Journal Critique: "Sparking Discussion Through Visual Thinking"
The article titled "Sparking Discussion Through Visual Thinking" authored by Tarah
Connolly, Ron Skinner, and Danielle Harlow explores how the incorporation of visual thinking
into a science classroom can ignite students' learning, pique an interest, and help to enhance
students’ knowledge of scientific principles and concepts. The authors outline certain strategies
in the article that help to emphasize how important it is to carefully observe, and present
evidence to support conclusions in science education. The visual thinking approach focuses on
showing videos, or other imagery such as experiments or demonstrations. By presenting material
through visuals, students are freer to ask questions which leads to an overall better knowledge
and retention of the content.
Summary:
The authors practiced these methods in their classrooms. They adapted questions through
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to foster student viewpoints and engage discussions. VTS is
the structured tool used to ignite the discussions about visuals. The VTS tool has been used in
various ways in many educational settings. Some of those settings were early education centers
(pre-school) to secondary schools. VTS is inspired by constructivist principles in education. This
tool has shown tremendous promise in bridging many learning gaps in science education.
Analysis:
Coming up with different ways to make education for today’s learners can be a tiring
chore for many teachers. This is very true in subjects like science and math. There are only so
many ways to teach scientific concepts, or so we thought. We all know that maintain our
students’ focus and engagement can be a challenge. Abigail Housen, the genius behind VTS, says
that great teaching has to be more than delivering the material; it must have students actively
seeking new ideas and forming new meanings (Connolly, T., Skinner, R., & Harlow, D. (2019).
Personal Application:
I believe that visual thinking methods can be a simple, nurturing, fun, and valuable
resource for my elementary classroom. By using videos, pictures, experiments, and
demonstrations, I can cultivate meaningful discussion in my classroom. By having a hands-on
approach to learning, my students will be able to see real world application of what they are
learning in my classroom. They will also see the real-world application though various field trips
that will enhance their understanding of the material. I, like the authors of the article hope that by
instituting visual thinking techniques, the students will gain a better mastery of the material that
is covered in the classroom.
Conclusion:
The authors bring up some really good points throughout the article on how to better
engage students in the classroom. By making learning fun through a more visual and hands on
approach, students should be able to better retain the information that they are being taught. The
only issue that I see with their conclusions is for the learners that do not learn well through visual
means. This where we as Teachers must learn how each of our individual students best retains
knowledge. Some students may require some type of differentiation to better retain the material.
I do believe that this method can be very enjoyable to teach, and I plan to utilize some of the
points of the article in my classroom.
