Publication: Teachers’ Pedagogical Visual Literacy Skills in Elementary Science
Date
2023
Authors
Colandene, Michele Marie
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Abstract
The complexity of science visual literacy education calls for a better understanding of elementary teacher visual literacy practices. Teachers play a key role in developing students’ visual fluency through the visual literacy skills they develop in their pedagogical practices. Addressing these gaps in the research, this dissertation focused on the identification of elementary teachers' pedagogical science visual literacy skills and the practices associated with levels of pedagogical science visual literacy. A phenomenographic multiple case study design was used to understand the pedagogical science visual literacy skills of (n = 6) experienced elementary teachers. Data was collected through two interviews and lesson simulation. Half of the teachers in the study used scaffolded practices to support student development of application-based skills with science representations. However, three of the elementary teachers in this study engaged students in mostly knowledge-based skills of remembering and comprehension. Despite years of experience, these teachers did not support student understanding of science visuals. Several of the teachers discussed the importance of design features in visuals, but these teachers did not translate design information to the students they teach. Teacher practices that promoted visual thinking on the part of students, focused on learning science visuals through critical visual literacy and a socio-scientific lens. The findings of this study support the development of a framework for understanding pedagogical science visual literacy.
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Keywords
elementary science, pedagogical visual literacy skills, teacher science representational practices, visual fluency, visual literacy