It has already been proven that a person remembers only 20% of what he hears and 30% of what he sees. But if vision and hearing are simultaneously involved in the perception of new information, the material is assimilated by 50%. Educators have known this for a long time. The first visual aids were created even before our era and were used in the schools of Ancient Egypt, China, Rome, Greece. In the modern world, they do not lose their significance. On the contrary, with the development of technology, teachers have excellent opportunities to demonstrate to children those objects and phenomena that cannot be seen in real life.
Definition
Visibility is a term with two meanings. In ordinary life, a word is understood as the ability of an object or phenomenon to be easily perceived with the help of the senses or logic, its clarity and comprehensibility. In pedagogy, visibility is understood as a special principle of learning, which is based on the display of objects, phenomena, processes.
Sensory cognition helps the child formprimary ideas about the environment. Own feelings remain in memory and lead to the emergence of mental images that can be manipulated in the mind, compared, generalized, highlight the main features.
Knowledge process
A person cannot recreate in his imagination those objects that he did not perceive directly. Any fantasy involves operating with familiar elements that can be combined into bizarre configurations. Thus, two types of knowledge are distinguished:
- directly sensory, when a person explores a real object with the help of his senses;
- indirect, when an object or phenomenon cannot be seen or felt.
Visibility is a necessary condition for learning in both the first and second cases. With indirect cognition, the following are used as a support:
- devices that allow you to observe areas inaccessible to sensory perception;
- photos, audio recordings, films with which you can travel back in time or to another part of the globe;
- experiments demonstrating the effect of the phenomenon under study on other objects;
- modelling, when real relationships are displayed using abstract symbols.
Used terms
Before we go further, let's deal with the terms that are actively used in pedagogy and need to be distinguished. There are three in total:
- Visibility tool -These are the ways in which the teacher demonstrates the object of knowledge to students. This includes observing nature, looking at pictures in a textbook, showing films or experiments, and even spontaneously drawing on the blackboard.
- Visual aid - a narrower term, which means a planar or volumetric display of the objects under study, created for pedagogical purposes. These can be tables, diagrams, models, dummies, filmstrips, didactic cards, etc.
- The principle of visibility is understood as a special organization of the educational process, when specific sensory objects serve as the basis for the formation of abstract representations.
Performed functions
Visibility is a learning principle that allows you to:
- recreate the essence of the phenomenon and its relationships, proving theoretical positions;
- activate analyzers and mental processes associated with perception, thanks to which an empirical base is formed for subsequent analytical activities;
- increase interest in the material being studied;
- to form a visual and auditory culture in children;
- receive feedback from students in the form of questions on which the movement of their thoughts becomes clear.
Research history
Visibility in education has been used since ancient times, but its theoretical foundations began to be studied only in the 17th century. The Czech educator Ya. A. Comenius considered sensory cognition to be the "golden rule" in teaching. Impossible without itdevelopment of the mind, the child memorizes the material without understanding it. It is very important to use different senses so that children perceive the world in all its diversity.
Pestalozzi attached great importance to clarity. In his opinion, in the classroom, children should perform a certain sequence of exercises to observe the surrounding objects and, on this basis, learn about reality. J. Rousseau suggested teaching the child in nature so that he could directly see the phenomena occurring in it.
Ushinsky gave a deep psychological justification for visual methods. In his opinion, the aids used are a means that activates the child's thinking and contributes to the formation of a sensual image. It is especially important to use visualization at the initial stages of learning, because thanks to this, children develop analytical skills, improve oral speech, and remember the material more firmly.
Classification
Visibility, which is used in teaching various subjects, has its own characteristics. Nevertheless, there are also generalized classifications in pedagogy.
So, Ilyina T. A. identifies the following types of visibility:
- Natural objects that occur in objective reality (for example, living plants in the study of biology or a vase as a nature in a drawing class).
- Experimental visibility (demonstration of experiments, experiments).
- Volumetric aids (layouts, dummies, geometric bodies, etc.)e.).
- Descriptive clarity (photos, drawings).
- Sound materials (audio recordings).
- Symbolic and graphic objects (diagrams, posters, tables, maps, formulas, graphs).
- Internal visibility (images that students must present based on vivid descriptions of the teacher or from their own experience).
In modern conditions, two more types of aids can be distinguished: screen (filmstrips, movies, educational cartoons) and computer. With their help, you can see the processes in dynamics, receive information via two channels at once (visual and auditory). Computer technology allows you to enter into a dialogue with the program, check how well the material is understood, get additional explanations if the student has difficulties.
Application requirements
The principle of visibility has always been and will remain the leading one in pedagogy. In order for it to benefit students, a number of requirements must be met:
- Everything that can be known through sensory sensations should be provided to students for research using various analyzers (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell).
- The amount of benefits should not be excessive, otherwise children's attention is scattered.
- The visualization used is designed to solve the problems of the lesson, to help students identify the essential features of the object being studied. It is a means, not an end.
- Manuals should be used not only as an illustration of a teacher's story, but also as a source of self-acquired knowledge. It is welcome to create problem situations when schoolchildren are involved in research activities, independently identify patterns.
- The older the children, the more often symbolic visualization is used in the lessons.
- It is important to find the right time and place to apply certain benefits, rationally combine visual and verbal methods.
Zankov's research
Psychologist L. V. Zankov considered it necessary to rely on the senses when building a learning system. In his opinion, this provides the necessary connection between theoretical knowledge and reality. He considered the use of visualization in the classroom and its combination with verbal teaching methods.
As a result, the following options were identified:
- Students, under the guidance of a teacher, conduct observations and, on its basis, draw conclusions about the properties of objects and their relationships.
- The teacher organizes observation, and then helps the children to independently comprehend those connections that cannot be seen or touched.
- The teacher presents the material, confirming or illustrating his words with the help of visualization.
- First, an observation is made, and then the teacher summarizes the data obtained, explains the hidden causes of the phenomenon, draws conclusions.
Do-it-yourself benefits
Many types of visualization - posters, drawings, handouts, diagrams, tables, slides, models, etc. can be made by the children themselves. Such work allows you to deeply assimilate the material, creativelyrecycle it. Making visual aids can become homework or a research project.
Children first study the material, then transform it according to their own abilities. At this stage, you can make several sketches in order to choose the best one later. It is important to create an atmosphere of cooperation in the classroom, when all work is carried out at ease and you can turn to an adult for help at any time. Ready-made manuals are demonstrated and defended in front of the whole class, and then used in educational activities.
Visibility is the foundation for the formation of abstract thinking, but it must be treated consciously. Otherwise, you can lead your students aside, forgetting about the real goal and replacing it with a bright tool.
