Chapter 9: Photographs as Static and Concrete Visual Representation to Connect Prior Knowledge and to Stimulate Discussions in Science Classroom

Photographs are one of the most common forms of visual representations that students encounter in their daily lives. They are found throughout different types of curriculum materials, including traditional textbooks, eBooks, websites, and classroom posters. Although they are ubiquitous in education, photographs usually play what we call a passive role in many traditional science classes, in which they serve primarily as supplemental material to depict content, concepts, and methods. This is in contrast to the active role that photographs often play in scientific research as data that scientists use for their studies. For example, zoologists take photographs of wildlife to record and to investigate their natural habitats. Similarly, astronomers take photographs of galaxies in various wavelengths of light from radio waves to gamma rays to uncover the mysteries of the universe. While in the former (traditional science classes) photographs are used in a top-down approach, in the latter (scientific research) they are used with a bottom-up approach. The top-down approach is somewhat content-oriented while the bottom-up approach is process-oriented. In the top-down approach, science is presented to the students as pre-packaged, already constructed knowledge to be learned. As a result, the students often fail to connect what they learn in class with what they experience in daily lives. This is contrasted with the bottom-up approach of scientific research in which new knowledge is activity constructed through engagement in the processes of science (National Research Council, 2012). When photographs are used in a bottom-up approach, rather than illustrating what others have found, students, like scientists, can use them as data with which to construct understanding of science content and concepts.