Conclusion
In conclusion, visuals can help students to grasp and remember concepts and knowledge better. Mr Ang, in our interview, said that “Knowledge retention should be able to be enhanced using visual ways and engagement levels will definitely be higher”. For example, it would be easier for a student to understand and remember the process of transcription of DNA if they can actually see a visual representation of it. Other than this, a number of surveyees expressed that visuals would make lessons more interesting, and it was suggested that higher interest levels could motivate students to put more effort in their learning.
However, the myth or opinion about visual learning being perfect is not true. There are limitations to Visual Learning. Mrs. Selvan, an experienced English teacher, said in our interview that “sometimes it is inappropriate or the use is too limited, or sometimes the visual is too cosmetic, its static appeal. It doesn’t really sort of increase the depth or the vigor of the learning”. Furthermore, Mr. Ang, a Mathematics teacher who has been using much visual tools in his lesson, said that “it is not easy creating visual learning materials.” If teachers wish to use visual learning using computers, then “ Teachers probably have to be given time to go through professional development courses to learn how to create or edit videos”.
However, there are other ways of visual learning if technology is not that easily accessible. One form of visual learning is mind maps or drawings, and the students can also see the things that they have drew visually as well, having the same impact.
Besides this, a number of surveyees mentioned that too much use of visuals could distract them from learning, and some noted that overuse of visuals would impede learning rather than enhance it.
And these are the collaborated perspectives that we have explored in our project.
- Visual learning will increase interest levels among students, thus motivating and helping students to learn better.
- Visual learning will help to increase knowledge retention as the images would leave greater impressions students.
- Visual learning will help students to understand concepts better, especially concepts from Mathematics and Science.
- Visual learning will distract students, causing them to be unable to learn as effectively.
- Visual learning will cause students to develop short attention spans for when non-visual material is used as they will become too used to being so stimulated by visuals.
- Visual learning is not easy to integrate due to teachers’ apprehensions about using visuals, as well as because teachers might not know how to create visuals.
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