Visual learning is a proven method in which ideas, concepts, data and other information are associated with images and represented graphically. Visual learning helps students improve academic performance and achieve success across the curriculum.
Learning to think. Learning to learn. These are the essential skills for student success in every curriculum area and academic pursuit. Research in both educational theory and cognitive psychology tells us that visual learning is among the very best methods for teaching students of all ages how to think and how to learn.
Our award-winning software tools, Inspiration®, Kidspiration® and InspireData™, the latest addition to the Inspiration Software® family, are based on proven visual learning methodologies that help students think, learn and achieve.
With the powerful combination of visual learning and technology, students in grades K-12 learn to clarify thoughts, organize and analyze information, integrate new knowledge and think critically.
Visual learning techniques help students:
Clarify thoughts
Students see how ideas are connected and realize how information can be grouped and organized. With visual learning, new concepts are more thoroughly and easily understood when they are linked to prior knowledge.
Organize and analyze information
Students can use diagrams and plots to display large amounts of information in ways that are easy to understand and help reveal relationships and patterns.
Integrate new knowledge
According to research, students better remember information when it's represented and learned both visually and verbally.
Think critically
Linked verbal and visual information helps students make connections, understand relationships and recall related details.
Click here for a list of suggested readings about visual learning.
Visual learning is a proven method in which ideas, concepts, data and other information are associated with images and represented graphically. Webs, concept maps, idea maps and plots, such as stack plots and Venn plots, are some of the techniques used in visual learning to enhance thinking and learning skills.
Using Inspiration and Kidspiration, students create graphic organizers and outlines as they brainstorm ideas, organize information, gather research, make visual associations and identify connections.
Using InspireData, students build data literacy as they collect and explore information in a dynamic inquiry process, using integrated tables and plots to visually investigate, manipulate and analyze data.
Learn more about data literacy.
Learn more about the power of visual learning and see examples of techniques in Inspiration, InspireData and Kidspiration.
Scientifically based research on graphic organizers
Visual learning improves performance
Research to support the use of specific teaching and learning techniques has long been a key part of every educator's decision-making process. Now, with the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act, and its new requirements for research-based curriculum and products, research support is more critical than ever.
Visual learning techniques are used widely in schools across the country to accomplish curriculum goals and improve student performance. The Institute for the Advancement of Research in Education (IARE) at AEL has completed a research study entitled Graphic Organizers: A Review of Scientifically Based Research. In the report, twenty-nine studies were identified and evaluated as scientifically based research (SBR). The studies provided evidence in support of the instructional effectiveness of the use of visual learning techniques.
Scientifically based research cited in the literature review demonstrates that a research base exists to support the use of visual learning techniques for improving student learning and performance in the following areas:
The study also describes how visual learning supports implementation of cognitive learning theories: dual coding theory, schema theory and cognitive load theory.
Click here to download an executive summary of the report.
Click here to download a detailed summary of the report.
Request a complete copy of the 44 page report by sending an email to research@inspiration.com.