Visual thinking: what it is and how it influences education

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so it is not surprising that our minds prefer to work with visual elements rather than verbalized language. Yes, it is true that words allow us to describe reality with hair and signs, but images are directly a representation of that reality.

But despite the fact that visual thinking seems to be a fundamental aspect of our way of processing information, the truth is that in the field educational graphic methods have been largely left aside and textual and oral explanations of the content to be taught have been prioritized class.

Nevertheless, In the middle of the last century, a new concept arose, visual thinking or "visual thinking". who wanted to recover the importance of working with images, both to capture the information and to explain it. Let's see what this pedagogical approach consists of.

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What is visual thinking?

Visual thinking or “visual thinking” is a pedagogical approach that holds that since the mind prefers to work with images rather than verbalized language

, the ideal way to create, share, develop and manipulate ideas is to represent them in visual terms.

Thus, visual thinking is both a theoretical framework and a tool that defends the use of graphic resources to be able to express ideas and concepts in an easier to assimilate way for our brain, relying on graphic representations of textual and audiovisual content.

1. Importance of visual thinking

Human beings are visual animals and, in fact, Our way of interpreting the world is based in a significant percentage on what we perceive through sight. It is said that about 90% of the information our brain receives is visual and we come to process images much faster than any information that is given to us in the form of text or through language oral. Visual information leaves a deeper mark on us than what we read or what we are told.

It is clear that language, both written and oral, is a very sophisticated and useful tool to transmit our ideas, however, this vehicle of transmission of concepts does not have the immediacy or proximity that an image has, since the image is, in itself, the representation of the concept itself pure. For example, learning what an apple is is much easier to do by seeing an apple in a picture or in real life rather than memorizing its definition.

Although the language is very useful, it is neither perceptive nor immediate., in addition to requiring a priori reflection. Written and oral language tells us about what has already been heard, seen or thought, not from a direct contact with reality, but rather a long description of what is. Although we can think using verbalized language, what some call "mentalese", it is not possible to think quickly without resorting to images. In fact, thinking about a concept using images makes that concept better understood and also better remembered.

But despite the fact that it has been known for quite some time that human beings tend to resort to images, traditional education has downplayed this fact. As the written and oral culture developed, it was preferred to resort to the written text since it allowed convey information more easily and unequivocally, but also sacrificed its expressiveness and ease of memorization.

The idea behind the theorists of visual thinking or "visual thinking" is that of recover visual language as a tool to better understand and explain reality. Instead of focusing so much on reading texts with few descriptive images, resort to visual support and also invite learners to describe their ideas using graphics, drawings or pictograms is increasingly being considered as a better option to facilitate the learning.

2. The figure of Rudolf Arnheim

You cannot talk about visual thinking as a pedagogical doctrine without mentioning one of its greatest exponents: Rudolf Arnheim. This German psychologist published in 1969 a work with the same title, "Visual Thinking" which, already in the middle of the 20th century, was ahead in considering that the traditional methodologies in education had failed. Vision was a primary medium for thought but it had been left aside in the classroom giving priority to words written, which sometimes refer to ideas defined in a way that is too abstract to be understood without images.

So Arnheim argued that people learn in a much richer way through sight, either appealing to sensations as well as nuances, aspects that verbalized language could not express properly. Visual methods should be introduced in textbooks and classes and see if students could express the ideas seen in class through drawings or visual aids. If they succeeded, it meant that they had managed to internalize and understand what was seen in class as well as make use of their creativity.

3. DanRoam method

Another of the great referents of the concept of visual thinking is found in Dan Roam, who He proposed a method to be able to develop it in his book "Your world in a napkin" of 2010, in which he defends the idea that drawings or images of any kind serve to better communicate, outline and summarize our ideas rather than resort to written text. However, before transforming a concept into a visual representation, it is necessary to ask a few questions:

• Who is that idea for?
• How much should be summarized?
• Where to do it? What type of visual support will be used?
• How to do it?
• When to expose it?
• Why give it a visual support?

Once these questions are answered, the process of transforming an idea into something visual begins. To do this, Roam talks about four phases:

1. Look

Information is collected and selected, concentrating on the most important thing that faithfully represents the idea.

2. See

Patterns are recognized and the most interesting are selected thinking about the public that is going to receive the visual message, adequately grouping the information that is possessed.

3. Imagine

information is rearranged, detecting what may have escaped us or that may attract the attention of the public receiving the message, in addition to being This is the moment in which they imagine new ideas that can give a creative push to the visual representation of the concept to express.

4. Show

Finally the information is synthesized and clarity is given to everything that has been raised in the earlier phases. It is at this moment that the idea that has been transformed into a visual concept is shown.

Any visual support can be useful to present any idea. Either through diagrams, graphs, visual infographics or any visual element can be provided to the public to assimilate and manage an idea that in textual and oral terms can become something too abstract.

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Advantages of promoting visual thinking

Especially at the teaching level, promoting visual thinking implies many advantages, above all because, as already we have commented, it helps in the understanding of concepts and ideas that, defined textually, may not be captured from the all. Although we must not forget that texts are not an element to be dispensed with in education, visual supports must also be in the classroom, helping to better assimilate what the textbooks try to express.

But showing images to the students not only helps them assimilate the concepts, but also asks them to use their own visual thinking skills. Asking students to try to graphically express what was exposed in class is a very good way to to make them work on that idea, try to understand it and handle it beyond its verbalized definition. The student has to think about the idea, synthesize it and finally represent it in an original way and to understand what it is. Thus, metacognition and retention of learning taught in the classroom is encouraged.

We also encourage creativity in the classroom, an aspect that is largely neglected in education. traditional being only seen in subjects considered purely artistic such as music or arts plastic. Each individual can have a very different way of representing the same concept. and that is not bad, rather the opposite. By asking students to graphically represent a concept given in class, they are given full freedom to his imagination, something that makes learning to be seen as a playful activity and pleasant.

Bibliographic references:

• Arnheim, R. (1969). Visual Thinking. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24226-5.
• Roam. d. (2010). Your world in a napkin. Barcelona, ​​Spain. Editions management 2000. ISBN: 9788498754445
• Pashler, H.; McDaniel, M.; Rohrer, D.; Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 9: 105-119. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.