‘Photo-words’: promoting language skills using photographs

Abstract

This study, using a mixed methods design, examined the use of a photograph-based model to improve students’ language and writing skills. Classes were assigned to receive the photograph-based intervention (experimental) or to receive the regular language-based curriculum (control). Both second and fifth grade students in the experimental group significantly improved their language and writing skills compared to the control group. Second grade students improved significantly more than fifth grade students. The findings also enabled the research team to identify deficiencies that required specific modifications in language curriculum design.

Keywords:

• Language skills
• language instruction
• photographs
• visual literacy
• elementary school
• high and low order language skills
• photo-elicitation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ofra Walter is the Director of the Education through Art program in the Department of Education at Tel Hai Academic College, a researcher and a lecturer. She previously served as the Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education and was an advisor and pedagogic instructor of early childhood student teachers and kindergarten teachers. She developed educational academic and community leadership projects. Walter has served as an academic advisor in Israel, the U.S., and England. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Raskin (England) in 2007. Walter served as a consultant and researcher in collaboration with the British Ministry of Education to develop a plan for an interventional integrated program in special education in 2008–2010. Walter publish four books and 32 articles on the topics; Emotional intelligence Movement as Alternative ways to Conceptualize body image, self-esteem well being.

Ya’ara Gil-Glazer is the Head of the Education through Art Program, Department of Education, Tel-Hai Academic College, Israel. Gil-Glazer researches and teaches courses in photography, visual culture and art education. Her research interests include modern and contemporary visual culture and its educational integration into social-critical contexts. In 2013, she published The Documentary Photobook: Social-Cultural Criticism in the U.S. during the Great Depression and the New Deal in 2013 (Hebrew). She received her PhD (summa cum laude) from the University of Haifa, Israel, in 2010.

Billie Eilam (emerita) was the Head of the dept. of Learning, Instruction and Teacher Education, and of the study program of Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa. Prof. Eilam’s research focuses on the cognitive aspects of skills, in particular, visualization in teaching, learning, and curriculum, and on the application of theories to authentic learning situations. Eilam’s book wrote many books and articles on the topics Teaching, Learning and Visual Literacy: The Dual Role of Visual Representation in the Teaching Profession, learning and instruction, science education, educational psychology, teacher education, and curriculum studies. “Visual representation in teaching” and “Visual representations in learning”.