On making use of photography as visual art to aid classroom learning

 On making use of photography as visual art to aid classroom learning ~Lalit Kishore

The art-integrated learning scheme, being promoted by the CBSE and the NCERT, urges the affiliated schools and the teachers working therein to make use of photography as visual art that can aid learning. 

The suitable strands of photography are are pictorial photography, illustrative photography, GIF creation, photo-story production and photo-essays creation. The purpose of such photography in education is to illustrate, show and interpret the textual content. 

Here are a few quotes that support the use of appropriate photography styles for learning and thinking skills

QUOTES

• "Art is the expression of the profoundest thoughts in the simplest way." – Albert Einstein
• "Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings." – Agnes Martin
• “The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as the pen” – Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
•  “Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye, it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.” – Edvard Munch
• “The great geniuses are those who have kept their childlike spirit and have added to it breadth of vision and experience.” Alfred Stieglitz
• “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” ― Ansel Adams
• “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” ― Ansel Adams

Thus, photography as a visual applied art in this digital age can be transformed into fine art, commercial art, therapy, visual art to emphasise text illustration, tonality, composition and meaning making. The text and the picture can be linked and the skill of picture reading should be brought to centre stage to make learning pertinent in the present age over-loaded with visual data.

I tried my hand on use of 'Graphics Interchange Format' (GIF) photography for teaching physics at middle school level which enhanced my professional competence and led to learning with comprehension by the students. I wrote the paper "Teaching Laws of Reflection Using Visual Communication in Graphics Interchange Format: A Lesson Study at Grade Eight". The abstract of the paper was published in the proceeding an international conference as shown in the inset picture.

Abstract:

A lesson study was undertaken to teach laws of reflection at grade level eight through three GIFs - Graphics Interchange Format animations - as visual communication for action research to improve teaching practice. A triangulated research lesson was produced, rehearsed and delivered with centrality of GIF visual communication by the teacher as classroom practitioner with the other two research lesson writers as observers during the delivery. The post lesson delivery reflection led to standardisation of the lesson for future use. The reactions of students (N=30; Urban English Medium School; Age group: 13-15 years) were found significantly positive at 0.01 level of significance when analysed through sign test and chi-squared non-parametric statistical analysis. The lesson study was deemed multi-disciplinary since it blended GIF communication, science instruction and triangulated action research in the form of lesson study. The study has implications for teaching children with learning disability of disgraphia who are predominantly visual-verbal learners and learn better through visual communication and articulation through picture reading or visual decoding. The conclusion is that the centrality of visual communication leads to efficacious inclusive education across the ability spectrum since most learners are visual learners.

Keywords: GIF, inclusive education, lesson study, science instruction, visual communication