A7.4: Photo-visual Literacy

     Until receiving this assignment I never thought that looking at a picture and understanding the meaning of the picture was a skill, but it is.  This skill is also known as photo-visual literacy.  There are several areas of cognition involved in understanding an image, which include but are not limited to: questioning, personal associations, categorizing, analyzing, speculating, and fact finding.  The complexity of the picture will vary so the cognitive skills involved in interpreting the meaning of the picture will change.  As young children developing this skill, we can only interpret concrete pictures, but as we get older our skill level increases and so do our interpretations.  For example, when I was a young child I saw a piece of interpretive sculpture and I really didn’t understand it, I just knew that it was art.  As an adult, I look back on that sculpture and realize that it was trying to show the world.  I think that it is amazing how much a skill can build over a few years, without any formal training.  Can you imagine what a person could do with this skill if it was worked on through various activities in school?  I bet it would be amazing.  One study as a matter of fact has broken down photo-visual literacy into five stages.  The first two stages can be compared to the pre-literate phase of reading.  The final three stages involve building upon the skills you have acquired. 

     Now that I have thought about the skill of photo-visual literacy, I can totally relate to the fact that there are certain skills involved.  I also realize that those skills have to be developed through experience.  I really think that is why as we grow and develop our skills improve. 

     How will photo-visual literacy change education?  I really don’t know the answer to that question, but I can tell you how I hope it will change education.  I hope that teachers will devote at least 30 minutes a week talking about art and helping the students develop their skills.  In middle school and high school, I think that several art classes should be offered, ranging from sculpture and painting to art history.  I know that in bigger schools this is probably already offered, but where I went to school we didn’t have a choice in what class we took, we just took art.  I also hope that there is a visual art requirement put into the criteria for a student to graduate from high school.  Learning the skill of photo-visual literacy is very important and I think that it should be developed so that students can take full advantage of the skill. 

Reference:

Yenawine, P. (1997). Handbook of Research on Teaching
          Visual Literacy through the Communicative and
          Visual Arts.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
          Associates, Inc.  Retrieved October 8, 2006, from
          http://www.vue.org/download/Thoughts_Visual_Literacy.pdf.