The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

'November, 1943 Page 331 Visual Instruction in Elementary Schools WHEN we speak of visual instruction or visual education, we mean more than is usually im- plied in the term "visual." More and more common is the use of broader terms such as "audio- visual," "visual-sensory" or just "sensory aids." One leader in our field has proposed the excellent term, "perpetual learning," but so far it is not widely em- ployed. However, whatever the term, all educators recognize the value of the various aids which vitalize a unit of study and make it a concrete experience. The conventional and conveniently brief term, "visual aids." should always be understood as meaning more than those aids which utilize the sense of sight alone. Concrete Experience in Learning Generally .speaking, elementary principals and teach- ers recognize the need for concrete experience in learning, and utilize all available aids to a much greater extent than do most junior high school, high school, or college teachers. This is probably as it should be since by high school and college age, the mentally unsuited have usually been somewhat weeded out of straight academic classes. After youngsters have broadened their life experiences through contacts in the home, the community and to some extent the world, by travel and reading, they are more able to read meaning into the abstract, printed page. But fre- quently, we might add, too much of this ability is taken for granted by high school and college teachers. If you doubt this, read some of the results of experiments with college and high .school .students in re-stating single paragraphs which they have been asked to read. It would be very funny if it were not so pathetic. However, these older students are not our problem just now. We want to consider here what we can do to solve some of the most common problems in a vis- ual-sensory program in the average elementary school. Tjrpes of Aids The various types of aids are familiar to all—the direct observation types, such as the field trip or school journey: the less concrete, since not in the natural liabitat, but still for direct observation such as speci- mens, exhibits, and models; the representation of actual objects by means of motion or still pictures; the abstract aids such as graphs, maps, posters and cartoons; the ear-compelling aids such as radio and recordings; and various other aids such as puppets, dramatization and the like. .All are important, and all have their place in a well-rounded jirogram. Xo one is a cure-all and no one can take the place of the others. Practical Problems Let us consider some of the practical problems which confront every principal or supervisor in a successful program of visual-sensory aids to learning. Some problems are more in evidence in certain schools than are the others, but if vour school does not have to con- Exposition by an expert of the responsibil- ity of elementary schools for promoting the wider and better use of all perceptual aids. LELIA TROLINGER Director, Bureau of Visual Instruction University of Colorado, Boulder sider one or more of the following questions, you are lucky: a—How can we finance a satisfactory audio-visual program ? b—What is our best source of aids? c—How can we best integrate the aids into the cur- riculum ? d—How can we train our teachers to use the aids effectively ? e—How can we enlist the support of the community in our program? f—How can we evaluate our program to determine if it is actually successful? No outsider can give a full answer to any of these questions for any school. Conditions vary greatly and local situations may complicate certain phases of any question. We can merely offer suggestions which other teachers and principals have found helpful. Financing the Program One of the first things that every teacher or princi- pal says when a new program of this type is proposed is, "How can we finance it?" The reply to that has to be relative. How extensive a program do you plan ? How much equipment do you already have in the school? Incidentally, the top shelves of the closets in classrooms or offices may disclose equipment that no one suspected. Are you starting a full program at first 9r do you plan to build it gradually? If gradu- ally, what types of equipment do you want first? For example, one school may find that a motion picture projector is the first need to be filled; another may feel that a lantern slide projector, or an opaque pro- jector for magazine illustrations or prints, is its great- est need; or still another may feel that a playback unit for recordings will give the greatest service to the greatest number. Theoretically, all equipment should be provided by the school board, just as library books, maps, chalk and erasers are supplied. In making the actual start, it is sometimes difficult to make a school board or su- perintendent see the light. Oftener it is easier to con- vince the P.T.A. that a projector is badly needed and to induce that group to buy or help to buy it. How- ever, many types of aids cost practically nothing ex- cept time and work, and it becomes merely a question of organization to collect pictures, post cards, school museum specimens, exhibits, et cetera; or to perfect the technique of school journeys. Many of our finest aids lie just outside our schoolroom windows, and are ours for the taking. The goal to be aimed at in financing an audio-visual program is a definite appropriation by the school board