Kristen Girch
UMBC
MD

Guest Editorial: Minds, Models, and Maps

Wed, Mar 13, 2013 10:21 PM
Visual World

The connection between the “mind’s eye” and how we learn has always been fascinating to me, and I really enjoyed many of the examples that you have given, such as use of illustration in Children’s literature and validation of sight in order for comprehension and recall. I found it confusing that you mentioned using formal instruction with children to allow them to form mental images and learning by paying attention in text. I was unclear about how you may teach someone to visualize or imagine to create mental images in a formal aspect, and though illustration is a great aid in comprehension and understanding I’m not sure it should be the main point. This article was very well written and you touched on many subject areas where visual learning is important.

Wed, Mar 13, 2013 10:14 PM
Perspective and Distance

I enjoy the fact that this piece uses a prompt question to provoke us as the reader to think about our answer just as we would do with student. I focused mainly on the Elementary aged portion of the reading in order to gather ways in which I would address the incredibly abstract thinking about the Universe and the Solar System. I think as a teacher I would try to look at perception and distance in our ever day life in order to show just how different an object can appear when it is far away. Using drawing and Earth-Moon-Sun system to begin the topic of Space seems appropriate for younger students. I was actually quite surprised about the depth of the middle school aged students, but many students are fascinated by our Universe and it’s best we allow them to learn as early as then are able.