the importance of images in learning

Images are used all the time in teaching:

Using Pictures in the ESL Classroom | TESOL Blog

50 Ways To Use Images In The ELT Classroom - EFL 2.0 Teacher Talk

The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

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They can also be used in 'higher-order thinking':

To HOTs or Not? Higher Order Thinking for ELLs | TESOL Blog

TESOL Connections - January 2019

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This piece from the Times Higher Education supplement is also relevant for TESOL/TEFL education:

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Let’s implement a ‘slow picture’ revolution in online teaching

Despite evidence that images can support higher-level thinking, their application is still marginalised, say Nataša Lacković and Zoe Hurley

March 26, 2021

Nataša Lacković Zoe Hurley

In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, the Nobel prizewinner Daniel Kahneman argues that we think in two key modes – automatic and effortful – or, in other words, fast (non-voluntary) and slow (attentional). It is, of course, the latter that has particular significance for teaching and learning in higher education.

Online teaching can, and maybe should, be formulated to encourage students to engage in slow thinking via online media. This kind of thinking happens when learners are asked to interpret, analyse, write or discuss online content such as academic articles and posts. But what about images?

A body of research and theory supports a decades-long argument about the persuasive, consent-inducing and consciousness-shaping influence that images have in modern digital media. Images also play important roles in science learning. 

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Applying “effortful” visual thinking in online teaching could even counter the non-stop acceleration of visual technology and media consumption. It also challenges a stereotypical view of images as “just for fun” or “artsy” and therefore unsuitable for “serious learning”. Importing and pausing visual media for conversational analysis provides an antidote to today’s almost unavoidable picture binging through film and other entertainment media.

We’ve now had various slow movements, from “slow food” to “slow fashion”. Let’s add “slow pictures” to the list and finally, truly, let pictures be worth a thousand words.

Let’s implement a ‘slow picture’ revolution in online teaching | Times Higher Education (THE)

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