Images In Textbooks Research Articles

Integration of Stereoscopic 3D Images in Primary School Textbooks

This research aims to determine 1) the possibility of integrating stereoscopic 3D images into textbooks as the medium giving material illustrations, and 2) the effect of using textbooks integrated with stereoscopic 3D images on the learning process. This research was conducted through a quasi-experiment in primary schools by using control class and experimental class. This research was joined by 52 participants (26 students in control class and 26 students in experimental class). The research conclusions indicate that, 1) stereoscopic 3D images can be integrated into textbooks as illustrations increasing the primary school students’ perception about classroom activities (i.e., motivation, interest, challenge and excitement). and 2) textbooks integrated with stereoscopic 3D images are proven effective in improving the students' concept mastery, as seen from the independent sample t-test by using SPSS resulting in a probability (p) value of 0.000 with a significance level of 0.05 so that p < 0, 05.

Images in Educational Textbooks and Educational Audiovisual Media

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Formally equal, but not really: The second stage of an ongoing study into English school students’ perceptions of ‘the citizen’

Abstract This article presents a discussion based primarily upon the findings of the second stage of an ongoing research into school students’ perceptions of ‘the citizen’. The first stage was an analysis of images in textbooks intended for GCSE citizenship studies students aged 14–16, the second stage – a year later – involved interviews with A Level citizenship studies students aged 16–18 and with teachers of citizenship. It was found that the images present a particular and unrepresentative image of ‘being British’, a part of which students appear to absorb into their own perceptions, irrespective of their personal experiences. The homogeneity of responses, across class, ethnicity, gender and professional role struck the researcher as notable and similarities and differences are examined. The images represent a highly selective and distorted version of the reality of being English, one that promotes a false consciousness and acceptance of the status quo, uncovering whether or to what extent that version of reality is accepted by those involved is the purpose of this study. Responses in interviews showed that neither the students nor their teachers subscribed to the message behind the images, and that they had their own versions of the reality of ‘the citizen’.

Representations of race and skin tone in medical textbook imagery

Although a large literature has documented racial inequities in health care delivery, there continues to be debate about the potential sources of these inequities. Preliminary research suggests that racial inequities are embedded in the curricular edification of physicians and patients. We investigate this hypothesis by considering whether the race and skin tone depicted in images in textbooks assigned at top medical schools reflects the diversity of the U.S. population. We analyzed 4146 images from Atlas of Human Anatomy, Bates' Guide to Physical Examination & History Taking, Clinically Oriented Anatomy, and Gray's Anatomy for Students by coding race (White, Black, and Person of Color) and skin tone (light, medium, and dark) at the textbook, chapter, and topic level. While the textbooks approximate the racial distribution of the U.S. population - 62.5% White, 20.4% Black, and 17.0% Person of Color - the skin tones represented - 74.5% light, 21% medium, and 4.5% dark - overrepresent light skin tone and underrepresent dark skin tone. There is also an absence of skin tone diversity at the chapter and topic level. Even though medical texts often have overall proportional racial representation this is not the case for skin tone. Furthermore, racial minorities are still often absent at the topic level. These omissions may provide one route through which bias enters medical treatment.

The Influence of the Illustrations on the Understanding of the Hebrew Written Text in the Elementary School in the Arab Sector in Israel

This article examines the impact of illustrations and images in the Hebrew textbooks on the students’ understanding of the texts, and the extent of using details out of these illustrations in the process of understanding of the written text, furthermore, their impact on developing imagination and discussions on the basis of these drawings within class. The Arab students begin to learn Hebrew in the third grade, after spending the last two first years in studying their native language, a process which involves great efforts, for the gap between the Arab spoken language and the literary one is great. By the time the students begin to learn Hebrew as a second language, most teachers use a variety of illustrative tools in order to demonstrate tasks and material. The use of images to describe words is the first stage, then using of illustration to present the text’s subject, becomes the next phase. In this phase, the illustrations mediate between the student and the textbook, replacing the role of words and enable the students, who are not capable of using the Hebrew language quite good yet, to learn the new words. This study examines the relation between illustrations and textbooks through Hebrew class observations and interviewing of the students in the third and fourth grades in the “Terra Santa School” at Acre.

Determination of Secondary Students’ Preferences Regarding Design Features Used in Digital Textbooks

The aim of this study was to determine secondary school students’ choice of design features for digital textbooks. As a part of the research—which was conducted using a mixed technique—a literature review was carried out to source points to consider in the designing of digital textbooks and experts’ opinions were obtained. Based on the results, an 88-question survey was then developed to elicit the preferences of secondary school students with regard to design features for digital textbooks. Also, in this study, three digital textbooks with different design features—but with the same content—were developed to be used by the students. The students were then informed about digital textbook technology by researchers and the digital textbooks were made available to them. Finally, the survey was administered in four separate sessions, and the results were revealed by analysis of the data collected. The findings showed that students wanted digital books with a front, back and bookplate. They took the view that elements for transitions between pages were necessary along with the table of contents, index, glossary and search tools. Students also expressed a desire for images in digital textbooks, especially three-dimensional lifelike drawings, videos and animations.

What Images Reveal: a Comparative Study of Science Images between Australian and Taiwanese Junior High School Textbooks

From a social semiotic perspective, image designs in science textbooks are inevitably influenced by the sociocultural context in which the books are produced. The learning environments of Australia and Taiwan vary greatly. Drawing on social semiotics and cognitive science, this study compares classificational images in Australian and Taiwanese junior high school science textbooks. Classificational images are important kinds of images, which can represent taxonomic relations among objects as reported by Kress and van Leeuwen (Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2006). An analysis of the images from sample chapters in Australian and Taiwanese high school science textbooks showed that the majority of the Taiwanese images are covert taxonomies, which represent hierarchical relations implicitly. In contrast, Australian classificational images included diversified designs, but particularly types with a tree structure which depicted overt taxonomies, explicitly representing hierarchical super-ordinate and subordinate relations. Many of the Taiwanese images are reminiscent of the specimen images in eighteenth century science texts representing “what truly is”, while more Australian images emphasize structural objectivity. Moreover, Australian images support cognitive functions which facilitate reading comprehension. The relationships between image designs and learning environments are discussed and implications for textbook research and design are addressed.

Holding up half the sky? The continuity and change of visual gender representation in elementary language textbooks in post-Mao China

This article examines visual gender representation in school textbooks in post-Mao China. I conducted a visual content analysis of 1800 characters in two sets of elementary language textbooks used during the 1980s and the 2000s. Findings revealed male-dominant patterns regarding illustration type, gender presence, real-life characters, and occupational roles in the two sets of textbooks examined. Close scrutiny suggested that women were subject to more severe under-representation than girls. Regarding the change in gender images in the new textbooks, children were much less involved in productive and military activities and were more frequently depicted as engaged in apolitical settings, indicating de-politicization of the young in the new era. Only real-life male characters and men’s occupational roles displayed a trend of downplaying the revolutionary proletarian class and emphasis on the intellectual elites in the recent textbooks. Social change was not saliently reflected by women’s images in the textbooks investigated.

A Social Semiotic Analysis of Social Actors in English-Learning Software Applications

This study drew upon Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006, [1996]) visual grammar and Van Leeuwen’s (2008) social semiotic model to interrogate ways through which social actors of different races are visually and textually represented in four award-winning English-learning software packages. The analysis was based on narrative actional/reactional processes at the ideational level; mood, perspective, social distance, and modality at the interpersonal level; and salience, framing, and vector at the compositional level. The findings revealed that although contemporary multimodal texts have tried to be unbiased and neutral in the verbal mode, there are still traces of discrimination, bias, and stereotyping in the visual mode. The results of this research can be of potential help and use for researchers, pedagogues, material developers, software designers, teachers , and students to become visually literate and get aware of the hidden messages that can be communicated by images in textbooks and multimedia.

Comic heroes or saviours? Constructing alternative identities in a social critical approach to the teaching of English as a foreign language.

Current educational systems primarily focus on the verbal and logico-mathematical aptitude of students, thus neglecting the cultivation of visual literacy and critical literacy skills, although the ubiquity of images in school textbooks necessitates the inclusion of a ‘visual grammar’ metalanguage in educational practices. The aim of the present paper is to present and analyse how a group of eighteen sixth grade students of an EFL classroom in a state primary school in Thessaloniki managed to ‘deconstruct’ the depiction of superheroes/heroines in comic books or action movies, in an effort to represent them in a more humane and mundane way, where their super powers are summoned to the advantage of a society in need. The overall organization of the instructional intervention is built on an introductory phase, a main phase and a follow-up phase. The analysis of the students’ compositions relies on the application of the principles of critical visual literacy and the results display that through the process of scaffolding, the students can reject dominant representations of power and reconstruct cliché identities by re-exploring pre-existing roles. The end result, that is the classroom calendar compiled by twelve multimodal texts, manifests the students’ skilful utilization of both visual and verbal semiotic resources in a balanced way, with a view to transmitting their social messages taking into account the broader social, cultural and political context within which power relations and social roles constantly evolve and are constructed.

Analysis of the Role of Sport in the Management Textbook: A Study of Sports Images in Organizational Behavious Textbooks from 1992 to 2011

Analysis of the Role of Sport in the Management Textbook: A Study of Sports Images in Organizational Behavious Textbooks from 1992 to 2011

Do Our Books Reinforce Criminal Justice Stereotypes? An Analysis of the Images in Introductory Criminal Justice Textbooks

Over the past 30 years, there has been much attention placed on the content within introductory textbooks in fields, such as education, sociology, economics, psychology, and criminal justice. Within the field of criminal justice, a surplus of information has been gathered through analysis of the text found within introductory textbooks. There has been much less emphasis, however, on the potential for stereotypical images found within the pictures of criminal justice textbooks. This study builds on the diminutive literature on the images in criminal justice textbooks. We examined the pictures in 22 introductory criminal justice textbooks over a 17-year period to determine the percentages of men, women, minorities, and other groups that comprise these pictures. We find that white males dominate the images of criminal justice personnel in these textbooks, and that minorities are more likely to be portrayed as criminals than as criminal justice employees.

Justifying molecular images in cell biology textbooks: From constructions to primary data

For scientific claims to be reliable and productive they have to be justified. However, on the one hand little is known on what justification precisely means to scientists, and on the other the position held by philosophers of science on what it entails is rather limited; for justifications customarily refer to the written form (textual expressions) of scientific claims, leaving aside images, which, as many cases from the history of science show are relevant to this process.The fact that images can visually express scientific claims independently from text, plus their vast variety and origins, requires an assessment of the way they are currently justified and in turn used as sources to justify scientific claims in the case of particular scientific fields. Similarly, in view of the different nature of images, analysis is required to determine on what side of the philosophical distinction between data and phenomena these different kinds of images fall.This paper historicizes and documents a particular aspect of contemporary life sciences research: the use of the molecular image as vehicle of knowledge production in cell studies, a field that has undergone a significant shift in visual expressions from the early 1980s onwards. Focussing on textbooks as sources that have been overlooked in the historiography of contemporary biomedicine, the aim is to explore (1) whether the shift of cell studies, entailing a superseding of the optical image traditionally conceptualised as primary data, by the molecular image, corresponds with a shift of justificatory practices, and (2) to assess the role of the molecular image as primary data. This paper also explores the dual role of images as teaching resources and as resources for the construction of knowledge in cell studies especially in its relation to discovery and justification. Finally, this paper seeks to stimulate reflection on what kind of archival resources could benefit the work of present and future epistemic historians in particular those interested on the role of images as sources of training and knowledge production in scientific disciplines.

Infusing multiliteracies into English language curriculum: The visual construction of knowledge in English textbooks from an ontogenetic perspective

Addressing the need for multiliteracies in language education, this paper investigates the visual construction of knowledge in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks in Hong Kong and develops a social semiotic framework for infusing the senior primary (P4–6) and the secondary (S1–4) English language curricula with multiliteracies. By explicating the ontogenetic change of the representational meaning of visual images in textbooks, we find that textbook illustrations change from narrative to conceptual representations in terms of process, from specific to generic in terms of participant, and from local to global in terms of settings. The changes in image structure are found consistent with the change of text type from narrating to expounding, in accordance with students’ cognitive abilities. Such ontogenetic change contributes to the change of knowledge domain from the concrete and commonsensical in early years of schooling, to the abstract and uncommonsensical in later years of schooling.

AS FOTOGRAFIAS HISTÓRICAS COMO DISPOSITIVOS DISCIPLINARES: O PODER SOBRE A FALA DO OUTRO EM UM CONTEXTO ESCOLAR

This article will refer to Michel Foucault’s ideas to analyze the appropriation of historic images in schoolar textbooks. At first, we discuss what are the conditions of production of the photographic image itself, which, not infrequently, units strategies of power with strategies of seeing and acting. Then, we will talk about the production conditions of the reappropriation of these images produced when they are reinserted in scholar textbooks and in other discursive contexts. In this respect, Foucault's ideas provide educational tools that increase students' knowledge problematizing the construction of knowledge.

Iniciación a la investigación educativa con estudiantes de secundaria: el papel de las ilustraciones en los libros de texto de ciencias

Se presenta una innovación educativa consistente en introducir a estudiantes de Educación Secundaria en los rudimentos de la investigación científica. Inserto en un Proyecto más global, en el que participan diversas instituciones educativas, se describe aquí el proceso seguido en el desarrollo de una investigación ofertada sobre las ilustraciones de los libros de texto de ciencias. Los estudiantes, que la eligieron libremente, se reúnen periódicamente con los responsables de aquella para conocer sus objetivos y colaborar en la toma de datos, su análisis y en la elaboración de las conclusiones finales. Asimismo se valora la investigación llevada a cabo y se proponen líneas de mejora en el uso de las ilustraciones en la enseñanza. Los resultados finales son presentados en un Congreso en el que se muestran los de todos los proyectos elaborados.

Examination of visuals about the particulate nature of matter in Turkish middle school science textbooks

Textbooks are one of the primary teaching tools frequently used in schools and most teachers use them in their classrooms (Sanchez and Valcarcel, 1999). Since there are a lot of abstract concepts in science education, images in science textbooks play a vital role in the learning process (Kenanet al., 2011). Concretization of abstract concepts may ease students' understanding. For this reason, the aim of this study was to examine images about the particulate nature of matter (PNM) in Turkish middle school science textbooks. In other words, visuals were examined with respect to representational levels, relatedness to text, existence and properties of the captions. The rubric developed by Gkitziaet al.(2011) was used to evaluate the images from middle school science textbooks in selected units. A total of 825 images in Turkish middle school science textbooks were identified in related units. In addition, it was found that the most common representation type of images about the PNM in Turkish middle school science textbooks were macroscopic representations (36%). The relatedness of images to the text was also studied. It was concluded that just 4 out of 10 images were completely related and linked to the text. Lastly, it was found that more than half of the images about the PNM in Turkish middle school science textbooks had no caption.

A Visual Analysis of a Malaysian English School Textbook: Gender Matters

In the Malaysian education system, attention is highly paid on reading words. Visual images are often treated as “decoration”, or are dismissed altogether (Kress & Leeuwen, 1996). Many local researchers (Saedah 1990, Bahiyah et al., 2008) have only analysed written texts to see how social practices deemed negative such as gender biasness are reflected in the words (lexical items) and linguistic structures. Currently, no systematic research has been undertaken in Malaysia to analyse visual images in English language school textbooks to study how visual images can reflect gender biasness. This research project addresses gender biasness found in visual images in school textbooks, i.e., the treatment of one gender over the other especially of women and girls. The project adopts three widely used approaches for analyzing visual images; content, socio semiotic and ethno-methodology analyses. This paper will however highlight its preliminary analysis focusing on image analysis based on participation, gender and representational meanings. Its aim is to identify the types of images and the representation of gender biasness and stereotyping found in the textbook. The preliminary findings should expose the sexism and gender biasness in the visual images of a sampled textbook; i.e. an English school textbook that is abound with visual images that sometimes, more so than written texts, can articulate more forcefully social and cultural meanings.

A Visual Analysis of a Malaysian English School Textbook: Gender Matters

In the Malaysian education system, attention is highly paid on reading words. Visual images are often treated as “decoration”, or are dismissed altogether (Kress & Leeuwen, 1996). Many local researchers (Saedah 1990, Bahiyah et al., 2008) have only analysed written texts to see how social practices deemed negative such as gender biasness are reflected in the words (lexical items) and linguistic structures. Currently, no systematic research has been undertaken in Malaysia to analyse visual images in English language school textbooks to study how visual images can reflect gender biasness. This research project addresses gender biasness found in visual images in school textbooks, i.e., the treatment of one gender over the other especially of women and girls. The project adopts three widely used approaches for analyzing visual images; content, socio semiotic and ethno-methodology analyses. This paper will however highlight its preliminary analysis focusing on image analysis based on participation, gender and representational meanings. Its aim is to identify the types of images and the representation of gender biasness and stereotyping found in the textbook. The preliminary findings should expose the sexism and gender biasness in the visual images of a sampled textbook; i.e. an English school textbook that is abound with visual images that sometimes, more so than written texts, can articulate more forcefully social and cultural meanings.

고등학교 과학 교과서 인공위성 해수면온도 영상 오류 분석과 예비교사들의 반응

해수면온도는 급변하는 기후를 이해하는 가장 중요한 해양 변수 중의 하나이므로 과학 교과서에는 정확하고 오류없는 해수면온도 영상이 제시되어야 한다. 그러나 고등학교 교과서에 제시된 해수면온도 영상들은 다양한 원인에서 비롯된 많은 오류들을 가지고 있었다. 본 연구는 제 7차 교육과정에 근거한 24종의 고등학교 과학 교과서, 지구과학 I, 지구과학 II 교과서의 36개의 인공위성 해수면온도 영상을 17개 항목에 대하여 분석하였다. 해수면온도 영상 처리 과정에서 생긴 구름 제거, 육지 마스킹, 색상표, 위치 정보, 시간 표시와 관련된 오류와 인공위성에 대한 기본적인 표현 오류를 조사하였다. 예비교사 25명에게 문제가 있는 대표적인 인공위성 영상들을 제시하고 설문을 실시하고 반응을 분석하였다. 그 결과 대부분의 예비교사들은 해수면온도 영상 처리 과정에서 발생할 수 있는 오류에 대하여 인지하지 못하였으며, 해빙, 강수 유입, 한류와 같은 실제 해양현상과 연관지어 해수면온도를 이해하려는 경향을 보였다. 따라서 교과서 해수면온도 영상은 본 연구에서 제시한 세부 항목들을 고려하여 정확하게 처리되어야 한다. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is one of the most important oceanic variables to understand rapidly-changing climate, so that accurate and error-free SST images should be presented in school science textbooks. However, satelliteobserved SST images in the high-school textbooks presented some errors caused by various reasons. This study analyzed 36 satellite images for SST presented in 24 kinds of high-school textbooks (earth science I and II textbooks on the basis of the 7th National Curriculum) for 17 items. This study investigated errors in image processing such as cloud removal, land masking, color bar, geological and time information, and some erroneous expressions related to the fundamental information of satellites. Twenty five pre-service teachers filled out a survey about several problematic satellite images, and their responses were analyzed. As a result, most of the pre-service teachers did not recognize the errors associated with image processing and tended to comprehend the SST errors as real oceanographic phenomena such as sea ice, river outflow, or cold current. Therefore, satellite SST images in the textbooks should be accurately presented by including detailed items suggested in this study.