I’m not sure how to describe visuals as an instructional method. I don’t think it is a method or even a strategy. Simply put, unless you are working only with visually impaired learners, visuals are a part of every learning experience, whether you intend them to be or not.
So, I hope Tate’s point is to encourage teachers to be intentional with their use of visuals. Learners and teachers should be thinking about what visuals are being observed by others during a learning experience and what kind of visuals could be intentionally added to aid learning.
Application: Most of the visuals I use are delivered through PowerPoint and Google Slides presentations. I don’t think the design of these tools automatically leads to bad teaching. I focus on 2 types of visuals, explicit and implicit (not that kind of explicit).
Explicit visuals are those that directly illustrate a concept. Tanmay Vora’s sketchnote of the 5 elements of Working Our Loud is one of my favorite examples, http://qaspire.com/2017/01/26/5-elements-of-working-out-loud-by-johnstepper/.
Implicit visuals are those I include sub-text and/or elicit a particular feeling. These images are often only loosely related to the content, but they engage other parts of the learner’s mind and make the content more sticky (I hope). My slides for the “Share Your Story Now!” workshop are full of implicit visuals, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1anPviGN9W-whz3lLzwknE_tXFS_empOyiIWlxYOIiNU/edit?usp=sharing. I often use a theme in my visuals because it engages our natural pattern-seeking tendencies and can prompt learners to begin noticing the implicit messages. In the slides above, I used the theme of graffiti. The theme was appropriate because graffiti can be a more authentic form of storytelling than the kind of communication the participants often engage in at work.
Sometimes these implicit visuals are meant to elicit a feeling. Slide 18 in the presentation referenced above contains a subtle joke. The slide content is about a type of story called “The Journey.” The visual on the slide is a stop sign that has been “vandalized” to read “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which is the title of an iconic song by the band Journey. Hopefully, this draws a chuckle from some participants. The slide is placed in the deck intentionally to follow an activity that has required a lot of introspection and mental energy. It is intended to lighten the mood.
Assessment: Storytelling/Digital Story (Barkley & Major, 2016, pp. 303-311)
In the storytelling workshop, I use an activity/assessment called “Origin Story.” Learners use the “re-introduction” statement from above as the start of their origin story and reflect on why they care about what they care about or advocate for the thing they are an advocate for. They then work on a relevance statement, a statement that ties the re-introduction statement and the “Why?” statement together. That’s their origin story. Like Barkley & Major’s Digital Story, this assessment involves multiple levels of reflection including making sense and making meaning.
References
Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2016). Learning assessment techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Tate, M. L. (2012). “Sit and Get” won’t grow dendrites: 20 professional learning strategies that engage the adult brain. (2nd Ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.