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Research project Does the picture say more than a thousand words?

Almost 60 percent of the images and illustrations found in teaching materials in social studies, contributes with information that is not found in the text. Therefore, it is important to develop students' knowledge and understanding of visual literacy.

Photo: Privat

Project description

The purpose of the research project; A picture says more than a thousand words - Highlighting visual representations in social studies teaching, is to develop knowledge about how students understand flowcharts and plot diagrams, which are two commonly used visual representations in social studies. In the project we also investigate how teaching can be designed in order to create opportunities for students to develop their visual literacy in social studies.

Visual representations are often used in social studies teaching to illustrate and clarify complex structures and phenomena. However, both teachers' experiences and previous research, show that students often have difficulties interpreting and understanding the visual representations used in teaching. This means that students risk missing out on central aspects that are taught. This also applies to teaching materials, news feeds and other media, which can pose a problem in relation to the school's and the social studies subject's mission to educate citizens.

Students`understanding and experience of visual representations in social studies teaching is an unexplored area in social studies didactics. Therefore, it is important to investigate this further. For social studies teachers, at several different school stages, the knowledge developed in the project can be used to plan, implement and evaluate teaching.

The study is carried out with the help of Learning study as a teaching development research approach, both in primary school and in upper secondary school. Researchers and teachers work together in the project to design, test and evaluate teaching in iterative cycles. For design and analysis, phenomenography, variation theory and practice theory analysis are used. The project is carried out within the framework of Stockholm Teaching and Learning Studies (STLS), an environment for teaching development subject didactic research established in collaboration between Stockholm University and a number of school organizers (such as municipality organizers). Through the project, STLS is tested and developed as a joint research environment for schools and academia, among other things by making it possible for student teachers to write their degree projects within the research project.