WHY USE VISUAL AIDS?

Research has shown that most students learn more by seeing and listening than by listening alone. Imagine trying to learn about keeping cattle if, like some Solomon Islanders, you have not seen a cow. The best “visual aid” would be a cow itself. The next best would be pictures and diagrams.

If the topic is not one you can “see” in reality or through pictures, another form of visual aid is the use of the blackboard. A blackboard summary will give visual reinforcement to a lecture.

There are, therefore, a number of kinds of visual aids.

1. Real objects e.g. a cow; a coconut; a woodwork joint; a shirt. This may, in some cases, mean going outside the classroom.

2. Printed pictures, diagrams or posters e.g. picture or photograph of a rice plant or bee-hive or a poster on the conservation of coral.

3. Drawn pictures or diagrams which you draw yourself on large sheets of paper – usually called wall charts

4. Blackboard pictures and diagrams.

5. Blackboard notes are not strictly visual aids, but do provide something for the eye to look at.

6. Handouts containing pictures and diagrams

We will look at each of these in more detail

1. Real objects

These are often the most satisfactory visual aids of all, but they may need to be supplemented with diagrams. To look at a cow, a woodwork joint or a sewing machine is very useful, but you cannot always see the inner workings of the object e.g. the digestive system of the cow; how the thread goes through the machines, so diagrams may help. Sometimes a machine can be taken apart, or a joint be made specially so that it can be taken apart, but a diagram still helps the memory.

Real objects can also be used for observation and experiment, as we saw with soils.

2. Printed pictures, diagrams or posters

Pictures or diagrams can be coped from books or magazines. Posters can sometimes be picked up from government offices or found by writing to organisations that supply posters.

Points to remember:

• May not be exactly the picture you want.

• Don’t use them unless they really help your teaching.

• But may be used to decorate the classroom.

Advantages:

• Professionally made and may show the real thing.

Disadvantages:

• Less flexible than your own diagrams, which you can draw to suit your own teaching.

3. Wall charts

Drawn on large, plain paper using marking pens. Can include diagrams, sketches, flow diagrams, graphs, tables of statistics, written tables etc.

Flip charts are a series of charts which can be ‘flipped’ over, one after the other, to show stages in your explanation.

Points to remember:

• Make them as clear and simple as possible.

• Put only essential and useful information.

• Writing big enough to be clearly seen at the back.

• Use colours.

Advantages

• Can be drawn to suit your specific needs.

• Can be kept permanently for other lessons.

Disadvantages

• Cannot be built up in stages as you teach like a blackboard diagram.

1. Blackboard pictures and diagrams

Can be drawn in advance of a session, but usually best to draw as you explain a topic, building up a picture in stages.

Things to remember:

• Make them simple.

• Show only necessary information.

• Make them neat.

• Use coloured chalks.

• Write big enough to be seen at back.

Advantages:

• Can be built up as you talk.

• Easier to draw.

• Can be changed easily.

Disadvantages;

• May take too much time during a lesson to draw complicated diagram.

• Cannot be kept for further use.

2. Blackboard notes

We will discuss the language and content of blackboard notes in Unit A10.

Two kinds of notes:

• Quick notes written as you teach, not to be copied.

• Summaries to be copied by students.

Things to remember:

• Usually better built up as you teach rather than being written all at once.

• Never ask students to copy notes until you have explained them.

• Write neat and clear and big enough to be seen at back.

• To prevent writing from sloping, face the blackboard and move along as you write. Never try to write while half facing the students.

• Layout of blackboard is important. Divide into sections with vertical lines before you start.

• Use headings, sub-headings, and numbering as for handouts.

• Use coloured chalks.

• You may divide blackboard between half for quick notes and half for summary to be copied.

• Plan summary notes, including layout, before the session.

• Give students time to copy.

• Best to copy summary in stages, not all at end of lesson.

Advantages:

• Can be built up as you talk, making lesson clearer.

• Can use students’ own words.

Disadvantages:

• May not be as neat or attractive as posters or charts.

• Cannot be kept for future use.