Arnheim, R. (1984). El poder del centro. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. (Original workpublished 1982).

Atkins, P.W. (1984). The second Law (Scientific American Books). New York:Freeman and Company.

Barlex, D., & Carré, C. (Eds.). (1985). Visual Communication in Science. Learningtrough sharing images. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bastide, F. (1990). The iconography of scientific texts: principles of analysis. In M.Lynch, & S. Woolgar (Eds.), Representation in scientifi c practice (pp. 187-230).Cambridge, MA: MIT press.

Bissuel, G. (1994). The nature and the part taken by the pupils' symbolic activity inlearning energy. In European Research in science Education: Second Ph. D.Summerschool. Thessaloniki. Greece.

Boohan, R., & Ogborn, J. (1996). Energy and change: Introducing a new approach.London: Institute of education, University of London.

Boohan, R., & Ogborn, J. (1996). Differences, energy and change: a simple approachtrough pictures. School Science Review, 78 (283), 13-19.

Chauvet, F., Colin, P., & Viennot, L: (1999). Reading images in optics. Studentsdifficulties, teachers’ views and practice. WP2 France Report.

Eco, U. (1985). Tratado de semiótica general. Barcelona: Editorial Lumen. (Originalwork published 1976).

Halli day, M.A.K. (1978). Language as social semiotic The social interpretation oflanguage and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.

Issing, L. J. (1990). Learning from pictorial analogies. European Journal of Psycologyof Education, 4, 489-199.

Jiménez, J., Hoces, R., & Perales, F.J. (1997). Análisis de los modelos y los grafismosutili zados en los libros de texto. Alambique, 11, 75-85.

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading Images: the Grammar of Visual design.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

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Kress, G., & Ogborn, J. (1998). Modes of representation and local epistemologies: thepresentation of science in education. SCISC Working papers. SISC Paper Nº2. London:Institute of Education, University of London.

Lemeignan, G., & Weil -Barais, A. (1993). Construire des concepts en physique. Paris:Hachette Livre.

Lemke, J.L. (1998a). Multiplying meaning: visual and verbal semiotics in scientifictext. In J.R. Martin, & R. Veel (Eds.). Reading Science. London: Routledge.

Lemke, J.L. (1998b). Teaching All the Languages of Science: Words, Symbols, Images,and Actions [Unpublished Paper for Barcelona Conference].

Lynch, M. (1990) The external retina: Selection and mathematization in the visualdocumentation of objects in the li fe sciences. In M. Lynch, & S. Woolgar (Eds.),Representation in Scientifi c Practice (pp. 153-185). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Pintó, R. (1993). Algunos conceptos implícitos en la 1ª y la 2ª Leyes de laTermodinámica: una aportación al estudio de las dificultades de su aprendizaje. Doctoraldissertation. Bellaterra, Spain: Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Pintó, R., & Ametller, J. (2000). Using images to teach Energy: students' diffi culties,teachers' interpretations and teachers' transformations. WP2 Spain Report.

Pintò, R., & Ametller, J.,with the collaboration of: F. Chauvet, P. Colin, G. Giberti, G.Monroy, J. Ogborn, F. Ormerod, E. Sassi, F. Stylianidou, I. Testa, L. Viennot (2000).Investigation on the diffi culties in teaching and learning graphic representations and ontheir use in science classrooms. Transversal Report on WP2

Sassi, E., Monroy, G., Testa, I., & Giberti, G. (2000). Reading and interpreting graphsfrom real-time experiments: students’ diffi culties, teachers’ interpretations and classpractice. WP2 Italy Report.

Saussure, F. (1971). Curso de lingüística general (9th ed.). Buenos Aires: Losada.(Original work published 1957)

Schnotz, W., Picard E., & Hron, A. (1993). How do successful and unsuccessfullearners use texts and graphics? Learning and Instruction, 3, 81-199.

Solomon, J. (1983). Learning about energy. A study of fourth year pupils in a schoolPhysics course. Doctoral dissertation. London: Chelsea College. Univ. of London.

STTIS Project (1998). Internal Report RW0: Outline and Justifi cation of ResearchMethodology: Work Packages WP1, WP2 and WP3.

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