Visualisation
Visualisation is the forming or recall of mental images or pictures. It is a personal reaction to a picture or other graphic which is an externalisation of a concept or idea, bringing it more clearly into consciousness. It can also include images of sound, movement, touch, taste and smell. Images can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Visualisation can be static (as in a still picture) or dynamic (as in moving pictures or animations). Visualisation can stimulate more abstract, symbolical thinking, helping children to construct meaning for themselves as well as share their ideas with others and across contexts.
Visualisation involves developing competency with spatial interpretations, orientations and relations. Generally, images might be easier to perceive and memorise than linear text, but some children will be better at understanding the latter. However, visualisation can lead to illusory understanding.
Pictures can:
- engage the mind
- bring something more clearly into consciousness
- focus attention
- assist with the formation of ideas
- be a visual representation of a thought or idea,
- allow ideas to be re-contextualized, revisited and revised
- mediate between a child’s spontaneous concept and scientific concept and move them to higher levels of thinking
- bridge the gap between perception-bound thinking and more abstract, symbolic thinking
- allow children to work at a metacognitive level
- support the meta-visual capabilities that have been identified as being critical to scientific understanding, and
- produce an external representation of a thought or idea so that it is possible to interact with the idea at both an interpersonal and intrapersonal level.
Visualisation: Reviews of Research Evidence