Visual Imagery In Natural Sciences Activities

Abstract

Photographs and drawings are used to help kindergarten children to represent visually the contents discussed during Natural Sciences activities. The aim of this qualitative study is to analyse the strategies that teachers develop in order to identify the appropriate texts they could use during learning activities on a certain topic and their strategies for choosing the appropriate images (matching the respective texts). During the documentation process on the topic The Oak Forest, the teacher looked for images (photographs and drawings), literary texts and scientific ones, in the Internet network and in books for children and adults. In this case, the teacher used photographs from the Internet with the oak forest and created a children’s story. The PowerPoint presentation that contained collages of thematically organized photos and the text of the narrative was presented on the Zoom platform. During the learning activity, we paid attention to the following: achievement of the concept of forest, listing and description of some tree species, enumeration of plant and animal species characteristic of the forest and the presentation on aspects of their lives. We analysed how the learning unfolded, parents’ and children’s opinions about the activity, and the knowledge that children achieved. In the end, we drew conclusions on the strengths of activities which combined text with visual imagery.

Keywords: Oak forestPowerPoint presentationZoom platformonline activitypreschoolCOVID-19 pandemic

Introduction

This paper focuses on the analysis of visual materials use in the pre-schoolers’ knowledge acquisition process about the forest, as a basis for their forestry education. Photographs, films, and drawings constitute frequently used materials in learning activities in Natural Sciences (Dulamă, 2012). These visual materials represent a necessary and useful visual support in the formation of representations of the environment and its components (Dulamă & Magdaş, 2014; Dulamă et al., 2017; Ilovan et al., 2018, 2019; Magdaș et al., 2017; 2018). In light of this, since visual literacy underlies understanding processes (Sinatra, 1986, p. 4), it is essential that in preschool education, organising experiences takes place in visual environments, and thus contributing to pupils’ improvement of their cognitive skills (Messaris, 1994, p. 3). Therefore, knowing that “photographs have a swifter and more succinct impact than words” (Goldberg, 1991, p. 7), they are usually used to facilitate the pre-schoolers’ perceptions of nature (Deac et al., 2019).

Such a visual pedagogical tool is applied to deepen the lived experiences in nature (Socha et al., 2016). Moreover, by means of photographs, the interest, curiosity and involvement in environmental education activities are stimulated (Ardoin et al., 2014), ties to the information previously taught are established, critical thinking develops (Hindal, 2014), and pupils’ responses are improved (Ewald & Lightfoot, 2001, p. 119).

In order to achieve forestry education, in several European countries, there is a tendency to organize various activities in the forest environment: guided trips in the forest and other “forest pedagogical activities” (Austria); bird watching and wild fauna knowledge trips (Finland); hiking and certain outdoor adventure activities (Norway); wildlife watching and various recreational activities (Romania); rides on mountain bike trails and other related services (Great Britain) (cf. Niskanen, 2006); woods experiences (Great Britain) (cf. O’Brien & Murray, 2007); watching plant and animal collections, shows with birds of prey, exposés, hiking on thematic trails, carved in wooden trunks (France) (cf. Cadar, 2014).

In Romania, geography teachers claim that the most efficient activities for pupils’ forestry education are those carried out in the forest environment (e.g., walks, hiking, camps, systematic observations, picking of berries, medicinal plants and mushrooms, adventure park activities) (Dulamă et al., 2016, p. 37). However, activities outside the forest environment that are perceived as more effective for forest education are the following: involvement in projects, the teachers’ actions, meetings with foresters and NGO representatives, documentary films, designing posters, being part of social networks (Dulamă et al., 2016, p. 37). In light of this, noting that school and family have the greatest impact on forestry education and forest protection in Romania, surpassing television, social media, and online publications (Dulamă et al., 2016, p. 33), we consider that the organization of forest knowledge activities for pre-schoolers is particularly useful.

This view should be supported despite the current social and educational context marked by the spread of COVID-19, which have forced the school institutions to design teaching activities for the virtual environment. In addition, teachers’ teaching style is significant for pupils’ emotional resilience at an early age and for learning (Crișan et al., 2014; Fetti & Albulescu, 2020), and teachers should be supported to find improvements concerning this within the online environment.

Problem Statement

In the instances when teachers intend to study a particular topic with children, they seek for texts and illustrative materials that are appropriate for that issue. In some situations, teachers identify both texts and visual materials that correspond to the criteria by which they performed the search. However, there are problem-situations in which teachers find either the text or the targeted images or, rarely, they find neither text nor visual materials. Consequently, two problems may occur: the absence of texts and materials required for the optimal or efficient study of a topic; and the mismatch between the written and visual materials.

Research Questions

This exploratory research will examine four main research questions: In what manner and where does the teacher look for the texts and illustrative materials required for the Oak Forest topic? By what means does the teacher create and process the texts and visual materials to make them understandable to pre-schoolers? How does the teacher use written and visual materials in the learning activities about the Oak Forest performed online together with pre-schoolers? What is the efficiency of using these materials (conceived and taken from other sources)?

Purpose of the Study

Starting from the research problem, the study aims to investigate three major issues. Therefore, we propose to discover what a teacher does in the situations where: he or she does not find the required texts and materials for the optimal/efficient study of the topic; the written materials do not match the visual ones; and the way in which he or she created/carried out the didactic activity in those circumstances.

Research Methods

Procedure . In this exploratory research, several steps were completed. First, texts and visual materials suitable for the Oak Forest topic were searched for, analysed and selected. After collection, the processing of visual materials and the designing of the text for the topic in question were realised. Following this, on the Zoom platform, the visual material was used in the learning activity performed online with the pre-schoolers. Finally, the analysis of the children’s activity and results was achieved.

Participants. For this assessment, eight of the 21 pre-schoolers from “Reconstrucţia” Kindergarten of “Petru Rareş” High School, Feldioara, Braşov County, Romania, got involved voluntarily. All the participants were aged between four and six, of which three were 4 years old, four were 5 years old, and one was 6 years old. Also, the group consisted of three girls and five boys. To participate in the online activity, six of them used a smart phone, one a tablet and one a personal computer. During that time, the children were supervised by their mothers, four of whom were housewives. One mother had an academic degree, six graduated from high school and one had elementary school education. The first author, a teacher for pre-primary education, performed the activity online and was perceived by pre-schoolers as their teacher, not as a researcher. The teacher participated in the design of the visual material, analysed personal and pre-schoolers’ activity, and answered the interview questions. The other authors were involved into research design, as well as in processing, analysis, and interpretation of the collected data.

Data collecting and processing . The data related to the identification of the written and visual sources, creation of the visual material, and learning activity were collected through the semi-structured interview method and the participant observation method. Moreover, the data obtained in the interview, together with the text written by the teacher, underwent a text analysis. In addition, the didactic visual material created was analysed by visual methods. Overall, the exploratory research had the features of a case study design (Magdaș, 2018). Moreover, the amount of children’s knowledge proven through the game was processed by statistical methods.

The research material included the following sources of data: written and visual material created by the teacher; observations, answers and opinions of the interviewed teacher; the children’s answers to the questions in the game and those formulated during the learning activity; and the online activity.

Findings

Efficiency of using materials which were created and taken from other sources

After the story ended, to check the children’s acquired or improved knowledge in the learning activity, the True-False game was proposed to them. Thus, the children were reminded of the rules known from previous meetings. Through an exercise, it was verified if they understood the rules of the game: they were asked to show how many hands they should raise for the False answer (they raised two hands) and how many hands they should raise for the True answer (they raised one hand). The game contained 42 statements and lasted for approximately 30 minutes. Because the activity on the ZOOM platform is automatically interrupted after 40 minutes, following question no. 24, it was necessary to generate another link and log in details for children. In that case, the connection was much faster (maximum 2-3 minutes), but a child was no longer involved in the activity, and because of a technical problem, the video that recorded this part of the activity was lost. From the analysis of the children’s involvement in the game, we found that one child voluntarily answered all questions without the mother’s help, one child refused to participate at the game, and the others were encouraged and helped by parents/mothers to answer. Moreover, even if the microphones on the children’s devices were muted and they could communicate with their teacher only through the visual channel, still a child did not comply with the requirement. Therefore, she turned on the microphone countless times and verbally provided answers to addressed questions.

In Table 2 , are presented the assertions proposed to the children about the oak forest, their grouping by categories and the children’s options for these assertions. However, we noticed that there were situations in which the children did not provide any answer. Consequently, as the number of children involved was low and, in many moments, they were influenced by their mothers, these results give us some benchmarks on the information that should be clarified and fixed in future activities.

The results presented in Figure 1 , which suggest that the pre-schoolers fixed their long-term memory and were able to remember the information about the characters and their actions can be explained by their training in summarizing the events of the characters in the stories. The fact that the knowledge of flowering plants is on the second place in the hierarchy is due to their confrontation with only two questions in this category. However, the children gained a good score on the items that indicated the knowledge of some aspects related to mammals, bushes, and trees.

See Full Size >

On the other hand, the lower scores obtained by pre-schoolers on items related to the forest are explained by the degree of their abstraction and by the fact that the forest, being a set of elements, was more difficult to disassemble and mentally configure. Although some pre-schoolers mentioned that they liked birds, the scores on birds’ items were the lowest. From the analysis of these elements, it is observed the high degree of detail of the visual information about birds that the pre-schoolers failed to perceive.

See Full Size >

The online activity was completed with a final discussion, lasting about 10 minutes, in which children were given permission to use the microphone. To the question “What did you like most about the activity?”, the children’s answers (“birds”, “the girl and animals”, “the girl”, “wild boar and deer”, “flowers”) confirmed our assumptions. Also, one child claimed that he loved “berries and hazelnuts” because he had such fruits in the garden. In addition, to verify if the children made the connection between the film and reality, they were asked to answer which birds or other animals of those presented they noticed in real life. In this regard, only one child stated that the only bird seen in real life was the woodpecker.

We note, therefore, that each child provided answers based on their own life experiences. The whole activity lasted about 70 minutes.

Conclusion

Regarding the process of searching for texts and visual materials suitable for a certain topic intended for studying it with pre-schoolers in Natural Sciences, we found that the preschool teacher spent great time resources for both this purpose and for analysing the multitude of web sources (films, photographs, drawings, PowerPoint presentations, texts), as well as printed sources for children and adults. Although there are a lot of sources about the studied subject, they did not meet all the criteria by which the teacher chose the best visual material to be used in the designed activity. Under these conditions, the teacher was forced to spend other great time resources in order to: identify the support materials required to achieve the new visual product; prepare the activity to be carried out online; solve the problems they face when using visual imagery and when communicating with pre-schoolers on the Zoom platform.

Concerning the online activity, only one third of children and their families have access to the Internet, have the necessary devices for online communication and show interest for virtual environment activities. In light of this, it was revealed that to perform online activities the following were required: previous preparation; verification and testing of equipment, applications, and connections between teacher and children’s devices; supervision and assistance of children by a parent – mothers being those involved in this case; and timely resolution of unforeseen technical problems.

Pre-schoolers showed curiosity and interest in listening to and watching the story supported visually by a PowerPoint presentation, and auditory through the narrative-informative-descriptive comment of the teacher. Moreover, through the game performed after the learning activity (adapted to the conditions of the videoconference and to the lack of pre-schoolers’ reading competence) and through the encouragement and support provided by their mothers, the children identified the correct solutions to over half of the items. At the end of the online activity, they confessed that they loved the character they found similarities with, and certain animals and plants specific to the oak forest environment.

Although the preparation and support of the online activity required a very high consumption of the teacher’s time and material resources, creativity, digital skills and competence to solve technical problems, the online activity was evaluated as a successful experience for both teacher and children. The strengths of this activity that combines the text with visual images are: the progressive input of images, the text and image synchronization, the exploitation of the opportunity to indicate with the computer mouse the items or the aspect to which reference is made.

Acknowledgments

The research for this article was supported by a STAR-UBB Institute fellowship (The Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, belonging to Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania), won by Professor Maria Eliza Dulamă, Ph.D., during the 2019-2020 academic year (for the April-May 2020 period) and titled Valorificarea unor tehnologii avansate pentru realizarea unor filme didactice destinate predării-învățării în învățământul universitar [Valorising Certain Advanced Technologies to Realise Didactic Films for Teaching-Learning in the University System]. The fellowship was funded through the project 33PFE/2018 (Strategic infrastructure at Babeș-Bolyai University in the context of developing new and smart technology – 2018-2020), which was won through a competition organised in 2018 by the Ministry of Research and Innovation, of Romania.

References

1. Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică. (2010). Micul dicționar academic [Little academic dictionary] (2nd edition). Editura Univers Enciclopedic.
2. Ardoin, N. M., DiGiano, M., Bundy, J., Chang, S., Holthuis, N., & O’Connor, K. (2014). Using digital photography and journaling in evaluation of field-based environmental education programs. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 41, 68-76.
3. Cadar, N. (2014). National Forest Office of France and his involvement in environmental education. Journal of Horticulture, Forestry and Biotechnology, 18(1), 151-155.
4. Crișan, C., Albulescu, I., & Copaci, I. (2014). The relationship between test anxiety and perceived teaching style. Implications and consequences on performance self-evaluation. In C. Vasile (Ed.), Adult Education in Universities: Local and Regional Perspectives. Book Series: ‏Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 142, 668-672.
5. Deac, A. S., Ilovan, O.-R., Chiş, O., & Dulamă, M. E. (2019). Primary grades teachers’ perceptions of learning activities in nature. In V. Chiş, & I. Albulescu (Eds.), 6th ERD Conference, European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences, LXIII, 358-364.
6. Dulamă, M. E. (2012). Ştiinţe şi didactica ştiinţelor pentru învăţământul primar şi preşcolar [Sciences and the didactics of sciences for the primary grades and the kindergarten]. Presa Universitară Clujeană.
7. Dulamă, M. E., & Magdaş, I. (2014). Analysis of the competences and contents of “Mathematics and Environmental Exploration” subject syllabus for preparatory grade. Acta Didactica Napocensia, 7(2), 11-247.
8. Dulamă, M. E., Ilovan, O.-R., & Magdaş, I. (2017). The forests of Romania in scientific literature and in geography. Teachers’ perceptions and actions. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, 16(1), 169-186.
9. Dulamă, M. E., Ilovan, O.-R., Magdaş, I., & Răcăşan, B. (2016). Is there any forestry education in Romania? Geography teachers’ perceptions, attitudes, and recommendations. Studia Universitas Babeş-Bolyai, Psychologia-Paedagogia, LXI(1), 27-52.
10. Ewald, W., & Lightfoot, A. (2001). I Wanna Take Me a Picture: Teaching Photography and Writing to Children. Beacon Press.
11. Fetti (Mora), D. F., & Albulescu, I. (2020). Developing emotional resilience in the primary education through the teaching style. In V. Chiș (Ed.), 7th ERD Conference, European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 85, 669-676.
12. Goldberg, V. (1991). The Power of Photography: How Photographs Changed Our Lives. Abbeville Press.
13. Hindal, H. S. (2014). Visual-spatial learning: A characteristic of gifted students. European Scientific Journal, 10, 13.
14. Ilovan, O.-R., Dulamă, M. E., Boţan, C. N., Havadi-Nagy, K. X., Horváth, C., Niţoaia, A., Nicula, S.-F., & Rus, G. M. (2018). Environmental education and education for sustainable development in Romania. Teachers’ perceptions and recommendations. Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology, 19(1), 350-356.
15. Ilovan, O.-R., Dulamă, M. E., Boţan, C. N., Havadi-Nagy, K. X., Horváth, C., Niţoaia, A., Nicula, S.-F., & Rus, G. M. (2019). Environmental education and education for sustainable development in Romania. Teachers’ perceptions and recommendations (II). Romanian Review of Geographical Education, 8(2), 21-37.
16. Magdaș, I. (2018). Prezentarea și prelucrarea datelor cercetării în științele educației. Ghid pentru studenți [Presenting and processing research data in the Sciences of Education. A students’ guide]. Presa Universitară Clujeană. http://www.editura.ubbcluj.ro/bd/ebooks/pdf/2276.pdf
17. Magdaș, I., Buzilă, S. R., Dulamă, M. E., & Ilovan, O.-R. (2017). Primary grades teachers’ perceptions on a Mathematics and Environmental Exploration digital textbook. In M. Vlada (Ed.), Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Virtual Learning, 218-223.
18. Magdaș, I., Dulamă, M.-E., Ilovan, O.-R., & Crișan, I. C. (2018). Training primary school teachers for teaching the Mathematics and Environmental Exploration subject. In V. Chiş, V., I. Albulescu (Eds.), 5th ERD Conference, European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences, XLI, 143-151.
19. Messaris, P. (1994). Visual “Literacy:” Image, Mind, and Reality. Westview Press.
20. Niskanen, A. (Ed.) (2006). Issues affecting enterprise development in the forest sector in Europe, University of Joensuu, Faculty of Forestry. Research Notes, 169, 406.
21. O’Brien, M. L., & Murray, R. (2007). Forest School and its impacts on young children: case studies in Britain. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 6(4), 249-265.
22. Sinatra, R. (1986). Visual Literacy Connections to Thinking, Reading and Writing. Charles C. Thomas.
23. Socha, T., Potter, T., Potter, S., & Jickling, B. (2016). Reflections on using pinhole photography as a pedagogical and methodological tool with adolescents in wild nature. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 19(1), 10-21.