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Learning Theory and Concepts

Visual Literacy

Foundational and Developmental Learning Concepts

Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate and make meaning from information presented as an image, extending the idea of literacy beyond the interpretation of written or printed text. It rests on the premise that a picture can be read in something like the way text is read, with meaning discovered through a deliberate process of visual interpretation rather than simply absorbed at a glance.

Facts
Core Claim
Visual literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. 1
Origin Year
1969 1
Sources
1. Visual literacy (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Modern visual literacy section, Debes 1969 definition
    Visual literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences.
  • Modern visual literacy section, John Debes attribution
    the term it is usually credited to John Debes, co-founder of the International Visual Literacy Association. In 1969 Debes offered a tentative definition of the concept
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