Chapter 6: Teaching Children to Think Critically About Scientists: Examining the Relationship between Representations of Scientists, Process Skills and Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the relationship between process skills, visual thinking strategies and representations (inscriptions) of scientists in classroom settings. Before students can develop visual thinking strategies, they must have experience with certain process skills, such as observing and measuring qualities of objects and phenomena, sorting/classifying, inferring, predicting, experimenting and communicating. More discussion regarding how these science process skills are linked to visual teaching strategies is provided later. These process skills are not limited to science, but in any situation that requires critical thinking. The reasons for and benefits of the pedagogical process of guiding children to engage process skills while thinking critically about illustrations of scientists is the focus of our discussion. In order to discuss these topics and how they are related, the starting point begins with a vignette about students’ perceptions of scientists as they employ process skills relative to visual thinking strategies in the use of inscriptions (including pictures/illustrations), and then builds from that to examine the context of how learning about scientists is attained and facilitated by the teacher. Examining the process and context of Visual Thinking Strategies in traditional classroom settings has provided some immediate and possible long-term pedagogical models that can offer insight into critical aspects of science identity construction for elementary students.