Visual Teaching Strategies you can use in the Classroom (2024)

Visual Teaching Strategies you can use in the Classroom (1)

Remember the days when teaching was about the teacher explaining the topic and students taking down notes?

Things have drastically changed over the years, especially with the influence of technology.

Students are more tech- savvy and have a shorter attention span now. What can engage them is something that they can quickly process and comprehend.

This is where visual tools come into play. Human beings not only comprehend visuals 60,000x faster than text, but visuals have a far more significant impact on their long-term memory than other communication methods.

Let’s take a look at several visual teaching strategies that you can use to boost your student’s engagement in the classroom and help them learn faster.

Are your students having a hard time connecting the dots between the different components in a concept?

Made of nodes that represent ideas and connectors that represent relationships, concept maps make use of dual coding. This means students effectively learn the material through both text labels and the visual structure of the map.

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Incorporating a concept map to teach or study help students link new knowledge to what they already know.

Following are 2 effective ways you can make use of a concept map in the classroom.

  • Create one large-scale concept map of the lesson and a series of more specific maps analyzing the subtopics under it. These can be shared with your students as handouts that they can refer to later while studying.
  • Carry out fun exercises with students using concept maps, where you can get students to fill in the blank nodes or labels on the map, or choose from a list of information provided by you.

Creately Tip: Make use of real-time collaboration within the Creately app to get the participation of your students when drawing concept maps. You can suggest changes and guide them as they work on the map.

Enhancing memory and stimulating creativity of students are two of the biggest challenges teachers face.

Now, there are a number of techniques used in the classrooms to facilitate these purposes, but visualization still stands out as one of the most effective methods.

And mind maps — popularly known as an effective study technique — do the trick better and faster.

Mind maps combine everything that is needed to boost creative power and memory, together.

For example, using images instead of text on your mind map can help students recall that piece of information faster. Likewise, taking apart a topic via a mind map using keywords instead of long phrases and color coding, help remember information better.

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Mind maps can be used in a number of useful ways in the classroom to improve teaching and learning.

Provide a clear overview of the topic at hand

Before the beginning of the lesson or after, hand your students a mind map based on the topic. This can be further developed by students during the lesson or when they refer to it later.

Creately Tip: Create live mind maps or knowledge banks where you can include links to additional resources right within your mind map. This could come in handy for students when doing their research on the topic.

Brainstorm and generate discussion

Mind maps can provide the structure for a productive brainstorming session. Put down the topic under discussion in the middle of your map and ask your students to identify ideas related to it. Generating active discussion among your students like this can help them memorize what you teach more effectively.

Flowcharts help map out the steps of a process clearly, be it to explain to your students how to properly write an essay or to describe how the Earth was created.

Any complex scientific or technical process can be demystified with the help of flowcharts; since flowcharts let you illustrate each process step, students won’t have a hard time figuring out how it works.

Unfamiliar with the use of flowcharts? This ultimate flowchart tutorial explains everything you need to know about flowcharts.

Flowcharts can be used in your classroom in a number of effective ways;

  • You can get your students to draw flowcharts based on what you have taught them. This will get them to think again about the lesson and refer to the notes they took down. Simplifying what was taught in their own terms will help them internalize information better.
  • Or you can create handouts containing flowcharts breaking down the lesson. Students can take these home, and refer to them later when they are studying.

Creately Tip: Use flowchart worksheets to test the knowledge of students. We’ve got a whole library of free flowchart templates that you can use for this. Simply choose one and modify it to fit your own needs.

Whether to summarize the lesson of the day or to simplify complex information and present them in an easily-digestible way, storyboards are your ideal teaching technique.

These consists of illustrations and pictures with notes that briefly explains what’s visually highlighted, much like the comics students love so much these days.

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Creately Tip: Use ready-made visually stunning storyboard templates that you can use in your classroom to make things a lot more engaging for your students. Import any additional graphics directly from Google or your computer to Creately to make your storyboard even more comprehensible to your students.

In the classroom, fishbone diagrams — a root cause analysis tool — can be used to develop children’s problem-solving skills.

Fishbone diagrams help identify the main causes of an event, whether it is to figure out why something went wrong, or why something generated such an outcome.

Encourage students to use fishbone diagrams to brainstorm around a particular problem and identify root causes. During the lesson, you can refer to these fishbone diagrams to further drill down the factors that are causing the problem.

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Infographics combine both graphics and text together and present information in an attractive way. Long lessons that tend to get a little boring and take a lot of explanation, can be effectively replaced with infographics.

Make sure you use graphics like graphs, charts or images meaningfully and don’t use too much text which would clutter up your infographic. Keep it simple and highlight the major points of the lesson that you want your students to remember.

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Creating an infographic, here’s what you shouldn’t do.

Venn diagrams are a powerful way to identify similarities and differences between two or more items.

An effective exercise you could do with Venn diagrams is having students fill a blank Venn diagram with a list of relevant information you’ve handed them.

Creately Tip: Choose from a wide variety of Venn diagram templates that you can quickly modify online. To make things more effective, add images instead of or with text on your Venn diagrams.

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Spider diagrams help create an overview of a complex topic using branching spatial organization, images, and color coding — much like the mind map.

Getting students to create a spider diagram around a topic prior to or after the lesson can help them demystify a complex subject easily.

These can also be used as an alternative note-taking method to help students remember lessons easily.

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Visual teaching strategies are popular because they are effective — effective in clarifying relationships, simplifying complex topics and facilitating communication. The tools we have listed here are simple to use and a lot useful in facilitating teaching and improving learning.

Make use of them in the classroom and share with us the results. And if you have more visual teaching strategies to add to the list, share them with us in the comment section below.

This post originally appeared on the Creately blog and has been slightly modified to meet Medium guidelines. To read the original article, visit https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/visual-teaching-strategies/

Visual Teaching Strategies you can use in the Classroom (2024)

FAQs

How can visual learners be used in the classroom? ›

Use these eight foundational tips to help your visual learners study better.
  1. Write down new vocabulary. ...
  2. Use the whiteboard efficiently. ...
  3. Use charts and graphs. ...
  4. Add symbols and movement to flashcards. ...
  5. Play flashcard games. ...
  6. Experiment with realia. ...
  7. Use slide shows and videos. ...
  8. Encourage them to sit at the front.
16 Jan 2020

What are the 5 effective teaching strategies to help your students in school? ›

5 Effective Teaching Strategies To Help Your Students In School
  • Visualization Of Information.
  • Student-Led Classrooms.
  • Implementing Technology In the Classroom.
  • Differentiation.
  • Inquiry-Based Instruction.
18 Sept 2019

What are examples of visual learning? ›

Tools for Visual Learners
  • Use mind pictures or mind maps.
  • Take notes.
  • Use "clue" words for recalling.
  • Use colored highlighters to color code texts and notes.
  • Use maps, charts, diagrams, and lists.
  • Watch audiovisuals.
  • Take photographs.
  • Use study cards or flashcards.

What are 3 examples of activities for visual learners? ›

Learning Activities for Visual Learners
  • Photo Essays. Photo essays are simply sequences of photos. ...
  • Mindmaps. A mindmap is one of the "classics" of visual thinking. ...
  • Flowcharts. Flowcharts are one of the underused types of diagrams in learning. ...
  • Diagrams. ...
  • eLearning and visual learners.

What is visual learning strategy? ›

Visual learning is a type of learning style in which students prefer to use images, graphics, colors and maps to communicate ideas and thoughts. Visual learners must see information in order to learn it.

How can you use visual learning styles to your advantage? ›

Focus on Organization. Visual learners can use their innate sense of organization to their advantage by creating charts or graphs to organize information in an easily understood way. You can create charts or graphs from handouts in class or from a lecture or notes while the teacher is teaching.

Why are visuals important in teaching? ›

Visual aids help teachers establish, explain, connect, and associate ideas and concepts to make the process of learning more interesting, enjoyable, and effective. Some of the benefits visual aids provide for teaching and learning include: Helping inspire students to study more effectively.

What teaching strategy will be the most effective? ›

6 Best Teaching Strategies for 2022
  1. Visualization. Visualization is very simply put, the ability to create mental images based on the words we hear or the text that we read. ...
  2. Cooperative Learning. ...
  3. Differentiated Instruction. ...
  4. Using Technology to your Advantage. ...
  5. Student Centred Inquiry. ...
  6. Professional Development.
6 Sept 2022

What will you do to make your classroom teaching effective? ›

Give them a reason to remember your class as an important part of their college experience!
  1. POSITIVE. Keep your students engaged with a positive attitude. ...
  2. PREPARED. You should know the course material. ...
  3. ORGANIZED. Have a plan for what you want to teach. ...
  4. CLEAR. ...
  5. ACTIVE. ...
  6. PATIENT. ...
  7. FAIR. ...
  8. TECHNOLOGY TIP.

What are strategies in teaching and learning? ›

Teaching and learning strategies can include a range of whole class, group and individual activities to accommodate different abilities, skills, learning rates and styles that allow every student to participate and to achieve some degree of success.

Why a teacher uses the teaching strategies in teaching? ›

Teaching strategies play an important role in classroom instruction. Without the use of a strategy, teachers would be aimlessly projecting information that doesn't connect with learners or engage them. Strategies help learners participate, connect, and add excitement to the content being delivered.

What is the best way to engage students in the classroom? ›

Strategies include, but are not limited to, question-and-answer sessions, discussion, interactive lecture (in which students respond to or ask questions), quick writing assignments, hands-on activities, and experiential learning.

Which of the following is a characteristic of a visual learner? ›

Reader/observer. Scans everything; wants to see things, enjoys visual stimulation. Enjoys maps, pictures, diagrams, and color.

How can I help a student with visual impairment? ›

Encourage the student to use visual aids/resources that have been prescribed (e.g. glasses, magnifiers, big-print books, etc). Seat the student appropriately in the classroom (e.g. in the middle towards the front). Make sure lighting is suitable. Make efforts to eliminate the risk of glare from the desk and whiteboard.

What are visual learning activities? ›

Your visual learners will enjoy word searches, crossword puzzles, Scrabble, and Boggle. These games allow visual learners to see and solve the problem in front of them. These games also help develop the vocabulary of visual learners as they will be able to remember what the words look like.

How is visual learning effective? ›

Visual learning helps you to store information for a longer period of time. It is said that videos and images are directly processed by long term memory. Visual learning increases retention by 29-42%. It helps you to process information primarily through visuals and improves your learning process.

What activity might you use to teach time to a visual learner? ›

Flash cards with images of clocks telling different times make a great classroom activity. Hand them out to the students and tell them to write down the answer. This will help them to reflect on what they have learnt and to help you assess your teaching methods so far.

What are visual learning styles? ›

If you are a visual learner, you learn by reading or seeing pictures. You understand and remember things by sight. You can picture what you are learning in your head, and you learn best by using methods that are primarily visual.

What is a visual method used for teaching language? ›

The audiovisual method refers to both sound and pictures which is typically in the form of slides or video and recorded speech or music; all is visual presentations that are shown by the teacher to the students.

Why are visuals important in teaching? ›

Visual aids help teachers establish, explain, connect, and associate ideas and concepts to make the process of learning more interesting, enjoyable, and effective. Some of the benefits visual aids provide for teaching and learning include: Helping inspire students to study more effectively.

What is visual representation in the classroom? ›

Visual representations are used frequently in science classrooms. Teachers often present or draw images, symbols, or graphs to explain complex or abstract concepts. Students also draw images to explain their understanding of scientific concepts.

Why do students prefer visual learning? ›

Visual learning also helps students to develop visual thinking, which is a learning style whereby the learner comes better to understand and retain information better by associating ideas, words and concepts with images.

What strategies will you use to learn all of these new things? ›

Top 10 Strategies for Learning New Skills
  • Ditch Your Learning Style. Are you a visual learner? ...
  • Make It More Meaningful for Yourself. ...
  • Learn by Doing. ...
  • Study the Greats, and Then Practice. ...
  • Teach What You Learn. ...
  • Spend More Time Practicing Things You Find Difficult. ...
  • Take Frequent Breaks. ...
  • Test Yourself.
11 Jul 2017

How can you use visual learning styles to your advantage? ›

Focus on Organization. Visual learners can use their innate sense of organization to their advantage by creating charts or graphs to organize information in an easily understood way. You can create charts or graphs from handouts in class or from a lecture or notes while the teacher is teaching.

What is visual teaching and learning? ›

Visual learning refers to a mode of learning where students rely on graphic aids to remember and learn material. Visual learners can easily visualize objects, have a great sense of balance and alignment, are very color-oriented and can effortlessly envision imagery.

What are learning strategies for students? ›

studying and remembering information. writing and taking notes. improving assignment and test performance. effectively interacting with others.
...
It is difficult to:
  • Attend all classes.
  • Keep up with all courses.
  • Hand in projects and assignments on time.
  • Manage school, work and leisure activities.
  • Arrive on time.

What is visual materials in teaching? ›

Visual aids are those instructional devices which are used in the classroom to encourage learning and make it easier and motivating. The material like models, charts, film strip, projectors, radio, television, maps etc called instructional aids.

What are examples of visual supports? ›

Visual supports are things that we see that enhance the communication process. They can be objects, photographs, drawings, written words, schedules, or lists. Visual supports can be seen all over our world. Some common examples of visual supports include stop signs, red lights, street signs, and fire alarms.

What are types of visual representation? ›

The types of visual representations occur in six types: graphs, tables, maps, diagrams, networks and icons. The variations on these types can also be classified according to the way they convey information and the efficiency in which they provide information.

Which is one method used to help students remember content? ›

Acronym Mnemonics

Acronyms are one of the most popular and widely used mnemonic strategies. Using this method, students memorize a single word in which each letter is associated with an important piece of information.

How can visual models help us understand? ›

Visual modeling is a way for experts and novices to have a common understanding of otherwise complicated ideas. By using visual models complex ideas are not held to human limitations, allowing for greater complexity without a loss of comprehension.

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