USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS AS A POWERFUL TOOL IN TEACHING/LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: AN EXPERIENCE

A Photograph is worth a thousand words through which a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. Pictures make it possible to absorb large amounts of data quickly. Using photographs for explaining complex phenomena is one of the teaching aids of modern education system all over the world. As the world is changing day by day so are the methods of instructions as the modern curriculum requires conceptual elaborations. Visual aids have the tendency to materialize the thoughts of students in the form of graphics to give thoughts a concrete frame of reference. Use of photographs is important for students because they are more likely to believe findings when the findings are paired with colored images describing complex situations during learning as opposed to other representational data such as complex book text.

Scientists and journalists have recently suggested that the images have a persuasive influence on the public perception. This idea was tested directly in a series of experiments reported by David McCabe, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Colorado State. Visual images are increasingly being used in learning and teaching resources, especially with access to quality digital images in web-based materials. The appropriateness of the images being utilized is crucial to enforce the effectiveness of this practice. Images can be used to promote positive learning experiences for students when used in ways that are consistent with the cognitive theory of visual learning. Therefore, pictures have an added advantage over text, as dual coding takes place in the memory, hence it is easier for the learner to make cross connections between the two different codes and later retrieve information.

This paper investigates as to how teaching learning process is enhanced by use of photographs in curriculum with three objectives, enhancement in perception level of students, easy interpretation of context by the faculty and smooth understanding by the learners. The instruments of Teacher Efficiency Assessment Proforma (TEAP), Student Comprehension Assessment Proforma (SCAP) and Time / Cost Effect Assessment Proforma (TCEAP) were used on various samples. The data was collected from a sample of 100 respondents, all having sufficient experience of undergraduate learning. The analysis and statistical results with respect to knowledge gained, practices, attitudes, and opinions toward photographic usage in teaching learning environment showed statistically significant difference in all measurements towards different hypothesis.